Mycenae, the “Dark Age” and the Rise of the Greek Polis
Huang Yang
The dominant view on the rise of the early Greek states holds that after the decline of the Mycenaean civilization, there was a Dark Age, before the polis rose abruptly in the middle of the 8th century BC. This thesis has formed the point of departure for many later studies. This paper reviews this narrative and argues that Western values have played a part in emphasizing the discontinuity between the two periods of civilization. The world of the polis has long been seen as the roots of Western civilization, and it has therefore been sought to distance it from such despotic rules of the Mycenaean kingdoms. However, this interpretation has ignored the various ties between Mycenaean civilization and the world of the polis. Moreover the archaeological evidence shows that the so called Dark Age may not have been as ‘dark’ as has been assumed. Large group movements in the Post Mycenaean period have been attested, and it seems probable that the Homeric poems described a society before the 8th century rather than afterwards. It is the contention of this paper that the rise of the polis should be regarded as the result of a gradual, longterm transformation of Greek society that began with the collapse of central power in the Mycenaean kingdoms rather than a result of a socalled revolutionary change. What the Homeric poems described was probably an intermediate link between the Mycenaean civilization and the world of the polis.
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