Ancient Greece 1
Unit 1 -- Stone age: The first 600,000 years, more
or less
The earliest evidence of habitation comes in the form of
a skull that was found in the Petralona Cave in
Halikidiki. It was encrusted in the same material that
forms stalagmits, and, at first was estimated to be 600,000
years old. That age has since been disputed, and it is
now thought to be "between 300,000 years old and 600,000
years old. The skull's age is still in dispute.
The exact age and the species of the cranium has not yet ben
determined: it has been classified provisionally
as a hybrid between “Homo Erectus, the first
hominim aparently to migrate out Africa, and Homo
Sapiens Neanderthalis, the early human that dominated Europe
and the Near East until the a of our own species, Homo
Sapiens Sapiens.
The earliest evidence of burials and commerse in the Aegean
which have been dated to 7250 BCE were unearthed in
Franchthi cave in the Argolid. A wealth of stone tools found
in sites in Epirus, Thessaly, Macedonia, and the
Peloponnesse reveal the existence of flourishing Paleolithic
and Mesolithic communities in the Greek mainland. The
Neolithic settlements of Sesklo (c. 7000 - 3200 BCE) and
Dimini (c. 4800 – 4500 BCE) in Thessaly exhibit early
evidence sophisticated social organization, fortifications,
and construction of pottery art and “megaron” houses.
While the Mycenaean is considered the first “Hellenic”
civilization, the various settlements testify that the
territory that defines modern Greece was a hub of cultural
activity since the Stone Age. Several Paleolithic open
air sites have been unearthed in Epirus, Macedonia and
Peloponnese, but the Mesolithic and Neolithic settlements
found are much more numerous. The settlements of Dimini and
Sesklo show that that stone age peoples of Greece had
reached a high level of development by 3000 BCE with
advanced economies and complex social structure.
(Derived from http://ancient-greece.org/history/stone-age.html.)
[Click on small images to see larger size.}
Greece occupies the lower part of the Balkan Peninsula,
which juts out into the Mediteranean between the Adriatic
and Aegean Seas, and about 2,000 islands. It is
mountainous with ranges extending into the sea as peninsulas
or chains of islands. In ancient times, during
ice ages, sea level was much lower so much of what is now
sea bottom was exposed : when the level of the
Mediterranean was at its lowest, land routes from Africa
would have been available. Now,
only 19 percent of Greece's land is arable, and only 8.75
percent is used for growing crops, but, when water levels
were much lower, parts of the Adreatic and
Aegean basins would have been available first for hunting
and gathering and later for cultivation. (Scientists
are now taking seabed cores to try to find evidence of
habitation. It may be that what thus far has
been recovered on the mainland and islands represent only
"highlanders".)
The Mediterranean basin at the height of an Ice Age.
Water is bound up as ice in the north and south.
Woldwide sea level had dropped and the Gibraltar Straights
are a land bridge. Inflo to the Mediterranean from
rivers was not enough to overcome millennia of surface
evaporation. The result is lots of exposed
seabed. Hominims did not need to swim or row.
They walked to Greece
Simpler maps showing approximate regional divisions of
ancient Greece (edges of which fluctuated over time) and
locations of major city states after they had been
established.
Bias in "history": Modern accounts of ancient Greece
reflect the political biases and beliefs of their
eras. Twentieth and twenty-first century Americans
have been taught that democracy is a good thing.
Almost everybody else, throughout the ages, have regarded
democracy to be what the etymology of the word suggests --
"mob rule". Athens, we have been taught, was the
cradle of democracy, despite the fact that very few male
residents of the Athenian hegemony (and, of course, no
women) had full citizenship rights and the vote. In
addition, most of the time Athens was ruled by tyrants, and,
when it was democratic, its democracy was imposed on Athens
by the Spartans (who several times just eliminated the
Athenian aristocracy).
Ancient historians also added their spin to the history of
their times. To some extent this was
inadvertent: other Greek cities just don't appear to
have contributed to the historical record. Writing
history (and poetry, philosophy, drama, etc. which also
could add to the historical context) seems to have been only
an Athenian thing. The Greek historians and political
writers whose works have survived, notably Herodotus,
Thucydides, Xenophon, Demosthenes, Plato, and Aristotle,
were mostly either Athenian of pro-Athenian, and, in
addition, all were political conservatives (and didn't like
democracy).
Who is Steno and why do we care? Nicolas Steno
(Danish: Niels Stensen; Latinized to Nicolaus Stenonis or
Nicolaus Stenonius, born 1 January 1638, died 25 November
1686 [NS: 11 January 1638 – 5 December 1686]) was
a scientist and a pioneer in both anatomy and
geology. He became Catholic bishop in his later
years. In 1666 Steno was given a shark head to
dissect, and he noticed that the shark's teeth resembled
certain stones dug from the ground (i.e. "fossils", the
meaning of which was "things taken from a "fosse" or
trench.) Steno hypothesized that these glossopetrae
or "tongue stones" were in fact shark teeth that had somehow
been petrified. This theory had already been expounded
convincingly by Fabio Colonna (in De glossopetris
dissertatio published in 1616). Steno,
however, got credit for Colonna's insight after Steno
published De solido intra solidum naturaliter contento
dissertationis prodromus, or Preliminary discourse
to a dissertation on a solid body naturally contained
within a solid in 1669. Steno's added value was
his own addition of stratigraphy: he maintained the
obvious (after the fact, at least) that stuff near the
bottom of an undisturbed deposit would have gotten into the
deposit before stuff near the bottom of the deposit, a basic
"rule" of geology and archeology.
The shark head in the image with Steno's portrait is Steno's
illustration from his 1667 paper on its dissection. At
the bottom of Steno's drawing are a glossopetra and
a tooth from the shark for comparison.
The lineup of our putative ancestors. The order is not
strictly chronological: different clasts flourished at
different times in different places, and it's fairly obvious
that there was some overlap and interbreeding. Homo
Sapiens Neanderthalis lived in the Balkan Peninsula until
about 30,000 BP (before the present) and Homo Sapiens
Sapiens (i.e., us, modern humans) arrived about 40,000 years
BP. There is no apparent evidence of mixed
communities, but there is DNA evidence of interbreeding from
samples taken from both modern and ancient populations.
This class deals only with the stone age -- 600,000 to 3,000
BC. Class 2 in this series deals with the Bronze age
on the mainland (Helladic), on the Cyclades Islands
(Cycladic), and on Crete (Minoan).
A map showing the locations of sites where early hominin
indications were found. Information on some of those
finds are below. But first:
Until recently, paleoanthropologistsbelieved (or, at least,
propounded) a straightforward progression of hominin clasts,
one springing from another with one or several "missing
links". In the latter part of the twentieth century
new discoveries and insights made it obvious that such a
progression vastly oversimplified the arrival and period of
various hominin types. The most recent (July 2015)
chart of hominin progression is shown in the second image.
Also see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution
from which the second image is drawn.
Neolithic sites are not uncommon in Greece, but few sites
show evidence of permanent neolithic settlements. The
most developed (and well excavated) site is Dimini.
The Petralona cave (Greek: Σπήλαιο Πετραλώνων) is located in
Chalkidiki (Greece), about 35 km S-E of Thessaloniki and on
the west side of Mount Katsika. The cave is easily
accessable by road from Thessaloniki.
Often designated as the "Petralona skull", the skull of the
oldest European hominid, Archanthropus
europaeus petraloniensis, was found
there. It has characteristics of Australopithicus and of
homo sapiens Neanderthalis and may be a hybrid.
Franchthi cave or Frankhthi cave (Greek: Σπήλαιον Φράγχθη)
is a cave overlooking the Argolic Gulf opposite the village
of Koilada in southeastern Argolis, Greece.
The cave was occupied from the Upper Paleolithic circa
38,000 BCE (and possibly earlier) through the Mesolithic and
Neolithic periods, with occasional short episodes of
apparent abandonment. Last occupied around 3,000 BCE (Final
Neolithic), it is one of the very few settlements in the
world that shows nearly continuous human occupation for such
an extended period of time, and is one of the most
thoroughly studied sites from the stone age in southeastern
Europe. Among the finds in the cave are the oldest
known human (homo sapiens sapiens) skeleton found in Greece
-- 8th millennium BC.
Neanderthal remains, including bones of children and adults,
found in Kalamakia Cave in April of 2013, hints the
area may have been a key crossroad for ancient humans.
The age of the fossils suggests Neanderthals and humans may
have at least had the opportunity to interact, or cross
paths, there.
The Sesklo and Dimini neolithic settlements
existed in closs proximity for several centuries, and
that called into question the early expert opinion
that Dimini had displaced and succeeded Sesklo.
Greek Neolithic figurines exist by the hundreds. Most
are made of baked or partially baked clay.
To see many more search Google Images for "Greek
Neolithic figurines".
Characteristics of the Greek neolithic.
The ancient Greeks had strong beliefs about their
prehistoric origins. They thought that there
were autochthones (called Palasgians) in the Greek
area who were displace by four waves of advanced
immigrants from the north. Herodotus identified
the last wave as the Dorians.
There is no archeological evidence to support the
ancient Greek belief system. Many modern
scholars believe that the four wave invasion
hypothesis is similar to a creation/origin myth
posited to explain Greek language variations: Aolic,
Ionic (and its sub-dialect Attic), and Doric.
Hellenistic Greek, 'Koine' (meaning Common, also
known as Biblical Greek), came from the colonization
of Asian Minoans to Egypt and to the Middle East; this
is where the language evolved into multiple dialects.
Alexander the Great was instrumental in combining
these dialects to make the 'Koine' dialect. As this
allowed Alexander's combined Army to communicate with
itself and the language also taught the inhabitants of
the land he conquered, making Greek a world language.
This then allowed the Greek language to flourish
during the Hellenistic period.
Stone tools were, of course, the reason that the
"lithic" (Paleo-, Meso-, and Neolithi) periods acqired
their names. Materials used in lithic industries
defined movement patters of groups and also allow
modern scientists to deduce trade patterns and
transportation abilities -- the third slide above, for
example, implies an ability to pursue maritime trade
and also indicates a preference for obsidian as a
material for stone implements.
Obsidian (volcanic glass) is still
used to make blades used in surgery.
Skillful modern obsidian knappers can produce blades,
many times finer than the best steel scalpels,that are particularly useful in eye
surgery. At 30 angstroms -- a unit
of measurement equal to one hundred millionth of a
centimeter -- an obsidian scalpel can rival diamond in
the fineness of its edge.See
http://www.cnn.com/2015/04/02/health/surgery-scalpels-obsidian/
