ABSTRACT
This chapter offers a scholarly survey of the history and archaeology of the city Thebes. The collapse of Mycenaean society in Greece left an indelible mark on the collective psyche of the region as well as the archaeological record. As a result, some of the best evidence for central Greece in the Dark Age comes from burials. The most famous burial complex of the period comes from Lefkandi – on the nearby island of Euboea – and is dated to around 950. When communities rebounded in the Greek Renaissance, the Greek city was a very different entity. During this time, the Greeks created a new form of writing derived from the Phoenician alphabet. During the Dark Age in Greece, poets and communities relied on oral tradition to pass on the larger-than-life deeds of Mycenaean Greeks. The Dark Age tombs unearthed on the Cadmea show both continuity and change in the burial practices of the Mycenaean period.
