BRONZE AGE GREECE

 

In the third millennium BCE, a relatively sophisticated culture grew up on both the Greek mainland and the surrounding islands. In particular, the inhabitants of the Cyclades began to produce beautiful works of sculpture.

 

Greece consists of mainland Greece on the Balkan Peninsula and a mass of islands, large and small, scattered over the Aegean Sea and extending as far south as Crete in the Mediterranean. The climate is volatile, with extreme fluctuations in temperature, strong winds, and sudden downpours of torrential rain. The main agricultural products are olives, grapes, and figs. In ancient times, both cattle and horses were grazed in the eastern central regions of mainland Greece.

 

Greece in the Stone Age

 

There is evidence of Stone Age hunters living in mainland Greece in the Paleolithic Age, and by the seventh millennium BCE it seems that farming communities were established. These early farmers lived in villages of circular mud huts, grew grains, peas, and lentils, and kept animals, such as pigs, cattle, goats, and sheep, for meat and milk. The farmers supplemented their diet by hunting and fishing and made stone tools such as axes and chisels. By the end of the Neolithic Age, people were living in walled towns, in which some large houses had a central hall indicating that some individuals had now become wealthier than others, or had even become chieftains. On the mainland, metalworking invaders arrived in the first part of the third millennium BCE. In addition to a knowledge of bronze, the invaders introduced the swing-plow, which greatly improved farming methods. The period between around 2800 and 2600 BCE (called Early Helladic I) was a time of great change. Walled hilltop villages appeared, with a chief who ruled over the surrounding farmland.

Trading with other communities, some of them over seas, led to the emergence of a wealthy class, who built their houses of stone rather than mud bricks. Along with the rise of this merchant class came the craftsman class and the use of symbols to mark goods and seal containers. During the period called Early Helladic II (c. 2600–2100 BCE), this civilization peaked, building settlements surrounded by towering stone walls and containing houses with several rooms. 

Excavations at Lerna have uncovered what was probably an important civic building, the massive House of Tiles, which was built two stories high with a balcony on the upper story. The house takes its modern name from a number of small, flat tiles of baked clay that were found in its ruins. The tiles may have covered a sloping roof and are thought to be the earliest roof tiles ever discovered. From 2100 BCE onward, successive waves of hostile migrants from central Asia swept through the Balkan Peninsula and destroyed most of the fortified towns. In their place, the invaders built dwellings of more primitive, one-storied, houses. 

The invaders brought with them a new kind of pottery, which was made on a wheel and whose angular shapes seemed to imitate metal pots. This pottery was first discovered by the German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann, who uncovered it in the late 19th century CE when he was excavating at Orchomenus, a city in Boeotia that rose to prominence in the Mycenaean era. Schliemann named both the pots and the people who had produced them Minyan. These Minyans spoke an Indo-European language and have since come to be considered the first Greeks  The invaders eventually integrated with the indigenous inhabitants and learned from them seafaring skills that had been notably lacking. The general level of culture remained low, however, for the Minyans. They lived in simple “long houses” arranged in villages, and some of the villages were enclosed  within walls.

 

Island cultures

 

Prior to the Early Helladic I period on the Greek mainland, another culture had started to develop on the Cycladic islands. Located in the southwestern Aegean Sea, the Cyclades are a group  of more than 30 major islands formed from the peaks of mountain ranges submerged long ago. The islands are rocky and volcanic and are rich in minerals such as gold, silver, obsidian, and  marble, as well as the ores of lead, iron, and copper The Cyclades get their name from the Greek word kyklos, meaning “circle,” because they are arranged roughly in a circle around the island of Delos, which was considered sacred to the god Apollo (see box, page 11).The islands have been inhabited since very early times. There is evidence of settlements on the larger islands, such as Kythnos, Mykonos, Naxos, and Milos, dating from the sixth millennium BCE. These early Neolithic settlers probably came from southwestern Anatolia (present-day Turkey), and as they were seafaring people, they settled near the coasts on the chosen islands. The settlers grew barley and wheat, raised pigs, sheep, and goats, and caught fish, particularly tuna, in the Aegean. There is evidence from some excavated sites that these people were familiar with copper working from around 4000 BCE.

 

Cycladic art

From around 3000 BCE, the Cycladic islanders began to develop a distinct culture of their own. They became expert  at carving small, elegant figurines in the pure white marble that they found on the islands of Paros and Naxos. Archaeologists have discovered these statuettes in burial chambers. To achieve a smooth surface, the figures were rubbed with emery stones, a dark, very hard rock that the sculptors obtained from Naxos. Details were then often picked out in red and blue paint. The figurines are extremely distinctive in their style. To begin with, they almost always portray women rather than men. The elongated figures stand upright with the head tilted back, while the arms are usually folded across the chest, with the left arm above the right.The legs and feet touch one another.The statues vary in size enormously; the smallest are only 2 inches (5 cm) tall, while the largest are almost life-size. Archaeologists are unsure about the purpose of these statuettes. Because many of these figurines were found in tombs, and because the form was usually female, it is thought they may represent goddesses who would protect the dead. They could also have been votive figures (objects of prayer). The first modern discoveries of Cycladic figurines were made in the 1880s CE. In the early 20^th century CE, the statuettes became fashionable with art collectors who admired them for their purity and simplicity of form.

 

Cycladic life

When the town of Akrotiri, on Thera, was eventually excavated, it gave a very clear picture of what life was like in the Cyclades before around 1500 BCE.The people lived in houses consisting of several rooms, arranged on either two or three stories. The narrow streets of the town were equipped with a simple drainage system for removing sewage. The houses contained wooden furniture and pottery and, on the ground floor, large earthenware jars for storing foodstuffs such as grain, vegetables, dried fish, wine, and oil. One room in each house was arranged as a shrine and decorated with wall paintings (frescoes) showing landscapes with animals, birds, and flowers such as lilies and crocuses. In other houses excavated at Phylakope on Milos, frescoes have been found depicting battles, festivals, and, in one famous painting, a school of flying fish. Because no human remains have been found at Thera, it is thought that the inhabitants may have had time to escape, but where they went is a mystery. Another mystery linked to Thera is that of the lost world of Atlantis, which was the subject of later Greek legends. It has been thought that these legends may refer to Thera.

 

End of Cycladic culture

From around 1500 BCE, the Cyclades came increasingly under the influence of the Mycenaeans on mainland Greece,and Cycladic culture was gradually absorbed.