A brief review of the Greek prehistory
The anthropological findings in Trillia and Petralona,
allowed Greece to be declared as the country of
Anthropogenesis. Man branched out from the trunk
of the Hominids, at the beginning of the Oligocene
Epoch, 12 million years ago. Here are the intervals
of the various epochs:
13 million years ago.
Oligocene. Spanned about 9 m.y. Rocks include volcanic
deposits, marine sands, clays and marls.
4 million years ago.
Pliocene. Spanned about 3 m.y. Marine sediments flank
the coasts of most continents.
1 million years ago.
Pleistocene. Spanned about 990,000 years. Dominance
of modern forms of life. End of the last Ice Age.
10,000 years ago.
Olocene. Appearance of the Civilization. End of the last Ice Age.
Today
Our view in reference to Man’s history, is as follows:
12 million years ago. Lower Palaeolithic
Spanned about 11.9 million years. Man appears in
Northern Greece as a separate species. Three million
years ago this being is hunting in an organized
way. [The elephant of Ptolemais] Two million years
ago man acquires articulated speech. One million
years ago discovers the use of fire, invents craft
specialization, and aquires the idea of God. [Man
of Petralona] Half a million years later, at the
end of the Mindel glaciation, god Uranus, is replaced
by Cronus. Astronomy and Geometry in parallel,
inaugurate the introduction of Science in man’s
life. Three hundred thousands years later, at the
end of the Roess Ice Age, Cronus is replaced by
Zeus. Navigation and Tillage make their first infantile
steps, and one hundred thousands years ago, the
climate begins again to become dryer and colder.
The glaciers advance toward lower altitudes, and
man is seeking refuge into the caves, at the outset
of the Wurm Ice Age, beginning of the Middle Palaeolithic.
100 000 BC. Outset of Middle Palaeolithic
Spanned about 67,000 years. Man uses stones and bones
in fashioning more sophisticated tools and weapons.
Great leap forward of Astronomy, Geometry and Arithmetics.
Measurements of time by the dripping water in the
caves and discovery of the Precession. Equality
of seasons’ duration, and near the end a new method
of measuring time, via the consumption of oil in
oil lamps.
33 000 BC. Outset of Upper Palaeolithic
Spanned about 25,000 years. First temple of Delphi,
made of laurel branches, which Apollon brought
from Tempe valley, c. 31000 BC. New kind of chipped
stone implements. Man still lives into the caves.
First signals of a warming climate, begin to appear
around 18,000 BC. Huge volumes of water from the
melting glaciers in the mountains, are transferred
down to the sea, the level of which begins to rise
by about 12 mm a year in average. The caverns on
the sea level and the habitats in the open are
swallowed by the waters, while torrential rains
and landslides take with them many lives. For about
10 thousand years everything is soaked to water.
Bloody skirmishes are given at the entrances of
caves lying in higher altitudes. Inspite the hostile
elements, Man is determined not only to survive,
but to continue walking on the road of Science,
an activity which he believes, improves his way
of living.
Astronomy and Geometry are in advanced levels. The
culture of the caves has evolved to the conception
of religion. Political interests while the Greek
language disposes millions of words. [Program Ibicus,
Prof. linguistic Mc Donald, University of California
at Berkley]
8 000 BC. Outset of Mesolithic
Spanned about 1,000 years. Short transit period between
Palaeo-lithic and the Neolithic. A time when food
comes from hunting and collecting gives way gradually
to tillage and animal husbandry. Outset of the
new warm period. From Frachthi cave evidence is
provided, that the game now is not mammoths and
reindeers, but fawns and wild goats. Bones of big
fishes and obsidian from the volcanic deposits
of Melos, 8th millennium BC, attest for offshore
fishing and navigation. No evidence for migration.
7 000 BC. Outset of Neolithic
Spanned about 4,000 years, is subdivided in 4 periods
of 1,000 years each: Proceramic, Early, Middle
and Later Neolithic. The most important development
in the Neolithic is not the manufacture of new
kind of stone tools, but the production by man
of his own food. The term Neolithic denotes a primary
but effective village-farming community, which
produces its food from cultivation and domesti-cated
animals, in addition to game anfd fishing. Greece
is in the vanguard of animal and plant domestication,
because it occupies a region where both, wheat-barley
and sheep-goats are at home.
Most striking feature of Neolithic in Greece, is
the smooth transference from one sub-period to the
next. This is very important, because foreign experts
are addicted with the idea of a north or east migration
toward Greece. Telling evidence from excavations
and ancient authors, on the other hand, support the
contrary, that the Greeks migrated, for two strong
reasons: First because of over-population in Greece,
for they were in the vanguard of cultivation, and
second because they disposed the means for doing
it, ships. For Crete we could say that being self-sufficient
for long time, i.e. from the Proceramic to the end
of the Later Neolithic, did no show interest in navigation.
So the trade with Crete was mostly in the hands of
Cycladic islanders, who were the first to learn the
language of the sea.
7000 - 6000 BC. Proceramic.
In the Hellenic territory six at least Proceramic
assemblages have been excavated: Argissa, Sesclo
and Soufli-Magoula in Thessaly, Frachthi in Argolis,
Knossos in Crete and Khirokitia in Cyprus. Among
the findings are well polished stone implements
for shipbuilding and harvesting. Bones are: 85%
from sheep-goats, 10% from cattles and 5% from
hogs. Of great significance is the fact that the
remains from the cereals found in all sites, are
species closer to today species than to their wild
forms, which means that they were domesticated
and cultivated long time ago. In Khirokitia have
been unearthed 1,000 cyclic habitations of a diameter
6 to 10 m each [6500 BC], with lofts, meaning for
certain a town of around 10,000 residents. And
with farming attested by millstones and sickles
The site challenges the debated Jericho of Palestine,
as the first town ever..
6000 - 5000 BC. Early Neolithic.
Sites of this period have been excavated all over
Greece. Special feature of the era is man’s full-time
engagement with agriculture and animal husbandry.
Direct evidence are burned down cereals and pulses,
while milk, principal product of the latter, leads
to the need for durable nonporous containers. Food
storage, i.e. cereals and pulses, leads to skirmishes,
and then to the fortification of the occupation
places. War, next step of Civilization, is inaugurated
as a consequence of food storage. The way farming
“solved” the problem of human’s famine. Man’s experimentation
in the Palaeo-lithic with clay figurines, helps
now in shaping and firing primitive vessels. Craft
for basket making. An industry in Frachthi for
ornaments, using small drill-like implements to
perforate shells. The only case where they were
discovered “not only of the finished product but
also of the tools that were used to make it.” [Jacobsen].
Any foreign cultural influence in Greece, is ruled
out. Hellenes mariners migrate farming to Italy,
Sardinia, Corsica and the Iberia. The gifts of
tillage, along with the Greek gods and language.
5000 - 4000 BC. Middle Neolithic.
Economy now is fully established upon animal husbandry,
farming, and in the seaside areas, fishing. Representative
region for this period is Thessaly, where improvements
in the architecture and the organization of the
settlings, along with a pottery ornamentation with
vivid colours, are the main features of the time.
Fortification, on the other hand, seems now to
be an indisputable necessity. Increased communications
with the islands are attested by the frequent presence
of obsidian. The all around impression is that
Middle Neolithic succeded Early Neolithic in a
peacefull way. Again, migration of any kind from
the north or the east, is excluded. On the contrary,
Agriculture, onboard the ships of the Greeks, is
voyaging to Egypt, around the Black Sea, and upsailing
the Istrus river disembarks in Germany, Holland
and the Central Europe in general. Along with the
Greek gods and language.
4000 - 3000 BC. Latter Neolithic.
An exterior characteristic of this period is the
colour of the vessels which is dark or grey, and
the ornamentation consisting of spirals and meanders.
In central Europe in particular the meander, and
the spiral in France appear since the Upper Palaeolithic.
In the East the meander appeared in the Proceramic.
An added attestation for a very old Hellenic marine
activity.
3000 BC. Outset of the Bronze Age.
Spanned for 1,900 years. The era of the Metals did
not took mankind by storm. Gold, for example, appearing
in nature as it is, was known for hundred thousand
years, its softness made it useless, save for jewellry.
In the Latter Neolithic the art of making ceramic
vessels reahed the stage of smelting. Smelting was
made in furnances, where the temperature was many
times, over the melting point of copper 1083oC. In
such cases, if copper was included in the clay by
which the vessel was made, it was melted, and the
vessel destroyed. From such “destructions”, copper
was discovered. In the same way, some more metals
came to be known to folks. Here is a list of melting
points, of some very common metals:
1083oC. Copper [Chalkis in Greece, and in Cyprus]
1063oC. Gold [In Pagaeon mountain, Sifnos island,
and in rivers]
960oC. Silver [In Lavrion, Attica]
327oC. Plumb [In Lavrion]
327oC. Tin [In M. Asia, and Cassiterides islands, Britain & Ireland]
New more efficient implements of copper hardened by tin, made ship-building
much easier, increased the number of sailing ships, and pushed trade forward
tremendously. Bronze Age is divided in:
3000 to 1900 BC. Early Bronze Age.
1900 to 1600 BC. Middle Bronze Age.
1600 to 1100 BC. Late Bronze Age.
We notice that copper in areas, like Crete, or Eutrete in Boeotia, was known
prior to 3000 BC, but not used, or its use was limited.
3000 - 1900 BC. Early Bronze Age.
Places in Greece, with findings listed in this age
are numerous. For example: Phylakope on Melos island,
island of Ceros with its same name “Treasure”,
Knossos, Messara, Zacrus, Mochlus, Platanus, Archanes,
and Hierapetra in Crete, Olympia, Pylos, Argos,
Lerna, Mycenae, Tiryns, and Asea in Peloponnesus.
Striking event of the era is the Minoan Civilization
of Crete, 2600 to1450 BC. Around 2600 BC, the Cycladic
Civilization of the Aegean 3200-2200 BC, was in
its apex. The islanders of the Aegean “invaded”
Crete, where among other things, they conveyed
to their brothers the art of sailing. In Crete,
due its trait as forested, shipbuilding was wel-comed,
and soon the Cretan sailors surpassed their instructors.
Crete became the most powerful sea force of the
time, and its merchants did not know limits in
their overseas voyages, streaching beyond Heracles’
Pillars, and as far as Britain and Ireland, to
get tin, and the Baltic shores to get amber. The
presence of the Cretans in the Cornwal is corroborated
by the finding of double axes, the most characteristic
feature of the Cretan Civilization, bronze swords
and arrow projectils. In Egypt Memphis is founded.
Received view defines the first period of the Minoan
Civilization, 2600-1900 BC, the Pre-Anactorian
[from the Greek anactoron = palace]. The outset
of the era coincides with the first pyramid in
Egypt, the steped pyramid of king Djoser in Saqqara,
while its end falls at the end of the Early Bronze
Age, when wealth and experience from sea trade
were accumulated in the island.
1900 -1600 BC. Middle Bronze Age.
The great age of Crete was the Palaeo-Anactorian
era, 1900 -1700 BC, the time for the imposing palaces
of king Minos in Knossos, Malia and Phaistos, particularly
the first one. At a time when the sea route from
the Red Sea to Mediterranean was open, the Cretans
traveled south to Ethiopia and east to Mesopotamia,
where they up-sailed the rivers Tigris and Euphrates.
Minoan silverware made by the Kaptaru [the Cretans]
were in great demand, as texts at Mari of the middle
Euphrates mention. On the other hand, a seal of
hematitis, of the Hammurabi dynasty, 18th century
BC, was found in a vaulted tomb of Messara, Crete.
Egyptian written records speaking about transportation
of cedar-timber from Phoenicia onboard ships of
the Kefti [again Cretans], prove beyond doubt,
that Egyptian sailors never existed. In tombs of
Abydus of the 12th dynasty 1991-1783 BC, were found
ceramic vessels from Kamares of Crete. Vessels
of the same kind were found also in the sites Kahum,
Illahum and Harageh, where the pyramids are. Evans
supported that even the works in the Pharus harbour
at the delta of the Nile, were made by the Cretans
of the Palaeo-Anactorian times. Three times the
palaces of the island were destroyed by earthquakes,
and twice rebuilt. But at the third time it was
a total loss. So, they burried the remains, and
built new palaces on top of them.
1600 -1100 BC. Late Bronze Age.
a. 1700 -1450 BC, in Crete. The Neo-Anactorian period.
The end.
b. 1450 -1100 BC, in proper Greece. The Mycenaean
Civilization.
The Neo-Anactorian period was the Golden Age of the
Minoan Civilization. The repeated catastrophs of
the Minoan centers in the previous period, instead
of despairing the Cretans, pushed them onward. Knossos
is a real town of 100,000 inhabitants. The new palaces,
express the accumulated unlimited wealth of its merchant-sailors,
along with the private villas of rich individuals:
Knossos: 22,000 sq.m., and 1,500 rooms.
Phaistos: 9,000 sq.m.
Malia: 9,000 sq.m.
Zacros: 8,000 sq.m.
The Minoans rule the seas of the world. From Britain
and the Baltic to Ethiopia and Mesopotamia, the ships
of Crete cleave the waves, in a clear showing of
their unchallenged sovereignity over the open sea.
Life on the island reaches unprecedented levels.
Athletic games like boxing, wrestling, jumping, racing,
bull-fighting appear, while the noble use chariots
of one horse. Two more strong movements of the subsoil,
one in 1600 BC and another in 1500 BC are not enough
to check Minos’ citizens impetous. But the dormant
monster some miles to the north, was about to awake.
Sometime between 1500 BC and 1450 BC, the volcano
on the island of Thera [Santorini] erupted, with
a force 4 times that of the Krakatao eruption of
1883. It was the sudden death of the brilliant Minoan
Civilization.
While the Minoan Civilization at the Neo-Anactorian
period was in full blossom, the ashes from the Engeladus’
eruption, fertilized the soil of another town: Mycenae.
The void the Civilization of Crete left behind, the
ascending power of the Achaean settlement in Argolis,
came to fill. The new Mycenaean Civilization was
a fact.
As far early as 1600-1500 BC, vessels from Mycenae
appear in the tombs of the 18th Dynasty in Egypt,
in Syria, in Palestine, in Jordan and in the Lipares
islands. Mycenaean trade stations or outposts are
established in Taras of Italy, Ugarit [from the Greek
Euagoritis] in Syrian coast and Cyprus. An outcome
of the general prosperity in Greece is a population
increase in the ensuing 13th century BC, when an
all new complex road system appears. Mycenaean craftsmen
migrate to Cyprus, Syria, seaside Palestine and Egypt.
Achaeans’ marine sovereignity all over the Mediterranean,
and havy colonization of the district of Canaan,
where at least 50 settlements along Orontes and Jordan
rivers, and 9 up to Aswan in Egypt, have been unearthed,
reveal who rules the sea. Intense trade exchanges
in the 14th and 13th centuries BC, of Tiryns with
Troy and Miletos, and Athens with Mersina, Ugarit,
Byblos, Sidon, Gaza and El Aris of Egypt. Also of
Engome of Cyprus with Ungarit, Byblos and Sidon.
A dearth of wheat in the interior of Asia Minor around
1150 BC, sets in motion the “Peoples of the sea”
down to Syria and Palestine, where the prosperous
centers of the area like Ugarit are destroyed. The
concequence is a strong blow to commerce, which badly
strikes the Mycenaean centers, driving them to the
fall.
The last flash of the Mycenaean Civilization comes
from Cyprus, 1050 BC. The island gets a fresh influx
of Greek settlers in the 14th, 13th, and 12th centuries
BC, becoming indisputably Hellenic, a character the
inhabitents will keep till today. Religious elements
were received from the Pantheon of the Hellenic mainland
while the dialect of the Greek-Cypriots, has many
similarities with the Hellino-Arcadic dialect. Cyprus
is literally an “Ark of the Greek Tradition”.
At the Late Bronze period Cyprus is the greatest
copper exporter from Troodos mountain, whereas its
economy never ceased to contemplate farming as the
firm foundation. In parallel, the island is covered
with workshops of gold for jewelry, of clay for ceramic
vessels and statuettes, of enamel for various uses,
etc. The harbours are congested with Greek ships,
given that no other people at the time knew the language
of the sea.
Special attention should be given to the not yet
been deciphered Cyprus writing, a system which appeared
around 1500 BC. The writing is linear, and have been
found on tablets. A tablet of the kind was unearthed
also in Ungarit, which means that the script was
widespread at the expiring Bronze Age.
On tablets of the Hettites and Mari archives, the
old name of the island, since 1700 BC, Alacia appears,
while Cyprus the present appellation was known to
the Achaeans, since it has been found in tablets
with Linear Script B.
1100 BC. Outset of the Iron Age.
The term was devised by to designate the range and
traces of cultural activities wherein tools of
iron began to accompany bronze tools in the materials
found in excavations. The transition from bronze
to iron came gradually and unevenly after the use
of iron began in the Hittite Empire about 1500
BC. By around 1200 BC, iron was fairly well known
in the Near East, but not until perhaps 800 BC
was it the standard metal for molitary equipment.
In Central Europe the beginning of the Iron Age
has been set from 900 to 600 BC. For Japan is said
to have moved from the New Stone Age to the Iron
Age, without an intervening Bronze Age, about 200
AD. And to have progressed into the modern historical
period around 700 AD. In Fiji islands of the Pacific,
iron was introduced in 1872 AD, and for some Australian
and New Guinean tribes the transition from Stone
Age to Iron Age began after World War II. It is
important the Iron Age is a stage of cultural development
rather than a period of time. It deals with the
culture of Europe from around 1200 BC, the siege
of Troy, to the expansion of the Roman Empire over
the Alps.
1100 - 800 BC. The Dark Ages. End of Prehistory.
At the end of the Late Bronze Age the weakening power
of the Mycenaean centers, attracted the attention
of other Hellenic tribes, low on the cultural level,
from the interior highland. And an offensive move
is on the way. In 1200 BC the Thessalians and the
Boeotians from the Pindus mountain establish first
in Arne, of the country later to be called Thessaly.
A part of the Boeotians, under king Opheltas, will
murch on south to a district which will receive
the name Boeotia. In 1125 BC the Dorians or Heracleides,
from the Doris province, begin a well planned movement
toward Messenia, Laconia, Argolis and Corinthia
of Peloponnesus, where the old inhabitants either
compromised with the newcomers, or willingly expatriated
by land and sea, creating other migrational waves
of secondary importance. In 1125-1100 BC the Iones
from Aegialeia and Attica, settled Euboea, the
Cyclades islands, Chios, Samos and Asia Minor coast,
where they give their name to the country. In 1100-1050
BC the Achaeans from Laconia migrate to Knossos,
Crete, and from Argolis to Cyprus. In 1050-950
BC the Aeolians establish in Lesbos and on the
Asia Minor coast, and in Chios, Samos and the Asia
Minor coast, along with the Iones. In 950-800 BC
the Dorians from Argolis settle in Rhodos, Cos,
Calymnos, Halicarnassus and Crete, Heraclion and
Rethymnon. Also Magnetes from Pelion mountain of
Thessaly, migrate at the Meandrer and Hermus valleys
of Asia Minor.
The stirring in the Hellenic lands from the tribe
movements, leads to a general retrogression, until
the end of the 10th century BC, when peace is reestablished.
An outcome of the new conditions, is economy’s ameliora-tion,
so that shrinked commerce makes a timid show up around
900 BC, when Euboean pottery appears in Cyprus. Within
50 years, in the middle of the 8th century BC, the
trade between Euboea, Cyclades and Rhodos and Cilicia
[Tarsos], and Syria [Al Mina, at the mouth of Orontes
river] is in full blossom, thanks also to the iron
ore of Taurus. On the other hand, around 1000 BC,
a new marine people from the Syrian coast, the Phoenicians,
appear. There presence in the Greek seas, lasted
one century only, the 9th. Homeric references about
Phoenician pirates in Troyan War times, are ruled
out, for the poet was unaware of the above cognition.
In the middle of the 8th century, two Hellenic trade
stations, Kyme and Iskia are established in west
Italy, thanks to the newly discovered iron mines
on Elba [Aethalia] island. Phoenicians expelled from
the Greek seas, turn their interest toward west Mediterranean,
when the isolated old Hellenic towns of Carchidon
in Tunis, and Tartessus [now Gadiz] in south Iberia,
fall victims to the Phoenician rapacity.
A remarkable chronology is 776 BC, the year of the
first Olympic Games, in which the right of participation
was recognized to athlets of only Greek origin, namely
to folks recognized liberty as the supreme ideal
of Man. Later, after 2672 years, this right of participation
was recognized to everybody. But the Hellenic nation
expressing authentically the Olympic ideals, retains
the right to deny participation to modern barbarians.
800 BC. Outset of History
Before the deciphering by M. Ventris in 1953 of the
Linear Script B, the Hellenic prehistory ended
at the beginning of the 8th century BC. After the
decoding the beginning of the Greek history pushed
back by 8 centuries, at the outset of the 16th
century BC. Nonetheless, the old terminology did
not vanish, so that for readers’ benefit, we extended
our reference till the 8th century BC, although
the interval 16th to 8th century BC, now belongs
to the Greek history.
