The Alphabetic Period

Abstract

Abstract The passing of Mycenaean civilization was followed by a dramatic decline in population, disintegration of trading links, and in general a much poorer material culture. This transformation has been connected with movements of population in Greece in the centuries following the Mycenaean collapse. There were also far-reaching migrations from Greece to the coast of Asia Minor and the offshore islands during this period, no doubt triggered to some extent by unsettled conditions in Greece. The Greek settlers who occupied Lesbos and the most northerly part of Asia Minor called the region they inhabited ‘Aeolis’: these Aeolians seem to have migrated from Thessaly. To the south of Aeolis lay Ionia, which was settled for the most part by migrants from Attica; most of the central Aegean islands between Attica and Ionia were also settled by Ionic-speakers. The Asiatic coast south of Ionia, and the southern Aegean islands (Crete, Carpathos, Rhodes, and Cos) were occupied by Dorians from southern Greece.