The Greek Dark Age
Writing, palaces and long-distance trade all vanish from Greece for four centuries.
- When
- —
- Duration
- 300 years
- Known to
- ± 50 years
- Era
- Iron Age, Holocene
After the Mycenaean collapse, Greece loses Linear B, monumental building, fine pottery and most contact with the wider Mediterranean. Population falls sharply and settlements shrink to villages. The recovery from around 800 BCE is not a restoration — what emerges is structurally different from what was lost: small independent city-states rather than palace kingdoms, and an alphabet rather than a scribal syllabary.