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Durham E-Theses Durham E-Theses The dorian dilemma: Problems and interpretations of social change in late Helladic iii c and dark age Greece with reference to the archaeological and literary evidence Dierckx, Heidi How to cite: Dierckx, Heidi (1986) The dorian dilemma: Problems and interpretations of social change in late Helladic iii c and dark age Greece with reference to the archaeological and literary evidence, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/6880/ Use policy The full-text may be used and/or reproduced, and given to third parties in any format or medium, without prior permission or charge, for personal research or study, educational, or not-for-prot purposes provided that: • a full bibliographic reference is made to the original source • a link is made to the metadata record in Durham E-Theses • the full-text is not changed in any way The full-text must not be sold in any format or medium without the formal permission of the copyright holders. Please consult the full Durham E-Theses policy for further details. Academic Support Oce, Durham University, University Oce, Old Elvet, Durham DH1 3HP e-mail: [email protected] Tel: +44 0191 334 6107 http://etheses.dur.ac.uk 2 l ABSTRACT Early Greek history, i.e. Greek history prior to about the mid-sixth century B.C., is as obscure to modern historians as it was to the ancient ones. One of the events which has been mentioned and described by ancient sources and is supposed to have happened during this period is the "Dorian Invasion". The question whether it did or did not happen in reality, and when, has puzzled modern scholars since the nineteenth century and still is a controversial issue today. The problem is approached by examining both the available literary and archaeological evidence. In Part I the literary evidence in general and its limitations is discussed (Chapter 1), ie. to what extent it can be relied upon as a source of information about the past: the historicity of events described and the assessment of the duration of the past. The theoretical implications are applied to the events surrounding the "Dorian Invasion" in Chapter 2. It has been suggested that the tradition of the invasion, as reported by ancient historians has been conflated and distorted and the given date for it may be wrong, but it is possible that it contained a historical kernel, i.e. that the actual event of a "Dorian Invasion" did happen. The archaeological evidence is discussed in Part II; Chapter 3 deals with the limitations in general, both the technical and interpretative aspects. Chapters 4 and 5 describe the archaeology of the areas related to the "Dorians" in mainland Greece and the Aegean from the Mycenaean III C and post-Mycenaean periods. It has been concluded that no archaeo­ logical features can be detected which may be linked to an invasion of people. The different hypotheses put forward regarding the "Dorian Invasion" are discussed in Part III, Chapter 6, and in the conclusion of Chapter 6 the view is expressed that it is impossible to be certain if there was a "Dorian Invasion". The "Dorian Dilemma" still remains. ii The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without his prior written consent and information dcri\·ed from it should be acknowledged. T H E D 0 R I A N D I L E M M A Problems and Interpretations of social change in Late Helladic III C and Dark Age Greece with reference to the archaeological and literary evidence A Thesis submitted for the Degree of Master of Arts at the University of Durham, Department of Classics by Heidi Dierckx - 1986 - Copyright: The copy of this thesis rests with the author. No quotation from it should be published without her prior written consent and informa­ tion derived from it should be acknowledged. iii Dedicated to my parents. iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page Acknowledgements v List of Abbreviations vi List of Figures viii Introduction l PART I : LITERARY EVIDENCE Chapter l. Limitations of oral tradition and literary evidence 6 Chapter 2. Early Greek oral tradition and interpretation 32 PART II : ARCHAEOLOGICAL EVIDENCE Chapter 3. Limitations in archaeology 54 Chapter 4. Archaeology of mainland Greece (Dorian) 69 Chapter 5. Archaeology of the Dorian Aegean islands and the coast of Asia Minor 137 PART III : INTERPRETATION Chapter 6. Was there a "Dorian Invasion"? 163 Map A. The Dorian Aegean (excluding Crete) .. 191 Map B. Crete 192 Map c. Greece 194 Bibliography -195 v ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Most of all I would like to express my sincere thanks to my Supervisor, Dr. 0. Dickinson, for his invaluable guidance, comments and willing- ness to offer information whenever sought throughout the writing of this thesis and keeping me up-to-date with the archaeological evidence of Greece and the Aegean islands. I am very grateful to my father for his financial support during this period, making it possible for me to write the thesis. I also would iike to thank my parents, Mrs. Hall, Caradoc Davies and all my other friends for giving me moral support whilst doing my research. University of Durham, Heidi Dierckx May 1986. Vl LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS Periodicals and Series AA Archaeologischer Anzeiger AAA Athens Annals of Archaeology AD Arkhaiologikon Deltion AJA American Journal of Archaeology AR Archaeological Reports BAR British Avchaeological Reports BICS Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies BSA Annual of the British School at Athens CAH Cambridge Ancient History JHS Journal of Hellenic Studies SIMA Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology SMEA Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici Archaeological Periods and Cultural Phases LH Late Helladic LM Late Minoan S.Min. Sub-Minoan S.Myc. Sub-Mycenaean DA Dark Age PG Protogeometric "PG" Material termed Protogeometric but having little or no link with the Attic style G Geometric ELH, EPG, EG Early Late Helladic, Protogeometric, Geometric (similarly for M (Middle) LH, PG,G and L (Late) LH, PG, G) vii List of Abbreviations (cont ... ) Ancient Historians Apoll. Apollodorus Diod. Diodorus Siculus Her. Herodotus Paus. Pausanias Thuc. Thucydides viii LIST OF FIGURES Figure l.l Development of oral tradition 8 1.2 The royal lines in Herodotus 25 1.3 The Eurypontid line according to Herodotus and Pausanias 27 2.1 Migrations of Dorians (and Heracleidae) as in the literary evidence 33 4 .l Chronological timetable 74 4. 2 Number of sites occupied during Mycenaean and post-Mycenaean Greece 79 4.3 Suggested correlation of selected Late Mycenaean and "Sub-Mycenaean" deposits 83 4 . 4 Late Helladic III C pottery 110 4. 5 "Sub-Mycenaean" vases 112 4. 6 Protogeometric pottery 113 4. 7 "Barabrian Ware" from various sites in Greece 115 4.8 Dress and personal ornaments 121 4. 9 Weapons 126 4.10 Distribution of cists and pits, c.ll25-900 B.C. 130 4.11 Distribution of cists and pits, c.l500-ll25 B.C. 132 5.1 Number of sites in Melos, Thera and the Dodecanese 139 5.2 Distribution of Cretan sites 144 5.3 Patterns of the Cretan Fringed Style 146 5.4 Sub-Minoan and PG pottery from Knossos (Ayios Ioannis) 147 5.5 Plan of the Knossos area 149 6.1 Distribution of the west Greek dialect 165 ix List of Figures (cant ... ) Figure 6.2 Motifs characteristic of the "Boubousti Keramik", taken over by the "Dorians", according to Schachermeyr 178 6.3 Distribution of the pithos burial in the PG and G period 188 l INTRODUCTION Twenty years later, the Dorians with the descendants of Heracles made themselves masters of the Peloponnese. (Thuc., I, 12) Thucydides in his "History of the Peloponnesian War" describes Greece, in the time before the seventh century B.C., as being "in a state of ferment" and "many years passed by and many difficulties were encountered before Hellas would enjoy any peace or stability, and before the period of shifting populations ended" (Thuc., I, 12). One of the population movements that he mentions was that of the Dorians, who entered and became masters of the Peloponnese eighty years after the fall of Troy, twenty years after "the Boeotians were driven out by the Thessalians and settled in what is now Boeotia." In modern terms this event has been called the "Dorian Invasion". Herodotus, Diodorus and Apollodorus have given a more detailed account of events surrounding this migration and occupation of the Peloponnese. The question to be asked now is: was there really a "Dorian Invasion"? Most scholars/historians in the first half of the twentieth century and previously did not doubt the stories and history of Greece written in the ancient literary sources, including the movement of the Dorians. To prove the existence of the Dorians, they interpreted and manipulated the available archaeological evidence according to the supposedly historical events mentioned in the literary sources. So, the destruction of many 2 Mycenaean palaces at the end of the pottery phase Late Helladic IIIB and the decline of the Mycenaean civilization afterwards led to the suggestion that the Dorians entered Greece at about that time. This could be made to satisfy the literary evidence by further manipulation. Yet one man, K. J. Beloch, in 1913, an extreme sceptic, had denied its very occurrence. He gave good reasons for such a viewpoint, that the literary evidence was far removed from the "Dorian Invasion" in time and distorted according to the bias or ignorance of the writer. Moreover, suspiciously coherent stories describing the event and the conflicting elements within the story told by several ancient historians put doubt on the truth concerning the event itself.
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