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The history of Crete goes back to the 7th millennium BC, preceding the ancient Minoan civilization by more than four millennia. The palace-based Minoan civilization was the first civilization in Europe. After the Minoan civilization was devastated by the Thera eruption, Crete developed an Ancient Greece-influenced organization of city-states, then successively became part of the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire, the Venetian Republic, the Ottoman Empire, an autonomous state, and the modern state of Greece. By about 1500 BCE Greek mainlanders from Mycenae had assumed an influential role in Minoan affairs. Those Mycenaeans introduced a form of writing known as Linear B, used largely for record keeping. After Crete suffered a major earthquake that destroyed Knossós and other centres about 1450 BCE, power in the region passed decisively to the Mycenaeans, with whom Crete was closely associated until the commencement of the Iron Age in 1200 BCE. About that time the Dorians, another Greek-speaking people, moved in and organized the island.