Contraction and Expansion, c, 1200-700 BCE Ancient Greece - Ancient Mediterranean History

Mycenaean Bronze Age World shows signs of decline around 1200 BCE and disappears completely around 1000 BCE

External explanation for disappearance: Sea Peoples destroy it all, Internal explanation for disappearance: social upheaval, warrior kings get toppled

Dark Age begins c. 1100 BCE, continues until 800 BCE

Characterized by significant demographic contraction, much less archaeological sites of inhabited places from this period, number of tombs in these sites decrease, Writing completely gone, none found at all, Monumental palace complexes gone

Around 800 Greek world goes into a “Renaissance” of rebirth

Rise of panhellenism, common Greek identity, Development driven by creation of religiously driven athletic games between various Greek city-states, started in Olympia

Colonization, expansion of Greek world

• Around Black Sea and Central Mediterranean, from Levant to Iberian Peninsula, Individual city-states in mainland send settlers to create trading posts or permanent settlements elsewhere, Also contributed to shared sense of Greekness, Greeks travel and interact with non-Greeks and create own identity 

Literacy, return of writing

Before advent of writing ancient Greeks had lots of overlapping dialects (unclear how mutually intelligible they were), language becomes for sure mutually intelligible by Classical Period