Paleolithic and Mesolithic

Note 4: with the new discoveries made every day, this and the following chapters may be somewhat out of date on certain points, they will be updated with further readings later on as soon as possible. If you would like to send in your corrections or remarks, please do so here!

The Aegean: Paleolithic and Mesolithic[1]

No much attention has been given to Paleolithic and Mesolithic in Greece until recently. A closer inspection in some regions, especially in northern Greece, since 1960 has given us a few indications about Paleolithic times. The Mediterranean climate we know today hadn’t existed for a very long time: the whole period (700’000 BC to 8000 BC) is marked by strong variations in temperature until 8000.

The earliest evidence of human occupation may be a skull discovered in the Petralona cave, which may be as old as 700’000 years[2]. But virtually nothing is known of those early times. We start to have a better representation for the Middle Paleolithic period (200’000 BC to 35’000 BC) , with temporary settlements and occupation of caves, with tools 100’000 years old by the Pineios river. Most of the technics used for those tools are similar to those of the Balkans settlements, but quite different from the rest of Southern Europe.

Finally, less sites have been discovered for the Late Paleolithic period (35’000-8000), which is understandable if one takes in account the Würmian glaciation. However, it seems that that man occupied a greater part of Greece than ever before: starting from the coast, they extended towards the mountains at the end of the glaciation.. At the very end of that period, boats must have been in use, as the obsidian from the island of Melos is found on the continent, in the Frahthi cave.

During the Mesolithic (8000-6000 circa) , it seems that the human occupation of Greece had turned less intensive. It is true that it has been hard to research. No Mesolithic level succeeded to the Late Paleolithic or preceded the Early Neolithic ones, with the exception of the Frahthi cave. There may be one explanation to this lack of recovered material: it seems that the Mesolithic witnessed an important change in terms of food gathering, as it should have been during those two millennia that the people started to turn to fishing rather than hunting. Most of their settlements would have been located very close to the coastline. As the level of sea increased, it may have submerged most of the clues to that period along the way.

The Aegean: Aceramic Neolithic

There are 3 major sites in eastern Thessaly: Argissa, Sesklo and Souphli. They reveal that during this period, people live mostly in small huts which floor was below the ground (by 30-60 cm), sometimes with a hearth. Some of those structures may have been dedicated to storage. Tools were made of bone and stone, obsidian for the bigger part, and the most recurrent type was the blade, probably often joined to wooden hafts. Stone was also used for what has been called “earplugs”, which purpose is still unknown[3].

Despite the fact that we are facing aceramic cultures, clay had been in use, and there are even early attempts at shaping it into vessels. Outside the “earplugs”, no other find could be accounted for as ornament, a situation very different from that in the Near East. The economy relied mostly on farming herding. Hunting was quite common.

The overall picture we have is that there were significant common points with the Near East, but the latter was more advanced in most things like architecture and stone technics, especially for small and decorative objects. Knowledge related to agriculture must have been imported from Anatolia sometime during the 8^th millennium, as most of the cereals grown didn’t exist in their wild form in this part of the continent. Trade was already well established, at least with the island of Melos as we’ve seen above. In turn, the Greek aceramic culture must have been exported to the Balkans. Finally, the divergence in technics between aceramic and early ceramic Neolithic might suggest there has been a gap between the two periods.

The Aegean: Early Ceramic Neolithic

Not all agree on the timelines, especially concerning the whole Mesolithic-Aceramic Neolithic-Early Ceramic Neolithic. Some consider that the Aceramic Neolithic covers the two millennia other attribute to the Mesolithic. But as we said, we’re lacking Mesolithic evidence probably because most of the population at the time must have lived near the sea and that their settlements must have been submerged by the raising of the sea level after the Younger Dryas. Since the end of this colder period is set somewhat around the middle of the 9^th millennium, this leads to think that those settlements were drown under by the end of the same millennium. Therefore, there are every chances for the subsequent period, Aceramic Neolithic, to start somewhere during the 8^th millennium.

But no matter what, the fixed beginning date for Ceramic Neolithic is 6000 circa. What we define as Ceramic Neolithic is divided into Early, Middle and Late Ceramic Neolithic; although those terms are valid for the whole of Greece generally speaking, there must be applied with some flexibility depending on the regions.

Early Ceramic Neolithic is a period of great increase of the number of sites, both in Greece and in Crete. It appears that this 1^st period of development was a long one all over the country. The settlements were at first concentrated in the eastern valleys accessible from the coast and close to a source of water. The houses werealike to those of Aceramic Neolithic. Mud-bricks in Agrissa appeared pretty early, but it is only at the very end of the Early Neolithic that their use becomes pretty common there and at other sites. It is at this time, in Attica, at Nea Makri, houses were of mud-brick on stone foundations.

But the best example of architecture is found at Nea Nikomedeia, in Macedonia. Because of the nature of the soils, the walls cut 30-60 cm deep into it; the posts used as framework were driven even deeper. Only light walls stood above the ground. The houses were of rectangular plan with one or more rooms, and sometimes a porch. A few houses surrounded a bigger central building, divided into three parts by rows of posts. Those may have served as shrines and/or as leaders’ dwellings. The following levels reveal even bigger houses, usually divided into two rooms; oven appeared and pits were probably used for garbage and storage.

Some burials have been discovered at various sites. As a rule, the bodies were contracted in irregular pits. Most of the time, no grave goods have been recovered; only in a few occasions did we discover meat or vessels.

Female figurines made of clay seemed quite common, the best coming from the central building of Nea Nikomedeia: they may probably have represented the fertility Mother-Goddess. Other statuettes representing male figures or animals were also made, sometime of stone. Polishing stone is one of the new techniques the Early Ceramic Neolithic settlers mastered. It was used to produce many objects, from axes to beautiful vases, some in marble. There was even a stone seal. By contrast, the chipped industry was still pretty poor; a few tools were also made of bone, all fully polished. The economy must have been based on agriculture and domesticated animals; trade by the sea was also common, especially with the island of Melos.

Of course, the greatest distinction between Aceramic and Ceramic Neolithic is the use of clay for pottery, but also for small objects, some related to weaving. The earliest examples of pottery already displaying great experience let us think that the technics were imported, although the shapes remain simple and no big vessel has been found so far. The walls were thin and polished, and the colors used were varied, even on one single piece. At first they were mostly dark, light brown or pink appearing only in the latest phases. A coarser ware of spongy fabric soon appeared too. Painting then begun, applied directly on the clay. The designs were first simples geometric ones, but then, through regional diversity, human figures occurred as well, and the paint is applied on a slip; new shapes developed locally. All these changes seem to have happened faster in Thessaly than anywhere else.

During the latest stages, a new dominant monochrome ware appeared, probably originating from the Balkans. Instead of painting, the vessels are decorated by impression. In northern Thessaly, painted ware disappeared altogether, while only a few remained in the south. In the rest of Greece, they continued to be in use, as the general quality of clay figures diminished.

The Aegean: Middle Ceramic Neolithic

The beginnings of the Middle Ceramic Neolithic must have been marked by an increase of population and the arriving of new people, for a new painted ware made an appearance, and, along with it, at Otzaki, new rectangular houses. Thessaly was more intensively populated, the stone foundations for mud-brick walls became common also there, while at Otzaki, it’s the internal buttresses that were introduced. A couple of houses even follow the ‘megaron’ plan; they occurred at other sites as well: this style must have been introduced from Anatolia. In fact, it seems that there must have been a few waves of migration. During the first half of the Middle Neolithic, some wares are clearly related to those of Samarra and early Halaf, while, during the second half, black ware and megaron style are clearly imports from Anatolia.

The stone and bone industry continued almost unchanged, with the ‘rediscovery’ of painting and new shapes. The decoration is mostly geometric, with the heavy use of ‘flames’ and ‘whirls’, the latter being represented inside the bowls, which was also typical of the Samarran pottery. This was called the ‘solid’ style. Other occurred by the end of Middle Ceramic Neolithic: grey-on-grey, black burnished, and even polychrome. This period also marked the export of the Thessalian culture to Macedonia.

In central Greece and in the Peloponnese, Early Neolithic lasted longer, and the new population that arrived at the beginning of the Middle Ceramic Neolithic was probably of other origins than those who went to Thessaly. The changes they brought with them were more important. The stone foundations and internal buttresses became also common there. On some sites, like the one of Lerna, were found houses divided into many rooms, while on others, they had only a single room. Burials practices also changed dramatically: secondary funerals are then common, sometimes after cremation. Some grave goods have also been recovered.

The pottery was completely different as well, with the typical Neolithic Urifirnis ware, characterized by a slip applied with a brush that becomes lustrous once fired, but also by thin walls and an orange-red to red-brown fabric, which was scraped, making this ware very recognizable. A glaze-like paint similar to the slip was used for decoration, which was mostly rectilinear sometimes mixed with wavy lines. At Lerna, we can actually see the uninterrupted progression from simple to more complicated patterns, all geometrical. This ware was reminiscent of that of Halaf.

In Phocis, another type of ware, painted dark on light, was developed, with more complicated patterns like the ‘flame’, a Thessalin influence, before the Urfirnis ware made an appearance: but even then it was a local variation, with a lighter, red slip being applied. Another contemporary grey-black ware, borrowing its shapes from the Urfirnis style and sometimes painted white, also existed in the same region. Some more complicated vessels, maybe serving religious purposes, have also been recovered as far as in Bosnia; they may be related to the Black wares of Anatolia, produced during the Chalcolithic. The grey ware may be a variation of it as well, unless it was yet another import of the grey ware of Anatolia.

The Aegean: Late Ceramic Neolithic

During a first phase, there was a unique period of cultural uniformity over Greece’s mainland, represented by the matt-painted and polychrome wares, while the grey-black and grey wares, as well as the megaron style, continued from the Middle Neolithic. The new ware’s fabric is light, but the color depended on the local clay. The shapes are reminiscent of the older style, but the walls aren’t as thin as previously, and the paint used for decoration is quite dull. Handles also became quite common, and new, non-geometrical designs appeared, such as faces and butterflies. The matt-painted pottery is very close to the ‘Ubaid ware, especially compared to the Syrian pieces we have. The polychrome ware was red lustrous and black (matt) on a buff ground or a light slip. It happened that later, both styles could occur on the same vase.

Those two wares appear to have been in use before what has been called the Dhimini ware. The Dhimini culture had been given a lot of importance once because it had been discovered early, and because, although it was limited both in time and space (the Dhimini culture was known only in Eastern Thessaly and barely influenced the coast north and south). It may have originated in South-Eastern Europe and been imported from there. The pottery is characterized by the heavy use of the spiral in painted decoration, and by the rarity of angular shapes, compared to contemporaneous wares in the rest of mainland Greece. It is also to be noted that the architecture is quite reminiscent in plan of that used at Troy, with a colonnade added to the central court.

At the end of Neolithic, there’s an increase of movement about the Aegean, probably the first signs of the emerging importance of the maritime trade. New wares are imported from Western Asia, and a great number of varieties of cultures appear all over Greece. Generally speaking though, most of Greece seems under Anatolian influence, while only the very north open to Balkanic influences. New cremation burials are found in medium-sized, black vessels, like in Souphli. This ware is believed by some to be later than the Dhimini ware. At other sites, like Lerna, bodies have been found contracted in pits with a few offerings in vases. On the Kephala, the graves were in fact oval or rectangular cits of stones.

The Aegean: Crete

Until Late Neolithic, the material from Crete, mostly coming from Cnossus, is quite different from that of the mainland. Based on the pottery, the whole period was divided into early Neolithic I and II, Middle and Late Neolithic. The first settlers lived in non-permanent structures and made no pottery. Quickly, the situation evolved and in the next levels the houses were of mud-bricks and stone, with roofs of clay and brushwood; there was very little pottery and a few clay and stone figures. There were also the only metal found for the all of Neolithic, some malachite and azurite.

The next level revealed that pisé was preferred to bricks. One house had two rooms with holes used for cooking instead of vessels. Then appeared the first mace-head and standing statuette. Those Early Neolithic levels reveal a great uniformity in terms of objects and tools. Two wares were developed throughout the levels: a ‘coarse’ ware and a ‘fine’ one, differentiating themselves with time. Their decoration is either plastic or incised.

It’s during Early Neolithic II that the orientation of the buildings was fixed for the whole Neolithic. The other thing that made that period outstanding was the popularity of incised pottery. Houses from the Middle Neolithic onwards were of square or trapezoidal plan, and made of stone and clay, the clay being used also to coat both the floor and the walls. Loom weights, spindle whorls and shuttles are all evidence for spinning and weaving. The coarse ware was better fired and of paler colour, while the walls of the fine ware became thinner, with a great use of rippled and incised decoration.

The houses of Late Neolithic are multi-roomed with common walls separating them. In between were courts with pebble pavement. There wasn’t much rippled ware produced anymore, the fine ware was getting lighter; the first prototypes of chalices made an appearance, as well as the first copper objects. This is also when Crete started to become related to Greece through navigation.

This marks the end of Volume 1, part 1

Volume 1, part 2: COMING SOON!

[1] Since research has only begun very recently, most of those comments don’t come from the CAH, but from “La Grèce Préclassique” by Jean-Claude Poursat, Editions du Seuil, 1995.

[3] May they be counters? See “Before the Flood”, by Ian Wilson, Orion House, 2002, chapter 8: “The first accounting” Or maybe of any religious use