sourced story
c. 1100–800 BCEReputable sourceWell documented

The Greek Dark Age

On the timeline · around c. 1100–800 BCE · The Greek Dark Age1,200 BCE1,150 BCE1,100 BCE1,050 BCE1,000 BCE

What happened

Around 1100 BCE the Mycenaean palaces collapsed amid the wider Bronze Age Collapse; cities were abandoned, populations fell, and the Linear B script was lost. Greece fragmented into small, isolated communities for some three centuries.

Why it matters

Out of this 'Dark Age' — through migration, memory, and recovery — emerged the world of independent city-states and the alphabet that would define Archaic and Classical Greece.

Sources