The Mycenaean civilization started to collapse from 1200 BC. Archaeology suggests that around 1100 BC, the palace centers and outlying settlements of the Mycenaeans' highly organized culture began to be abandoned or

With the collapse of the palatial centers, no more monumental stone buildings were built and the practice of wall painting may have ceased; writing in the Linear B script ceased, vital trade links

Cyprus was inhabited by a mix of "Pelasgians" and Phoenicians, joined during this period by the first Greek settlements. Potters in Cyprus initiated

Lefkandi on the island of Euboea was a prosperous settlement in the Late Bronze Age, possibly to be identified with old Eretria. It recovered quickly from the collapse of Mycenaean culture, and in 1981 excavators of a burial ground found the largest 10th-century

Around this time large-scale revolts took place in several parts of the eastern Mediterranean and attempt to overthrow existing kingdoms were

Greece during this period was likely divided into independent regions organized by kinship groups and the oikoi or households, the origins

The archaeological record of many sites demonstrates that the economic recovery of Greece was well underway by the beginning of the 8th century BC. Cemeteries, such as the