Archaic Greece Main article: Archaic Greece Further information: Orientalizing Period and Geometric Art In the 8th

century BC, Greece began to emerge from the Dark Ages which followed the fall of the Mycenaean civilization. Literacy had been lost and Mycenaean scr ipt forgotten, but the Greeks adopted the Phoenician alphabet, modifying it to c reate the Greek alphabet. From about the 9th century BC, written records begin t o appear.[11] Greece was divided into many small self-governing communities, a p attern largely dictated by Greek geography, where every island, valley and plain is cut off from its neighbours by the sea or mountain ranges.[12] The Archaic period can be understood as the Orientalizing period, when Greece wa s at the fringe, but not under the sway, of the budding Neo-Assyrian Empire. Gre ece adopted significant amounts of cultural elements from the Orient, in art as well as in religion and mythology. Archaeologically, Archaic Greece is marked by Geometric pottery.