Life on a Hilltop in Dark Age Crete (1100–700 BC)
A fortified Early Iron Age settlement, not a medieval castle
High in the hills of eastern Crete lies a site that quietly reshapes what we think we know about the so-called Greek Dark Ages. Known as Kavousi Kastro (from the Greek word kastro, meaning “fort” or “citadel”), this Early Iron Age settlement offers a rare and detailed view of how communities survived—and even flourished—after the fall of the Mycenaean world.
Built on a steep mountain ridge overlooking the Gulf of Mirabello, Kavousi Kastro was first settled around 1100 BC, just as Mycenaean palaces were crumbling across the Aegean. But rather than representing collapse, this site tells a story of continuity, adaptation, and resilience.
The people who lived here built their homes in stone, arranged in terraces carved into the slope. They lived in small family units, cooked in shared courtyards, and stored food in clay jars tucked into narrow rooms. Some houses even show signs of rebuilding and expansion over generations, evidence of a stable, long-term community.
What makes Kavousi Kastro remarkable is the duration and quality of its occupation. The site was continuously inhabited for over 400 years. During this time, it maintained not only a basic economy based on farming and herding, but also participated in local and regional trade networks, exchanging pottery and goods with neighboring sites.
This was not an isolated outpost. It was part of a broader pattern in Crete and mainland Greece, where highland settlements provided safety during a time of political uncertainty. Unlike the palaces of earlier centuries, places like Kavousi Kastro were communal, practical, and defensible—and yet they still supported art, ritual, and social order.
Excavations have uncovered loom weights, indicating textile production; small sanctuaries, suggesting shared religious practices; and imported pottery, showing long-distance contacts even in times of supposed isolation.
Today, Kavousi Kastro offers a powerful counterpoint to the idea that the Dark Age was a time of total cultural collapse. It reminds us that while great palaces may fall, people continue—building, adapting, and forming new ways of life in challenging times.
Photo by Kevin T. Glowacki, Wikimedia Commons.
2 Responses
Re:
Life on a Hilltop in Dark Age Crete (1100–700 BCE).
I must protest in the strongest terms your use of the illegitmate and anti-Christian “BCE/CE” Dating System. It is outrageous that you would use this Dating System in ANY article referring to Greece, a nation renown for its strong identification with and influence on Christianity. You have also used this pretentious, divisive, and biased Dating System in your recent, otherwise excellent article about the significance of the Greek alphabet. This spurious Dating System is highly prejudicial and offensive to Christians and others who respect historical objectivity and tradition; the BC/AD Dating System has been in use in common parlance and academia for centuries.
The “BCE/CE” Dating System is being used by its adherents to substitute “Before the Common Era” (BCE) and “Common Era” (CE) dating system for the universally recognized BC/AD Dating System. This Dating System is highly hypocritical and dishonest in that that while it seeks to disconnect it’s referencing to Christ, it nevertheless keeps dates counting from the event/date of His birth.
Rather than ADMIT the fact that the “BCE/CE” system in fact does start from the date of Christ’s birth, its anti-Christian adherents coyly dub the period before Christ’s death as “Before the Common Era”……. This is a completely disingenuous, biased and ultimately Dishonest maneuver.
The assertion that this dating system speaks of a “Common Era” is an attempt to imbue it was a sense of universality and inclusivity, but its effects in fact are completely the opposite.
Moreover, despite the vociferous and self righteous whining of those who would substitute “BCE/CE” for BC /AD, the fact remains that vast majority of the planet and I would venture the greater body of your readership recognize, know and USE the BC/AD Dating System rather than this highly prejudicial system.
Contrary to what its supporters state, this system actually DECREASES inclusion and increases EXCLUSION.
It creates confusion for the general public and engenders feelings of disrespect, alienation, and imposition for academicians, journalists, historians, curators, educators and the staffs of institutions ,who are aware of and reject this manifestly anti-Christian Dating System. The fact that “BCE/CE” is STILL, after five decades of its being relentlessly pushed and foisted on educators, historians and the general public despite what its proponents claim, is nowhere near as popular or widespread as the BC/AD dating system Belies their claims. In fact, some institutions in view of the opposition from a responsible and tolerant public have eschewed its use after initially adopting it.
It caters to the anti-Christian prejudices and politically correct sentiments of those who cannot seem to stand for any reference to Jesus Christ in daily parlance, no matter how irrelevant, obscure, or trivial.
The only fact which the “BCE/CE” Dating Systems’ proponents want to alter is the reference to Christ’s birth in the universally accepted BC/AD Dating System. This clearly reveals its disingenuous, anti-Christian intent. This movement has EVERYTHING to do with expunging any reference to Christ in daily parlance no matter how trivial, time-honored, and insignificant. It is essentially a POLITICAL and anti-Christian gambit and has NOTHING to do with legitimate historiography or historical scholarship.
Of greatest significance, it must be asked: To whom is this “Common Era” “common”? It is not “common” to Hindus, Buddhists or Muslims, who largely adhere to the univeral BC/AD dating system; further revealing its rank and singularly anti-Christian bias.
The Wikipedia entry on “BCE/CE” seems to imply that the use of this Dating System is increasing.
A more critical and comprehensive reading of this entry reveals that opposition to the use of the BCE/CE dating system remains very strong around the globe and that some institutions have reverted to the BC/AD Dating System (as per WIKI, The Canadian Museum of History, The Kentucky State School Board, Even The BBC has refused to elevate BCE/CE to the same status as the BC/AD Dating System) and opposition to the rumored replacement of the BC/AD Dating System was so strong that the Australian Curriculum, Assessment and Reporting Authority thought it advisable to issue a statement dispelling a rumor that it planned to impose the “BCE/CE” system on its students and reaffirming its endorsement of the BC/AD Dating System. Yet, its proponents persist, motivated by a hateful, anti-Christian intolerance.
I would point you to the stance of a very prestigious, highly regarded, reliably forward looking, and if I may add inclusive organization, the Archaeological Association of America, the largest and oldest Archaeological organization in the United States. They, unsurprisingly, do not subscribe to this sham and biased Dating System in any of their publications, lecture series or correspondence.
On the wider stage, it is to be noted that the use of BCE/CE flourishes in countries which are intolerant of Christianity and in the publications emanating from those countries.
Given the foregoing, it is clear that the BCE/CE “system” is a disingenuous, deceptive construct which clearly evidences a rank, Christophobic bias.
I recognize your good intentions overall; however, you are not serving your readership/ outreach community by adopting this clearly illegitimate and offensive Dating System. You are serving the interests of a small, very vocal, and entitled group of essentially anti-Christian bigots.
In summary, please Stop using or making any reference to this prejudicial, exclusionary and deeply dishonest dating system.
You do yourselves no credit and offend, mislead and misinform your readership by serving “woke” the agenda of a small, “Victimized”,and vociferously anti-Christian clique.
Paul J. Kutscera, Esq.
PKutscera@aol.com
Bayside NY
September 17, 2025
Dear Mr Kutscera,
We appreciate your interest in the content of our website. We agree with you and we corrected BCE to BC and CE to AD . Please continue to support Gr2me
Katerina Florous