The Greek Dark Age: A Study of Military Organization and Politics

The Greek Dark Age, commencing around 1100 BC with the decline of the Mycenaean civilization, was marked by significant political instability and warfare. This period, also known as the Geometric Age, saw the destruction of cities and palaces, leading to widespread pandemonium and the rise of Mediterranean warfare. The era suffered from a lack of historical data due to catastrophic conditions, with limited artifacts providing insights into the time. The instability allowed for invasions by sea peoples, impacting not only Greece but also contributing to broader European feudalism. The essay references key works to provide context on the military organization and political climate of this era. Desklib provides similar solved assignments for students.

Running head: GREEK DARK AGES
Greek Dark Ages
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1GREEK DARK AGE
The Greek Dark Age: Military Organization and Politics
Marked in 1100 BC, the Greek Dark Age marks the end of the Mycenaean Palatial
civilization. This is the age where the geometric shapes were discovered and identified, giving
the age its other name, the age of Homer or the Geometric Age (Bintliff, 2019). The Period
continued till the commencement of the Greek Culture and Poleis in the Ninth Century BC.
Since the commencement of the Dark Age in Greece, warfare continued in several parts of the
country. Everything was mostly a pandemonium. With the end of the Mycenaean Age, the
palaces and the cities of the age were destroyed. The ones which were standing were left,
abandoned by the people. Starting from the city of Troy to Gaza, everything was destroyed. With
the New Kingdom of the Egypt fell in to dis-alignment, the Intermediate Period was marked.
Figure 1: Map Showing the Greek Dark Age
Source: Google Images
By the beginning of this era, the Mediterranean warfare begun due to the political
instability. Overthrowing the pre-existing kingdoms became a common aspect of the people. Due

2GREEK DARK AGE
to less efficient military personnel in Greece, they fell into the hands of the sea people who
invaded and conquer the Hittite Kingdom, which was the Part of the Anatolia and have a greater
significance in the Greek history. Not only Greece, the entire Europe was surged in a huge
political, economic, social and financial disaster which forced them to follow feudalism
(Pomeroy et al., 2020).
This era, which is also known as middle age, has very less information available in the
history. The time before or after that has many information for us but Dark Age, due to
catastrophic condition has suffered the loss of data which could have helped in unveiling the
happenings during that time in depth (Dawson, 2018). Only a few artifacts has been found which
gives us some information regarding that era.
Figure 2: Artifacts found in the Greek Dark Age
Source: Google Images

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References:
Bintliff, J. (2019). 15 Social theory and the Greek Iron Age. Alternative Iron Ages: Social
Theory from Archaeological Analysis.
Dawson, D. (2018). The origins of Western warfare: militarism and morality in the ancient
world. Routledge.
Pomeroy, S. B., Burstein, S. M., Donlan, W., Roberts, J. T., Tandy, D. W., & Tsouvala, G.
(2020). A brief history of ancient Greece: Politics, society, and culture. Oxford
University Press.