The Greek Dark Ages

The Mycenaean Greeks were great fighters because they had bronze weapons and armor, and chariots that they could drive into battle. They ruled the area around the Aegean Sea for several hundred years.

But the Mycenaean Greeks were facing disaster—although they didn’t know it yet! All around them, tribes of barbarians were also learning how to use bronze weapons and chariots.

Barbarian wasn’t a nice name! It was an insult. You see, the early Greeks thought of themselves as very civilized people. They lived in nice houses, made of stone or wood. They had their own kitchens and bathrooms. Greek women stayed home most of the day, supervising the household slaves who did most of the housework and cooking. Some Greek men worked as storekeepers, farmers, or fishermen. Others were craftsmen—they spent their time weaving cloth, creating pottery, or making other things for use in everyday life. Greek children went to school, or had tutors. They lived settled, ordinary lives.

But barbarians didn’t have houses of their own or regular jobs. They couldn’t read or write. And they spent their time wandering around from country to country, attacking the people who lived there and trying to take over.

The Mycenaean Greeks thought that these wandering barbarians were ignorant, smelly, and uncivilized. They knew that Greek weapons and chariots were the strongest around. They figured that they could protect themselves from any barbarian attack.

But they were wrong. The barbarian tribes who lived around the Aegean Sea discovered how to make weapons out of iron. These iron weapons were even stronger than the bronze weapons of the Greeks. They learned how to use bows and arrows, and how to throw javelins. Now, the barbarians could kill the drivers of Greek chariots from a long distance away—before the Greeks could even get close enough to fight them. Some barbarians even learned how to build warships, so that they could attack the Mycenaean Greeks from the sea.

The Greeks tried to fight off the barbarians. They built stronger and stronger walls around their cities. These walls were so strong and so big that we can still see them today.

But no matter how many walls the Mycenaean Greeks built, they couldn’t keep the barbarians out. The Sea People invaded them from the water. Other barbarians called Dorians came streaming down from the north. Greek cities were burned and destroyed. Greek armies were defeated. The Greeks fled away from these savage tribes. And soon the only people living in Greece were the barbarians.

For hundreds of years, the barbarians lived in Greece. But these tribes were a little bit like a bully who spends so much time fighting that he never gets his homework finished. They put so much energy into battles that they never learned how to read or write. They didn’t leave us any written records of their lives. The only thing they left behind them were ruined cities! And so we know very little about Greece during the time that the Sea People and the Dorians lived there. This time in Greece is called the Greek Dark Ages—because the history of the Dorians and the Sea People is completely unknown, or “dark,” to us today.

Note to Parent: The Mycenaeans settled in Crete around 1450 BC/BCE. The Greek “Dark Ages” stretched from around 1200 to around 700 BC/BCE.