The grim picture of Athens provided by the archaeological evidence suggests that recovery during the Dark Ages was slow and gradual. As few architectural remains survive, almost all our information comes from wells and graves. Other than a few bronzes and, later, some iron tools and weapons, pottery is the main survival from these difficult centuries (1100–750 B.C.). The pots are decorated in a distinctive style, with painted geometric designs. There is no contemporary written evidence, either literary or documentary, to supplement the archaeological record.
The numbers of wells and graves increase from the tenth to the eighth century, suggesting a steadily rising population. The graves seem to ref lect a social structure similar to that found later in the Archaic period (750–500 B.C.), when there was an aristocracy based on ownership of property. The highest propertied class were the pentakosiomedimnoi, those whose land produced 500 medimnoi (about 730 bushels) of grain a year. A grave found in the Agora dating to the ninth century contained the cremated remains of an Athenian lady buried with a lovely set of gold earrings and other jewelry. Among the grave goods was an unusual box of clay with miniature representations of five granaries on the lid, almost certainly a reference to her high status as a member of the pentakosiomedimnoi.
The second propertied class was the hippeis (knights); as the name suggests, these were people wealthy enough to own horses. A ninth-century grave, identifiable as that of a warrior by the iron sword wrapped around the man’s burial urn, also contained the iron bridle bits for his horse. Graves of other members of the hippeis can perhaps be identified by important graves. Often they depict funerary scenes, with groups of mourners gathered around the bier. Extensive cemeteries from this period (known from the pottery as Geometric) have been excavated in several areas of Athens and at many sites in Attica: Merenda and Anavyssos (finds displayed in the Brauron Museum), Marathon (Marathon Museum), and Eleusis (Eleusis Museum) are among the most extensive.
The late eighth century is a time of increased contact with the Orient; locally made bronzes and a few imports of ivory and bronze suggest a growing trade with the Levant at this time. One such import, apparently from Phoenicia, is the alphabet. After five hundred years of illiteracy, we have evidence that the Greeks, and especially the Athenians, were
writing again. Some of the earliest examples of writing in mainland Greece come from the sanctuary of Zeus on Mount Hymettos and on a Geometric jug from a grave in the Kerameikos.
The earliest examples include alphabets, which people practiced before rapidly moving on to use their new skill to write rude remarks about their acquaintances. To this same time, late in the eighth century, can be dated the beginnings of Greek literature, with the writings of the Boiotian Hesiod and the epic poems of the Ionian bard Homer.
Hesiod wrote not only a theogony but also an account of the hard agricultural life in his native Askra, not far from Thebes. The great epics attributed by the Classical Greeks to Homer, the Iliad and Odyssey, are thought to have
been composed in their final form in the late eighth century, though they ref lect the heroic past
of the Bronze Age.
Athens played no large role in these origins of Greek literature, though the city’s artists and craftsmen were among the first to decorate their pottery with Homeric scenes. The epics became a source of artistic inspiration for narrative
art for centuries.
The archaeological record for the early seventh century is extraordinarily meager when comparedto that of the eighth and suggests that Athens was in a severe decline in the years around and just after 700. The early seventh century is perhaps the only period within a span of several centuries in which the Athenians imported more pottery than they exported. There are fewer graves in both Athens and Attica, and a large drop in the number of wells in Athens. As the city sent out no colonies at this time, we must look elsewhere for an explanation of this decline and apparent drop in population.
The likeliest cause may be a severe drought late in the eighth century, accompanied by famine and epidemic disease—
a combination of disasters which affected Athens until well on in the seventh century. Most of the wells in the area of the Agora were abandoned in the late eighth century while an especially large number of votives were dedicated at the
sanctuary of Zeus Ombrios, a weather god worshiped on Mount Hymettos. The sanctuary of Artemis at Brauron also shows signs of intense activity at this time, and the foundation legend associates her cult with drought and famine.
Pottery made in the seventh century takes off in a completely new direction from the geometric designs of the eighth century. Early on, while Athens is still recovering, the graves in the Kerameikos show a respectable proportion of pieces imported from nearby Corinth.
These are decorated with friezes of animals, birds, and mythical creatures such as sphinxes, griffins, and chimaeras, which seem to owe their inspiration to the Orient. In Athens the local Geometric pottery gives way to a period of exuberant experimentation in style, technique, subject matter, and scale. Mythological scenes begin to make a significant appearance in the “proto-Attic” style which f lourished throughout the seventh century.
From the west cemetery at Eleusis we have a huge amphora (1.42 meters high), decorated with scenes of Perseus killing the gorgon Medusa and Odysseus blinding the cyclops Polyphemos. And a cemetery near the west coast of Attica at Vari has produced some of the largest decorated vases of the seventh century, including one showing Herakles rescuing Prometheus and another of Herakles killing the centaur Nessos. Other archaeological material, such as monumental sculpture or substantial architecture in stone, does not appear in Athens or Attica much before the end of the seventh century. A few scraps of baked terracotta roof tiles with painted decoration found on the Acropolis, along with two poros limestone column bases, may be remnants of an early temple to Athena dating to around 620– 600.
We have little information from literary sources for Athens at this period, though there is a tradition that the chief magistracy (the archonship), which had been a lifetime office, was changed to a ten-year term starting in 683. This change in leadership was perhaps an attempt to resolve a conf lict between aristocratic families for control of the city. Later in the seventh century we learn of a formal body of law which was drawn up by one Drakon in the years around 621.
This new code included a series of laws on homicide which remained in force for centuries; copies were carved on a marble stele late in the fifth century B.C. and set up on display in front of the Royal Stoa in the Agora.
Also to the seventh century can be dated an early attempt to set up a tyranny by the Olympic games victor Kylon with the help of his father-in-law, Theagenes, tyrant of neighboring Megara. The coup failed and, though they had taken refuge under the protection of Athena on the Acropolis, many of Kylon’s followers were killed by members of the Alkmaionidai, a powerful Athenian aristocratic family.
All three of these developments— a change in ruling tenure, a codified body of law, and an attempted tyranny—can be seen as significant changes indicative of an evolving political system, though the details, impulses, and results remain obscure.
One other important element in the creation of Athens was the annexation of Eleusis (see figs. 254– 257). Along with the town and territory, the Athenians also gained control of the sanctuary of Eleusinian Demeter. This was her principal cult place in Greece and of panhellenic significance. As the goddess of veg-etation and fertility of the land, Demeter was an extremely important deity to the agricultural society of early Greece. The date of the takeover is disputed, but it seems to have been some time in the seventh century. The Homeric Hymn to Demeter contains no suggestion that Eleusis is not an independent entity; Athens does not figure in the story at all.
By the sixth century, however, the town and its territory were fully integrated into the Athenian state, which administered the sanctuary and the mysteries celebrated in honor of Demeter and her daughter, Kore (Persephone).
To the eighth and seventh centuries belongs the earliest archaeological evidence of worship in many of the sanctuaries in Attica which in later times were adorned with handsome temples and sculptures. In the early period, cult activity is expressed in modest votives, usually clay plaques, bronze figurines, miniature vases, and small items of jewelry in
ivory, bone, or semi-precious stones. In addition to Eleusis and Brauron, mentioned above, such manifestations appear in the sanctuary of Athena at Cape Sounion.
