How an Ancient Village Survived the Greek Dark Age

Two researchers have taken a new twist on what an ancient civilization did for a living. After studying a key site from the Greek Dark Age, the researchers have found that there may be more than meets the eye when it comes to how the village survived.

The Greek village of Nichoria remained standing through both the Late Bronze Age and the Greek Dark Age. Previous research has actually suggested that this village remained standing when residents turned to cattle ranching; the remains of cattle bones are prevalent among bone fragments found in the soil.

Yet this may not be the whole story. Scientists have found that soil formation after the abandonment of the site in the Dark Age led to poor preservation of the historic record. As a result, the thicker, larger bones of animals such as cattle survived the breakdown of other bone fragments. Other possible remains, unfortunately, would have been destroyed as a result of the more acidic soil. In fact, the scientists found that Dark Age sediments contain few visible calcite formations, which is indicative of poor site preservation.

During the Dark Age, it's likely that the adoption of pastoralism led to the abandonment of settlements. Nichoria, though, was one of the few villages that remained occupied. The explanations for the sudden collapse of civilization have ranged from believing it was the result of the invasion of another society to a catastrophic climate event.

"We were exploring this as evidence for a possible climate event, but the soil samples came back inconclusive," said Flint Dibble, one of the researchers, in a news release. "We actually think that as more of these sites are abandoned in the Dark Age, the landscape becomes very stable, and the weather destroys more of what's in the top upper layers than the archaeological material buried deeper below. At this site, we have no evidence that the destruction of bone was the result of climate change."

That said, it is clear that there is more to the story. The soil has destroyed much of the archaeological evidence, which means that cattle ranching isn't the whole answer. For now, though, researchers will have to dig a bit deeper before finding any more answers.

For more great science stories and general news, please visit our sister site, Headlines and Global News (HNGN).