Protogeometric period

In classical archeology, the time span approx. 1050 / 00–900 BC is used as the protogeometric period or protogeometric time . In the Greek area . It represents the first epoch of the Iron Age , which replaces the Late Bronze Age (= Late Helladic on the Greek mainland, approx. 1600-1050 BC).

Protogeometric time lies between the Mycenaean time and the geometric period . It is named after the characteristic ceramics ( protogeometric ceramics ), which is painted with many geometric patterns. The protogeometric time belongs to the so-called dark centuries . Even if iron is already used as a material, it is still rare and very valuable, especially at the beginning of this period. Most of the finds from the Protogeometric period come from graves, with the Kerameikos Cemetery in Athens being one of the necropolises where most of the finds from the Protogeometric period came to light. So far, only a few protogeometric settlements have been well researched archaeologically. The most important are Lefkandi on Euboea and Nichoria in Messinia .

literature

Anthony M. Snodgrass : The Dark Age of Greece. An archaeological survey of the eleventh to the eighth centuries BC. Edinburgh University Press, Edinburgh 2000.

Remarks

↑ On the protogeometric graves on the Kerameikos: Wilhelm Kraiker , Karl Kübler : Kerameikos. Results of the excavations, Vol. I. The necropolises of the 12th to 10th centuries. De Gruyter, Berlin 1939 (2nd edition 1974); Karl Kübler: Kerameikos. Results of the excavations, Vol. IV. New finds from the necropolis of the 11th and 10th centuries. De Gruyter, Berlin 1943 (2nd edition 1974).

[1] On the protogeometric graves on the Kerameikos: Wilhelm Kraiker , Karl Kübler : Kerameikos. Results of the excavations, Vol. I. The necropolises of the 12th to 10th centuries. De Gruyter, Berlin 1939 (2nd edition 1974); Karl Kübler: Kerameikos. Results of the excavations, Vol. IV. New finds from the necropolis of the 11th and 10th centuries. De Gruyter, Berlin 1943 (2nd edition 1974).