1.  In the two centuries after 1200 BC and all over the Greek world, towns and villages were left abandoned, as the inhabitants died or wandered away from the settlements.  By 1050 BC, the population may have been as little as 30% of what it had been in 1200.  Nevertheless, some elements of Mycenaean civilization survived into this “Dark Age”.  Iron working and pottery making (in the Protogeometric and Geometric periods) continued.

2.  While the palace bureaucracy, and the literacy it needed, had disappeared, the Greeks remembered that kings had existed.  The small-scale official called “qasireu” in Linear B tablets was transformed into the “basileus”, which now becomes the standard Greek word for “king”.  Archaeological evidence underscores the importance of these officials in the Dark Age, as new patterns of organization replace the large-scale Mycenaean palace systems.  Chieftains’ houses, or homes of the local basileus, have been found at places like Nichoria and Lefkandi, and they help illuminate elements of survival in this Dark Age.

3.  Parallel with European `Dark Ages’ –less civilized peoples conquer a more civilized area  Literature—Linear B disappears. No form of written script for three hundred years  No writing = little administration  Sources: archaeological  Other sources: Homer, Hesiod—but written after the Dark Ages

4.  1300-1200: 320 occupied sites  1200-1100 130 sites  1100-1000 40 sites  City life disappears. Urban sites that remain e.g. Athens have a tiny population base of hundreds.  Between 60-90% decrease on mainland  In Athens—50% drop— had smallest population in over 500 years.  Art? Submycenaean— copying old Mycenaean forms in pottery. Little metalwork, little jewelry— most art constructed out of wood.  Society becomes more primitive—reemergence of a tribal society.

5.  Disappears  No Mycenaean bureaucracy  No levels of gov’t service  Reversion to a simpler life  Agriculture—few indications of large-scale trade. Always some luxury trade but very little.  Shipping/trade—not much—Thucydides indicates that due to piracy seafaring was dangerous.

6.  “ wanax ” disappears eventually replaced by basileus ( qasireu). Wanax only used in a religious sense—appears in Homer—Zeus is wanax of gods and men.  Dark age kingship = chieftains. Power became more localized and regional mayors and representatives took over.  Basileus despite name, only chieftain—first among equals chosen by might—not hereditary.  No real trappings of state at all.

7.  Primitive—no real ‘civil law’—personal or tribal—protection through kin or clan.  Law based on vengeance—suffer injury, compensate, or flee.  Basileus—ruled in conjunction with council of elders, old men of community—respected for knowledge, former prowness in war.  Athens—Areopagus; Sparta—Geriousia.  Large Assembly: “Popular assembly” called by basileus in times of crisis.

8.  Primarily agricultural—majority of people worked land. Farm= lower classes, smaller farmers, slaves.  Slaves captured, traded.  Small farmers could borrow crops, oxen using oneself as collateral. Successive years of bad harvests = slavery.  Unit held together by raiding = chieftain’s duty.

9.  Household in nature—important industries done at home, sewing clothing—locally done.  Food—produced locally  Economy—local  No large scale buildings—like Mycenaean era. Whatever dwellings/palaces built made of wood.

10.  Use of iron  Pottery in Levant, Crete or Cyprus.  C. 1050 Protogeometric pottery—Attica?  900-700 Geometric pottery  Ionian migrations—first fled to Athens from Dorians, then to Miletus, Ephesus, Colophon  Dorians took Cyclades  Aeolian Greeks in n., est. colonies in n. Asia Minor.

12.  Late Bronze Age power vacuum—Egypt weakened; Hittites destroyed.  Assyria  Phrygians, Lydians in Asia Minor.  Neo-Hittites kingdoms in Syria  Phoenicia  Canaan, Israel and Judah.  Phoenicia—Tyre, Sidon, Byblos.

14.  Peleset—one of the Sea Peoples from Aegean  Pottery is similar to twelfth-century Mycenaean.  Of 5 city-states one has a large megaron and hearth—culturally Mycenaean  Over a few generations became linguistically and culturally Canaanite.

15.  Contact back to Minoan days—Linear A script.  14/13 th c. Mycenaean pottery in graves  By 1050—new city-states, tombs of Mycenaean style  Title wanax for kings.  Mycenaean presence + old Cypriots  Phoenician presence early—mixture of Greek and Phoenicians.

16.  1100-900 very poor  Around 900 material evidence begins to increase  Urban sites in Dark Ages: Athens, Argos, Corinth, Knossos—may have had few thousand— structures cramped, poorly built.  Sometimes graveyard only evidence of a settlement—few pots, occasional iron spear tip sword, knife.  Greece depopulated, collection of poor hamlets where inhabitants had little contact.  But orally transformed the Mycenaean era into a Heroic Age.

17.  Qasireu (mayor) becomes basileus. Old village mayors now kings.  When centralized bureaucracy collapsed—term changed to fit a new socio-political context.  Wanax = anax = applied to male gods and to Agamemnon “ anax of men”  Archaeologically: chieftain’s houses—house of the local basileus.

19.  1075—village cluster of about 40-50 families.  Ridge overlooking plain, good farmland.  On ridge, added rooms, religious center and communal storehouse.  Floor = packed earth; walls mud brick; roof was thatch.  Although basileus, lived like neighbors.

21.  Largest Dark Age structure yet found  Old Mycenaean town that collapsed but re- emerged after 1,000.  Structured dated 950, narrow, 150’ x 30’—twice as large as any contemporary building.  Two burial shafts in central room  One– 2 horses; other—cremated man in bronze pot from Cyprus, iron sword, spearhead; inhumed woman with gold rings and gold coil in hair made in Near east about 650 years earlier.

23.  Pottery  Geometric 900-700  Early 900-850; Middle 850-750; Late 750-700.  Greek keys, zigzags, triangles  A 700 vases depict living creatures again— birds, horses, animals, and people.  Other indications  9 th c. jewelry produced (luxury items) with gold and ivory.

24.  Long distance trade  More domestic luxury items  More deluxe grave goods  Houses better built  No major changes in building style; no signs of communal buildings (e.g., temple) until 800.