THE BEECHMONT CREST GUIDE TO ANCIENT GREECE
The Greek Dark Age: Tough Times in Ancient Greece
Between 1100 and 750 B.C., ancient Greece suffered through a severe economic decline. As the population of the Greek peninsula increased, agricultural methods failed to keep pace with the growing number of mouths to feed. The result was a famine; and for a while, the population of Greece actually began to decline. This was the Greek Dark Age.
While the Dark Age was probably not a pleasant time to be alive in Greece, it was not a time of total stagnation. It was during the Greek Dark Age that the twenty-four-letter Greek alphabet was adopted, replacing Linear B. Poor conditions on the Greek mainland motivated many Greeks to seek their fortunes elsewhere. The Dark Age was a time of extensive colonization. Greeks established colonies in Asia Minor and on various islands throughout the Aegean Sea. Ionian Greeks: The Greek settlements in Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey) became so numerous that they eventually developed a distinct culture of their own. The Greeks referred to Asian Minor as Ionia, and the history records the Greeks living here as Ionian Greeks.
The Ionian Greeks retained strong cultural and linguistic ties to their brethren on the Greek mainland. However, there were some differences. For example, the Ionian version of the Greek language eventually became a distinct dialect. A mainland Greek and an Ionian Greek could still communicate; but each would have recognized the other’s speech as a bit different. (If this doesn’t make sense, consider how a speaker of British English and a speaker of American English can communicate while noticing dialectic differences.)
Fortunately, the Dark Age didn’t last forever. Improvements in agricultural techniques enabled the Greeks to boost food output so that they could support a greater population. Iron was one of the key advances that lifted the Greeks out of the Dark Ages. Previously, the Greeks had made their tools and weapons from bronze. After they discovered iron, the Greeks began using iron to build farm implements. These sturdier, more durable tools multiplied the efforts of Greece’s farmers.