PRE HELLENIC CIVILISATION

Pre-Hellenic civilisation
Main articles: Greeks and Helladic period
The tribes who would become the Greeks are believed to have migrated southward into the Balkan peninsula in several waves beginning in the Middle Bronze Age (roughly 2000 BC). The Proto-Greek language would date to the period just preceding these migrations, either to the late 3rd millennium BC, or to the 17th century BC at the latest. The Bronze Age civilisation of the proto-Greeks is generally referred to as Helladic.
This period culminated in the so-called Mycenaean Culture, which features in the famous epics of Homer, the Iliad and the Odyssey. For reasons which are unknown, this culture collapsed spectacularly around 1150 BC, with cities being sacked and massive depopulation. This Bronze Age collapse approximately coincides with the apparent arrival of the last group of proto-Greeks into Greece proper, the Dorians. The two events have traditionally been causally linked, but this is by no means certain. With the Bronze Age collapse, Greece entered into a period of obscurity, or 'dark age'.

Greek Dark Ages
Main article: Greek Dark Ages
The period from 1100 BC to the 8th century BC is a "Dark Age" following the Bronze Age collapse from which no primary texts survive, and only scant archaeological evidence remains. Secondary and tertiary texts such as Herodotus' Histories, Pausanias' Description of Greece, Diodorus' Bibliotheca, and Jerome's Chronicon contain brief chronologies and king lists for this period.

Archaic period
Main article: Archaic period in Greece