Dark Ages to Geometric Period
• Dark Ages (Architectural Term) = Protogeometric Period ( Pottery Term) 1100 - 900 BCE
• Geometric Period (Architecture, Sculpture, and Pottery) 900 - 700 BCE
End of the Mycenaean World
• Literary tradition from Homer and other ancient epics. Destruction of Troy at the hands of a contingency of Mycenaean warriors.
• Destruction of Troy. Which Troy is the Troy of the Trojan war? Troy VI? Troy VIIA?
• Destruction of the mainland palaces (Mycenae, Tiryns, Athens, Gla, Pylos, Thebes, Orchomenos) are all under different circumstances.
Theories for Destruction
• The Dorian Invasions (Return of the Herakleidae or Internal Revolt?)
• The Raids of the Sea Peoples
• Intercity Warfare
• Drought, Famine, Earthquakes, and Other Natural Disasters.
Dark Age Sites
• Karphi, Crete*
• Kavousi, Crete
• Lefkandi, Euboea*
• Nichoria, Messenia
• Oval House, Smyrna*
Lefkandi - The Heroon
• Heroon - 10th century
• Cemetery - 9th century
• Apsidal (50 m by 10 m)
• Burial of man, woman, horses
The Centaur
• Eretria Museum • Terracotta• 10th c BCE• Found in Heroon,
split in two pieces, one in each grave.
Isis and Horus Necklace
• Found in tombs near Heroon at Lefkandi.
• 11th/10th century.• Faience, Egyptian in
origin.• Isis and Horus
statuettes common in Egyptian world.
Protogeometric Pottery
• Shapes derived from Mycenaean oeuvre: krater, oinochoe, cups, amphorae.
• Faster wheel. • Compass drawn pendent
semicircles or concentric circles.
• Kerameikos cemetery in Athens.
Geometric Cult Sites
• Dreros on Crete*
• Eretria - Apollo Daphnephoros*
• Sparta - Temple of Artemis Orthria
• Heraion at Samos*
• The Argive Heraion*
• Temple of Hera at Perachora*
• Thermon*
Cult Statues
• From shelf in temple.
• Sphyrelaton method: sheet hammered bronze over wood core.
• Apollo, Leto, Artemis.
Apollo Daphnephoros• Four phases of
the temple.
• Apsidal hut.
• Second structure with apsidal walls.
• Hekatompedon (100 footer).
• Geometric Daphnephorion
• All geometric structures leveled at the end of the 8th c. BCE.
• Early Archaic hekatompedon (670 - 655 BCE)
Geometric Heraion at Samos
• Local Carian deity originally.
• Hera and Zeus married here beside a sacred bush.
• Hekatompedon - 8th c BCE.
Hera Limenaia at Perachora
• Corinthiad
• Again, a port.
• Apsidal structure.
• Geometric bronze finds.
• 9th/8th c BCE.
Geometric Pottery
• Early - increased geometric patterns. Meanders become more and more prominent.
• Use as tomb markers in Athens.
• Very fine clay and fast wheel.
• Athens at forefront of Geometric pottery production.
Agora “Rich Lady” Burial
• Belly amphora - female.
• Granary - symbol of status or wealth?
• Cremation. • 9th c BCE.
Athens 804 • Pictorial Narrative.
• Prothesis and Ekphora.
• Tomb Marker from the Dipylon gate cemetery.
• 750 BCE
• 1.55 m high.
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