This article or section should be merged with Dorian

The Dorian invasion is one of the theories advanced to explain the decline of the Mycenaean civilization in ancient Greece. Other theories considered (or viewed as a combination of factors) include: failing trade, civil war, and natural disaster.

The Dorians were one of the Hellenic tribes of ancient Greece. They seem to have originally lived in the north, north-eastern regions of Greece, yet later circumstances drove them south into Attica and the Peloponnesos, certain Aegean islands, and the coast of Asia Minor.

This Dorian invasion (beginning from ca 1150 bc) seems to have disrupted the Bronze Age Mycenean civilization, and many Mycenean cities were toppled in the Peloponessus and elsewhere. The Peloponessian cities the Dorians invaded include Corinth, Olympia, Sparta and Mycenae. Many archaeologists attribute the destruction of Mycenae, a pivotal Mycenean city, to these invading Dorians.

Though most of the Doric invaders settled in the Peloponesse, they also settled on Rhodes and in Asia Minor, where in later times the Dorian Hexapolis (the six Dorian cities) would arise: Halicarnassus, Cos, Cnidos (Asia Minor); Lindos, Camiros, and Ialyssos (in Rhodes). These six cities would later become rivals with the Ionian cities of Asia Minor. The Dorians also invaded Crete.

See: Greek Dark Ages Corinth Halicarnassus Olympia Sparta

External Link

• [http://emuseum.mnsu.edu/prehistory/aegean/theculturesofgreece/dorians.html Dorian invasion, also showing Ionian and Aeolian