"Greek- Dark Ages"

After watching the Ancient Greece movie in class I found some aspects of the film to be intriguing. The detailed art of Greece is very captivating and must take much time and patience for the artist. Today, it is rather rare to see architecture with such detail. The Greek's must have put an abundance of time and resources into their building and seemed to really care about the appearance of their city. After exploring this topic a little further I discovered something that was quite surprising.

The entire Greek culture diminished during The Dark ages for no apparent reason. This time was known as the Dark Ages, which lasted from 1200 BC to 700 BC. Many different works of art and architecture were lost during this time. Trading with surrounding countries came to a halt, entire cities were completely destroyed, and meaningful artifacts were ruined. It was as if the society no longer wanted to work to keep their beauty and strength present. During this time the Greeks transformed their "mighty city life" to a rather simple and small agricultural society. This time period seems to be one large mystery not only because much has been destroyed but also because of the lack of evidence. The people also stopped writing, which left later centuries no reasoning for the disappearing culture. Writing is an important way of life for all people, and for the writing to simply subside was rather appalling to those who discovered this time period.

I tried to put myself in this situation. I could not imagine having a strong and developing culture and then getting rid of it for any reason. What could have caused the Greeks to want to destroy everything they have worked so hard to obtain? Or did something happen that forced their actions or lack thereof? Even with the little evidence left behind from this era theories were later developed giving a plausible reasoning for the abandonment of the Greek culture. The Roman Empire had split into two parts: East and West. The East part was about to prosper for many years following unlike the Western part, which was largely invaded. Because of the division the entire culture seemed to disappear from the endless amount of battles and the unwillingness to compromise.

During the end of the Dark Ages the Greeks finally begun to urbanize and rebuild their once well-built society and artwork. This was a lot of work for the Greeks. But it was worth it in the long run. Today, Greece is filled with some of the world's most famous architecture and artwork.