From MHoltgrefe@AOL.COM Wed Jan  6 18:10:02 1999
Date: Wed, 21 Oct 1998 07:06:18 EDT
From: Mark Holtgrefe 
Reply-To: History of the Ancient Mediterranean 
To: ANCIEN-L@ULKYVM.LOUISVILLE.EDU
Subject: Re: Greek dark ages?

Luiz,
We've been through this before.  Nevertheless, there are some problems here.
First of all, the date of the Trojan War is disputed but 1200 to 1190 seems
about right.  On the other hand, if I remember correctly, we can still talk of
Mycenaean Greece up to about 1100 and the so called darkness extends to about
800.  In that 'gloom' however Athens thrived and so did the isles off Asia
Minor.
The pottery to the best of my knowledge shifts considerably in style about the
year 1000.  Actually I'm not sure of the style of the crockery itself, but
rather the artistry found on it differs significantly from the late bronze
age.
All of this however is probably subtle quibbling next to associating Ramasses
II with Shishank, and here of all places Peter James seems to hinge his new
chronology.  This, quite frankly, should not be taken seriously.  There is a
serious gap in our knowledge of Egyptian history but it stretches for about
100 years (1050 to 950).  Making such an outlandish leap does not help.

I'm sure others more knowledgable than I can fill in much better details
best regards
mch

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