The Greek world now emerged out from the shadows of the dark ages, traditionally the first Olympic games in 776BC is meant to be the demarcation point between these two ages. But the constant growth and innovation that occurred over generations would blur the line in the sand.

The Archaic Age would see the further development of ideas and institutions where we start to see such things as the concept of the city state and citizenship. The increase of domestic and international contacts would see communities continue to grow. An explosion of colonization would take place as the growing populations would start to put pressure on local resources.

With the emergence of a new script, written sources now start to shed some light on life and events. But still, many gaps exist relegating seemly important events and conflicts to a mere few lines of text. For the most part we have to be satisfied with later writers echoing the accounts of these contemporary writers works, now lost to us.

The innovations that would develop over the Archaic period would be further refined and reach their peak during the Classical period. Its also during the Archaic period that two city states, Athens and Sparta would emerge and become the dominate powers moving forward. Their stories will be the topics of the coming episodes.

** Episode correction **
I give the foundation of the Olympics as 778 BC, though the traditional date given is 776 BC (This is what I had my script, so not sure where the 778 came from)