Dorian invasion

The Dorian invasion, sometimes called the Dorian migration (Greek: Κάθοδος των Δωριέων), which took place ca. 1100 BC, describes the descent of the Dorian tribe, from area north of the Caspian Sea into mainland Greece and Peloponnesus as well as the islands of the Aegean Sea.

Considered as an invasion, the advent of the Dorians is generally advanced to explain the swift collapse of Mycenaean civilization in ancient mainland Greece.

Peloponnesian cities that the Dorians invaded include Corinth, Olympia, Sparta and Mycenae. Many archaeologists attribute the destruction of Mycenae, a pivotal Mycenaean city, to these invading Dorians.

Concurrent effects are the disruption of long-distance trade and possibilities of civil war and natural disaster, as well as the colonisation of islands in the Aegean sea and the west coast of Asia Minor.

The Dorian invasion was partly responsible for the subsequent Greek Dark Ages. The written record is nonexistent; the Dorian migration is documented in the mute archaeological record: widespread burning and destruction of Bronze Age sites both in Crete and the mainland of Greece, many of which were reduced to villages or abandoned, and the introduction of iron-working ended the Bronze Age in the Aegean.