The Greek Middle Ages: c. 1125 - c.700 BC DOWNLOAD FREE

Introduction of phonetic script During the dark age of Greek history elsewhere the phonetic alphabet had been developed. In Cyprus, for example, the 200 signs of the Linear B script were reduced to about 40. The Phoenicians created a script with 22 characters, a mature form of which was in use by 850 BC, when it was employed in the inscription of Mesha, King of Moab who fought Ahab of Israel. The Ionians started to use this script by 700 BC at the latest. The Greeks adapted some of the Phoenican characters to form a set of symbols for pure vowel sounds. It is not thought that Homer or Hesiod could write, though their works were soon transcribe not long after their deaths. A period of proto-history ensues. The literary work that survives from this period is poetry not history, and written accounts of it stem from later periods. Later Greeks probably calculated dates from genealogies. One of the poetic works of this period is a Hymn to Delian Apollo, usually ascribed to Homer.

Contents of The Greek Middle Ages: c. 1125 - c.700 BC 1 Population growth and land hunger 2 Economic expansion and the rising "middle class" 3 Cultural developments in Greece during the period of tyrannies 4 Hoplite tactics 5 Factional politics 6 Ethnic tensions 7 The downfall of tyrants in archaic Greece 8 The Dorian and Ionic migrations 9 The Dorians 10 Greek Dark age 11 The Greek City States 12 Greek colonization of the C8th BC 13 Greek colonization of the Aegean and East 14 Greek settlers in the Euxine 15 Causes of the Greek colonization 16 Archaeological evidence for Greek population expansion in C8th BC 17 Foundation of Cyrene 18 Corcyra 19 Olbia 20 The Lelantine war 21 Relations with Egypt 22 Greek Culture during the Greek Middle Ages 23 Introduction of phonetic script 24 Homer 25 Hesiod 26 Foundation of the Olympic Games

Related articles: (1) Mycenae and the Heroic Age, (2) The Greek Tyrannies: c. 650 - 510 BC