The Greek Dark Ages - The Dorian Invasion, Cultural decline and the Great migrations

In the aftermath of the Bronze Age collapse, Greece entered a period of cultural decline that lasted from 1200 to 800 BC. This period is known as the Greek Dark Ages. With the collapse of the Mycenaean administrative authorities, the Linear B writing system ceased to exist. As a result, there are no first-hand records of this period. The only evidence comes from archaeological findings and the works of Greek scholars who refer to this period 400 to 600 years later, although their writings mingled legends with historical facts. After the destruction and the abandonment of the palaces, the people lived in villages at remote and rural areas. As we mentioned earlier, the Linear B writing system got out of use because there was no central authority to record the season's harvest, nor was there any trade to record One of the important tasks of the palace was the administration of farming. As this ceased to function, the devastated by land erosions and drought Greeks had to look for other options. Most returned to the activities prior to the Mycenaean and Minoan civilizations. Some became nomadic herders, they built temporary settlements and moved throughout the year in search of lands for their ship and goats to graze on. Others continued farming their fields but in a smaller scale than the previous period. The population drop was massive. A large part of the mainland inhabitants perished in the first two centuries of this period. Gradually, the communities became more original. This was the result of two reasons. The first lies in geography. Greece is 80% mountainous and with the population decimated, the people formed small secluded communities with poor communication between them. The second reason was their survival and the smaller the community the better. This regionalism would later give rise to the forming of the various Greek tribes and the city-states with their own laws and customs. As it is obvious, the people who faced such hardships and struggled to survive left very few evidence of culture. There was no trade, no construction of large buildings and no luxury goods. We can find indications of culture only in pottery and burials. The first style of pottery produced during this period is called sub-Mycenaean. These pots are poorly formed with very simple motifs compared to the Mycenaean ones and with very few depictions of animals or human figures. The burial process also changed. The Mycenaean custom of large family vaults was replaced with new forms such as single shaft graves, cremations and cis graves. Despite the few findings, we draw the conclusion that the Greek civilization was going through a cultural change at that time. Around the 12th and 11th century BC there was a large migration of the Dorian tribe into the Peloponnese. This event is known today as the Dorian invasion. We do not actually know if this was a quick and violent invasion or a gradual peaceful migration of the Dorians in the region. There is no first-hand literary evidence for the Dorian invasion, only the work of the ancient Greek scholars who wrote about the event centuries later together with some archaeological findings. The Greeks of the archaic and classical periods viewed the dark ages and the Mycenaean period as an age of heroes. As a result, the scholars combine historical events with myths and legends. The Dorian invasion is described in these writings as the return of the Heraclida, meaning the descendants of Heracles. Many renowned scholars recorded the event but each of them had a different take on it, so the story varies a lot. Here is a quick summary with information taken from the works of the ancient scholars. A large part of the Dorian people resided in the region of central Greece, although the exact location is disputed even among the scholars. The descendants of Heracles were exiled many years before from the Peloponnese by the king of Mycenae and were waiting for the right time to return. The Dorians decided to help the Heraclides retake their lands and together with Teminus, Crisfontis and the Twins Proclus and Eurysthenes invaded and conquered the Peloponnese. The Argolid was given to Teminus, Mycenae was given to Crisfontis and Laconia was given to the Twins Proclus and Eurysthenes, the first two kings of Sparta. Arcadia was the only region that was not conquered because of the marriage between Crisfontis and the Arcadian king's daughter. The story of the invasion may be partly made up to legitimize the rule of the Dorians over these lands and to link their royal line to Heracles. Nevertheless, this story was accepted by all the Greeks despite people having different takes on it. It is very difficult to trace the invasion through archaeological findings since all of Greece was undergoing cultural change at that time and there was also a lack of settlements. So far there are two theories that claim to prove the Dorian invasion. The first theory supports that the cist grave custom originated in the north and this may be evidence of the migration of the Dorians. However, we can trace this custom to the early Mycenaean period so this theory is debatable. The second theory claims that there was a new type of pottery in the region that resembled styles of central and northern Greece as well as pins and fibulae that were similar to the northern ones. Still, these claims are questionable. The truth is that there is not much archaeological evidence to prove the Dorian invasion. This is not strange as the Dorians were a Greek tribe and were greatly influenced by the Mycenaean civilization. Thus, their culture may have undergone the same changes with the neighboring tribes so it would not seem much different comparison to the other Greek tribes. Another fact that supports the invasion is the distribution of the Greek tribes and their dialects on the mainland at the end of the Dark Ages. It should be noted that not all Dorians migrated to the Peloponnese but a significant part of them. A century after the Dorian invasion, four tribes emerged in the Greek mainland. They all spoke Greek but had different dialects. The Dorians spoke in the Doric proper and the Northwest dialect. The Aeolians spoke in the Aeolic dialect. The Ionians spoke in the Ionic dialect and the Arcadians in the Arcadian dialect which was the dialect closest to Mycenaean Greek. Around 1050 BC a great migration started as each tribe began searching for new lands in order for their people to survive, expanding through the Aegean islands and the western Asia Minor coast, establishing many new settlements. The Dorians populated the South Aegean islands and a small part of the South Anatolian coast. A part of the Arcadian people sailed to Cyprus where they established themselves. The Ionians founded settlements in the Cyclades and in many northern Aegean islands along with the regions of Halkidiki, South Rhys, the North Anatolian coast and the Central Anatolian coast. Finally the Aeolians established themselves in the island of Lesbos and the neighboring Asia Minor coast. This migration developed gradually over the course of 150 years. When the migrations finally halted the population started to rise slowly with new settlements appearing on the mainland. A new style of pottery originating in Athens spread in many parts of the Greek mainland. This style is called proto-geometric and it was a great evolvement of the art of pottery. Around that time a new type of metal was introduced, iron. Iron was much easier to acquire compared to bronze which was out of use due to the lack of trade. People started using iron rapidly making weapons and agricultural tools. By 900 BC most of the weapons were made with iron although the shield continued to be made with bronze. It is at Lefkandi, a town in the island of Euboea, that we trace the resurgence of trade between the Greeks and the Near East, particularly with the Phoenicians. And thus the Greeks would rise from the ashes of the dark ages ascending into a new era of cultural, economic and political revival.