The Greek Dark Ages

During the Late Bronze Age, the great civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean flourished. The Mycenaean Greeks, the Hittites, the Assyrians and the Egyptians were all closely connected, forming complex trade networks. Copper and tin, two rare metals crucial for the production of bronze, as well as other valuables like gold and fine pottery, were frequently traded across the sea. Then suddenly, at the turn of the 12th century BC, these great civilizations fell This event, known as the Late Bronze Age Collapse, remains shrouded in mystery and is still hotly debated. In Greece, the great Mycenaean palaces were all destroyed and society regressed to a simpler state. With the fall of the palaces, there was no more need for bureaucracy and the Greeks lost the knowledge of writing. The lack of any written documents shrouded this period in mystery and gave it its name, the Greek Dark Ages. More recently, as more and more evidence surfaced from the archaeological record, the term Dark Ages fell out of favor with most historians. During this time, bronze tools and weapons were gradually replaced by their iron counterparts and historians now refer to this period as the Early Iron Age. The fall of Mycenaean palaces was accompanied by famines and a significant decline in population across Greece. Many settlements that thrived during the Bronze Age were left completely abandoned. Those that survived were reduced to no more than One city that managed to escape the collapse was Athens, but here also the population declined significantly. According to some estimates, the population of Dark Age Greece was less than a third of what it had been during the Mycenaean period. While most of the population perished during this upheaval, some tried to escape their fate. Desperate Greeks joined the mysterious Sea peoples and ventured east in search of new lands. Some of them found a safe haven on Cyprus. The history of trade between Greece and Cyprus dates back to the start of the 2nd millennium. The Cypriots adopted a modified version of the Minoan linear A script. This new script, known as the Cypriot syllabary, survived the late Bronze Age collapse and remained in use until the 3rd century BC when it was finally replaced by the Greek alphabet. Around 1050 BC, a number of new Mycenaean settlements appeared on the island. From the surviving writings, we can see that these were city kingdoms ruled by the Mycenaean elite. The Greeks on Cyprus came in contact with the Phoenician refugees with whom they coexisted peacefully on the island. These Phoenicians would later play a major role in the development of classical Greek civilization. Other Mycenaean refugees migrated further south towards Egypt. The weakened Egyptian kingdom, under the rule of Pharaoh Ramses III, successfully pushed back a coalition of Sea peoples. Some of these Sea peoples, known as the Philistines, settled in southern Canaan. Archaeologists have found evidence of Mycenaean-style pottery and buildings, indicating that the Philistines were in fact Greek invaders. However, within only a few generations, the Philistines adopted the Canaanite language and customs, leaving behind their Aegean heritage. Back at home, the Greeks were experiencing changes of their own. As previously mentioned, this period is significant for the use of iron tools and weapons. Tin needed for bronze production is absent from the Mediterranean, and the collapse of the trade routes resulted in material shortages. In contrast, iron ore is much more abundant in the region. Some iron artifacts date back to as early as 2000 BCE, but they were seen as luxury items. However, with the shortage of bronze across the Mediterranean, craftsmen were forced to develop new techniques for the production of high-quality iron tools and weapons. These new iron weapons were harder and kept their edge better compared to their bronze counterparts. However, bronze was not completely phased out. The Iron Age civilizations extensively used bronze for the production of shields and armor. The Greeks were the fastest to adopt this new technology, and by 950 BCE, every weapon found in Greek graves was made out of iron. Although the Greek material culture experienced significant changes compared to the preceding Mycenaeans, other aspects of their lives remained largely unchanged. The class of palace bureaucrats disappeared, the elite saw their wealth greatly diminished, but the average farmer continued living off their land, just as their fathers had before them. Craftsmen such as potters, metal workers, and carpenters continued practicing their crafts, albeit with lower levels of sophistication. They all continued speaking the same Greek language, worshipped the same gods, and both told stories of great Mycenaean heroes of ages past. Soon, the last vestiges of the centralite society would vanish, and a new, more recognizable Greek socio-political structure would take their place. Sadly, this period is poorly accounted for in the archaeological record, and this transformation remains shrouded in mystery. The ancient Greeks explained these times of great change through stories of large-scale migrations of peoples. A generation or two after the Trojan War, a large group of Dorian Greeks abiding in northern Greece began moving southwards, towards the Peloponnese. In their wake, the powerful Mycenaean palaces were left in ruins. Fleeing before this onslaught, the people of Achaea, known as Ionians, looked towards Athens for protection. The Athenian kings, seeing the Ionians as kin, welcomed the refugees and settled them in Attica. In time, the peninsula became crowded, and the Ionians, along with some Athenians, started migrating east across the Aegean Sea. They settled along the islands, finally reaching the coast of Anatolia. There, they revived some of the great Mycenaean settlements such as Miletus and Ephesus. As we have previously discussed, the Dorian invasion is no more than a myth invented by ancient authors, used to explain the upheaval at the end of the Bronze Age. There is no evidence of a large-scale population migration in Greece during the early Iron Age. The Dorians were likely an oppressed class of Greek slaves who rose up to overthrow their Mycenaean rulers. Emerging in Sparta or Argos, the Dorian invasion served as a founding myth connecting Greek communities with the shared Dorian ancestry. The myth was later connected to the return of the Heracleidae. In this version, the descendants of the mythical hero Heracles led the Dorians back to the Peloponnese, the homeland of their great ancestor. Sparta would later use these myths to promote unity among its Peloponnesian allies with great effect. The Ionian migration, on the other hand, is a completely different story. The archaeological record confirms the broader outline of this story with some notable differences. As Athens and Euboea gradually recovered and rejoined the Mediterranean trade routes around 1050 BCE, all Mycenaean ruins in the Aegean served as convenient stopping spots. At first, these were no more than temporary outposts, but as time went on, they slowly grew to permanent settlements and trading hubs. Cities like Miletus and Ephesus on the Anatolian mainland or Chios and Samos on offshore islands would soon grow to play prominent parts in Greek history. The other major Greek tribe, the Aeolians, are also connected to these stories. A generation before the Dorian invasion, the Aeolians, who originated in Thessaly, were driven out of their homeland by local Thessalians. Some of the Aeolians stayed on the mainland, while others took to the sea. Those who remained in Greece settled in a region known as Boeotia and revived Thebes, a destroyed Mycenaean settlement. Those who took to the sea followed the Ionian example and settled in Anatolia. Like with the previous migration stories, the Aeolian flight to Boeotia cannot be definitively confirmed. However, archaeological evidence shows that the Aeolians began venturing across the Aegean at roughly the same time as the Ionians. They settled on the island of Lesbos and in the region known as Iolis, part of Anatolia between the Trood and Ionia. There they came into contact with local Mesians, who controlled the fertile coastal plains to the north. The Dorians were the last to spread across the Aegean, starting only around 900 BC. They would settle on Rhodes and the southern coast of Anatolia. From these settlements, six would emerge as regional powers, forming a coalition known as the Dorian Hexapolis. With this, the Aegean Sea was once again firmly in Greek hands and the Greeks would start looking towards new opportunities in the wider Mediterranean. With the fall of the Mycenaean palaces, elaborate pottery depicting human and animal scenes disappeared from the archaeological record. The sub-Mycenaean style that followed clearly shows a distinct decline in the quality of pottery produced. However, around 1050 BC, several new inventions and advanced techniques combined to produce high-quality vases. This new style, called the Proto-Geometric, was first developed around Athens but quickly spread across Greece. Proto-Geometric is characterized by straight lines drawn with rulers and numerous circles, semi-circles and arches drawn with the help of a compass. By this time, the declining population across Greece was at an end and the population reached its lowest point in a thousand years. What followed was a period of stagnation that lasted until 900 BC when a noticeable increase in population and material wealth became evident across the Greek world. Further advancements in pottery making led to the development of a new artistic style called the Geometric. Potters created larger, more ambitious vases, used as a display of both the skill of the craftsman and the wealth of the owner. Lines and circles from the Proto-Geometric style were replaced by elaborate meandering patterns, zigzags and cross-hatchings. In Late Geometric, dated to the beginning of the Archaic period, the artist would once again start depicting humans and animals, absent since the collapse of Mycenaean Greece. The Geometric period also shows an increase in other material wealth. Greek craftsmen in the 9th century started producing luxury items such as gold jewelry and ivory carvings. This shows that the fine crafts could return to Greece, along with the market for such luxuries. It also suggests a renewed availability of raw resources necessary for producing these goods. The Greeks were now once again part of the Mediterranean trade networks. Materials like gold, ivory and especially bronze would now appear in larger and larger quantities across the Greek world. One of the few significant literary sources available to us is Hesiod's poem, Works and Days, written around 700 BC. In contrast to Homeric epics, Hesiod writes about the lives of ordinary farmers in his own time. Although not strictly autobiographical as previously believed, Works and Days offers a wealth of useful information about rural life in Greece at the turn of the Dark Ages. With the increase of material wealth came the increase of new archaeological evidence. This evidence was combined with the few available literary sources to construct a picture of Dark Age society across Greece. In this context, the two Homeric epics, The Iliad and The Odyssey, proved invaluable. Although these epics describe events that took place at the end of Mycenaean Greece, they are an amalgamation of stories that evolved during the Dark Ages. With every passing generation, the poets inserted part of their culture into these stories, creating a repository of knowledge dating back some 400 years. It is therefore that the culture of the Dark Ages is often referred to as the Homeric society. From these sources, we can attempt to reconstruct a picture of Greece in transition from the centralized system of the Mycenaean age to the rise of the Greek polis in the Archaic period. The primary political unit of Homeric society was the Demos. Used to describe a village community during the Mycenaean period, the term Demos evolved to refer to both the land and the people living on that land. Demos was governed by a chieftain known as Basileus. The word Basileus was a Mycenaean term for a minor official, akin to a mayor or a head of a village. With the changing socio-political landscape at the end of the Bronze Age, the meaning of the word shifted to better reflect this new reality. Homer, Hesiod, as well as later Greeks, used the term Basileus to denote kings. From this change, we can gauge that following the fall of the palaces, these local officials stayed in power but gained independence from central authority. These, however, were not in the modern sense but rather local lords or chieftains. A decent-sized Demos could have several Basileus, all subordinate to the paramount Basileus. The Mycenaean word for king, Vanax, also survived the Dark Ages but was seldom used. Homer used it only when referring to Zeus, king of Olympus, and Agamemnon, the high king of the Achaeans. Basileus was a hereditary office passed from father to son. However, inheritance alone was not enough to secure the title. Each man hoping to be accepted as Basileus had to prove his worth in both war and peace. The chief was often the foremost among the warriors of the Demos, but also the foremost among the orators. When Peleus sent off his young son Achilles to the Trojan War, he told him, be both speaker of words and a doer of deeds. Yet it was the deeds that the Greeks and other similar societies would place greater emphasis on. Each Basileus had a personal following he could call upon in times of war. The warriors addressed each other as hetairoi, meaning companions. This demonstrates a strong bond of loyalty between the men. This companionship played a crucial role in the later development of the traditional Greek phalanx. During times of great crisis, when the Demos was at risk, the paramount Basileus could call upon all lesser lords and their followings. The army of the Demos would then be formed, consisting of several bands of hetairoi, led by their respective Basileus, with all of them under the command of the paramount chief. The true power of a Basileus was therefore measured by the size of his following. In an example from the Iliad, the high king Agamemnon calls upon other kings and lesser lords as well as his personal following. While he leads other chieftains as their paramount, he also commands a hundred of his own ships, the largest individual army. The Homeric chieftains were beholden to the council of elders known as the Vuli. The Vuli was made up of chiefs and other influential men of the Demos. Once the council reached a consensus, they would present a matter to the assembly of people in the Agora. Although the rules allowed any male member of the Demos to voice his concerns in the Agora, in practice it was rare for ordinary men to speak out. The Demos typically responded as a block with shouting, muttering or complete silence. These bodies were the essential building blocks for the later developments of city-state governments. Basileus was not only the political leader of the Demos, but also the chief religious and judicial authority. In contrast to Egypt and the Near East, an elite class of priests and holy men never developed in Greece. Most of the Greek pantheon was already established during the Mycenaean period, with several new additions from the Near East arriving during the Dark Ages. Greek religious practices consisted of simple animal sacrifices, usually performed by the Basileus or the head of the household. Hesiod's other surviving work, Theogony, written around 700 BC, recounts the origin of the cosmos and the Greek pantheon. Following his writings, these traditions would stay mostly unchanged for the following millennium until they were gradually replaced by Christianity. During the Dark Ages, the Greeks had no codified set of laws. The only laws were the customs and traditions that In case of a committed injustice, the families of the involved parties would come to an agreement, usually regarding a material payment. When families couldn't agree among themselves, they would appear before a court presided over by the Basileus and the elders, where a settlement would be reached through open debate. The main aim of these customs was to prevent all outfeuds between families. When men travelled to another Demos, whether for business or diplomatic matters, they had no real legal protection. For this reason, a custom of guest friendships, known as Xenia, was developed. When travelling to a foreign Demos, men stayed with their friends or Xenoi, who would offer them lodging, protection and assistance in all matters. Upon the arrival of a Xenos, the host would prepare a lavish feast for their guest, while upon their departure, they would offer him a valuable gift. This gift served as a bond of friendship, ensuring that the host family would enjoy the same treatment when visiting their friends. These friendly relationships were passed down through generations. The custom of guest friendship is mentioned several times in the Iliad, where the house of a host friend was often used for diplomatic negotiation, serving as a neutral ground between the parties. From these details, an interesting picture emerges. The Greek Dark Ages were times of primitive society led by strong men, lacking clearly defined institutions and political structures. However, they also present a society ripe for a cultural revolution, with many essential elements needed for the emergence of democracy and the rule of law already in place. Our most valuable source for understanding the customs of this society was of course Homer. His works were destined to be lost or changed beyond recognition, were it not for their reintroduction of writing to the Greek world. As previously mentioned, the cumbersome Mycenaean Linear B script was lost with the fall of the palaces. However, with the increased contact with Phoenician merchants from the 9th century onwards, the Greeks were reintroduced to the art of writing. Recognizing the value of letters, the Greeks adapted the Phoenician script, adding signs for vowel sounds, thereby creating the world's first true alphabet. The Greek alphabet appeared around the end of the 9th or the start of the 8th century BC. The Greek alphabet was not unique, but rather had regional differences reflecting the differences in dialects of the Greek language. All these dialects, however, differed from the Phoenician script in the same manner. This suggests that all dialects share the common origin. Another notable factor is the sudden appearance of the nearly complete alphabet, without intermediate stages that would develop naturally over time. This suggests that a single individual or a small group of people intentionally created a script they could use to write the Greek language. As previously mentioned, the Greeks and the Phoenicians were in contact on Cyprus since the Bronze Age collapse. However, the earliest surviving examples of the Greek alphabet are found much closer to the Greek mainland. The findings at Eretria, Lefkandi, and a small island off the coast of Campania indicate that Euboean traders were the earliest adopters of this new script. The identities of those who created the Greek alphabet have been lost to history, but their impact rippled through the ages and can be felt even today. The reasons for the creation of the alphabet are still debated. The early societies, almost universally, developed writing as a tool with the purpose of record-keeping. The connection to the Euboean traders seems to support this theory. However, the lack of any early documents connected to trade puts this notion in question. Some historians have suggested an alternative reason for the development of writing in early Greece. Poets played a vital role during the Greek Dark Ages, and the stories they told contain in them the true essence of Greek culture, society, and religion. Perhaps it was the desire to preserve these poems for future generations that led to the development of writing. This finally brings us to Homer and his two great epics, the Iliad and the Odyssey. Homer was a blind poet from Ionia, born in the 8th century BCE. He was not a writer himself, but rather the last in a long line of world poets who passed down stories of great kings from bygone eras. His epics were written down around the end of the 8th or the start of the 7th century. Homer is celebrated as one of the greatest authors in history, however some scholars even question his existence. The details about his life are shrouded in mystery and are no more than speculations of ancient Greeks. Some stylistic differences between the Iliad and the Odyssey led scholars to question whether these poems are the work of a single author, or were they simply attributed to Homer during classical antiquity. Whatever the case may be, the Greeks could finally write down their great works. The rest of the epic cycle soon followed the Homeric epics. However, they were sadly lost to history, with only fragments and summaries surviving to this day. Soon, a new class of influential people would emerge. With no political power to speak of, the writers could now use their words to move entire populations, even long after their death. Previously, historians were quick to use writing as a clear dividing line between primitive Dark Age societies and the sophisticated Greeks of the Archaic and Classical periods. But as we have now seen, the groundwork needed for the development of the so-called sophisticated civilization of classical Greece was well established by the Greeks of the Dark Ages. With his epic poems, Homer ushered in the Archaic Age of Greece and the start of a period known as the 8th century Renaissance. Join us next time as we discuss the Archaic period and the rise of Greek city-states.