Mycene was inhabited already during neolithic and the early Bronze period. During the pre-classical period Mycenae was one of the most important cities in Greece. The Mycenaean culture (c. 1600 BC to c. 1100 BC) was named after it.

Over the centuries the population density increased, and by 1350 BC the citadel and the lower town had a population of 30,000 and covered an area of 32 hectares. At that time the fortifications on the acropolis and other surrounding hills were rebuilt in a style known as Cyclopean because the blocks of stone used were so massive that they were thought in later ages to be the work of the Cyclopes.
Within these walls successive monumental palaces were built. The final palace dates to the start of ca. 1390–1300 BC. Earlier palaces must have existed but they had been cleared away or built over. From 1200 BC onwards, Mycenae began to decline and lost its dominant position. Like all the palaces in southern Greece, the palace at Mycenae was destroyed. The settlement shrank, but the citadel and the lower town remained inhabited. During the Archaic period, a temple to Hera was built on the highest point.

The Treasury of Atreus is a large tholos constructed between 1300 and 1250 BCE. It is the largest and most elaborate known tholos tomb of the Aegean Bronze Age and is located approximately 400 meters southwest of the Upper City of Mycenae.

Pausanias reported the existence of an underground structure in Mycenae, where treasures were stored. Likely due to the valuable grave goods found within, these funerary structures were regarded as treasuries in antiquity. The tomb was first excavated in the 19th century, when parts of the marble sculptures from its façade were removed by British Lord Elgin and the Ottoman governor Veli Pasha. It was partially excavated by Heinrich Schliemann and, on a larger scale, by Panagiotis Stamatakis during the 1870s.