"Susan Langdon is associate professor of Greek art and archaeology at the University of Missouri."--BOOK JACKET.

To be the first full and convincing historian of obscure centuries and the interpreter of a difficult and unpromising material culture is more than falls to most scholars in the course of a lifetime. So wrote the anonymous TLS reviewer in 1972. The Dark Age of Greece is now reissued with an extensive foreword in which the author considers what effect three decades of research and scholarship have had on his original findings and arguments. Professor Snodgrass constructs a narrative of four centuries of Greek history from an exhaustive synthesis of literary and archaeological evidence - pottery, burial-practices, architecture and metalwork, and what can be discovered of religion, commerce, and language. He argues that this was in truth a dark age, from the perspective both of scholarship and, more importantly, of the people who lived through it in poor, isolated communities, conscious of lost skills and departed glories. The recession was caused, he shows, not by external factors but by processes of internal collapse. And yet, although the book reveals material discontinuity, its ultimate conclusion is that at the most fundamental level of culture, human population, a continuity can be discerned, between the greatness of Mycenae and the rebirth of urban civilization, the dawning of the Classical age. The Dark Age of Greece remains the most comprehensive and coherent account of this period in the history of ancient Greece. It is a vital source of ideas and evidence for students, as full of interest as ever for the general reader.

This is a classic work of archaeology by one of the premier figures in the field. First published in 1971, A.M. Snodgrass' The Dark Age if Greece is the most comprehensive and coherent account available of this period of ancient Greece.

*Includes pictures *Includes excerpts of ancient accounts When people think of ancient Greece, images of philosophers such as Plato or Socrates often come to mind, as do great warriors like Pericles and Alexander the Great, but hundreds of years before Athens became a city, a Greek culture flourished and spread its tentacles throughout the western Mediterranean region via trade and warfare. Scholars have termed this pre-Classical Greek culture the Mycenaean culture, which existed from about 2000-1200 BCE, when Greece, along with much of the eastern Mediterranean, was thrust into a centuries long Dark Ages. Before the Mycenaean culture collapsed, it was a vital part of the late Bronze Age Mediterranean system and stood on equal footing with some of the great powers of the region, such as the Egyptians and Hittites. The Greek Dark Ages, sometimes referred to as the Homeric Age or the Geometric Period, spans the era of Greek history from the end of the Mycenaean civilization around 1100 BCE and the emergence of the Greek poleis in the 9th century BCE. It is an era that has provided little in terms of extant archaeological evidence, which in part explains the name "Dark Ages," but this lack of evidence has led some archaeologists and historians to make the very great assumption that little of any real significance occurred during these 200 years. Instead, they view it as a sort of hiatus between the collapse of the Mycenaean culture and the emergence of Archaic Greece. As with other so-called "Dark Ages," this assessment is simplified, and an absence of evidence should never be assumed as evidence of absence. If anything, the collapse of the Mycenaeans was a drawn-out affair, and while the early centuries of the Dark Ages might beseen as a continuation of this trend, even in the worst years, there was a degree of continuity and even some innovations. These changes including the beginnings of the use of iron as an alternative to bronze and some religious practices that continued to be observed. Furthermore, enough remained to form the basis of a recovery in economic, cultural, and artistic aspects of life in the later stage of the era, and in the political sphere, changes necessitated by the collapse in the economic system certainly paved the way for the rise of the polis, which would prove so fundamental in Greece in the centuries that followed. The relative success of the Aegean settlements was also crucial to recovery, as well as all major developments in politics, economics, international relations, warfare, and culture that created the structures and framework that developed during the later Classical period (480 BCE.-323 BCE). This laid the groundwork for the Greek Renaissance of the 8th century. During that time, the Greek alphabet developed and the earliest surviving Greek literature was composed, while in terms of art and architecture, sculptures and red-figure pottery began. Warfare changed significantly as well when the hoplite became the core infantry. Put simply, none of these developments could have occurred if the basis for these changes had not been secured during what came to be known as the Greek Renaissance, which bridged the gap between the Dark Ages and Archaic Greece. The Greek Dark Ages and Greek Renaissance: The History and Legacy of the Bronze Age Transition to Archaic Greece examines how ancient Greece developed over the course of over 1,000 years before bringing about the famous city-states. Along with pictures depicting important people, places, and events, you will learn about the Greek Dark Ages and the Greek Renaissance like never before.

The period between the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization around 1200 BC and the dawning of the classical era four and half centuries later is widely known as the Dark Age of Greece, not least in the eponymous history by A. M. Snodgrass published by EUP in 1971, and reissued by the Press in 2000.In January 2003 distinguished scholars from all over the world gathered in Edinburgh to re-examine old and new evidence on the period. The subjects of their papers were chosen in advance by the editors so that taken together they would cover the field. This book, based on thirty-three of the presentations, will constitute the most fundamental reinterpretation of the period for 30 years. The authors take issue with the idea of a Greek Dark Age and everything it implies for the understanding of Greek history, culture and society. They argue that the period is characterised as much by continuity as disruption and that the evidence from every source shows a progression from Mycenaean kingship to the conception of aristocratic nobility in the Archaic period. The volume is divided into six parts dealing with political and social structures; questions of continuity and transformation; international and inter-regional relations; religion and hero cult; Homeric epics and heroic poetry; and the archaeology of the Greek regions. Copiously illustrated and with a collated bibliography, itself a valuable resource, this book is likely to be the essential and basic source of reference on the later phases of the Mycenaean and the Early Greek Iron Ages for many years.

Robin Osborne's introduction to the art, archaeology and history of ancient Greece shows how we can write the history of this period, and the insights which can be gained by doing so for our understanding of later periods of history