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MDS1 ANG
Homer’s World: Dark Age Greece
. Gillian Shepherd
Lion Gate, Mycenae
Photo © Gillian Shepherd
Fall of the Mycenaean Civilisation • c. 1200 BC • Palaces at Mycenae, Pylos, Tiryns destroyed by fire, other sites
are abandoned • Only at Tiryns was there later palace construction • Many features of palatial culture lost, including:
– Writing (and administration) – Monumental architecture and stone carving – Wall painting – Trade with eastern Mediterranean
• BUT there is also much continuity, e.g. in pottery styles, settlement occupation
The Dorian Invasion?
Even after the Trojan War, Greece was still involved in the movement and settlement of people so that, not being undisturbed, she failed to grow. The belated return of the Greeks from Troy caused many changes, and strife was quite general in the cities… the Dorians, led by the children of Herakles, got hold of the Peloponnese in the eightieth year after the capture of Troy. After a long time Greece gained peace with difficulty and since it was no longer disrupted sent out settlements abroad: the Athenians settled the Ionians and many of the islanders; the Peloponnesians colonised most of Italy and Sicily and parts of the rest of Greece. All these were founded later than the Trojan War.
Thucydides 1.12
The Dorian Invasion? • For:
– Tradition – Linguistic evidence (Doric dialect in the
Peloponnese, Attic/Ionian in East Greece) • Against:
– Lack of archaeological evidence for newcomers – Continuity of some customs – Evidence that “new” customs (e.g. single as
opposed to multiple burial) had been in use before the destructions
Other explanations?
• Signs of stress? Pylos Linear B tablets refer to “watchers on the coast”
• Fear of siege? c. 1220 protected access to water supply cut below walls at Mycenae, Tiryns, Athens
• Sea Peoples? • Economic meltdown (drought? Earthquake?)
and internal dissent?
Image source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2004-02.htm Image source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2004-02.htm
Reconstruction of Unit IV.1 at Nichoria (10th cent. BC)
Image source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2004-02.htm
Aerial view of Unit IV.1, Nichoria (SW Peloponnese)
Image source: http://www.utexas.edu/courses/introgreece/lecture_4.html
Image source: http://projectsx.dartmouth.edu/blog/classes/greece2005/archives/may_12_2005_0421_pm/000602.html
The Heroön at Lefkandi (10th cent. BC)
Image source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2004-02.htm
Plan of the Heroön at Lefkandi (10th cent. BC)
Image source: http://www.utexas.edu/courses/classicaldig/list19.html
Reconstruction of the “Heroon” at Lefkandi
Image source: http://lefkandi.classics.ox.ac.uk/Toumba.html
Image source: http://lefkandi.classics.ox.ac.uk/Toumba.html
Lefkandi Heroön burials Image source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2004-02.htm
Image source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2004-02.htm
Image source: http://cnes.cla.umn.edu/courses/archaeology/Lefkandi/LefPlan.html
Plan of the Heroön at Lefkandi with Toumba cemetery
Image source: http://lefkandi.classics.ox.ac.uk/Toumba.html
Image source: http://lefkandi.classics.ox.ac.uk/Toumba.html
Image source: http://lefkandi.classics.ox.ac.uk/Toumba.html
Exotica from the Toumba Cemetery, Lefkandi (Phoenician scarab and seal, gold jewellery, faience vase)
http://library.artstor.org/library/secure/ViewImages?id=8DlKaFMpLDQwKw%3D%3D&userId=gjVCdTQj&zoomparams=
The Lefkandi Centaur Lefkandi, Toumba Ts 1 and 3 H. 36 cm, L. 26 cm Late 10th cent. BC
Cremation burial of the “Areopagus Warrior” Grave D 16.4 (c. 900 BC)
Images source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2004-03.htm
Image source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2004-03.htm
The burial of the “Rich Athenian Lady” (Tomb H16: 6, Athens). c. 850 BC
The burial of the “Rich Athenian Lady” (Tomb H16: 6, Athens). c. 850 BC Pyxis (cosmetic box) with granaries??
Image source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2004-03.htm
The burial of the “Rich Athenian Lady” (Tomb H16: 6, Athens). c. 850 BC
Image source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2004-03.htm
The burial of the “Rich Athenian Lady” (Tomb H16:6, Athens). c. 850 BC
Middle Geometric belly handled amphora
Early Geometric neck handled amphora Image source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2004-03.htm
Image source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2004-03.htm
Image source: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415469920/images.asp (after Snodgrass 1980, fig. 4)
Burials in Athens, Attica and Argos c. 950-700 BC
Image source: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415469920/images.asp After Morris 1987, fig. 22
Numbers of burials for adults and children at Athens, c. 1100-450 BC
Image source: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415469920/images.asp Image source: http://cw.routledge.com/textbooks/9780415469920/images.asp
Dark Age sites in Attica occupied prior to 800 BC Sites in Attica occupied in the 8th cent. BC
Image source: http://www.trentu.ca/faculty/rfitzsimons/AHCL2200Y/LE%2006-03.htm
Heraion, Samos, 8th cent. BC “Hekatompedon” ie 100 Greek feet
Sanctuary site/ Dedication type
11th/10th cents BC
9th cent. BC 8th cent. BC
Delphi Bronze figurines
0 1 152
Mt Ptoön (Boeotia) Bronze tripods
0 0 7
Delos Bronze dedications
0 1 19
Olympia Terracotta figurines
10 21 837
Dedications at major Greek sanctuaries 11th – 8th cents BC (after Snodgrass 1980, p. 53)
Sanctuary site/ Dedication type
11th-10th cents BC
9th/early 8th cents BC
Later 8th/7th cents BC
Philia (Thessaly) Bronze fibulae
0 2 1783+
Philia (Thessaly) Bronze pins
1 4 37
Perachora Bronze fibulae
7 1 50+
Perachora Bronze pins
0 15 81
Argive Heraion Bronze fibulae
16 10 88
Argive Heraion Bronze pins
3 c. 250 c. 3070
Lindos (Rhodes) Bronze fibulae
0 52 1540
Lindos (Rhodes) Bronze pins
0 0 42
Dedications of bronze pins and fibulae at Greek sanctuaries (after Snodgrass 1980, p. 53)
Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Model_of_ancient_Olympia.jpg
Olympia, Main sanctuary area (model)
Stadium, Olympia Photo © Gillian Shepherd
For swift charioteers Achilles set forth goodly prizes, a woman to lead away, one skilled in goodly handiwork, and an eared tripod of 22 measures for him that should be first… then he set forth prizes for grievous boxing… and other prizes for a third contest, toilsome wrestling…
Iliad 23. 262 ff (Funeral Games of Patroclus)
Bronze tripod-cauldron from Olympia 8th cent. BC
Greek settlement around the Mediterranean Greek settlement around the Mediterranean
Image source: http://www.platos-academy.com/archives/magna_graecia.html
Greek Settlements in Sicily and Italy For mother-cities and foundation dates see esp. Thucydides Book 6 (Sicily)
Image source: http://www.utexas.edu/courses/greeksahoy!/maps.html
Greek settlements in Sicily and Southern Italy
Some major Western Greek sites City Mother-city Date Oikist Source
Naxos Chalcis 734 BC Thukles Thuc. VI.3
Syracuse Corinth 733 BC Archias Thuc. VI.3
Megara Hyblaea
Megara 728 BC Lamis Thuc. VI.4
Taras Sparta 706 BC Phalanthos Strabo 278
Gela Rhodes Crete
688 BC Antiphemos Entimos
Thuc. VI.4
Selinus Megara Hyblaea
628 BC Pammilos Thuc. VI.4
Poseidonia Sybaris Late 7th cent. ? Strabo 252
Akragas Gela 580 BC Aristonous Pystilos
Thuc. VI.4
Theories for colonisation
• Trade (“Trade before the flag”) • Overpopulation • Political dissatisfaction
Pithekoussai (Ischia) Founded c. 750 BC (Euboeans) Cf. Livy 8.22.5-6; Strabo 5.4.9
Bone-and-amber fibula Photo © Gillian Shepherd
A new form of writing… • The Phoenicians had devised a script of 22 phonetic
letters • The Greeks adapted this script to represent their own
language • They made one crucial innovation:
• Reassigned five Phoenician signs for which Greek had no consonantal equivalent (such as ‘aleph’) as vowels (Phoenician was an alphabet of consonants)
• Greek could now be written via an alphabet (rather than a syllabary, as in Linear B)
Image source: http://codex99.com/typography/13.html
“Nestor’s Cup” (Pithekoussai, 750-700 BC)
Image source: http://codex99.com/typography/13.html
“I am Nestor’s cup, good to drink from.Whoever drinks from this cup will straightway be seized with a desire for fair-crowned Aphrodite”
…a beauteous cup… studded with bosses of gold; it had four handles, and about each doves were feeding, while below were two supports. Another man could scarcely have lifted the cup from the table when it was full, but Nestor would raise it easily…
Iliad 11. 632-7 Image source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nestorbecher_Mykene_(Nationalmuseum_Athen).JPG
“Nestor’s Cup” Shaft Grave IV Mycenae 16th cent. BC
Some extra bibliography…
Camp, J. 1979, “A drought in the late eighth century BC”, Hesperia 48, 397-411. Liston, M.A. and Papadopoulos, J.K. 2004, “The ‘Rich Athenian Lady’ was pregnant: the anthropology of a Geometric tomb reconsidered”, Hesperia 73, 7-38 Morris, I. 1987, Burial and Ancient Society. The Rise of the Greek City State, Cambridge. Snodgrass, A.M. 1980, Archaic Greece. The Age of Experiment, London.
