Prehistory of Greece
The prehistory of Greece ranges from the earliest human traces to the beginning of a broader written tradition.
Paleolithic
Due to its location, Greece may have played a significant role in the first colonization of Europe by members of the human species . However, potential archaeological sites were destroyed by climatic changes, tectonic activity, the relief of the landscape and floods in the alternation of warm and cold periods.
Old and Middle Paleolithic
Only a few sites can be assigned to the Old or Middle Paleolithic due to similarities with dated industries , such as Kokkinopilos in Epirus . This locality shows characteristics of the Moustérien . Rodia in Thessaly's knockoff and blade industry with only a few hand axes was estimated to be 200,000 to 400,000 years old. The Rodafnidia site on Lesbos can possibly be assigned to the Acheuléen . This would make it the oldest site in Greece.
Few human remains have been excavated to date. The skull of a man about 30 years old was discovered in 1960 in the stalactite cave of Petralona on the Chalkidiki peninsula . The dead was at times referred to as Archanthropus europaeus petraloniensis . It was dated to an age of 160,000 to 240,000 years in 1981, and two decades later to at least 300,000 years. According to both dates, the fossil can be assigned to the late Homo heidelbergensis .
In the Greek part of Thrace , mainly choppers , i.e. rubble tools, were found. In the Turkish part of Thrace, more precisely on the northern edge of the lagoon of Küçükçekmece ( Küçükçekmece Gölü ), about 1,600 artifacts were found in the caves of Yarımburgaz, the oldest of which was dated to about 400,000 years. Probably Homo erectus first inhabited the cave. Mostly flint was used, but also quartz and quartzite . Overall, the industry is similar to that of the Rodia and Doumbia caves in Thessaly and Macedonia.
The stone artefacts of the more recent sites indicate the new stone processing technique that emerged at this time, known as the Levallois technique , and which is assigned to the Neanderthals . Artifacts of this have now also emerged on the Peloponnese and on Naxos at the Stélida site. It is unclear whether Naxos was temporarily accessible during the ice ages, but the ability to cross larger bodies of water is conceivable. In the Epirotic cave of Asprochaliko, 4 km northeast of Kokkinopilos in the valley of the Louros , the lowest layers have been dated to 100,000 years; In the nearby Kokkinopilos, field finds indicate the presence of Neanderthals 150,000 years ago, but this is controversial. Four kilometers west of the site PS 43 is the mesolithic , i.e. significantly younger site PS 3, in PS 43 the presence of arrowheads indicates hunting activity, the absence of sickles for the time before the Neolithic. This could be a criterion for the limitation, but the early farming residents may have hunted beyond the corresponding settlements. In the Peloponnesian Lakonis on the Laconic Gulf , several sites that are between 100,000 and 40,000 years old have appeared in the last decade. Among them was the tooth of a Neanderthal man from Laconia , which is assigned to the transition period to anatomically modern humans.
On Crete , artifacts were found in the Megalopotamos gorge above the palm beach of Preveli , which were dated to an age of 130,000 years. They were not only among the oldest finds in the country, but also proved that Neanderthals were able to cover greater distances across the sea. Their typical Moustérien stone tools were also discovered on the islands of Lefkada , Kefalonia and Zakynthos . Neanderthal groups lived at the same time along the rivers in Macedonia and Thessaly, because traces of corresponding camps were found on some of the well-preserved terraces. This is especially true for the area west of Larissa . The wide plains with their rivers attracted those prey animals on which the Neanderthals mostly lived. In the north, artifacts were found in the caves of Rodia and Doumbia in Thessaly and Macedonia. Rodia is currently the oldest find place. It has been dated to between 200,000 and 400,000 years. After that, a long time gap appears that only ended 60,000 years ago when Neanderthals reappeared. They show seasonal migrations, which were undertaken mainly to use natural resources along the rivers, but also those of the coastal marshland. Artifacts were also found on rock overhangs and in narrow valley passages, from which the grazing herds could be observed and hunted.
Upper Paleolithic
A hallmark of the Upper Paleolithic is a new stone processing technique. Flint was processed in a new blade concept with the creation of a "guide ridge". This means that a vertical dorsal ridge was created on the core , which enabled long, narrow cuts to be cut off. These are called blades.
During the largest ice age glaciation around 28,000 to 20,000 BC. BC (according to other sources 24,500 to 18,000 BC) - the last Neanderthals had long since disappeared - the sea level was 100 to 130 m lower than today. The subsequent increase was caused by the melting of the huge ice masses, which dragged on for thousands of years. The strong fluctuations in sea level destroyed archaeological artifacts, especially in the plains near the coast.
It is almost impossible to have any vague idea how many people were around 20,000 BC. Lived in Europe. As an experiment, the population, taking into account the ecological conditions of an advanced glacial period, has been estimated at perhaps 6,000 to 10,000. These were our immediate ancestors who came to Europe about 45,000 years ago.
A key site is the Franchthi Cave in the northeast of the Peloponnese, which has been visited again and again for 100,000 years. In addition, there is the Thessalian Theopetra Cave , which was visited from the Middle Paleolithic to the Neolithic, but also Mesolithic finds in the Klissoura Cave in the north-eastern Peloponnese or the Cyclops Cave on the Sporades . Theopetra lies in the transition area from the Thessalian plain to the Pindus . The oldest layers belong to the early Middle Paleolithic, and they may go back even further. Most of the finds, however, belong to the period 50 to 30,000 years ago. The hunters lived in a steppe landscape where they ambushed bears and deer. This phase was followed by a further usage phase, which ranged from 38,000 to 25,300 BP . The people displaced by the increasing cold did not return until 15,000 years ago. They stayed until 11,000 years ago.
After the maximum of the last glacial period , which was also a pronounced dry season in Greece, the temperature rose again about 18,000 years ago, but the country remained dry for a long time. Hunting camps can now also be found in higher regions, such as in Epiros , where the climate became milder. Apparently, the exchange contacts expanded, because in the Theopetra Cave there were tools made of material that no longer came from the area or was collected along the hiking cycles, but came from more distant areas. In summer, hunting groups moved to the Pindus Mountains, which became more attractive to the herds of animals who preferred open grasslands. The lower plains began to forest.
The Klithi Cave in North Epiros near Konitsa was visited by the said late glacial hunters, mostly in small groups of 5 to 10, maybe up to 20 people, probably families, over and over again in the warm season for several months. This happened between 16,500 and 13,000 BP, i.e. in the time between maximum glaciation and the beginning of the return of the forests in the course of global warming. 99% of the bones found in the cave came from goats and chamois . The animals were processed into food, artifacts and clothes in the cave. While plant food was of great importance in the plains and valleys, it hardly played a role in the mountains. In contrast to Klithi, numerous groups of hunters met at the site near Kastritsa. The third important site in Epiros, Asprochaliko, is smaller. It is the oldest site of these transhumant hunting groups (26,000 BP). With the advance of the forests, the prey disappeared from the region or retreated to the higher mountain ranges, so the hunter families had to change their summer location.
The exchange or trade can be more precisely defined towards the end of the last glacial period. The most important recognizable barter object in the Mediterranean area were initially mussels, then certain types of stone, which were of great importance for the production of equipment, especially if they were of high quality. This was true for the rare obsidian , for example . Around 10,000 BC BC obsidian came from the island of Melos into the Peloponnesian Franchthi cave, which dates from around 30,000 to 3000 BC. Was visited.
Mesolithic
When the huge glacier masses of the north and in the mountains began to melt - the last time it came in the Younger Dryas between 10,730 and 9,700 / 9,600 BC. Chr. To a strong cooling -, countless lakes and rivers arose. At the same time, the freed land masses were relieved of the pressure of the ice and rose. However, the water level of the oceans rose considerably more. This rise reached 120 to 130 m. The large herds of animals, dependent on tundras or other forest-free areas, disappeared, moved northwards or into the higher mountain areas.
The Upper Paleolithic big game hunters now shifted to small game, increasingly lived on vegetables, and developed new devices and weapons. Wild goats, deer, pigs and rabbits, but also birds, appeared as a hunting spectrum. Now coniferous forest spread in the higher elevations, oak in the lower. A Neolithic use took place in the Theopetra Cave from 8,000 to 6,000 BC. Chr.
The range of tools shows that Greece was relatively isolated and was hardly affected by cultural changes in the surrounding metropolitan areas. Fishing, especially tuna , increased significantly. Hunting and gathering only provided additional food. Since the fishermen also followed the seasonally growing fish population, their lives were characterized by corresponding hikes to the best fishing spots. Their stone artifacts are much smaller and are known as microliths . These were mostly components of tools and weapons that were used for catching, processing and storage. The plant remains of the Franchthi Cave include wild plants, nuts and grain.
It is unclear whether the stones that were needed to manufacture the devices, and that came from an ever larger area, indicate a kind of territory in which certain groups had privileges. It could also be a large trading network. The Cyclops Cave on the now uninhabited Sporade island of Gioura , 30 km from Alonnisos , was built from 8700 to 7000 BC. Visited regularly. On another island of the archipelago, on Kythnos , traces of round huts were found, which can also be assigned to the changed economic method, which has been described as the "broad spectrum revolution". There was a shift from large game to a wide range of small animals, plus vegetables, a shift that evidently gradually made survival more secure. The Mesolithic, it was postulated, would soon have used grain, but most archaeologists believe these finds to be floods from higher strata. The investigation of the Gioura obsidian tools was able to prove the origin of the Cycladic island of Milos , while tools show a resemblance to finds from the area of Antalya , which led to the conclusion that the inhabitants of Gioura had extensive contacts and had extraordinary navigation skills.
Mesolithic finds on the Cycladic island of Kythnos at the Maroulas site from 1996 to 2005 uncovered what is probably the oldest settlement in the Cyclades. It was built between 8600 and 7800 BC. Dated. The advancement of the coastline destroyed a large part of the settlement area, the remaining area extends to about 1500 to 2000 m². At the same time, only a few centimeters below the surface of the earth, the oldest burial grounds were found there.
In Franchthi the dead were buried close to the living. Ocher and personal jewelry came increasingly into use. The people lived in a network of contiguous camps. It turned out that there were micro-landscapes in Greece, small districts in which numerous sites could be identified.
Another way of life, the hunt for corresponding middle and high mountain animals, could be proven in the mountain regions between Epiros and Thessaly / Macedonia in over 90 places. There, the search was based on comparatively flat terrain at altitudes between 1400 and 1900 m. But here too the advancing forest soon ended the era of hunting. The following epoch, dominated by rural cultures, the Neolithic, received only a few contributions that are considered Mesolithic. This is in contrast to other regions of the Mediterranean and can be used as a further indicator that the number of hunters, gatherers and fishermen in Greece was comparatively low.
Neolithic (from 7000 BC)
Temporal structure and breaks in social development
The Neolithic in Greece is usually divided into four phases, namely the Pre-Ceramic Neolithic (from 7000 BC), the Early Neolithic (from 6500 BC), the Middle Neolithic (from 5800 BC) and the Late Neolithic ( from 5300 BC). The Neolithic settlements were seen as small, isolated and almost static in comparison to the impressive sites of the subsequent Bronze Age . In addition, they were denied social stratification as well as manual differentiation or more than mere subsistence farming. The Neolithic became a foil against which the rise of Greece could be re-enacted. The presentation of the usual cultural sequences was reduced to the question of origin, which meant that their complexity and their possibilities fell out of view. At the same time, slow changes in retrospect were stylized as revolutions, in the worst case the mere technical progress brought to the fore, which was usually expressed in an allegedly increased mastery of nature. This turned historical processes into a “caricature”.
The work of the last decades came to the conclusion that the fractures were by no means as hard as claimed. On the contrary, the Neolithic and Bronze Age had much in common. This included handicraft differentiation as well as a broad agricultural base with strong regional differentiation, gardening, but also agricultural surpluses and an economy driven by leadership groups as well as social competition. Local, regional and long-distance contacts were also part of both epochs, including ritual gatherings to strengthen and develop togetherness, identity and values. However, social competition was even more strongly controlled by social control. Even the advent of trade in metal, wine and olives (the latter from the end of the 5th millennium in western Crete and in Macedonia), formerly attributed to the Bronze Age, appeared as early as the Neolithic. So there is no break between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age. Such a continuity was finally postulated for the question of urbanization. However, it turned out that some settlements were very extensive, so that the Cretan Knossos measured about 5 hectares, the Thessalian Sesklo 13, the Macedonian Vasilika even 25 hectares, but it turned out that these places were very sparsely populated. Excavations in Knossos, for example, showed that the inhabited part of this extended settlement had to be reduced to 2 to 2.5 hectares.
On the other hand, the transition between the Mesolithic and the Neolithic seems to have been all the more drastic, even if here the signs of continuity are increasing even in Greece, where the break was considered particularly radical.
Phases of socio-economic change can be seen in the Neolithic around 5500/5300 and around 3500–3100 / 3000 BC. Grasp. In the early Neolithic, stocks on the house level, i.e. probably on the level of the extended family, cannot be grasped, so that it is assumed that the stockpiling took place at the level of the settlement. In Knossos, for example, an adobe structure was found that was apparently used to store grain. From this the conclusion was drawn that the settlements, which were often extremely long-lived, shaped production as well as the presentation of their origins, their values and their identity. Internal competition may have been channeled by maintaining remote contacts in order to get goods that came from far away. Such gifts gave rise to prestigious and status-promoting displays, but also to the associated acquisition stories that did not undermine the dominant community.
Around 5500/5000 BC BC, however, the household, the extended family, came to the fore. The space occupied by their 70 to 100 m² houses in the settlement was more clearly delimited. In turn, “public” spaces were created more separately from this. This impression is reinforced by clay house models, which now appeared more frequently. This demarcation enabled the emergence of small settlements of less than 0.5 hectares, which in turn enabled the development of previously unused regions. In the late Neolithic there was a significant intensification and specialization of production, for example of ceramics. There are also references to weaving, olive and wine growing. So at the family level, specialization may have taken place. Supplies have now been set up there as well, suggesting greater control over production and storage. Nevertheless, the community remained the place of the rites, it still had a strong influence on ideological and economic activities and found, for example, in Dimini's megaron (and its surroundings) a monumental place for staging individual and family competitions.
Between 3600/3500 BC BC and the early Bronze Age, the hotplates moved into the houses or they were structurally connected to the respective house. The spread in up to then marginal areas took place in Crete around 3300 to 3000 BC. In the Peloponnese and the Cyclades a little later, but certainly in the Early Bronze Age (in Thessaly we know the late Neolithic as the Rachmani culture ). This expansion was a network of small settlements, and these areas required economic specializations, such as keeping cattle. The small settlements, which could be broken down to the family in times of need, continued to maintain contacts, but they were more on their own and in the long run, failures could hardly be compensated for by the neighbors. On the other hand, it made competition more obvious in terms of success or failure. This may have led to the first forms of indebtedness to property and work, further specialization or emigration. An alternative was trading. The scope and role of trade changed. Numerous new settlements emerged along the coasts of the southern Aegean, many of which can be traced back to the Bronze Age. Settlements like Paoura on Kea or Petras Kephala on Crete were no smaller than the large trading centers of the Bronze Age with an area of 1 to 2 hectares. This was probably the first time that privileged access to techniques and approaches came to the fore, while gift traffic lost its importance. In Strofilas on Andros there were pictorial representations of the associated means of transport, namely long boats. In Petras-Kephala, raw metals and obsidian were landed and processed there. Apparently, trade was carried out from there to the hinterland. The dispute over every single point, from the extraction of raw materials through transport, storage and further trading to the buyer, who could now set conditions for his part, began, because with the discovery of these prestigious goods a demand was stimulated at the same time. At the same time, households became separate, fully functional economic units, almost “modular” households that could acquire and accumulate goods without interference from the community. But they also came into competition with other economic units of this kind. This was especially true for the status and prestige sector, which was reflected in public rituals, such as more elaborate tombs and burials on Euboea, the Cyclades and in Attica in the form of burial sites outside the walls. In addition, the development of the palace courtyards emerged, as they are richly documented for the Bronze Age.
For a long time it was assumed that all societies were driven by technology, then by population pressure. It is now becoming clearer that identifiable groups with a very specific framework for action are responsible for the changes. Technologies don't spread because they're so good, but because people choose to use them. The population only grows when the socio-economic organization changes. Climatic changes are of considerable importance. Such is the period from 7000 to 5500 BC. Chr. Characterized by a very favorable climate, which was more humid and milder and which showed less seasonal fluctuations. Then the fluctuations increased from year to year, and around 3500 BC. The weather was similar to today's, so it was drier. The weather never determines the direction of social developments, but it has the potential to rob traditional societies of stability. In such difficult times, the weaknesses of the previously stable system become apparent, trust sinks and new paths have the prospect of being no longer involved.
Cultural connections to Anatolia in the early Neolithic
The change from the Meso- to the Neolithic was of a completely different nature. The settlements, which started around 7000 BC. They originated in Greece in BC, were of great uniformity and, above all, differed significantly from their Mesolithic predecessors. In addition to tillage and livestock farming, the newcomers brought with them various techniques such as spinning, polishing stones, building houses or pressure flaking , a stone- working technique that was only recognized late. The cattle did not come from local ancestors either, but from those who had brought them with them. The contribution of the Mesolithic to the newly emerging large-scale culture grew in the Mediterranean, roughly speaking, from east to west. In Greece, which was close to the Middle Eastern radiation centers of the new way of life, their contribution was apparently small. It was probably different groups from the eastern Mediterranean that reached Greece. In the oldest Neolithic settlements, the use of clay was limited to figurines and ornaments, similar to the eastern centers of radiation in the Middle East and Cyprus.
Genetic studies on the oldest Neolithic human remains in Greece were able to show that the mainland Greek settlers were more closely related to those in the Balkans, while the inhabitants of the islands were closer to the inhabitants of central and especially the Mediterranean Anatolia. In addition to studies on bread or common wheat , this indicates that there was a split of settlers towards northern Greece and the Balkans or towards Crete, Peloponnese and southern Italy, which already occurred in the early Neolithic. Therefore, common wheat is almost characteristic of the southern Anatolian, Cretan, but also the Italian groups. In all likelihood they were moving across the sea. This split can also be demonstrated in the DNA of the animals that were apparently carried along, above all sheep and goats, pigs and cattle. The domesticated animals reached around 7000 BC. Western Anatolia, the area north of the Bosporus around 6200 BC. In order to find further distribution on two or three routes from there. The main routes of distribution led across the Mediterranean, the Balkans and around the Black Sea, where Neolithic settlements around 6000 BC were found in the Caucasus region. Can be proven. With the spread of peasant culture, further genetic studies seem to have played a decisive role in reproductive advantages over the neighboring hunter-gatherer societies.
The cultural contexts that can be documented in Western Anatolia also fit this picture, but these relate more to fishermen and hunters. In Fikirtepe, east of Istanbul, their presence could be proven by their oval and rectangular houses made of clay wicker, as well as by incised ceramics. The site gave the name to the Fikirtepe culture . Their late Neolithic pottery was found westwards as far as Thessaly.
The newcomers preferred settlement sites, the basics of which were similar to those they knew from their homeland. Semi-arid areas with open woodlands were the typical basis for using plants and animals as farmers and shepherds. The cooler, more humid mountain areas of the north were initially excluded, but also the dry south-eastern mainland or the Cyclades, which were not affected by the new way of life until the late Neolithic. So it is not surprising that the great plains of Thessaly, Macedonia and Thrace have a large number of sites, so-called Tell settlements of larger dimensions, while the rest of mainland Greece was rather sparsely populated. Smaller settlements, probably based more on relatives and families, dominated there. However, recent studies show that in the Tell areas there were not only the conspicuous settlements built on hills, but that there were also flat settlements there, which, however, had escaped the eye of archaeologists for a long time. Finds in the Cyclades show that the find situation is not always so clear. The bones that were discovered on the island of Gioura are considered to be the oldest finds of (wild) pigs. They were dated to 7530–7100 BC. Dated.
Secondary products
Less attention was paid to the advanced Neolithic phase, referred to by Andrew Sherratt as the “ second Neolithic revolution ”, in which animals were not only used as meat suppliers, but also for the production of wool and milk or as carriers and draft animals. According to Sherratt, this innovation spread from Mesopotamia via Anatolia to Greece and the Balkans.
Two developments changed the situation in agriculture to a great extent. This included a simple hook plow , which could not be operated by humans but pulled by cattle. This not only changed the use of force, but also the time required. In addition, this opened up new soils in drier areas that were previously inaccessible for the simpler methods.
Dairy products, such as milk itself, but also yoghurt , cheese or butter , however, required a certain amount of time for physical adaptation in order to overcome the corresponding intolerances. It is significant that especially in northwestern Anatolia from the 7th to 5th millennium this type of livestock farming was much more widespread than in the Middle East. This knowledge was also used in Crete, but apparently to a much lesser extent.
In the first half of the 7th millennium BC, Knossos on Crete was the only Neolithic settlement on the whole island. Around 6500 settlements appear on other Aegean islands as well.
There was also a specialization in predominantly animal husbandry, which in turn opened up areas that were unsuitable for soil cultivation, but offered the best conditions for grazing. This way of life was so mobile that the change of pasture with the seasons, for example between mountains and plains, opened up further areas. The Cyclades were also settled on a larger scale. At least on Naxos, there was considerable continuity. The stratigraphy discovered during the excavations in the Zas cave on Naxos is decisive for the assessment of the cultural sequence from the late Neolithic to the early Bronze Age . Overall, an expansion can also be observed in the drier areas of Crete, the Peloponnese or Thessaly.
Tell settlements
The Tell settlements consisted of adobe houses that were built over centuries, if not millennia, over and over again on the remains of older buildings, so that hills of considerable proportions were created. They are mostly known from the Middle East and Anatolia. Narrow paths separated the houses, which were functionally diversified. So there were living quarters and warehouses, as well as those for ritual purposes. The places were not expanded into the open landscape, they perhaps represented representatives of the ancestors, the origin, perhaps also symbols of a habitus of stability, a way of life tied to traditions. A social hierarchy is not recognizable, the rectangular houses are very similar to each other, which perhaps represents a reference to societies whose basis were families or lineages . This is especially true of the early Neolithic. In Thessaly one can expect 100 to 300 inhabitants per tell.
Simple structures such as in Nea Nicomedeia contrast with later settlements, such as those of the Middle Neolithic settlement of Sesklo in eastern Thessaly.
Sesklos and Dimini were the first tells of Greece to be excavated. Sesklo consisted of a kind of lower town and a smaller upper town, which is often referred to as the Acropolis . The settlement covered a total of 13 hectares, the acropolis only extended over an area of 1 hectare. Its population was estimated at 3000 inhabitants. Dimini had extensive ritual architectural relics, including circular, concentric, low, perhaps a meter high walls, in the center of which was a large building structure, which was often referred to as a megaron . This design was widespread until the early Iron Age. It is considered evidence of an emerging social hierarchy, if not a class society. For the late Neolithic it is assumed that the surrounding villages were controlled by a Sesklos leadership group and served to supply the town-like settlement. While in smaller places the population was dependent on exogamous relationships, which led to a loss of control over the surrounding land, larger settlements, beyond 500 to 600 inhabitants, were less dependent on them, so that the families could maintain the access rights to the land within the settlement. because endogamous networks of relationships stabilized the possession or at least certain access and usage rights to local families. The leading families were thus able to dispose of supplies and were given crucial importance for the survival of the community as a whole. The now reduced, up to then intensive marriage contacts with other communities increased the risk of open, violent conflicts over rights, as ethnological and historical comparisons suggest. The erection of walls and signs of destruction are evidence of increasing conflicts. Perhaps it is no coincidence that the Cretan Phaistos goes back to a late Neolithic settlement, not to say city-like settlement of 5.6 hectares, which gradually dominated the surrounding area.
At the end of the Neolithic, numerous villages and hamlets were fortified. This applies to the entire south of Greece and the Cyclades. This in turn points to intense conflicts that are likely to have had their cause in the aforementioned social and economic processes. In Attica half a dozen fortified settlements found in the area Corinth go some of the walled and turreted cities probably also to the late Neolithic back. Strofilas on Andros has a strong wall, rock carvings on the Cyclades indicate fleets of ships that were interpreted as pirate fleets. The best location, however, is in Thessaly. There are 120 known sites from the early Neolithic, just as many from the Middle Neolithic. If you disregard the south-eastern part of the eastern plain, there are on average only 2.5 kilometers between the settlements. This led to the assumption that an average village had around 450 hectares of arable land.
The tells, however, were very unevenly distributed. Half of these settlements alone were concentrated in the hill country of Central Hessen. The small territories indicate a tillage that began just outside the walls. Those areas of Thessaly that were too dry or whose soils were too heavy were apparently still avoided. However, while large parts of the country were usable over a large area and accordingly a fairly uniform settlement developed, in the drier south one was much more forced to stick to marshes, rivers or lakes.
The flat sites, which are no longer noticeable in the landscape today, were much larger than the tells; the former covered 6 to 20 ha, in rare cases up to 100, while the much more conspicuous tells were only 1–3 ha in size. However, this does not mean that they were huge, ground-level settlements, but that the houses were relocated very frequently, resulting in extensive, but very flat horizons. Here, too, it is assumed that there are 60 to 300 inhabitants per settlement. Kouphovouno was a Middle Neolithic, at least 4 hectare large, ground-level village with perhaps 500 inhabitants - so it was quite large for the difficult conditions in the drier south. It was integrated into an extensive trading network, as numerous artefacts made of obsidian, which came from the Cyclades, were found. However, Makriyalos in Macedonia has been researched best. There it turned out that the dead were buried in trenches, in one case in a pit. In addition, large accumulations of animal bones and ceramic fragments in certain places are interpreted as signs of communal rituals and celebrations.
Considerations were made as to whether the early and middle Neolithic settlements tended to work more together - for example at cooking areas between instead of in the houses - and a disclosure of the common supplies, while the late Neolithic settlements increasingly took the cooking areas into the house and hid the supplies and thus withdrawn from access to the entire settlement. This tendency from the common to the private could be demonstrated for both Thessaly and Knossos. Possibly there were previously obligations to slaughter animals in turn if necessary, whereas now each house was responsible for itself. As documented in Knossos, grain was stored in a separate communal house on the edge of the settlement. In the late Neolithic, large storage vessels appeared and storage pits were created below, but also between the houses. The quality of ceramics, which had previously been produced jointly, also lost due to privatization. A trend from sharing to hoarding, which however makes it easy to overlook the length of time the egalitarian system was stable. The factors that ended this stability remain speculative.
It is assumed that a pure shepherd economy was not possible under the conditions of Greece, so it was always a mixed economy of animal husbandry and grain cultivation, whereby the products, which were mainly supplied by the cattle, plus their labor, the keeping of Cattle are likely to have given an additional meaning. As the obsidian finds show, there was a need for a suitable medium of exchange, for which the new products were certainly a suitable medium. In times of bad harvests or animal diseases, food was probably brought about through the necessary contacts, otherwise the enormous continuity of the tells could not be explained. There was also transhumance, which opened up new pastures for the herds. In addition, there was the seasonal presence of fishermen. Pure fishing villages were also difficult to imagine at that time, because these too could mainly only go about their work in summer. For a long time it was also unclear whether the preservation of fish - a crucial prerequisite for stockpiling and storage and thus for the greater importance of the food in the course of the year - was known. In any case, drying was already known at the transition from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic on the Sporades.
Crafts, material culture, copper processing, exchange
Vere Gordon Childe developed an influential theory in the 1930s that the early Neolithic farmers produced everything they needed themselves. The exchange of raw materials and finished products was of little importance.
This only changed with the Bronze Age, when the coveted metal sparked wide-ranging and extensive trade and craft specialization. On this basis, a class of traders and professional artisans emerged outside the peasant class. An aristocracy emerged over this, which controlled traders and craftsmen and skimmed off their earnings.
While ceramics were initially mainly used to serve food, this changed towards the end of the Neolithic in that the low production increased significantly and especially cooking and storage vessels, which were previously extremely rare, increased significantly. If cooking pots were initially unknown - hot stones were placed in pits filled with water and the food, which was packed in organic casings, was placed in the boiling water - traces of fire point to a rapidly increasing use of ceramics for cooking. The earlier vessels could have been copies of leather bags, for example. Even in the Middle Neolithic Sesklo, however, more elaborate vessels with a reddish-brown geometric design on a white background appeared, especially the late Neolithic goods of the Dimini culture with a polychrome surface. However, by the end of the period, regional styles disappeared, perhaps through interregional trade.
When trading, certain stones were the focus. Until the Middle Neolithic, they were more used for carpentry work or the processing of skins, while in the later Neolithic large axes appeared that were more suitable for clearing forests. Millstones made from hard volcanic rock were also in great demand. For example, andesite from the island of Aegina was in great demand. In addition, there were certain types of mussels from which jewelry and stamps were made, the latter possibly for adorning the skin.
In the later Neolithic, probably already in the middle of the 5th millennium, and even more towards the end of the epoch, copper appeared as the first metal. An important mining site was located in the Bulgarian Ain Bunar, where, in contrast to Greece, where Neolithic II is preferred, the period between 5000/4800 and 4500 BC. Chr. Is called Chalcolithic or Copper Age . While copper came in extremely small quantities from outside Greece in the late Neolithic, the metal, along with silver and gold, was extracted and processed in the country. This happened on Syphnus or in the mines of Attica. The Cyclades in particular now supplied obsidian, millstones, marble and metals. Perhaps that was the only reason why they were settled. The islands became the hub of the Aegean trade in the Early Bronze Age. Perlès put forward the thesis that the extremely early trading in certain stones was possibly carried out by specialists whose mobile way of life was a relic of the Mesolithic or even the late Paleolithic.
Burial places are extremely rare in Greece. Occasionally the dead lay under the floor of the house, in each case within the settlements. Only at the end of the epoch did cemeteries appear, which were also laid out outside of the places, such as in Kephala on Kea . Since the late Neolithic, the dead were also buried in caves. But the number of burial places must have been considerably larger, as a chance find at Souphli Tell in Thessaly showed. A cremation site was found there; Something similar was found at the ground-level settlement of Makriyalos in Macedonia, where human remains tended to be mixed up with the earth.
Numerous figurines allow further insights into the symbolic level. They mostly represent domestic animals and women and have clear relationships with Anatolia. The simple classification of the female figurines as goddesses or ancestors in a kinship system oriented towards the female line, or as symbols of female or general fertility, stand alongside their interpretation as mere toys or as elements in female rituals of passage, such as puberty, marriage or childbirth. Finds in storage tanks possibly point to the separation of the gender spheres, i.e. into the female house and the male outside world. It was not until the transition to the Bronze Age that they appeared at funerals, which would perhaps assign them more to a religious sphere - but they are missing from the extremely rare Neolithic burial sites.
Bronze Age (3200/3000 - 1100 BC)
structure
The Bronze Age is usually divided into an early, a middle and a later period. The former covers the entire millennium from around 3000 to 2000 BC. BC, the middle period then extends to 1700 BC. And the later until 1100 BC. Chr.
Early Bronze Age (3000–2000 BC)
Mainland Greece in the Early Bronze Age
On the mainland, the Early Helladic I extends from 3000 to 2650 BC. BC, II to 2200 and early Helladic III to 2000 BC In the Middle Helladic, each of the three phases covers between 2000 and 1700 BC. A century. The subsequent late Helladic I extends to 1600 BC. BC, Late Helladic II to 1400 BC BC, III to 1100 BC The latter, the Late Helladic III, was finally divided again into three sections, namely the Late Helladic IIIA (up to 1300 BC), IIIB up to 1200 and IIIC up to 1100 BC. Chr.
Although the discussions about the beginning and end of the Early Bronze Age are not over, the traditional dating to the time between 3100 and 2000 BC is mostly used. BC recurs. As usual, the subdivisions are determined by differences in the ceramic. Here is Helladic period I characterized by polished ceramic and incised decoration, Helladic period II by glazed pottery ( Urfirnis ), now also black luster ware , Helladic period III by inferior glazed, dark-on-light-Ware, the decline of yellow, speckled goods and characterized by a growing proportion of undecorated ceramics. While earlier research saw a complete decline at the end of Stage III, but also a break between II and III in the south and again at the end of III a break on the mainland, breaks that - as was common at this time - related to invasions of foreigners Colin Renfrew suggested local causes for the Early Helladic III, also known as the Tiryns culture. At the transition from Early Helladic II to III one now assumes a continuity of the population on Aegina and in Lerna in the Argolis .
In Thrace, Macedonia and Thessaly there was evidence of a standardization of the various schools of ceramic production that had prevailed up to that point, as well as an increased demand for raw goods, especially storage vessels. Whether this was due to greater self-sufficiency or, on the contrary, to the need to exchange supplies for exotic goods is discussed. Little has been dug in Thrace so far, so the picture is clearer in Macedonia, where Dikili Tash has ties to Troy and Eutresis in Boeotia , but also to the north. The Sitageroi, located in the plain of Drama , represents a so-called Magoula, a tell or settlement hill. A necropolis was found near Kriaritsi in southern Chalkidiki , which was also in exchange relationships with Troy and Thessaly, but whose grave shape indicates relationships with Steno on Lefkas . In the west of Macedonia, early Bronze Age remains were found in Servia , whose connections also extended as far as Epirus. In Epirus, on the other hand, the northern influence was more noticeable, and the Doliana site has astonishingly extensive relationships, namely to the south as far as Attica , to the north as far as Moravia and Bulgaria. The drier Thessaly has far fewer connections to the north, but more intensive connections to the south. Magoules like Argissa or Pevkakia on a rock near the coast show Anatolian influence, plus a change from apsidal structures to rectangular megarons . At the same time, as is evident in Pevkakia, the first fortresses were built. Places in Attica, Kolonna on Aegina , Lerna in the Argolis or Geraki in Laconia were also fortified in the Early Helladic II.
An early, complex ceramic production could be proven in central Greek Lokris and in the hinterland. Even in Phokis , which is rather insignificant in this respect, a large burial mound was found with Kirrha . There are more sites in Boeotia , such as the large settlement of Lithares, as well as Lefkandi I and Thebes . On the Attica peninsula, settlement remains were often found on low hills; Obsidian came from Melos, but it was also related to the rest of the Cyclades, as the pottery shows. The relations of Attica in the east extended to Anatolia. Kolonna on Aegina is practically a transshipment point for the entire Koiné .
One of the key sites is the Lerna , excavated in the 1950s , which housed a large, palatial building, the House of Bricks , a two-story corridor house with traces of fire from the 22nd century BC. Has. The rotunda and apsidal houses from the Early Helladic II were also found in Tiryns. Helika in Achaia was a central place . His contacts reached from the Peloponnese to Anatolia, perhaps even to the Middle East. Pelopeion in Elis on the north-western Peloponnese represents a large tumulus from the Early Helladic II. Akovitika in Messenia, also part of the extensive exchange network of the Early Helladic II, contained corridor houses, similar to those in Lerna. In Laconia , small-scale trading networks for ceramics can also be found, which speaks for greater specialization.
Crete in the Early Bronze Age
The Early Bronze Age corresponds to the Early Minoan Period in Crete. There, the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age is considered to be the birth of the Minoan culture . Here too, external immigration from the east was assumed to be the impetus. The second transition phase, that of the Middle Bronze Age, i.e. the Middle Minoan Age, is considered to be the time of the beginning Cretan high culture. Now the famous palaces appeared, which were regarded as the central seats of an administration similar to the state.
In the meantime there is a tendency to recognize that certain central access points such as Petras Kephala, which handled the exchange with the Aegean region and thus acquired exclusive access to goods and technologies, had advantages over them as early as the late Neolithic IV (3300-3100 / 3000 BC) the hinterland. The settlement of marginal land, such as the Sitia plateau , began as early as the late Neolithic.
Krzysztof Nowicki, on the other hand, is more likely to assume that the fortified settlements on the mountain ranges will have recognizable security problems and an abrupt and extensive immigration from the east in the second half of the fourth millennium. The population collapse in the Dodecanese may indicate that at least some of these groups have migrated to Crete. Nowicki sees this migration as part of an east-west migration from Anatolia to the southern Aegean, which started earlier. On the basis of around 100 excavation sites from the transitional period on Crete, focal points can be identified on the Sitia peninsula, where the highest concentration of settlements can be found, and the south coast of the isthmus of Rethymno, plus smaller clusters up to the west coast between Palaiochora and Phalasarna . Almost all settlements can be found in easily defendable places in the coastal area. All of them were start-ups, the size of which varied between 2 or 3 and more than 20 households. Zakros Gorge Kato Kastellas measured 0.8 hectares, Xerokampos Kastri about 0.6-0.8 and Agia Irini Kastri 0.8-1.0 hectares. Many of the settlements were short-lived, but some, like Livari Katharades, that was extremely densely built up and heavily fortified, existed for a long time. These larger settlements of the Late Neolithic IV stand in clear contrast to the considerably smaller settlements of the Late Neolithic III. Apparently these newcomers expanded inland, first tangible in the Epano-Zakros basin, where they emerged again at easily defendable points on the edge of the basin and protected by walls. The largest concentration of such settlements for the transition period between the late Neolithic and the earliest Bronze Age was found on the Ziros plateau, then on the hills of Mesa Apidi and in Agia Triada . Two more clusters from this expansion phase were found on the Lamnoni plateau and between Palaio Mitato and Magasa . In some places tiny settlements were found, which often consisted of only one or very few houses. The most important settlement in Ierapetra of the late Neolithic and the earliest Bronze Age was Vainia Stavromenos, which extended over an area of 1.0 to 1.2 ha. In the west of the island the most important place was probably Palaiochora Nerovolakoi, which was similar in size, but it was soon abandoned.
Based on the ceramics, two different groups can be identified, namely around Phaistos and Katalimata on the one hand and Zakros Gorge Kato Kastellas and Palaiochora Nerovolakoi on the other. Nowicki assumes that the former goes back to the older Cretan population, while the latter is attributable to the immigrants. Apparently the immigrants first settled on offshore islands, such as on Gaidouronisi , which is 14 km south of Crete. On Koufonisi , 6 km off the coast, the population was found to be higher than the island could feed, so that it was possibly a first stop for immigrants. Both places were unpaved and lay on levels. Possibly habitable islands around Crete such as the Dionysades , Pseira , Dia and Gavdos played similar roles. On the Cyclades, in turn, settlements can be found, such as Agia Irini I or Paoura on Keos, which, like Kampos Komikias on the west coast of Naxos or Agios Ioannis Kastri on Astypalea , had similar characteristics to the Cretan settlements of this era. The same applies to settlements on Karpathos and Kasos . This restless time only ended in Crete with the significant changes at the end of the Early Bronze Age, so that the actual social upheaval here is probably not to be found on the border between the Neolithic and the Bronze Age, but rather on the phase III and IV of the late Neolithic.
With the emergence of palace cultures, the focus has shifted further. The search for a steep social hierarchy and sudden change has been replaced in the last few decades. The focus is now less on the elites than on the question of the society behind them.
The earliest tangible stone vase industry that arose in Crete goes back to the early Minoic IIA. Apparently copper was melted in Petras Kephala , long daggers were made in Poros , and melting pots were found in Ayia Photia . In the early Minoan III, the specialized smelting site of Chrysokamino indicates an intensification of metal processing. Spatial segregation of the process steps could already indicate attempts to steer and control production, so that the "metal shock" of the Early Bronze Age II may have to be relocated to the Early Minoic I.
From the early Minoean IIB onwards, Cycladic imports in Knossos and Poros completely disappeared, while those from eastern Crete increased. Only in phase III and more in the Middle Minoic I did imports grow again. But obsidian and copper, both also from the Cyclades, continued to come to the big island, so the contacts probably continued. But the character of the exchange had changed. Contacts to Syria and Egypt existed during the early Minoican II and III, and their products were also copied. From phase III onwards, sailing ships appeared on Cretan seals. The emergence of elites with their representational compulsions possibly led to the more prestigious Eastern goods being of higher value than the Aegean ones, especially in the transition phase.
Seals appear on Crete around the same time as on the mainland, namely in the Early Minoean II. The oldest characters appear on seal stones of the Middle Minoic IA and B. Some fragments of a vase from Malia could even indicate the use of an equally undeciphered script as early as the Early Minoan III indicate. It is possible that their use is less related to economic motives, especially the palace administration as is often assumed, than to social and symbolic reasons. The addition of seals in graves could be an indication that they were used as an externally recognizable sign of social difference.
A sharp rise in temperatures in the northern hemisphere preceded the collapse of the palace centers, a sharp drop occurred during this phase. In the late Bronze Age, the temperature of the Mediterranean dropped, which reduced the entry of water into the atmosphere and, consequently, precipitation. As a result, the population centers, which depend on relatively high productivity, have been particularly hard hit by a decline in harvest. The so-called Dark Age coincided with a period of prolonged drought that extended into the Roman warm phase.
During the early Minoean II, the settlements grew rapidly and they developed urban structures. A further growth of these centers followed in the Early Minoan III up to the Middle Minoikum IA. In addition, a large number of smaller settlements emerged, which indicates an increase in agricultural production. The disadvantage that Knossos was exposed to in foreign trade, it compensated by the close ties with Poros, through which it found connection to long-distance trade. Political integration or domination of the surrounding area by Knossos, the most developed urban settlement, can only be assumed to be certain for the Middle Minoic IA. Although the large spaces for public rituals went back to the end of the Neolithic, the large terraces of the Early Minoan II provided space for the corresponding buildings. The so-called First Palace is likely to have arisen with such construction measures between the Early Minos III and Middle Minos IA and B. The same applies to Malia. In Phaistos the First Palace was built between the Middle Minoean IB and IIA, but the buildings also date back to the late Neolithic III – IV.
From the emergence of the first palace buildings around 1900 BC. Chr. Is often spoken of the first European high culture . Apparently the modern complexity of public spaces corresponded to the multifunctionality of Bronze Age sites; they were seen as places of remembrance, served for encounters between different social classes. Public spaces within necropolises (from 3000 BC) were a focus. Communal feasts were also part of the conduct of death cults there. In some urban settlements, public spaces were part of town planning from the start, perhaps first in Vasiliki in eastern Crete around 2700 BC. The so-called West Courtyards, which leaned against the palace facades as open spaces, were among the integral components of the urban squares. The local elites appropriated the spaces through the presence of architecture.
In keeping with the spirit of the times, the focus was on the assumption that these elites would rule politically. Knossos, Phaistos and Malia were considered centers under the barely verified assumption that they developed at the same time. All other palace finds were dismissed as secondary centers or as "exceptional". In addition, findings from linear B inscriptions that could be deciphered and that show that at least the center and the east of the island were actually administered from Knossos towards the end of the culture were projected back into the founding phase at the beginning of the 2nd millennium. This created a static image of the Minoan palace culture, which also suddenly appeared (and disappeared). New debates about methods and theories questioned this and opened the view to the developments in the period before about 1900 BC. And on the question of the early small-scale and fragility of political power structures. It seems recognized that the three main palaces dominated the island for the most part, with Knossos taking the lead towards the end of the culture. However, the deciphering of the Maya script showed that it is hardly possible to decipher political structures on the basis of archaeological traces. All assumptions about the political structure there were incorrect; the sources that have been accessible since the deciphering instead revealed a highly mobile, complex network of independent and quasi-independent, small to large cities and settlements linked to one another by alliances for a short period of time, based on inter-dynastic marriages and Conquest based. All of this left practically no archaeological traces.
Crete is considered to be one of the most archaeological areas of the Mediterranean. The models that make the political structure recognizable that deal with the settlement structure are most likely to come into question. A four-level model of hierarchization was preferred, which should provide the justification for speaking of a state. But even Athens in the classical period did not show such a hierarchy based on the archaeological finds, and so the model is hardly suitable for the small city-states of the Bronze Age to be expected. Surveys were mainly carried out around Phaistos, but in this question without a certain yield, and around Malia. In its area, on the edge of the Lassithi plain, there were buildings that could be identified as fortresses, and which probably represented a kind of border of the sphere of influence of Malia in the Middle Minoic. At the same time, however, these finds also raised doubts about a further dominance on the island.
Knossos is a different case. In the Middle Minoic IA the site already comprised 20, if not 40 hectares. More recent finds show that the area around Galatas possibly showed signs of fortification similar to those in the case of Malia, so that a southern border can be identified here (Middle Minoic III A). In any case, control of such an extensive, fertile surrounding area would have been much easier to gain than in the case of Malia, which would have had to overcome mountain ranges unusable for agricultural purposes in order to exercise control beyond these areas for a longer period of time. It is unclear whether the new palace in Malia only meant a stylistic orientation towards Knossos or an expansion of power in the larger city. Overall, the rule over Crete seems to have been much more fragmented, dynamic and complex than assumed since the beginning of palace research. Only in the case of Knossos, which was twice the size of the next largest centers, one can assume secondary centers, namely Archanes (about 12 km south of Heraklion), Tylissos, Poros, Amnisos (about 7 km east of Heraklion) and perhaps Vitsila.
The Cyclades in the Early Bronze Age
The cultural influence of the Cyclades , located in the middle between mainland Greece, Crete and Anatolia, was very pronounced in the early Bronze Age, as found in Liman Tepe in western Turkey, for example. The first settlement of this Cycladic culture that was excavated was Phylakopi on Melos, then followed by Ayia Irini on Kea (early Bronze Age in layers I to III), which is more known for the subsequent periods, which also applies to Akrotiri on Thira . The Early Bronze Age is only poorly represented, even if finds in Kastri on Syros or in Markiani on Amorgos , but above all the village of Skarkos on Ios , allow statements that go beyond the otherwise predominant burial sites.
Saliagos on Andiparos was the first to show that farmers and fishermen lived on the island in the Neolithic. They preferred barley over emmer and einkorn , sheep and goats already dominated domestic animal breeding at that time - spinning, perhaps weaving, was common. The violin-shaped female figurines already existed in an abstract form. The site gave its name to the Saliagos culture, which dates back to between 5000 and 4500 BC. Was dated. Maroulas on Kythnos is an even older Neolithic site. The type site for the late Neolithic, however, is Kephala on Kea. The discovery and excavation of Strofilas on Andros , the oldest fortified settlement in the Cyclades, has significantly changed our view of the era. Rock carvings from long ships, as they were only known from the Keros-Syros culture a thousand years later, contributed significantly to this.
Similar to the rest of the Aegean region, the early Bronze Age Cycladic culture is divided into three phases, although not every phase is proven on all islands. The early Cycladic Grotta-Pelos culture (according to Colin Renfrew, approx. 3400 to 3000 BC) represents the first phase, but it already began in the Neolithic. It is best known from crate graves. The dark ceramic is often decorated with herringbone patterns. Obsidian blades and marble vessels were also found. The figurines are rather schematic, with two types being distinguished, namely the Louros type and the Plastiras type. The latter is more detailed and the arms meet in the hip area, the former usually only consists of a prominent head and legs.
The Kampos group (approx. 3000 to 2800 BC) is named after the cemetery of Kampos on Paros . It already belongs to the transition phase between Sections I and II of the Early Bronze Age. Important sites are Agrilia on Pano Koufonisi and Markiani on Amorgos. The contacts between the southern Cyclades and some coastal towns of Crete were so intense that it is assumed that settlers migrated to the large island in the south.
The Keros-Syros culture (2800 to 2300 BC) already belongs to the Early Bronze Age Cycladic II. Chalandriani on Syros, a settlement and a cemetery, as well as Kavos on Keros , where the dead were ritually deposited (and the settlement on the nearby Daskalio ), gave the culture its name. It is also represented by various cemeteries on Naxos and Amorgos. The radiance and dynamism of the culture increased enormously, highly developed ceramics and found objects up to the figurines with crossed arms were characteristic. Copper now appeared in many ways, as a dagger or as jewelry. The contacts reached as far as Liman Tepe and Troy in Western Anatolia and as far as the Peloponnese. There was talk of an "international spirit" of the Cycladic culture of this time.
The Kastri group (approx. 2500–2200 BC, Early Cycladic II – III), named after the fortified settlement Kastri on Syros, finds its artifacts in Lefkandi on Evia , in Markiani and Ayia Irini. In addition, Korfari ton Amygdalion or Panormos on Naxos with an area of 500 m². Many cultural elements point to Anatolian origins, numerous settlements were now fortified. Tin bronze increasingly replaced the arsenic bronze that had dominated the Cyclades until then .
The Phylakopi-I culture (Early Cycladic III, 2200 to 1900 BC) is best represented in the eponymous Phylakopi and in Parikia on Paros. While the size of Phylakopi increased, that of Melos decreased drastically. There may have been a gap between this and the previous phases, but this could also be due to missing findings.
Overall, the Keros-Syros culture shows signs of prosperity; the population also exceeded that of the Grotta Pelos culture. Wine and olives increasingly supplanted the cultivation of cereals, and there were increasing signs of ceremonies and celebrations involving wine consumption. Chalandriani-Kastri, Ayia Irini, Grotta-Aplomata and Dhaskalio-Kavos were proposed as the four most important communication centers, because they stood out for their population and differentiated production, but were also characterized by increased consumption of prestigious goods and the most intensive integration into maritime trade - one speaks of an Anatolian trade network into which the Kastri group was increasingly integrated, but which was soon dissolved.
Western Anatolia and the Eastern Aegean in the Early Bronze Age
There were close contacts between Western Anatolia and the islands of the Eastern Aegean. However, while in the Troas at the transition from Troy I to Troy II a decline in the number of villages can be proven, which may be due to a population concentration, only two settlement centers in the east and on the Gulf of Kalloni can be proven for Lesbos . This is not surprising since the west of the mountainous island is extremely barren. In the hinterland there were few and small farmsteads or settlements such as Angourelia Sarakinas, Saliakas and Prophitis Ilias. Some settlements such as the at least 4 hectare large Kourtir on the Gulf of Kalloni existed for a long time, otherwise no statement can be made about the durability of the settlements.
The situation is similar on Limnos , where the majority of the settlements, which were also more complex, existed on the coast, while the hinterland was only sparsely populated. There, as on Lesbos, hill settlements such as Progomylos or Neftina arose. Defense and observation aspects may have played a crucial role in choosing these otherwise inconvenient locations. Plati-Mistegnon on Lesbos overlooks the eastern strait from a 100 m high cliff, while Saliakas controls the only land connection between the southeast coast and the inland on the Gulf of Kalloni.
For Imbros and Chios , no statements can be made about increasing settlement concentration. During the Early Bronze Age II, some settlements, such as the lesbian Thermi, grew considerably and are likely to have doubled their population, even if they lagged far behind the concentration process on the Anatolian mainland.
Middle Bronze Age (2100–1700 / 1600 BC)
Mainland Greece in the Middle Bronze Age
For a long time, the mainland received little attention with regard to the Middle Helladic. This had to do with the fact that the time before and after was much better studied, and that the mainland faded alongside the Aegean Sea and the palace culture of Crete. Research also focused on typological sequences and the origins of the Middle Helladic cultures. However, recent research has shown that the cultures on the mainland were neither static nor uniform, isolated nor backward.
The beginning of the Middle Bronze Age is around 2100 BC. Or a little earlier. The end of this era is traditionally around 1600 BC. A different chronology is followed more likely around 1700 BC, which is also supported by more recent radiocarbon dates (see also Minoan eruption on the problem ). If one concentrates more on social processes, on the other hand, it makes more sense to combine the time between Early Helladic III and Middle Helladic II and the Middle Helladic III with the Late Helladic I.
Numerous pieces of evidence show a strong decline in population and destruction at the transition from Early Helladic II to III and during the latter epoch, the causes of which, however, are still being discussed. In the process, the settlement structures, burial customs and material culture changed. Whereas in the past only population movements and invasions were blamed for this, today other changes are increasingly brought into play, such as soil degradation or erosion, which may have changed societies significantly. They appear to have occurred in connection with migration, whether as a cause or consequence. At the same time, the effects in the various regions were very different.
While Middle Helladic I and II were considered to be rather static for a long time, finds in Lerna showed that the house structures underwent significant changes in the earlier phase, which perhaps resulted in a more pronounced accumulation of wealth. In the later the funeral customs changed. These approaches seem to have disappeared again, while the changes at the end of the Middle Bronze Age proved irreversible. The extreme expansion of long-distance trade is well known - a gold-studded seal of an official from the time of Pharaoh Djedkare (around 2400 BC) indicates trade relations with Egypt. At the same time, the mainland cultural region took on much more Aegean and Minoan influences.
Only a few of the settlements were fortified, such as Kolonna, while the walls of Malthi are more likely to be attributed to the Mycenaean culture. The buildings were relatively uniform, free-standing and distributed irregularly in the area of the respective settlement. Mostly they consisted of two rooms and rarely exceeded a total area of 50 to 60 m². Mud brick structures rose on stone foundations. The differences were rather small in the early phase, but increased significantly later. Some of the Middle Helladic III houses in Asine were four times the size of the average house of the era, more complex, and stood along a path so that they were similarly oriented. Kolonna was an exceptional case: It was heavily fortified, the house structures were complex and a monumental building structure was built in the Middle Helladic I. The city looked more like the places in the Aegean.
The burials between the Early Helladic I and the Middle Helladic II took place within the walls; some of the dead, mostly children, were still buried under the houses. Many graves were laid in destroyed houses. Burial sites outside of the settlements were probably widespread outside the settlements by the Middle Helladic II at the latest; Burial mounds were built, but their distribution is uneven. Simple pits, boxes of all kinds, plus large pithoi or jugs exclusively for children were common. Usually the dead were buried individually, contractually, multiple graves are rare. Grave goods, such as vases or pearls, are seldom and hardly intended to make an impression. Exceptions are the grave mounds of Aphidna and Kastrulia or the grave structure in Kolonna. In the epoch after the Middle Helladic II to the Late Helladic I, cemeteries outside the walls were built much more frequently, graves were also used several times - Tholos and shaft graves are better suited for this - and the bodies of the dead were subjected to renewed treatment. Although the grave goods became richer, they were not remotely close to the furnishings in Mycenae.
There was no trace of places of worship, and even figurines like those of Eleusis are rare. The religious practice can only be grasped by means of rites in connection with the graves. Only in Apollon Maleatas near Epidauros - created at the end of the Middle Helladic - can a shrine be recognized, whose votive offerings, however, only come from the Late Helladic. At least there was a pit on the neighboring Kynortion hill in which the remains of ceremonial acts were found mixed with animal bones in the middle of a settlement that had already been abandoned in the Early Helladic. The fact that the settlement was never built on again could indicate a sanctification of the site.
Material culture showed some innovations, such as tumuli , but these did not appear at the same time. Ceramics were also considered to be conservative and simple, but each site has different proportions of a local nature, which is reflected in stylistic differences, as well as different proportions of imported goods or local imitations. Advances in ceramics can only be seen in Boeotia. On the other hand, the pottery from Aegina was imitated in Thessaly, but by no means in Boeotia. The tools remained unchanged for a long time. It has recently been shown that copper metallurgy has been replaced by bronze metallurgy, and that the potter's wheel has been adopted. At the end of the epoch there was a greater openness to external influences, there was a diversification of ceramic styles, a drastic increase in figuration and a sharp increase in imports.
But even in the early Middle Helladic I there were intensified contacts between the east coast towns and Aegina, the Aegean islands and Crete. Pottery from Aegina was more common near the island than in the hinterland, but in some cases it reached Anatolia and Italy. Boeotic pottery was exported to the south, and a Thessalian trade network spanned the northern Aegean. Imports were concentrated in Lerna and Argos. The lion's share of the mainland copper came from the Aegean Sea, which also supplied all of the lead. Small amounts of copper came from Thrace or from Cyprus . There were also contacts to Epiros, the Balkans and Italy.
Kinship was also the central element of social organization. As a result, questions of status and prestige, but above all questions of authority, shifted to the families and less had to be expressed at the overall social level of a settlement. Age and gender remained central. The causes of the changes can apparently not only be traced back to changes in the economy, such as the need to control raw materials. Nevertheless, the extensive trading networks, in which it was important to influence foreign leadership groups in one's own interest, may have played an important role. The expansionist aspirations of the Minoan palace culture and the competition or prestige of the trading centers are also likely to have been of great importance. This offered not only influential roles in society, but also only a few roles, especially in the "diplomatic" area. Against this background, the slow development towards the Mycenaean culture could turn out to be a coup for individual groups. But to be able to make a statement here, the knowledge about the roles of individuals, social groups and communities in this expanding world is still too unclear.
Crete in the Middle Bronze Age
The emergence of the first great or ancient palace is commonly referred to as the central event on the Middle Bronze Age island that borders the southern Aegean Sea. It is assumed that this happened in the Middle Minoic IB, which in calendar terms was 1925/1900 BC. Is reproduced.
The main locations included Knossos and Phaistos , Malia and Petras east of Sitia, whereby this monumentalization represented a rather slowly progressing process, while Phaistos and Malia immediately erected monumental structures following extensive leveling work. Elsewhere, palace buildings were built either in the Middle Minoikum IIA, as in Petras or Monastiraki, in the Middle Minoikum IIB, as in Kommos, or only in the Middle Minoikum IIIA, as in Galatas. In some places these buildings were not built until the new palace period, such as in Gournia, Zakros or Phaistos. The more recent finds in Sissi (at least the New Palace period) or Protoria-Damatri in the eastern Messara, from Chania and Archanes or Zominthos suggest that even more sites of this type will appear. It can now be assumed that the palace buildings varied from the simplest to the most highly developed complexes. Whether the monumentalization especially towards the end of the 20th century BC BC, which goes back to oriental influences, is still being discussed, but a “palace package” analogous to the Neolithic can hardly be spoken of.
The palace of Knossos comprised a built-up area of 21,000 m² on a clear area of 2.2 hectares. It was built around a rectangular central courtyard measuring 53 × 28 m. Angled, narrow corridors, richly decorated corridors, painted halls, elaborately designed staircases and pillared galleries approach this courtyard from four directions.
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The idea of a kingdom and many other ideas go back to the excavator Arthur Evans . He interpreted the complex as the residences of priest-kings, whereby he was clearly inspired by oriental models. However, some of their structural patterns, such as the orientation, large courtyards, wing structures, point more towards the early Minoic IIB. After the Linear-B script was deciphered in 1952, the economic aspect was given a much larger place. Soon people believed in a highly efficient administration that registered and controlled every movement, be it human or goods. A strong connection to an agricultural hinterland from the 1970s was emphasized, along with the idea of an administration in a hierarchical society.
Such ideas of a central economic focus and transshipment point under the control of a comprehensive priest-royal leadership, possibly all over Crete, seem, if at all, to apply at best to the central economic transshipment point and more to the late Minoic II-III than to the earlier phases . The role as a distribution center (to dependent personnel) was also ultimately questioned. The question arose whether the presumed control in religious, economic and political terms did not imply a modern conception of the state. Even if this were the case, the transition was evidently less drastic than expected. In addition, the economic role of the koulourai , stone, circular pits, which apparently served to store grain, was questioned, as was the idea of a trade in luxury goods driven by the needs of the presumed elite. The Kamaresware, named after the Middle Cretan town of Kamares and usually attributed to palace workshops, cannot be linked to the idea of control by the palace. On the contrary, a considerable part of this high-quality ceramic was produced in southern central Crete and exported to Egypt, for example to Avaris . In the meantime, Knossos appears less as a producer than as a consumer in literature. Even the imagined complete control over distribution contradicts the fact that not even the more advanced state structures of the Middle East were able to do so, on which this idea was based. On the other hand, it turned out that part of the production actually took place in the palaces.
The recognition of the four main sites as “palaces” is also rather arbitrary, because the monumental complexes of Kommos , Monastiraki or Archanes are not counted among them, not to mention recent finds. In addition to hasty ideas about the state and adherence to a certain epoch, there is often the idea that the said palaces must be of the same shape, so a homogeneity across all cultural differences in Crete was assumed. In order to counteract the misleading associations that the term “palace” carries with it, people increasingly spoke of courtyard-centered buildings, but also of courtyard buildings or complexes. Finally, it is doubted that priesthood and rule were to be found under one roof, because this type of rule cannot be proven anywhere, especially not in the Middle East, where there was always a double structure. In addition, the palaces are not suitable for the reconstruction of the entire Minoan society, as was long assumed.
The evidence for a palace's own production is rather small in number and also very uncertain. In addition, similar products were made elsewhere, such as textile production, which certainly took place in Knossos. Grains, figs or olives on clay tablets could be indications of production in the vicinity of the temple. In any case, the tablets themselves were stored on a large scale in Knossos.
There drinking vessels were perhaps stacked on a large scale to distribute drinks, because their number far exceeds the number of vessels that were used for storage purposes. A workshop in the Mesara supplied both Phaistos and Knossos with high-quality ceramics. On the other hand, some of these elaborate goods were brought about by Pediada in the Middle Minoikum I. In Phaistos, enormous amounts of ceramics were found in the south part of the west wing, which alone represent about a quarter of the total stock. They probably served extensive rituals with numerous participants to whom drinks were served. In doing so, one thinks about the religious forms that may have been more shamanistic and based more on direct experience, which may have included trance , state changes and ecstasy, which may have been better suited to the performative nature for which the large places were suitable.
The writing and seal were also ascribed to the time the palaces were built as centers of rulership and religion, as was long believed. At that time, however, the use of writing already existed, even if it found an improvement and a wider spread. The seal shapes have also become more differentiated. The collections of clay tablets in Knossos, called “archives”, probably originate from the Middle Minoic II, but more likely from III. The largest “archive” has so far been found in the Mu quarter in Malia. Some of the ceramic workshops also used the script; in Knossos seals were found in the production rubble.
Quartier Mu consisted of two main buildings and a number of workshops. Apparently an elite supervised the production, some of the goods were stored in the main buildings. But not all goods came from the local workshops. Even if the local palace was considerably larger, it did not hold much more storage vessels, and there are no signs of production within the palace, apart from a few weaving weights. The palaces were, it seems, more places of rituals with a large number of participants than places of production, the exclusive consumption of luxury goods or even the sovereign control over a uniform economic area.
In the Agios Charalambas cave of Lasithi, the bones of around 400 individuals were found, as well as figurines, seal stones and musical instruments, most of which came from the Middle Minoic IIB. Eleven male and five female corpses had skull injuries, and the oldest cases of trepanation were found in Greece, as reported in 2006.
The Cyclades in the Middle Bronze Age
In the early Cycladic culture, connections can only be recognized by cultural similarities in the artifacts, and this shows that places on the coast of Attica, such as Ayios Kosmas or Tsepi (marathon), on Crete, such as Ayia Photia, or in Western Anatolia, like Iasos, closely related to the Cycladic places. Earlier publications suggested colonies, but it was more likely a cultural area held together by seafaring. In contrast to the early phase of this culture, the middle phase was apparently limited to today's archipelago. It reached from 2000 BC. BC ± 50 years to around 1675 or 1600 BC BC - depending on when the catastrophic volcanic eruption of Thera is dated.
The division into phases is based on the ceramic, pictorial representations often allow puzzling insights into the society of this time. While other artifacts can hardly be described as typical of the Cyclades, the settlement structure changed drastically. Larger settlements emerged while the small, scattered settlements disappeared. At the same time, within the scope of this concentration of settlements, of which there are exceptions, as recent excavations show, led to a more complex urban structure and more elaborate buildings and city fortifications characteristic of this era. The few known graves, such as the one on Kea, seem to indicate a decline in box graves and greater variability, but all in all, the early Bronze Age habits were continued.
The contacts with the neighbors, which were already strong in the early Cycladic culture IIIB, also continued, and there was even evidence of growing imports and exports. Fragments of Minoan ceramics document contacts to Crete in the Middle Minoic IA and II, in the later stage of the Cycladic culture, contact with the Middle Minoic III and the mainland Middle Helladic can be made using ceramics. Caution is advised here, however, since, for example, the middle phases in the three greater areas of Greece do not always match depending on the criterion (ceramics, architecture), especially not when it comes to the "Middle Bronze Age in the Aegean".
In Phylakopi a layer of destruction separates the early Cycladic from the Middle Cycladic city, which was derived from the fact that the ceramics of the later city were related to the Middle Minoan and Middle Helladic ceramics. For some archaeologists, this was a premature conclusion, as they set the beginning of the Middle Cycladic phase before the destruction of the city. The city was densely built up and covered an area of around 220 m in length and no longer determinable in width, because parts of the rock plateau slipped into the sea.
Also in Agia Irini on Kea there was a gap between the layers from period III, identified with early Cycladic IIIA, also early Cycladic IIB or Kastri phase, and periods IV and V, which correspond to the early and late phases of the rebuilt Central Cycladic settlement. Above all Akrotiri on Thera, but also Ftellos and Ayios Ioannis Eleemon delivered early Middle Cycladic artifacts. The same applies to Paroikia on Paros. Kastro on Naxos was the acropolis of a central Cycladic urban settlement, which also included a lower part of Grotta. Plaka on Andros was also an important center of this period.
Remote contacts in the Middle Bronze Age
After the conquest of the Hyksos capital Avaris in the Nile Delta by Pharaoh Ahmose I , walls were painted there in the Minoan style, apparently there being no connection to the earlier Minoan inhabitants of Egypt. Besides the paintings there is nothing to be found about their culture. The temporary Aegean cultural influence gave way to a fall back on Egyptian traditions. Relations with the Aegean, however, intensified under Amenhotep III. around the middle of the 14th century. For the first time names like Mycenae or Knossos appeared in hieroglyphics .
Late Bronze Age (1700/1600–1070/1040 BC)
Mainland Greece in the Late Bronze Age
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The Mycenaean culture (around 1700 to the 11th century BC) existed during the late Bronze Age, in the so-called Späthelladikum . The beginning and end of this era are determined by ceramic styles. The durations of these ceramic styles do not always correspond with the more political and social conclusions drawn from archaeological finds, which are reflected in terms such as pre-palace, palace or post-palace culture.
The beginnings of the culture go back to the Middle Helladic. As in Crete, the palaces were in the foreground for a long time in archaeological research, while the smaller settlements were neglected. In this phase, competition between elites played an important role, as did access to external goods, but also the mediation of access to resources in the hinterland for Crete and the Cyclades. Regardless of their size, the Mycenaean sites shared certain characteristics, such as the emphasis on their structural center, a dominant location (sometimes fortified) and the proximity to drinking water and good arable land. They were also on lines connecting the sea to the hinterland. The size of the palaces should not be overestimated. The megaron , the core of the palace of Mycenae, covered an area of 149 m², that of Pylos only a little more than 115 m².
Regional focal points were in the center and south of Greece, especially in Argolis and Messenia , probably also in Laconia , then Attica, Boeotia , in eastern Phocis and on the coast of Thessaly. The first artifacts of the Mycenaean culture belong to the Late Helladic I and are limited to the Peloponnese, Attica and central Greece. Most of the finds from this period come from graves. The resting places became more differentiated over the course of the epoch, but the settlements were small. Apparently, there were already oligarchic alliances that ruled settlements or regions. Rich grave goods indicate that some wealth was amassing, with arms and imported goods indicating power, fortune, and perhaps war; the most famous are the shaft tombs of Mycenae.
The numerous signs of continuity back to the Middle Helladic indicate an emergence from the existing population, not immigration or conquest. Family and ancestry continued to be of central importance, with grave types and furnishings, but above all extensive settlement ceremonies, referring to internal competition, but also to fluctuation. A combination of local, traditional ideas with external ones, which can be read in the artefacts, can be seen in the rich tombs of Mycenae, but also in the Tholoi, especially Messenia. The “Mycenaeans” had contacts as far as Albania and Italy, Crete and Anatolia, yes, as far as the Middle East.
At the beginning of the Late Helladic IIIA (around 1420/00 BC) there were major expansions of power in some important regions of the Mycenaean culture, but each with its own character. The towns of Messenia lost their complete autonomy to Pylos , which became the only palace settlement, while several centers remained in the Argolida, including Mycenae, Tiryns and Midea. In Laconia, Agios Vasilios, which has only been systematically researched since 2010, was probably a palace center. In Attica around 1400 BC BC Athens became a palace center, while at the same time the royal seats of Attica lost their importance. Thebes and Orchomenos developed into palace centers in Boeotia. In other regions, such as Thessaly, western central Greece or the north-west of the Peloponnese, however, no palace centers evidently formed, but continued to exist many so-called princely seats, which mostly ruled a comparatively small territory from a mostly very well fortified settlement.
Contacts to Crete and the Cyclades were of central importance for this development. Artisanal products from there were seen as prestigious, often in connection with local skills. At the same time, Minoan styles were adopted, imitated and adapted, so that it is not always easy to distinguish Mycenaean from Minoan products. The islands of Aegina, Kythera and probably Kea acted as a kind of intermediary.
Apparently the Mycenaean elites succeeded in occupying part of the Minoan trade routes in the Late Helladic II. Now Mycenaean ceramics began to influence the Cretan ceramics, reversing the previous exchange situation. This increased until the following period when Greek in the form of the linear B script became the administrative language of Knossos.
In the palace period of the Late Helladic IIIA-B, i.e. in the 14th and 13th centuries BC BC, centrally focussed and administered domains emerged, which are often addressed as a state. With the second destruction of Knossos in the 14th century, new organizational principles may have reached the mainland. The Mycenaean culture expanded there to Mount Olympus , reaching Epiros westward, the Dodecanese eastward, and Crete in the south. In the late Helladic IIIA2 of the late 14th century, the culture also dominated the Aegean. In the east it reached Anatolia, in the west the metal resources of Sardinia, in the north perhaps the Black Sea. Written administration can be found in almost all palace centers as well as Kydonia ; isolated written documents also came to light in Dimini . In Athens, a strong fortification can be found, but no use of the linear B script , which is probably related to the fact that the palace there, like many other of these buildings, was not destroyed. This means that the tablets there may have crumbled, while elsewhere they were hardened by conflagrations. Gla in Boeotia with its 3 km long enclosure wall is considered to be one of the largest military installations of the Mycenaean period, but it was apparently ruled by Orchomenos.
The palace period was also a time of institutionalization of power structures. Here, too, the settlements were of various sizes and functions; the palace settlements were oriented towards the megaron . As elsewhere, archeology has long studied the elites and their traces of the soil, while the rest of society has been neglected. Exceptions are Nichoria , Korakou and Tsoungiza, Asine or Berbati. They and more recent excavations are extremely productive for an understanding of the Mycenaean culture.
The majority of the artifacts date from the 13th century BC. When major construction programs were carried out as well as improvements to the infrastructure that served the now exclusive elite. We know the famous Cyclops walls from Mycenae, Tiryns and Midea, from Athens and Gla . Transport and communication as well as specialized production have been improved and intensified. The tholoi, on the other hand, disappeared at the end of the Late Helladic IIIA and IIIB, and it was apparently specified that additions to the chamber graves of the late epoch were dispensed with.
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In Pylos one found large quantities of linear B tables, which give an insight into the power structure and its administration. At the other palaces there were also tablets, but in considerably fewer numbers. Finds in Mycenae (in the Petsas house) from the late 14th century show that this type of goods registration (from which an administration was hastily derived) came into use only a little later than in Knossos.
About 1200 tablets have survived from Pylos, referring to 200 "administrative processes". This indicates that some kind of modern administration could not have been the goal. At the head of the "administration" of Pylos was the wa-na-ka , later called Wanax or Anax , which more likely meant army commander. More recent research assigns it more of a cultic function and Tassilo Schmitt came to the assumption that it was about a god, because no individual name of a ruler appears on any clay tablet. The second man seems to have been the re-wa-ke-ta . His land comprised a third of the land of wa-na-ka . An e-qe-ta who was perhaps a follower of the wa-na-ka performed more military tasks . The rulership of Pylos seems to have included two "provinces" and 16 "districts". These divisions are likely to have served less for administration than for securing and collecting taxes. The qa-si-re-u , a designation from which the basileus may later emerge, served as the local official .
The palace itself also owned and lent land ( ko-to-na or ka-ma ) without a kind of feudal system. The comparatively high yields allowed the farmers to be used in buildings or in the military. Perfumed oils, textiles and other sophisticated products were made on the palace grounds. Agricultural products were collected as taxes from outside. The palaces were active in trade and imported raw materials such as ivory, glass or metals, as evidenced by the discovery of a shipwreck off Cape Iria which had come from Cyprus to the Argolis via Crete. However, such ships were mostly only 10 to 15 m long, which set limits to long-distance trade or limited it to certain products - the ship from Cape Iria was more likely to be used for everyday trade than for imports of luxury goods commissioned by the palace.
The palaces exported handcrafted products based on imported goods, as well as local products such as olive oil, perfume, wool or wine, but also ceramics. The latter served on the one hand for packaging, on the other hand, it was in great demand itself - almost in the entire Mediterranean region. The invention of gloss clay (varnish, clay slip ) in the 16th century BC BC should have contributed greatly to it. A great uniformity was observed in the ceramics, so that it was almost spoken of a Mycenaean Koine. It was produced in high quality and yet in large quantities. The same was true of seals, weapons, or jewelry. Apparently there were also slaves who were called do-e-no or do-e-na, which apparently later resulted in doulos and doule, but they could also be tenants. Cult staff and craftsmen performed their services against rights of use on the land, whereby the parceling of the soil indicates older forms of horticultural culture. The use of writing served less a comprehensive administration than the questions of allegiance, military and priesthood and their supply. In the Pylos area, for example, livestock farming is documented in 44 places, flax production in 62, ore processing in 20 places, then textile processing in 15 and craft activity in 38 places.
Several times, but locally and only for a short time, the palace buildings were destroyed, followed by monumental new buildings. Intensified controls and signs of violent conflict indicate acute internal conflict. Mycenae and Tiryns were soon destroyed, and they recovered only with difficulty, while Thebes and Pylos no longer succeeded. Already in the 15th century it could be shown for Attica that after the destruction of Kiapha Thiti by a landslide not only this central place lost its importance, but also Thorikos, Menidi, Brauron and Vrana near Marathon. In the late Helladic III there were only significant dynasties in Eleusis and Aphidnai in addition to the great “residence” in Athens . There were also several, arguably competing centers in other regions, many of which were only short-lived.
The late Mycenaean phase, the Late Helladic IIIC, no longer knows any palaces in most regions of the mainland. All palaces suffered around 1200 BC. A violent end and were not rebuilt. Many non-palatial settlements were also affected, and some were abandoned. With the large buildings and the administrative structure, writing and fresco painting as well as other characteristics of the palace era also disappeared. This massive destruction lasting several decades has partly natural causes, such as earthquakes, but it affected the entire eastern Mediterranean, where entire cultures and empires have disappeared.
In Tiryns and Mycenae, new structures arose on the ruins, but the administration probably only had a regional reach. Regional and local styles replaced the uniform Mycenaean culture. At the same time, the population seems to have collapsed, for example in the Argolis. On the other hand, the number of burials in Attica increased. There was a temporary recovery, which, however, led to an even deeper disaster, so that hardly anything can be called Mycenaean in the finds of the 11th century.
Crete in the Late Bronze Age
The late Minoan era was a time of great change. Of the palaces, apparently only Knossos survived. Mycenaean mainlanders settled on the island, most of the coastal towns were abandoned, the population moved to the interior or emigrated.
A flourishing, well-organized society existed in the late Minoic I. Palaces existed in Knossos (this was the largest), Phaistos, Malia, Zakro and Galatas as well as in Petras in the east of the island. Palace ruins probably still exist in Chania and Stavromenos east of Rethymno.
Recognizable tools of the administration were tablets with linear A script, which has not yet been deciphered, and seals. The former were discovered in all settlements of the Late Minoecean, the latter only in palace archives. It was also written in ink, so that one assumes more extensive administrative activity than before. Documents were apparently being sent from one place to another.
The volcanic eruption on Thira hit Crete hard, especially in the northeast of the island, but also further to the west, such as the finds from Papadiokampos and - this would be the westernmost site with corresponding tephra finds - Priniatikos Pyrgos. Since the 1980s in particular, numerous investigations have essentially led to a division into two camps: on the one hand, the representatives of the "late dating" (1530–1520 BC) and accordingly the "short chronology", on the other hand that of the " early dating ”(1628–1620 BC) and the“ long chronology ”. However, the debate has not yet resulted in a definitive answer.
In the subsequent Late Minoic IB, contrary to earlier assumptions, there was a recovery in each case. This recovery went so far that the island's cultural influence was felt even in Egypt, where paintings were also found in tombs depicting Minoan embassies. The end of this epoch, which can be proven by ceramics, also meant the end of the new palace culture. It is difficult to prove whether this coincides with a conquest by the Mycenaeans, as is often assumed. In Knossos the settlement was destroyed, but not the palace itself. However, this changed from a center for ceremonies to a center of power. The main port on the south coast, Kommos, was not affected by the destruction.
The subsequent Late Minoikum II is characterized by a low density of finds. Apparently the contacts to the mainland had intensified, as the warrior graves, weapons and the like prove. Clay tablets do not exist from this period, only a few seals were found in Chania. The palace of Knossos was destroyed twice, but the exact time is unclear. A writing tablet was found in Chania that continued the Knossos tradition about the presumed time of the conquest by Mycenae, but this is also not a sure sign that speaks against a Mycenaean conquest.
On the other hand, the use of writing and the handling of seals changed. Even the introduction of the linear B script speaks for an at least economic dominance of the Mycenaean neighbors. But the fact that they have never (so far) been pinned to a document, and that tablets were found in warehouses instead of archives, indicates a drastic change in administration. While writing was also used in a variety of contexts, this use was now reduced to the economic context in the narrower sense. Linear B script appears on stirrup vessels, which in Crete can only be dated in the Late Minoic IIIB. This means that the presence of a wanax on the island is guaranteed. However, there are no signs of massive invasion.
In addition, the tombs were now richly furnished, while little is known of the Minoan tombs. It is exactly the opposite with the palaces. Recently, in the west of the island, where there were numerous new discoveries, the west entrance of a palace structure together with the fragment of a linear B-panel from the Late Minoic IIIB near Chania was discovered. Victims of grain, sheep and goats, a pig and two oxen and a young woman were also found there. Eventually the architecture changed from multi-story to one-story buildings, which were no longer based on wooden constructions, but on stone foundations. Many of the palaces, such as those of Kommos, Malia, Sissi, Gouves and Amnissos, were destroyed in the first half of the Late Minoican IIIB. The repopulated, such as Palaikastro and Sissi, were significantly smaller in the later Late Minoic IIIB. Only Chania seems to have survived this phase well into the 12th century.
In Crete, the Kydonian workshop became predominant in the west, perhaps along with that of Knossos. Their products were found between Cyprus and Sardinia, and they probably also reached the Levant and Egypt. It is possible that Italian craftsmen from the south lived in Crete.
At the end of the Bronze Age, the settlement structures changed again. Few of the coastal locations persisted. The migrations of the sea peoples , which led to the fall of the Hittite Empire and the weakening of Egypt in the east, apparently also hit Crete, where the coast was no longer a safe place. The inhabitants left the coast and moved to extremely inaccessible hilltop settlements, from which Karphi and Katalymata were first discovered; over 80 further hill settlements followed. Kastri, on the other hand, located on a plain, could have been a settlement of the sea peoples.
The Cyclades in the Late Bronze Age
With the transition to the late Bronze Age, the Cycladic culture lost its idiosyncrasy, while initially strong Minoan influences, then Mycenaean, prevailed. Therefore, the division into late Cycladic I, II and III is mostly based on Minoan and Mycenaean ceramics or their imitations. In phase I (from 1700 or 1600 BC, depending on the chronology, for the sake of simplicity, uniformly calculated from 1600 BC), the Minoan influence prevailed, in phase II the Mycenaean culture expanded at its expense and finally prevailed in phase III. In the latest phase III, complex changes occurred that were connected with the decline of the Mycenaean culture. In the late Cycladic IIIC almost all settlements disappeared, the population fell sharply and there are hardly any finds from the post-Mycenaean and protogeometric epochs.
The late Cycladic finds mostly come from Akrotiri, which left behind particularly well-preserved pieces thanks to the volcanic destruction, Agia Irini (VI to VIII) on Kea, Phylakopi on Melos and Grotta on Naxos, the latter only from the late Cycladic phase III. In Phylakopi the transition from middle to late Cycladic coincides approximately with the destruction of the second and the construction of the third city. However, the late Cycladic I ceramic level survived the volcanic eruption of Thira for some time. But not only the ceramics of phase I were strongly influenced by Crete, but also the frescoes, the architecture, but also technical processes, in addition to bronze vessels, stone vases and terracotta figurines. It is even clearer that the weights have been converted to Minoan standards, as well as the use of the Linear A script. This influence was initially suspected on the islands along the trade route to the mainland, but the central Cyclades are also showing signs of this.
The Minoan influence was particularly strong in Akrotiri, which initially strengthened the assumption that the Minoans had established a maritime rule, a thalassocracy. The destruction of Phylakopi II and Ayia Irini at the end of period V and the changes in culture that could be demonstrated through these destructions seemed to confirm that this rule had been enforced by force. But other reasons are also assumed for the adaptation, such as prestige or simplification of trade.
In the Late Cycladic II, the proportion of Mycenaean ceramics in Ayia Irini rose to around 50%, similar to that in Phylakopi (Akrotiri no longer existed). In Phylakopi III-ii there were traces of destruction, which may also be due to a military intervention by Mycenaean forces. A Mycenaean palace was built (III-iii / phase E), which may also indicate a Mycenaean takeover. The establishment of Tholos tombs on Mykonos, Tenos and Naxos also points in this direction. In any case, Akrotiri was no longer the dominant city on the Cyclades, but Phylakopi. This probably also shifted the political focus from Thira to Melos. Middle of the 13th century BC This phase ended when the mainland influence weakened.
In contrast to the early Late Cycladic III (approx. 1390–1260 BC), the middle (approx. 1260–1150 BC) was characterized by growing local ceramic production, which had to replace the discontinued imports from the continent. Phylakopi felt compelled to build massive city fortifications, as well as a considerable number of fortified settlements. There was probably a connection with the signs of destruction on the mainland and the decline of the palaces there. The climatic changes also discussed, in the wake of which the comparatively dense trade networks were torn - perhaps also through piracy - could explain why the Mycenaean character of the culture was preserved, and yet the imports were practically canceled.
In the late Late Cycladic III (approx. 1150–1090 BC), Grotta was exceptionally rich on Naxos (although similar wealth could be proven on Naxos), and the tombs indicate extensive contacts. Vessels with stylized octopus decorations are typical. In addition, the dead were now cremated. This led to the assumption that a Mycenaean culture had existed between the Cyclades and Miletus on mainland Asia Minor, undisturbed by the destruction on the Greek mainland. Refugees from the palace culture there could also have reached the Cyclades. If Grotta is supposed to be representative of this phase, it was a time of calm development.
In the last phase of the Late Cycladic III (approx. 1090-1065 / 15 BC) this calm tore off and Grotta was destroyed. Many places were abandoned, only a few ceramics can be assigned to this period. In Ayia Irini, too, only modest signs of use in the temple can be documented, which could indicate a ritual community of surrounding villagers. The population declined, ceramics became rare and extremely simple. On Naxos the population seems to have disappeared and to have been occupied by a new group of people, because the structure of the protogeometric settlement was completely different. The appearance of new ceramics, almost a new mainland koine, speaks for the renewed arrival of mainland refugees in some of the Cyclades.
Minoans and Mycenaeans in Western Anatolia
Probably with a Mycenaean empire, Ahhijawa can be identified, an assumption that the resemblance to Achaeans led to, one of the three names Homer used to refer to the Greeks . But also the geographical information about Ahhijawa lead many researchers to conclude that it was west of the Hittite Empire, and at least a larger part of Ahhijawa was beyond the west coast of Asia Minor. Whether a Mycenaean empire under the leadership of Mycenae or possibly Thebes , which ruled the Greek mainland and the Aegean Sea , was meant, or possibly a smaller Mycenaean state that was in the southeastern Aegean region is controversial. Ahhijawa had bases or colonies on the west coast of Asia Minor, at least at times. Of these, Miletus at the mouth of the Meander and the Müsgebi site further south on the Bodrum Peninsula are Mycenaean settlements. More extensive finds were u. a. also made in Iasus and Ephesus , so that it is assumed that Mycenaean Greeks lived here at least temporarily.
In Miletus there were traces of Minoan settlement from the middle (Milet III, around 2000 to 1650 BC) and the late Bronze Age (Milet IV). Mycenaean Greeks may have conquered the settlement in the first half of the 15th century. It is certain that from around 1400 (Milet V) the city now clearly has Mycenaean characteristics. Considerable amounts of Mycenaean ceramics were also found in Çine-Tepecik in the meander area in the province of Aydın from 2004 onwards. They come from the late Helladic III B1 (from the late 14th century BC) to III C (approx. 1190 to the early 11th century BC). Below them is a crater depicting dogs chasing a deer. Two seal impressions bear Hittite names, one of them names a grandson of the king. Overall, the place existed from about 2000 BC. The later settlement was surrounded by strong, 2.20 m thick towers and walls. You should be assigned to the Mycenaean sphere of influence.
The Hittite king Muršili II took the "Millawanda" in the west towards the end of the 14th century, which had participated in an anti-Hittite coalition of some western Anatolian principalities. The majority of researchers equate Millawanda with Miletus and link the layer of destruction of Miletus V with Muršili's report on his campaign against Millawanda. The following Miletus VI shows clearly more Hittite elements. Maybe succeeded Tudhalija IV. (Ca. 1240-1215 v. Chr.), Not back the influence Ahhijawas to the coastal cities, which seems to have grown again in the course of the 13th century. The city wall of Milets, which was built in the second half of the 13th century BC. BC, shows strong parallels to Hittite city walls, e.g. B. the one around the Hittite capital Ḫattuša .
The north of Mira located Seha -Flussland to which according to the evidence of the letter of Manapa-Tarḫunta at least temporarily, the island Lazpa ( Lesbos ) was one, submitted to the face of the invading army Mursilis II. After it v to 1318th Had raised. Under Muwatalli II (approx. 1294-1272 BC) Wiluša , whose equation with the Homeric Ilios is often represented, but which has not yet been secured, became a vassal dependent on the Hittites through the Alaksandu Treaty. Wilusa's last known ruler, Walmu , was overthrown at the time of Tudhalijas IV , fled to Millawanda, which was no longer ruled by Aḫḫijawa, or to Mira, and was to be reinstated as a vassal king at the behest of the great king.
The end of the Bronze Age, Sub-Mycenaean Period
The discussion about the destruction and robbery of the sea peoples is characterized by countless apodictic statements that are not adequately supported by sources. The interpretations for the obvious, but not always well-timed destruction range from the Inner Mycenaean battles to uprisings to the extensive destruction of large groups of ships plundering peoples in search of a new home. It is also not clear over what time periods the possible peoples' movements extended. However, one can certainly assume that the enormous structures placed enormous burdens on the local populations, which was considered as a cause of uprisings, in addition to the exhaustion of the soil. Severe earthquake damage in the Argolida also indicates a possible cause. In any case, despite recognizable efforts, the previously developed structural splendor could not be developed again, which in our eyes is so characteristic of the main palaces. In any case, there was “total chaos” in Messenia, with around 90% of the settlements abandoned. In the eyes of the Mycenaeans, the gods refused to help the people, the rulers lost their prestige and their allegiance, the written form lost its social support in the course of this chain of catastrophes that lasted perhaps two centuries. It is also unclear whether the comparatively small rulers in the settlement chambers of Greece did not offer the rulers any opportunities to give their followers enough land, which could have undermined their loyalty. The fire in the granary in Mycenae, which began around 1125 BC. Was dated, seems to have led to the final decline of the rule there.
Various approaches to clarification were tried out in connection with the invasion model. It was stated that in Greece, the quality of the so-called hand-made smoothed ceramics (HGK), which fell far behind the Mycenaean (formerly also known as “barbaric” ceramics), which was discovered at various sites on the Greek mainland and on Crete, was an indication of corresponding immigration could apply. However, this occurs occasionally towards the end of the Late Helladic III B, i.e. before the destruction of the palace centers. In addition, the Mycenaean quality goods continued and found their continuation in the dense style and in the figural style. It is possible that there were mostly imperceptible immigrations, which possibly occurred seamlessly in the context of the Greek colonization movement from around 750 BC. Continue.
This last phase of the Aegean Bronze Age, the Late Helladic IIIC or Late Minoic IIIC, is based in its relative chronology on a few but very clear settlement stratigraphies. The lower castle of Tiryns offers the longest sequence. In its western half, a large area of around 20 by 80 m was excavated in the 1970s and 1980s; excavations followed at the north gate. The lower castle shows destruction events in quick succession, which allow a correspondingly precise ceramic sequence from the late Helladic IIIAi to the sub-Mycenaean phase. Post-palace settlements have been discovered in the northwest and northeast parts of the lower town surrounding the castle. The same applies to Mycenae. In Attica, the most important sites are the burial sites of Perati in the east and Kerameikos in Athens, the type site for the early Iron Age. In Thebes, after the destruction of the palace, a new settlement in the early and advanced Late Helladic IIIC could be proven. Also Lefkandi on Euboea and Pyrgos Livanaton ( Kynos ) at the Phiotis Coast, and the sanctuary of Kalapodi in its hinterland are for the transitional phase between postpalatialer culture and Iron Age is important, as are some sites in the northwest of the Peloponnese. In Lefkandi there was also a new settlement in the late Helladic IIIC, it was also rebuilt after a new fire and existed until the end of IIIC. In one of the horizons of destruction, skeletons were found showing serious injuries, some of which it turned out that they had only been buried in a makeshift manner, probably in a hurry.
In the Cyclades, phylakopi is important for the transition phase, as is koukounaries on Paros and Grotta. Also, Chania in Crete, a place of transition. On an area of 660 m² on Agia Aikaterini Square, it became apparent that an IIIC settlement had arisen on a destroyed late Helladic IIIB2 settlement. Knossos again offers most of the finds; In the east of the island, on the Gulf of Ierapetra , several remains of the settlement were examined. The Kastro von Kavousi (60 x 35 m) also offers a long, uninterrupted sequence. However, there is still no secured sequence for the island and synchronization with the mainland and Cycladic sequences has not yet been achieved.
This uncertainty is even greater in the north-west of the country. However, in Macedonia, tells have long sequences. This applies to the local settlements called toumba , Ayios Mamas (the prehistoric Olynthus ), Assiros, Kastanas and Thessaloniki (the name toumba is misleading because it denotes a burial site). But culturally the area belonged more to the Balkans, so that a correlation with Greek stratigraphies can hardly succeed. For example, the bulk of the ceramics there was handmade, not with the help of a potter's wheel. Nevertheless, Macedonia points to the 10th and 9th centuries BC. BC the most complete settlement plans of Greece. Mycenaean systems in Volos and Dimini were probably only destroyed in the 12th century.
The early late Helladic IIIC was traditionally defined as the first phase of the post-palace period, but meanwhile a transition phase between III B2 / III C has been determined early and the first palace demolitions can already be grasped at the very end in phase IIIB, others during the transition style. Although the relative chronology of Greece is mainly based on ceramic finds, more metal finds can now also be used in phase IIIC to support the chronology, such as fibulae.
For the absolute chronology the representations and inscriptions of Ramses III. in the Egyptian Medinet Habu of importance, as well as an Egyptian letter written in Akkadian , which was discovered in Ugarit . The letter was sent by Bay , the treasurer of Pharaoh Siptah . Siptah ruled from 1198/97 or 1194/93. Bay was executed in his fifth year in office. The letter must have been sent before 1194/93 or 1190/89. In a correspondence with the ruler of Alašija , Hammurapi III. warned by Ugarit of an imminent attack on Ugarit from the sea. According to the descriptions in Medinet Habu, Ramses III was in the 8th year of reign. (a. 1180/79) an attack by foreign peoples (see Sea Peoples ) on Egypt. Previously, these aliens are said to have destroyed many regions of the eastern Mediterranean, including Amurru . In any case, the destruction of Ugarit (and Amurru) mentioned by the inscription must have occurred before 1180 BC. Have taken place.
The early Late Helladic IIIC with its destruction is after the destruction of Ugarit. Point to this u. a. Finds in Ras Ibn Hani . This seaside settlement not far from Ugarit was destroyed around the same time as Ugarit. The most recent imports of Mycenaean pottery date to the late phase of SH IIIB. After the destruction there was a short period of resettlement. From this phase come u. a. Ceramic fragments in the style of the early SH IIIC. For the time after that, we do not have overarching data between the two metropolitan areas. Neither C14 dating nor dendrochronology help here, as the corresponding curve is very flat and even very suitable finds “fit” practically everywhere. The first dendrochronological data come from the Macedonian Tell site Assiros Toumba. An impact date for the posts and stands from phase 2 of approx. 1070 BC can be established. For the earliest phase 3 about ten years earlier. The excavators suggested for the post-palace phase around 1120 BC. BC, which is at least 50 years and up to 120 years before the previous assumptions. However, it could very well be that - even if the results are correct - the woods all come from a previous phase.
Mediated through the Italian finds from the latest Bronze Age ( Roca Vecchia in Apulia , Livorno Stagno in Tuscany ), a synchronization with the corresponding finds on the Swiss lakes was achieved. If this chain of assumptions is correct, then the Sub-Mycenaean period ended between 1070 and 1040 BC. Chr.
Iron age
Lack of timely writings
Contrary to the earlier descriptions, which referred to important names such as Homer , Hesiod or Herodotus , a political history can no longer be written according to the current state of research. Approaches of this kind that were dominant in the past tended to only reproduce what image the Greeks, who lived much later, had made of their Iron Age past. The idea of a special development in Greece independent of the Orient has become untenable, as the epochs before the Iron Age show.
At the beginning of the 20th century there was a gap in time between the palace cultures and the age of Homer; these " dark centuries " lasted from the 12th to the 8th century BC. Chr. It has long been believed that the archaeological finds in Troy, Mycenae or Knossos confirmed what the ancient authors and the Bible claimed. So one relied only too unchecked on the texts of the historians, especially on Herodotus and Thucydides . The latter had called the Cretan rulers "Hellenes", so that Minos could easily become a kind of king of Crete who also led a sea empire. In Mycenae Agamemnon ruled , in Pylos Nestor and the Greeks fought for Troy for ten years because of Helen .
The explanation for the clarity of Homer, who lived centuries after his heroes, was a presumed oral tradition, for the Linear A and B scripts had perished. On the other hand, the alphabet was only used in the 9th / 8th centuries. It was taken over and adapted by the Phoenicians in the 19th century, so that there was an unbridgeable gap in the written tradition. Parallel studies of other oral poetry traditions, such as those still shown in Serbian heroic chants of the 20th century, have shown that the poets interwoven numerous elements of their own epoch. Thus, the stories of Homer were reduced to include contemporary elements, but continued belief in a Bronze Age memory core.
Archaeological finds now confirm this. This is how Homer knew the strange boar tooth helmet , which has been archaeologically documented for the Mycenaean period. The grave of the Prince of Lefkandi discovered on Euboea confirmed that it was also in the 10th century BC, which was estimated to be poor. Chr. There were rich grave decorations, which corresponded to the idea one could get from Homer of a prince of the time. These are the remains of a more than 45 m long building in which the "Prince of Lefkandi" and his wife were buried along with rich and oriental objects. Thus the idea prevailed in research that Homer must in fact still have had ideas about the culture and mentality of such ancestral ancestors in the context of his largely oral culture.
Immigration and autochthonous peoples, concentrations of power
Even the migration of the Greek, especially the pre-Greek groups, is problematic. What is certain is that the Mycenaeans used an ancient Greek that has been partially handed down in their clay tablets. The dialectal deviations are only minor, even on Crete, which is no evidence of overarching rule, but at least of the adoption of Mycenaean administrative practice and its terminology. The language, it was assumed early on, came to Greece with immigrants; Cultural breaks can be proven, but not sufficient to be taken as evidence of massive immigration with displacement of older populations - even if the spread of apsidal houses, shaft axes or clay anchors during the early Bronze Age around 2500 BC. Were considered as an indication of this. Perhaps individual groups gradually infiltrated Greece. Older speculations according to which around 2000, 1600 and 1200 BC Large-scale invasions that have taken place are now obsolete. The break at the end of Early Helladic II around 2300/2200 BC is more likely to be discussed. BC, often in connection with the assumption of a nomadic Kurgan population that migrated to Greece via Anatolia or Macedonia. Historians like Jonathan Hall, based on considerations about the distribution of the Greek dialects, assume that as a result of internal turmoil around 1100, in many places settled down and temporarily renamed.
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For the Greeks of the Archaic and Classical periods there was no doubt that there were long-established groups that were displaced from many areas of Greece by three large Greek groups. But even this collective memory is contradicting itself. The Ionians considered themselves autochthonous, i.e. not immigrants, and in fact Attica was spared the destruction caused by the sea peoples. Perhaps they were just concealing the expulsion of the " Pelasgians " from Attica, who according to general tradition were considered autochthonous. Nevertheless, the thesis that the Ionians came to Greece at the beginning of the 2nd millennium is usually still held. Three more of the four main groups, the later Aeolians , Achaeans and Dorians, followed at long intervals - this has long been assumed - and later mixed with the resident, non-Greek "Pelasgians". Even in the early tradition, the two main patterns, repression and mixing, played a central role in the world of ideas. In addition, there is the motive of the robbery of women , more precisely the revenge for this robbery, which was also the basis of tradition after the Trojan War.
Herodotus writes that the first name of Greece was Pelasgía ( Histories 2, 56). He names Pelasger as residents of Plakia and Skylake on the Hellespont (1, 57), mentions the Samothracians , who had inherited certain mysteries from the Pelasgians (2, 51), perhaps also Dodona (2, 52), but certainly Lemnos (4, 145) and Imbros (5, 26) he considers Pelasgic - as well as Argos and Arcadia . Thucydides calls the inhabitants of Lemnos and Imbros "Tyrsenian Pelasgians" (Thucydides 4, 109 and others), according to Hecataeus of Miletus they were again expelled from Attica (also in Herodotus, Historien 6, 137). Sophocles transferred the term "Tyrsenian Pelasger" to the Pelasger of Argos. Accordingly, these pre-Greek groups settled in northern Greece and the Aegean Sea, but also in the Peloponnese.
On the other hand, the Etruscans of Italy were also called Pelasgians, in whose language an inscription on Lemnos has been handed down, or which is very closely related to their language. Whether there was a migration of this language group from east to west or vice versa is discussed, as well as an Anatolian origin of the Etruscans, which Herodotus already claimed, who took them to be Lydians , some of whom moved westward via Smyrna (1, 94) . Perhaps the Etruscans were also descendants of the Sea Peoples, who therefore came mainly from Italy and brought the Achaeans with them, who soon surpassed them in their activities.
Ionian pirates may encounter around 715 BC. BC in Assyrian sources for the first time under King Sargon II. The latter reports that he captured “Jamanu” off the Syrian coast, which threatened Cilicia and Tire.
The Dorians evidently displaced Greek-speaking populations from the mainland to the islands and to western Anatolia, so that at the beginning of the denser written tradition Eolians in the north, Ionians in the middle and Dorians in the south and on Crete. An immigration of the Dorians in several batches around 1000 BC. Is assumed. During this time, cremation became more prevalent and in vase painting the transition from sub-Mycenaean to protogeometric ceramics took place .
It is uncertain whether the groups that lived around Sparta in the 10th century formed a community of action from the start. Presumably, individual warriors proved their worth as managers who formed the core of an upper class. Two families who stood at the beginning of the Spartan double kingship prevailed. In the Corinthian area, there was evidence of growing social differentiation between the 9th and 8th centuries. The Bakchiads emerged as a leading family from the struggles within the developing upper class . She practiced from 748 BC. For almost a century BC it was oligarchic and the city experienced a strong economic boom.
Protogeometric, geometric and orientalizing epochs, new centers of power
The common division into a protogeometric (1050–900 BC), a geometric (up to 700) and orientalizing (up to 620 BC) epoch as well as an archaic phase (up to 480 BC) do not reflect any socio-political Development, but styles, especially Greek vase painting . In addition, the phases overlapped in time, regional styles emerged.
Nevertheless, they are an expression of an all-Greek community with unifying ideas and ideals. Homer became the herald of the competition to be the best of all. Vase paintings also tell of this world warlike ambition, which in many cases stood in opposition to the justice of the basileus . Diligence and skill, on the other hand, were considered ideals by craftsmen and farmers. Even the fighting ambition had to be channeled so that - often bloody - "sporting" fights and competitions were held in Olympia perhaps as early as the 9th, but at the latest in the 8th century. Some people associated a victory there with a rapprochement with the heroes of the past, who are now mythically revered.
On Andros , the remains of a complex were found in Zagora , which essentially existed between 760 and 750 BC. BC (Late Geometric I). In the 51 m² large hall of the “Palace of the City Prince” there were encircling seating in the form of firmly attached benches along three walls, so that one assumes a consultation room permanently set up for this purpose. To the southeast of the building was an altar, where rituals were performed in the open air at that time and where a temple was later built. In the east of the settlement there was a wall about 140 m long, which reached from ravine to ravine and through which only one gate led. Also the megaron of a smaller settlement near Emporio on Chios , the end of the 8th century BC. It was built at the same time as the protective wall of the Acropolis there. The megaron of the neighboring Emporion, which was also significantly larger than the usual houses, measured 18.25 by 6.40 m. And there, too, an altar was later built over by a temple, similar to the one on Aegina. In Koukounaries on Paros, too, a kind of council building was built in the second half of the 8th century, this time 13.7 m in length. However, this was built over an apsidal building from the late 10th century. There was also an altar just 12 m away, but the settlement was opened around 650 BC. Abandoned BC.
As in Lefkandi and Nichoria, religious ceremonies with fixed locations had been newly established, as had more or less regular, in any case frequent consultations. The leading men, later called basileus , had, if one trusts the tradition , to question the people, the demos , and they could appoint a commander who was capable of holding weapons. Zeus himself gave the community leaders the ability to make the right decisions. This is where ancient oriental ideas of rule and justice came into play, which influenced the image of an ideal basileus . Homer reports a method in Iliad 18: 497–508. In a place, the agora, where every single one of the elders, the gerontes , should come to a judgment in a dispute, the volume of the acclamation by the demos decided the case. Significantly, the question was whether or not wergeld had already been paid as compensation for the killing of a man. The blood feud should be contained with such compensation payments. Elsewhere (Odyssey 12, 439–440) this task was already taken over by an arbitrator, so that the way to institutional regulation of dangerous internal conflicts was paved. This task fell to the baseileis , as Hesiod's Theogony 85-89 around 700 BC. Proves.
Probably under Egyptian influence, but contrary to older assumptions probably not until the 7th century, the first ring hall temples or Peripteroi , the most widespread form of the Greek temple. The basis of such influences was the intensification of contacts in the eastern Mediterranean. A driving motive was the search for the luxury goods there, for which an increasingly socially differentiated society and above all its leadership class called. This also applied to the ceramic production of ever higher quality, which was based on the needs of the leading groups in the choice of its motifs. So burial rituals or fights, but also fighting or musical agons were depicted. The ruling class distinguished itself from the rest of the free people primarily through their behavior, for example by arranging symposiums at which the relationship to other places or the code of values of their own group were discussed. On the other hand, they appeared as arbitrators between quarreling freelancers, who in turn tried, as Hesiod suggests, to draw the masters to their side by means of gifts. The farmers, on the other hand, feared social decline, even if they did not have to pay any taxes and could live on their medium-sized farms. The thetes , the landless, free lower class such as artisans, wage laborers or traders, were only employed and paid when there was work available. Many of them will have been working on a small farm.
With the emergence of the Greek alphabet in the early 8th century, it became possible to fix Homer's epics in writing. These brought (supposed) memories of a heroic age into society, which in turn led to a veneration of the Mycenaean sites, which enjoyed increasing veneration as relics of the heroes of the past, now taken over as Greek. They also hoped for their support in a world populated by unpredictable gods.
In addition to the leadership group, which soon joined forces across the region, there was the larger group of the free. But the sharp dividing line existed between the free and the unfree, a group that the free could fall into at any time through robbery. As the property of a free person, they stood outside the legal and social associations of their masters. They were often won by robbery, with the slave trade being widespread, while the inhabitants of the conquered areas had previously been killed many times.
Between the free and slaves there were the inhabitants of large areas, collectively referred to as douloi . Among them were the Helots of Sparta. They were tied to the floe, so they were not allowed to leave their country, and were seen as the numerically largest group of the "public slaves". They were recognizable by their clothing. The same was true for the Penestae enjoyed in Thessaly, which, however, more freedom and more were tenant farmers who Klaroten and Mnoiten on Crete, the Korynephoroi (Leg support) of Argos or Gymnitai in Sikyon . The latter two were, however, not unfree in classical times, but free of lesser rights. The penests, who were in this position only from the early 5th century BC. BC, were perhaps descendants of the Pelasgians, who were subjugated by the Thessalians. Similar to Crete, the immigration probably took place in small groups, which for a very long period of time forced the groups there into bondage.
Sparta is likely to have annexed southern Lakonia much later, at least the area was too sparsely populated during the immigration phase, as was Sparta itself. In the middle of the 10th century, the four villages around Sparta, to which Amyklai, 5 km south of Sparta, was added . Before the eighth century, individual leaders could already gather loyalists for robbery and pillage. The inhabitants of the subjugated areas also became Lacedaemonians, but they were regarded as inferior perioces, as "residents". Others became lawless helots who had nothing to deliver to their new masters but dues for the land they worked. They were not sold outside of Sparta and were tied to the floe.
literature
Overview works
- Hans-Günter Buchholz , Vassos Karageorghis : Prehistoric Greece and Cyprus. An archaeological handbook. Phaidon, London 1973.
- Sinclair Hood : The arts in prehistoric Greece. Penguin, Harmondsworth 1978.
- Curtis Neil Runnels, Priscilla Murray: Greece before History. Stanford University Press, Stanford 1999.
- Nancy H. Demand: The Mediterranean Context of Early Greek History. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (West Sussex) 2011.
- Karl-Wilhelm Welwei : Greek history. From the beginnings to the beginning of Hellenism. Schöningh, Paderborn 2011.
- John Bintliff : The Complete Archeology of Greece. From Hunter-Gatherers to the 20th Century AD John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (West Sussex) 2012.
- Carol G. Thomas: Greece. A Short History of a Long Story, 7,000 BCE to the Present. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (West Sussex) 2014.
- Katerina Harvati , Eleni Panagopoulou, Curtis Runnels: The paleoanthropology of Greece , in: Evolutionary Anthropology 18 (2009) 131-143. ( academia.edu )
Paleolithic and Mesolithic
- Georgia Kourtessi-Philippakis: Le paléolithique de la Grèce continentale, état de la question et perspectives de recherche , Publications de la Sorbonne, Paris 1986, ISBN 2-85944-126-3 .
- Vangelis Tourloukis: The Early and Middle Pleistocene Archaeological Record of Greece. Current Status and Future Prospects , Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2011.
- Nena Galanidou, Christina Poupoulia, Stefanos Ligovanlis: The Middle Palaeolithic bifacial tools from Megalo Karvounari , in: Björn Forsén, Nena Galanidou, Esko Tikkala (eds.): Thesprotia Expedition. Landscapes of nomadism and sedentism , Vol. III, Suomen Ateenan-Instituutin säätiö, 2016, pp. 29–58.
- Christina Papoulia: Seaward dispersals to the NE Mediterranean islands in the Pleistocene. The lithic evidence in retrospect , in: Quaternary International 431 (2017) 64–87. ( academia.edu )
- Nena Galanidou: Advances in the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic archeology of Greece for the new millenium , in: Pharos 20 (2014) 1-40. ( academia.edu )
Neolithic
- Paul Halstead (Ed.): Neolithic Society in Greece. , Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield 1999.
- Catherine Perlès: The Early Neolithic in Greece. The First Farming Communities in Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2001.
- Claus Hattler (Hrsg.): Cyclades - living worlds of an early Greek culture. Badisches Landesmuseum, Karlsruhe / Primus, Darmstadt 2011.
Bronze age
- Hans-Günter Buchholz (Ed.): Aegean Bronze Age. Scientific Book Society Darmstadt, 1987, ISBN 3-534-07028-3 .
- Eric H. Cline (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012.
Iron Age, Archaic Age
- Anthony Snodgrass : The dark age of Greece. An archaeological survey of the eleventh to the eighth centuries BC . Edinburg University Press, Edinburgh 1971.
- James Whitley : Style and society in Dark Age Greece. The changing face of a pre-literate society 1100-700 BC . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1991.
- Susan Langdon: Art and identity in dark age Greece, 1100-700 BCE Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2008, ISBN 978-0-521-51321-0 .
- Kurt A. Raaflaub , Hans van Wees : A Companion to Archaic Greece. John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (West Sussex) 2009.
Remarks
- ↑ This and the following according to John Bintliff: The Complete Archeology of Greece. From Hunter-Gatherers to the 20th Century AD , John Wiley & Sons, 2012.
- ↑ Nena Galanidou, Constantin Athanassas, James Cole, Giorgos Iliopoulos, Athanasios Katerinopoulos, Andreas Magganas, John McNabb: The Acheulian Site at Rodafnidia, Lisvori, on Lesbos, Greece: 2010–2012 , in: Katerina Harvati, Mirjana Roksandic.) (Eds.) : Paleoanthropology of the Balkans and Anatolia , Springer, 2017, pp. 119–138, here: p. 135.
- ↑ Illustration of the skull of Petralona ( Memento of the original from January 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. .
- ↑ P. Kokkoros, A. Kanellis: Découverte d'un crâne d'homme dans la paleolithique péninsule chalcidique , in: L'Anthropology 64 (1960) 438-446.
- ^ GJ Hennig et al: ESR dating of the fossil hominid cranium from Petralona Cave, Greece , in: Nature 292 (1981) 533-536; doi: 10.1038 / 292533a0
- ↑ Michael Balter: In Search of the First European , in: Science 291,5509 (2001) 1724; doi: 10.1126 / science.291.5509.1722
- ^ Vangelis Tourloukis: The Early and Middle Pleistocene Archaeological Record of Greece. Current Status and Future Prospects , Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2011, pp. 40f. and 53.
- ↑ Katerina Harvati et al .: New Neanderthal remains from Mani peninsula, Southern Greece: The Kalamakia Middle Paleolithic cave site , in: Journal of Human Evolution 64 (2013) 486-499.
- ↑ The Stelida Naxos Archaeological Project .
- ↑ Tristan Carter, Daniel Contreras, Sean Doyle, Danica D. Mihailović, Theodora Moutsiou, Nikolaos Skarpelis: The Stélida Naxos Archaeological Project: new data on the Middle Palaeolithic and Mesolithic Cyclades , in: Antiquity 88 (2014), p. 341, ( Full text ( Memento of the original from October 31, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was automatically inserted and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this note. ).
- ↑ Nena Galanidou, Christina Papoulia: PS 43: A Multi-period Stone Age Site on the Kokytos Valley Bottom , in: Björn Forsén, Nena Galanidou, Esko Tikkala (ed.): Thesprota Expedition III. Landscapes of Nomadism and Sedentism , Helsinki 2016, pp. 99–120.
- ↑ Katerina Harvati, Eleni Panagopoulou, Panagiotis Karkanas: First Neanderthal remains from Greece: the evidence from Lakonis , in: Journal of Human Evolution 45 (2003) 465-473. ( online ).
- ↑ Thomas F. Strasser et al. a .: Stone Age Seafaring in the Mediterranean: Evidence for Lower Paleolithic and Mesolithic Inhabitation of Crete from the Plakias Region , in: Hesperia 79 (2010) 145-190 full text (PDF; 5.2 MB) .
- ↑ George Ferentinos, Maria Gkioni, Maria Geraga, George Papatheodorou: Early seafaring activity in the southern Ionian Islands, Mediterranean Sea , in: Journal of Archaeological Science 39 (2012) 2167–2176. ( abstract ).
- ^ Vangelis Tourloukis: The Early and Middle Pleistocene Archaeological Record of Greece. Current Status and Future Prospects , Amsterdam University Press, Amsterdam 2011, p. 53.
- ↑ Joachim Hahn : Recognizing and determining stone and bone artifacts. Introduction to artefact morphology (= Archaeologica Venatoria 10 ). 2nd Edition. Tübingen 1993. pp. 109-115.
- ↑ Peter U. Clark, Arthur S. Dyke, Jeremy D. Shakun, Anders E. Carlson, Jorie Clark, Barbara Wohlfarth, Jerry X. Mitrovica, Steven W. Hostetler, A. Marshall McCabe: The Last Glacial Maximum . In: Science . tape 325 , no. 5941 , 2009, p. 710-714 .
- ↑ Carol G. ThomasM: Greece. A Short History of a Long Story, 7,000 BCE to the Present , John Wiley & Sons, 2014, p. 8.
- ↑ Stefano Benazzi et al .: Early dispersal of modern humans in Europe and implications for Neanderthal behavior , in: Nature 479 (2011) 525-529 full text .
- ↑ Tephra layers were dated there more precisely: Panagiotis Karkanas , Dustin White, Christine S. Lane, Chris Stringer, William Davies, Victoria L. Cullen, Victoria C. Smith, Maria Ntinou, Georgia Tsartsidou, Nina Kyparissi-Apostolika: Tephra correlations and climatic events between the MIS6 / 5 transition and the beginning of MIS3 in Theopetra Cave, central Greece , in: Quaternary Science Reviews, June 17, 2014. The oldest layer was dated to ∼128–131 ka, the other two to over> 50 ka and 45.7 ka. ( abstract )
- ↑ Britt M. Starkovich: Fallow Deer (Dama dama) Hunting During the Late Pleistocene at Klissoura Cave 1 (Peloponnese, Greece) , in: Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für Urgeschichte 21 (2012) 11-36 ( online, PDF ( Memento des Originals vom July 14, 2015 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link has been inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. ).
- ↑ This and the following from: John Bintliff: The Complete Archeology of Greece. From Hunter-Gatherers to the 20th Century AD John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (West Sussex) 2012, pp. 40f.
- ↑ On the research project on the Klithi Cave cf. the comprehensive work of Geoffrey N. Bailey (ed.): Klithi. Palaeolithic Settlement and Quaternary Landscapes in Northwest Greece , 2 Vols., Cambridge 1997.
- ^ William J. Bernstein: A Splendid Exchange. How Trade Shaped the World , Grove Press, New York 2009, p. 23.
- ^ Mary C. Stiner , Natalie D. Munro: On the evolution of diet and landscape during the Upper Paleolithic through Mesolithic at Franchthi Cave (Peloponnese, Greece) , in: Journal of Human Evolution 60 (2011) 618-636 ( abstract ).
- ↑ This process was investigated for the Peolopnnesian caves Franchthi and Klissoura 1: Mary C. Stiner, Natalie D. Munro, Britt M. Starkovich: Material input rates and dietary breadth during the Upper Paleolithic through Mesolithic at Franchthi and Klissoura 1 Caves (Peloponnese, Greece ) , in: Quaternary International 275 (2012) 30-42 ( abstract ).
- ↑ Adamantios Sampson: The Mesolithic Settlement and Cemetery of Maroulas on Kythnos , in: NJ Brodie, J. Doole, G. Gavalas, C. Renfrew (eds.): Horizon - a colloquium on the prehistory of the Cyclades , McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge 2008, p. 13 and Maroulas on Kithnos .
- ↑ Eric H. Cline: The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , pp. 32f.
- ↑ On the East Anatolian roots of the Greek Neolithic cf. Mehmet Özdoğan: Archaeological Evidence on the Westward Expansion of Farming Communities from Eastern Anatolia to the Aegean and the Balkans , in: Current Anthropology 52, S4 (2011). doi: 10.1086 / 658895
- ↑ Catherine Perlès, Anita Quiles, Hélène Valladas: Early seventh-millennium AMS dates from domestic seeds in the Initial Neolithic at Franchthi Cave (Argolid, Greece) , in: Antiquity 87,338 (2013) 1001-1015. ( online )
- ↑ RJ King et al. a .: Differential Y-chromosome Anatolian Influences on the Greek and Cretan Neolithic, in: Annals of Human Genetics 72 (2008) 205-214 PMID 18269686 ; Paolo Anagnostou: The genetic signature of Neolithic in Greece . Dissertation University of Bologna 2011 ( online ).
- ↑ Amelie Scheu, Christian Geörg, Anna Schulz, Joachim Burger, Norbert Benecke: The arrival of domesticated animals in South-Eastern Europe as seen from ancient DNA , in: Elke Kaiser, Joachim Burger, Wolfram Schier (eds.): Population Dynamics in Prehistory and Early History. New Approaches Using Stable Isotopes and Genetics , Walter de Gruyter, Berlin 2012, pp. 45–54, here: p. 45.
- ↑ Patricia Balaresque et al. a .: A Predominantly Neolithic Origin for European Paternal Lineages , in: PLoS Biology 8,1 (2010) doi: 10.1371 / journal.pbio.1000285 .
- ↑ Ivan Gatsov: Prehistoric Chipped Stone Assemblages from Eastern Thrace and the South Marmara Region 7th-5th mill. BC John and Erica Hedges, Oxford 2009, p. 13.
- ^ Christian Marek, Peter Frei: History of Asia Minor in antiquity. Beck, Munich 2010, p. 82.
- ↑ Marco Masseti: A possible approach to the “conservation” of the mammalian populations of ancient anthropochorous origin of the Mediterranean islands , in: Folia Zoologica 58 (2009) 303-308, here: p. 305.
- ^ Bleda S. Düring: The Prehistory of Asia Minor. From Complex Hunter-Gatherers to Early Urban Societies , 2011, p. 126.
- ^ Joseph Maran: Cultural change on the Greek mainland and the Cyclades in the late 3rd millennium BC. Studies on the cultural conditions in Southeast Europe and the central and eastern Mediterranean area in the late Copper and Early Bronze Ages , vol. 1, Habelt, 1998, p. 136; for the cave cf. Konstantinos Zachas: Zas Cave on Naxos and the Role of Caves in the Aegean Neolithic , in: Paul Halstead (Ed.): Neolithic Society in Greece , Sheffield Academic Press, 1999, pp. 153-163.
- ↑ On violence in the Neolithic cf. Anastasia Papathanasiou: Evidence of trauma in Neolithic Greece , in: Rick J. Schulting, Linda Fibiger (Eds.): Sticks, Stones, and Broken Bones. Neolithic Violence in a European Perspective , Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, pp. 249-264.
- ↑ John Bintliff: The Complete Archeology of Greece. From Hunter-Gatherers to the 20th Century AD John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (West Sussex) 2012, p. 59.
- ↑ John Bintliff: The Complete Archeology of Greece. From Hunter-Gatherers to the 20th Century AD John Wiley & Sons, Chichester (West Sussex) 2012, p. 60.
- ^ Catherine Perlès: The Early Neolithic in Greece. The First Farming Communities in Europe. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2001, pp. 138 f.
- ↑ Whether metallurgy came from the Orient or from Northern Europe is discussed by Jean-François Maréchal: Leproblemème des origines de la métallurgie. Congreso internacional sobre patrimonio geológico y minero de la Sedpgym (Manresa, del 20 al 23 de septiembre de 2012) ( online ).
- ↑ This and the following according to Eric H. Cline (ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, p. XXX: Table 1. Aegean Bronze Approximate Chronology, Mainland Greece .
- ↑ On the Early Helladic on the mainland, I follow Jeannette Forsén: Mainland Greece , in: Eric H. Cline (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , pp. 53–65.
- ↑ It is attested from the periods MM II to SM IB of the Minoan culture.
- ↑ On the early Minoic I follow Peter Tomkins, Ilse Schoep: Crete , in: Eric H. Cline (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , pp. 66–82.
- ↑ Krzysztof Nowicki: The Final Neolithic (Late Chalcolithic) to Early Bronze Age Transition in Crete and the Southeast Aegean Islands: Changes in Settlement Patterns and Pottery , in: Valasia Isaakidou, Peter Tomkins (ed.): Escaping the Labyrinth. The Cretan Neolithic in Context , pp. 201–228, here: p. 204.
- ↑ Krzysztof Nowicki: The Final Neolithic (Late Chalcolithic) to Early Bronze Age Transition in Crete and the Southeast Aegean Islands: Changes in Settlement Patterns and Pottery , in: Valasia Isaakidou, Peter Tomkins (ed.): Escaping the Labyrinth. The Cretan Neolithic in Context , pp. 201–228, here: p. 209.
- ^ Philip P. Betancourt: The Chrysokamino Metallurgy Workshop and Its Territory , American School of Classical Studies at Athens, Athens 2006.
- ↑ Cretan Hieroglyphics. 18th-17th century BC .
- ↑ Brandon L. Drake: The influence of climatic change on the Late Bronze Age Collapse and the Greek Dark Ages , in: Journal of Archaeological Science 39.6 (2012) 1862-1870.
- ↑ Eric H. Cline: The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , p. 74.
- ↑ See Yasemin Leylek: Public spaces in the Minoan culture. A transdisciplinary study of the public sphere and social interaction in the Bronze Age . Dissertation Heidelberg 2013 ( full text ).
- ↑ Minoan Crete: A Bronze Age Civilization, Tylisos
- ↑ On this question I follow Todd Whitelaw: Recognizing polities in prehistoric Crete , in: M. Relaki, Y. Papadatos (ed.): From the Foundation to the legacy of Minoan Society , Oxbow Books, Oxford 2014 (?). ( online, PDF )
- ^ This and the following from Colin Renfrew : Cyclades , in: Eric H. Cline (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , pp. 83-95.
- ↑ Adamatios Sampson: The Neolithic settlement at Ftelia, Mykonos , University of the Aegean, 2002, p 155th
- ↑ Lila Marankou: Μακριαν́η Αμοργόυ. Markiani, Amorgosan. Early bronze age fortified settlement. Overview of the 1985-1991 investigations. British School at Athens, Athens 2006.
- ↑ Peggy Sotirakopoulou (Ed.): The "Keros Hoard". Myth or Reality? Searching for the Lost Pieces of a Puzzle , Getty Publications, Los Angeles 2005.
- ↑ Vaia Economidou: Cycladic Settlements in the Early Bronze Age and their Aegean Context , Dissertation, University College London, 1993, pp. 109–111 ( full text ).
- ↑ Colin Renfrew: Cyclades , in: Eric H. Cline (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , p. 90.
- ↑ Mariya Ivanova: Fortified settlements in the Balkans, in the Aegean Sea and in Western Anatolia, approx. 5000–2000 BC. Chr , Waxmann, 2008, p. 216f.
- ↑ Mariya Ivanova: Fortified settlements in the Balkans, in the Aegean Sea and in Western Anatolia, approx. 5000–2000 BC. Chr , Waxmann, 2008, p. 208.
- ↑ This and the following according to Sofia Voutsaki: Mainland Greece , in: Eric H. Cline (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 99–112.
- ↑ Wolfgang Helck (Ed.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie , Volume 1, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1975, Sp. 69.
- ↑ This and the following according to Ilse Schoep: Crete , in: Eric H. Cline (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , Oxford University Press, Oxford 2012, pp. 113–125 and Jan Driessen, Charlotte Langohr: Recent developments in the Archeology of Minoan Crete . ( online )
- ↑ Phourni , Minoan Crete by Ian Swindale.
- ↑ Eric H. Cline: The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , p. 116.
- ↑ Ilse Schoep: Crete , in: Eric H. Cline (ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 113–125, here: p. 118.
- ↑ Alan AD Peatfield, Christine Morris: Dynamic spirituality on Minoan peak sanctuaries in Kathryn Rountree, Christine Morris, Alan AD Peatfield (ed.): Archeology of Spiritualities , New York 2012, pp 227-245.
- ↑ Don Evely: Agios Charalambos cave ( online , PDF)
- ↑ This and the following from Robin LN Barber: Cyclades , in: Eric H. Cline (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 126-137.
- ↑ According to the so-called "high chronology", which follows the scientific data of the Minoan eruption on Thera , according to conventional chronology around 1600 BC. Chr.
- ↑ This and the following according to Kim Shelton: Mainland Greece , in: Eric H. Cline (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 139–148.
- ↑ Hans Lohmann : Kiapha Thiti and the Synoikismos of Theseus. in: Hans Lohmann, Thorsten Mattern (eds.): Attika. Archeology of a “central” cultural landscape. Files from the international conference from 18. – 20. May 2007 in Marburg. Harrowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 35-46
- ↑ Basically on the formation of palace centers in parts of Mycenaean Greece that controlled and economically administered large regions: Birgitta Eder : Considerations on the political geography of the Mycenaean world, or: Arguments for the supraregional importance of Mycenae in the Late Bronze Age Aegean , in: Geographia Antiqua 18, 2009, pp. 5–45 (with further references)
- ^ Karl-Wilhelm Welwei: Greek history. From the beginnings to the beginning of Hellenism , Schöningh, 2011, p. 26.
- ↑ Tassilo Schmitt: No king in the palace. Heterodox reflections on the political and social order in the Mycenaean period , in: Historische Zeitschrift 188 (2009) 281–346.
- ↑ Point Iria Wreck and Giannēs Vēchos: The Point Iria Wreck. Interconnections in the Mediterranean, approx. 1200 BC: proceedings of the international conference, Island of Spetses, September 19, 1998 , Hellenic Institute of Marine Archeology, 1999.
- ^ Karl-Wilhelm Welwei: Greek history. From the beginnings to the beginning of Hellenism , Schöningh, 2011, p. 32.
- ^ Karl-Wilhelm Welwei: Greek history. From the beginnings to the beginning of Hellenism , Schöningh, 2011, p. 23.
- ↑ This and the following from Erik Hallager: Crete, in: Eric H. Cline (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 149–159.
- ↑ Peter Warren, Vronwy Hankey: Aegean Bronze Age Chronology , Bristol Classical Press, Bristol 1989th
- ^ Sturt W. Manning: The absolute chronology of the Aegean early Bronze Age. Archeology, radiocarbon and history , Sheffield Academic Press, Sheffield 1995.
- ↑ Maria Andreadaki-Vlazaki: To έργο της ΚΕ Εφορείας Προϊστορικών και Κλασικών Αρχαιοτήτων κατά τα έτη 2004-2008 , in: (Ed.) M. Andrianakis, I. Tzachili, Αρχαιολογικό Έργο Κρήτης 1, Πρακτικά της 1ης Συνάντησης, Ρέθυμνο, 28 –30 Νοεμβρίου 2008, Rethymnon 2010, pp. 16–33, here: p. 17.
- ↑ Erik Hallager: Crete, in: Eric H. Cline (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , Oxford University Press, 2012, p. 157.
- ^ Karfi archaeological site. Lassithi, East Crete
- ↑ This and the following from Robin LN Barber: Cyclades , in: Eric H. Cline (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , Oxford University Press, 2012, pp. 160-170.
- ↑ Georg Kalaitzoglou: The Milesian peninsula in prehistoric times and its western Anatolian environment , Habil., Bochum 2009.
- ↑ Sevinç Günel: Mycenaean cultural impact on the Çine (Marsyas) plain, southwest Anatolia: the evidence from Çine-Tepecik , in: Anatolian Studies 60 (2010) 25-49.
- ↑ See above all Susanne Heinhold-Krahmer on the uncertainties and problems of this equation : Has the identity of Ilios with Wiluša been finally proven? in: Studi micenei ed egeo-anatolici. 45, 2004, pp. 29-57.
- ^ Karl-Wilhelm Welwei: Greek history. From the beginnings to the beginning of Hellenism , Schöningh, 2011, p. 42.
- ↑ This and the following according to Reinhard Jung: End of the Bronze Age , in: Eric H. Cline (Ed.): The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean , pp. 171-184.
- ↑ Jacques Freu: La tablet RS 86.2230 et la phase finale du royaume d'Ugarit , Syria 65 (1988), pp. 395-398
- ↑ Pierre Grandet: L 'Execution du Chancelier Bay o. Ifao 1864 , Bulletin de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale 100 (2000), pp. 339-345
- ↑ Jonathan Hall: A History of the Archaic Greek World. ca 1200–479 BCE , Oxford 2007, 2nd ed. John Wiley & Sons, 2013.
- ↑ This was already represented by Fritz Schachermeyr : Etruskische Frühgeschichte , de Gruyter 1929, p. 270.
- ↑ Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 10 (1886), p. 5 .
- ↑ Guido Barbujani: The Etruscans - a population genetic study , in: Günter Hauska (Ed.): Genes, languages and their evolution , Universitätsverlag, Regensburg 2005, pp. 185–196.
- ↑ Norbert Oettinger : Sea Peoples and Etruscans. In: Yoram Cohen, Amir Gilan, Jared L. Miller (Eds.): Pax Hethitica. Studies on the Hittites and Their Neighbors in Honor of Itamar Singer. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2010, pp. 233–246.
- ↑ Most recently in Donald Kagan, Gregory F. Viggiano: Men of Bronze. Hoplite Warfare in Ancient Greece , Princeton University Press, 2013, p. 181. Since 1939, however, there has also been an interpretation as a Cilician, which Ernst Friedrich Weidner brought up, especially since at least one of the men has a Cilician name.
- ↑ John Boardman et al. a .: Greek Emporio . Thames & Hudson, London 1967.
