008 - The "Dark Age" and Homer

In this episode, we discuss the archaeological evidence for the early "Dark Age" during the 11th and 10th centuries BC; the emigration of Greeks to Anatolia; and the first great author of ancient Greece, a man named Homer, who gives us incite into the society and culture of the early Dark Age through his two great epic poems---the Iliad and the Odyssey

ca. 1200-1000 BC - following the collapse of the Mycenaean palace economy, famine and emigration set the stage for a massive population drop in Greece 

ca. 1125-1050 BC - the period following the aftermath of the palace destructions, is known as Sub-Mycenaean, since the pottery is still recognizably Mycenaean but much inferior in quality

ca. 1050-900 BC - renewed artistic vigor can be seen in the pottery of the proto-Geometric style, so called because the designs are simple abstract geometric shapes like horizontal and wavy lines, circles, and semicircles within bands around the neck and belly

ca. 1050-900 BC - waves of emigration began eastward to the western coast of Anatolia and the Aegean islands 

ca. 900 BC - weapons and tools were made with iron, populations began to inch upwards at a steady pace

  

• Map/Dark Age Greece

• Map/Classical Greek Dialects

• Map/Colonization of Asia Minor

• Photo/Submycenaean Vase

• Photo/Protogeometric Amphora

• Photo/Archaeological Plan of Chieftain's House at Nichoria

• Photo/Marble Bust of Homer

• Text/Homer's Iliad
• Text/Homer's Odyssey
• Text/Homeric Hymns