The dorian dilemma: Problems and interpretations of social change in late Helladic iii c and dark age Greece with reference to the archaeological and literary evidence

Abstract

Early Greek history, i.e. Greek history prior to about the mid-sixth century B.C., is as obscure to modern historians as it was to the ancient ones. One of the events which has been mentioned and described by ancient sources and is supposed to have happened during this period is the "Dorian Invasion". The question whether it did or did not happen in reality, and when, has puzzled modern scholars since the nineteenth century and still is a controversial issue today. The problem is approached by examining both the available literary and archaeological evidence. In Part I the literary evidence in general and its limitations is discussed (Chapter 1), ie. to what extent it can be relied upon as a source of information about the past: the historicity of events described and the assessment of the duration of the past. The theoretical implications are applied to the events surrounding the "Dorian Invasion" in Chapter 2, It has been suggested that the tradition of the invasion, as reported by ancient historians has been conflated and distorted and the given date for it may be wrong, but it is possible that it contained a historical kernel, i.e. that the actual event of a "Dorian Invasion" did happen. The archaeological evidence is discussed in Part II; Chapter 3 deals with the limitations in general, both the technical and interpretative aspects. Chapters 4 and 5 describe the archaeology of the areas related to the "Dorians" in mainland Greece and the Aegean from the Mycenaean III C and post-Mycenaean periods. It has been concluded that no archaeological features can be detected which may be linked to an invasion of people. The different hypotheses put forward regarding the "Dorian Invasion" are discussed in Part III, Chapter 6, and in the conclusion of Chapter 6 the view is expressed that it is impossible to be certain if there was a "Dorian Invasion”. The "Dorian Dilemma" still remains.