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Greece - Early History

The earliest stages of settlement and social evolution occurred in Greece between 10,000 and 3000 BC, building the foundation for major advances to begin shortly thereafter. Current evidence suggests that Greece was settled by people from the Near East, primarily Anatolia. But some historians argue that groups from Central Europe also moved into the area. Extensive archeological remains of a number of farming villages of the Neolithic Era (the last period of the Stone Age, approximately 10,000 to 3000 BC) have been discovered in the plains of Thessaly in present-day east central Greece. Larger villages built between 3500 and 3000 BC show that in that period society was becoming more complex, and that an elite group was forming. Shortly thereafter, craft specialists began to appear, and the form of social organization shifted from tribalism to chiefdoms. Population increased in this period at a slow rate.

From the beginning of the food production stage, the important stage in the cultural history of humanity, Greece played a primary role, as evident in the remains of early agricultural and farming communities that can be dated back to the 7th millennium BC. To date, Sesklo and Dimini in Thessaly, Central Greece, remain the settlements that have been most extensively explored and they reveal much about the settlement size, population density, and typical architecture of the period. Very noteworthy pottery which was disseminated through northern Greece was produced here. It is evident that the country now called Hellas had in ancient times no settled population; on the contrary, migrations were of frequent occurrence, the several tribes readily abandoning their homes under the pressure of superior numbers. Without commerce, without freedom of communication either by land or sea, cultivating no more of their territory than the exigencies of life required, destitute of capital, never planting their land (for they could not tell when an invader might not come and take it all away, and when he did come they had no walls to stop him), thinking that the necessities of daily sustenance could be supplied at one place as well as another, they cared little for shifting their habitation, and consequently neither built large cities nor attained to any other form of greatness. The richest soils were always most subject to this change of masters; such as the district now called Thessaly, Boeotia, most of the Peloponnese, Arcadia excepted, and the most fertile parts of the rest of Hellas. The goodness of the land favoured the aggrandizement of particular individuals, and thus created faction which proved a fertile source of ruin. Meanwhile, the island of Crete (Kriti) was first inhabited around 6300 BC by people from Anatolia. These early groups brought with them a wide range of domesticated plants and animals. They settled at Knossos, which remained the only settlement on the island for centuries. Only in the final phase of the late Stone Age, did the civilization on Crete begin to advance, and only then did real farming villages appear in other parts of the island. The social structure remained tribal, but it set the stage for change.

The second millennium BC saw the evolution of two powerful Greek civilizations, the Minoan in Crete and the Mycenaean on the mainland. During the early Bronze Age (3000-2200 BC), major changes occurred in both Crete and mainland Greece. In both cases, there is evidence of rapid population growth associated with the establishment of trade connections across the Aegean Sea to Anatolia and the Near East. The Cyclades (Kiklades), islands between Crete and the mainland, were settled at this time and seem to have flourished as stepping stones between Europe and Asia. Both the Cyclades and the mainland developed complex societies featuring skilled craftsmen and political elites.

Over the course of the Bronze Age, there was a development in urbanization, homogenization in terms of material culture, and then abrupt collapse. Scholars generally divide this period into three parts, the Early, Middle, and Late Bronze Ages which together lasted approximately two millennia (3200 to c. 1100 BC). For the Early Bronze Age, three related cultures have been distinguished, the “Helladic” of Mainland Greece, the “Minoan” of Crete, and the “Cycladic” of the Cyclades islands. Of these, the Cycladic culture stands out with its coastal settlements and nearby cemeteries. These sites have produced a wide range of finds including important funeral offerings of marble figurines.

Generally speaking, during the Middle Bronze Age the Cyclades acted as intermediaries, and provided the background against which the civilisations of Crete and mainland Greece met and merged. In Crete, there appeared a system of social organization with cities and palaces which was to prevail in the Aegean area until the end of the 13th century. Artists drew inspiration from the animal and plant realm and expressed themselves in the media of painting, small-scale sculpture, metalwork, and jewellery.