The Earliest Hellenic Art and Civilization and the Argive Heraeum

The Greek “Dark Age” - that is the period immediately preceding the 6th century BC – is still an area of great uncertainty in the study of pre-Classical Greek antiquity due to the comparative lack of remains when compared to the Mycenean and Archaic eras that bracket it and the absence of literary records. In this essay Waldstein, one of the editors of the American Journal of Archeology and former director of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, suggests a rough dating scheme for artifacts falling into this 'Dark age' and makes an early break from the Homer-centered dating that prevailed in the wake of Heinrich Schliemann and before the decipherering of Linear B. An interesting piece both for the history of Dark Age and the history of Greek historiography.