TFIE ARCHAEOLOGY OF GREECE WILLIAM R. BIERS SECOND EDITION View of ancient Corinth and the Temple of Apoilo from the southwest. Photo: William R. Biers. Cornell University Press ITHACA AND LONDON The Dark Ages period, about6ón)lhe.Mye$aqan By rrrn ENp oF the Sub-Mycenaean or }vilization@SometimeSaccomPaniedbyevidence Iía"rt lÃn, as at the settlement at Miletos, in present-day Turkey, but more IIIC had opened with -\r-Lttll1 1,,.1". C characteristically in ab¡ndo¡4gr{_and_dec4y, LH lerge- =) LqT.< f-l / A *.u1s destructions and Ponulation movements and had been a sort of sunset for i_=l¿Vé¡aean_nm¿re; the succeeding years mark the total collapse of the This chapter ilconcemed with the approximately r5o years that "l-uilirãtiotl. r.lu"u""''termed,h"@fcreece,aperiodthathasyieIdedfewfinds and of which we therêfore know little. A civilization can perhaps be said to have fallen when the characteristics that as to be are peculiar to it either no longer exist or have been altered so radically of / all but unrecognizable. In the case of the Mycenaean civilization, this Process collapse and dispersal can be seen to have begun with the destr 16. Ground floor of the Stoa of Attalos. Photo: American School of Classical Studies at Athens: Agora Excavations. end of LH IIIB and to have continued thr the Mediterranean-Asia Minor, Cyprus, Crete-probably as a result of the thing happened to large-scale architecture and representational art. 'l*L Ay s increase in pastoralism.Llism. It was only 4t3!lhe lhq sndend of the period that things began to J c@G*ñffiè@e f'"' rt) beginning of a general upsl{ing_g! civilization, which is clearly seen in the P*]-&u'*lu''' suceeedl@-i poverty momentous changes took place, many of which served as foundations of later Greek society. In the present state of our knowledge it is extremely difficult to date these changes, to see where they came from, and to judge their significance. Many of them are visible only in later times, and the date and manner of their introduction are usually dis- puted by scholars. The gladual adoption of cremation is a case in point. AII that can be said about it is that it was an innovative feature of the early Dark Ages that was accepted in the eleventh century by Athens and partially elsewhere. Its significance as a possible indication of intrusive elements in the population hasbeenendlesslydiscussedanddisputed.'Ts@ I The works listed in the Suggestions for Further Reading for this chapter are the basic studies that deal with this period; they treat this particular problem at great length. 97 17. North wall of the tomb of Lyson and Kallikles. Photo courtesy of Stella Miìler-Collett PELI.A A HE55ALONIKIsr<> Þ ot¡ ê\!', A PERGAMON @^ fY "&¿ and ¡ SICYoN and there is almost always a time lapse between the last Mycenaean finds ocoRrNTH s4llog :'fo:.'"'.,,^ Age ones, even when later shrines have been established on or OLYMPIA f the first Iron A PRIÊNE ARoost 6 problem be considered again later, ^ MILETOS reaÍ BÍonze Age settlements. This will tttec in the context of the new beginnings of art and architecture. Al-thqqgh-it "^êo, ûìr"l&il .8 \"NË: ^.€.3-,n ",s 'ås be seen. TEJER,{ D-ire_43ytdg!çq Sftbe potiticat and soc ructure of Greece in the twelfth is lacking. *o.tld uPp"ut th. and eleventh centuries _It "u. turgáofns gave-Þlãce to smaller groups rgþg !y basileis, or pett ll agìicul eveloPment, ruled bY li-ings of greater or lesser power, s r to náG fraa little or no contact @rhaps all one can î"L L ' "'( say with conviction, although a certain number of shadowy figures could be ' , L^ 1' called up from myth or legend to populate the bleak landscape. IL4ggt;cC^ Map 3. Greece and Asia Minor in the Iron clear ing Age. Map by John Huffstot. @,".tra, t. U" ."ptr f the nobles. ( ART It is perhaps not quite accurate to say that there is no art to be found in the Dark that a tional art is almost nonexistent, being confined to a few figurines and an @aVaSe.Ifartisaleisureactivity,itwouldaPPear that the people of the Dark Ages were generally too busy surviving to produce artistic works. Facile explanations are likely to be contradicted by the spade, however, and the centaur from Lefkandi, perhaps the earliest certain myth- ological representation (see Fig. 4.9), is a warning of the difficulties inherent in sweeping generalizations. 98 99 ARCHITECTURE ( lr \ l T\ twelfth century a group_gþqop-le of a made 1_. the long and diffilult climb, presuma ns on the plain below. They established a sprawling town of some j,5oo people. { loó o Iingering connection with earlier building practices can be discerned. within the village itself there are çarcfulhpayed roads and a broad open area near the largest house, which is called the Great House by the excavators. This-builãñg, consisting of a large square room to which another room was subsequently added at the front, originally had two columns along its axis (evidence of their bases has been found) and a stone jar stand against one wall. Associated with lex the to postulate that it was the residence of the ruler of Karphi. The most northern building of the town served as a cult center, entered from the east, with a ",1 number of subsidiary rooms. In one of these rooms terra cotta idols were found; one is reminded of similar arrangements in the cult areas of Kea and Mycenae. The main room, according to the excavators, was probably open to the sky. A ledge against its south wall probably held the idols. Karphi, then, exhibits a fusion of Minoan and Mycenaean ch"racteristics in /l straitened circumstances. Whatever the conditions that caused this small settle- ment to be established, they apparently moderated and it was abandoned, probably at the beginning of the tenth century. Other Cretan refugee settle- 93 ments existed, but apparently at an even lower level of development than b/ b Karphi, and their sites are not so well preserved. Mt/REs While the Creto-Mycenaean refugees were huddling together up in the and Plan of the central portion of KarphiP' Nos. 8 that t9@3 It consisted of a single room wìth mud-brick 4.r and great house; no. r, cult center. From J. D. S. walls set on a low course of stones to keep them out of puddles, and enough 9, settlements existed there by the tenth century; the initial arrival is usually Pendlebury et al., "Excavations in the Plain of La- was (Fig' This littlp hntrss 15 els h preserved to allow a reconstruction 4.2). frimitivp sithi, IIL Karphi: A City of Refuge of the Early Iron the s Age in Crete," Anntml of the British School at Athens qYel 38 (tq9): 57-t45, Pla\e I By permission of the British School at Athens. 2 The basic excavation report by J. D. S. Pendlebu¡y and others can be found in "Karphi: A City of 3 The principal excavation report for Smyrna is J. M. Cook and others, "Old Smyrna," BSA Sl / S+ Refuge of the Early Iron Age in BSA (rg17-r98): Crete," 38 57-145. (r958-r959). r-r52. 4.2 Plan and reconstruction of oval house at Smyr_ N .-:l:- na.r'Drawing by R. V. Nicholls, f¡om A. M. Snod_ grass, The Dnrk Age of Greece (Edinburgh: Edin_ burgh University Press, r97t). By permission of Edinburgh University Press and the British School at Athens. SCALI IN Af TÀfs 4.3 An apsidal building at Nichoria. From William A. McDonald, William D. E. Coulson, and John Rosser, eds., Excnuations at Nichotia in Southuest Greece, vol. 3: Dnrk Age and Byzantine Occupation, p.jZ,FiB. z-23. Copyright O r9B3 by the Univer- sity of Minnesota. Reproduced by permission. rectangular plan ñt.hJili; ü; __ :___-i ¡¡.q¡¡!¡qrru/,,.urCatesï.:l its final phase in the n g r5.go meters in length"by 8.o meters in width and óf mud brick reinfcrced with wooden posts, this build had some importance in the village in which it was built.a ig. +.q) were excavated between of is n- structed 'likp of mud brick on a stone socle- smallpr hnrrcoo or.-".r-,'- ^-+:^*^,.r- led the excavators to sides and _J' bronz ilding, located very close to a -Jl_, cemetery¡tery alreadyalrqad)¡ in uìè,use, apparentyj"u,apparentlv wa. i";;ffi@r"j:itS:lintentionally demolished a n d f ineã wi tñffi iø""affit* r;;;;;;"*.iñléirnpnfq rnd ¿ builaUUII4 in its4f,crr/ elfr_te_r er!þq{þtng ce Plan of an apsidal building at Lefkandi.P From t- 4.4 for him. Reports (1988-89): rz9, Fig. 28. Re- The richness or the burlals (which incruded objects in precious metals), Arclneologicnl 15 produced by permission. A. McDonald, William D. E. Cou- s edited bY M' R' Grecce, vol. j: Dork Age ønd Byzan' lwo of the , q nt Toumba, t: of the excavation evidence is pro- Popham, P. G. Pt' xcortntiott, Architec- Peloponnese: Units IV-r and IV-5 Thò trottenl,by turc, stitute in Athens) ry þggz):75-84. ond Fittds, L02 103 4.6 Shapes of sixth- and fifth-century Attic vases. From G. M. A. Richte¡, Greek Art, zd ed. (London: Phaidon Press, 1959), p. 3rr, Fig. 428. Reproduced by permission. (,a t1- ¡'u!!'< ; "') 5-\ /-\'¿ ({ o(s'-t" ''") W flL( ¿ L"\ ',Ll' I VLoulrophoror C.lI¡ ltôter Colum¡ Xr¿ter Bell Kr¿te¡ w QBlkter t\ 4 \ \ro\:. \. ü 4.5 Details of the apsidal building at Lefkandi as reconstructed.