At www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2015-01/uoc-nrd010515.php … we learn that the Greek village of Nicharia was untouched by the site destructions at the end of the LB age – and remained standing throughout the Greek Dark Age. Historians have claimed the occupants of the village resorted to cattle farming and did not bother rebuilding their houses. This idea came about because so many cattle bones were found as fragments in the soil. The new research aims a bit of scepticism towards this idea by pointing out cattle bones, as opposed to other animals, and presumably human bones, are bigger and therefore more resilient to acidification processes in the soil. If the Greek Dark Age did not exist, at least as far as 500 years are concerned, and then the bones may still be misinterpreted – so any follow-up to the story may yet prove more interesting. The village was located near the palace of Pylos during the LB age period. The destruction of Pylos marks the beginning of the Greek Dark Age – and the inference is that humanity was to blame, destroying the elite class and leaving just peasant farmers in the wake. See also www.uc.edu/news
Meanwhile, in JACF 4 there was an article by Jack Ogden, the thrust of which was that metal working skills were lost during the Greek Dark Age, but suddenly re-emerge in the archaeological record after the so called Dark Age.