Appendix: a Brief Historical Retrospect: on the Origins of the Greek People

Appendix: A Brief Historical Retrospect: On the Origins of the Greek People With the possible exception of the Chinese, it is doubtful that there has been another people with such persistence and duration. In its long history, it undertook at least three times the cultural leadership of the world: in the high Mycaenean period, the classical age, and in the period of the peak of the Byzantine Empire. Carl Blegen In geographical terms, the territory of Greece constitutes the link between Europe, Asia, and Africa. Its varied landscape, with its continual alternation between moun- tainous land and sea, its sprinkling of islands, its mild climate, and its limited natural resources, undoubtedly influenced the historical development of the Greek spirit. The evidence is unclear as to when man first appeared in Greece. Finds of stone tools make the existence of settlements likely from the Early Paleolithic period (ca. 600,000–100,000 B.C.)and certainly (widespread remains of tools, the skull of the Neanderthal of Petralona) during the Middle Paleolithic period (100,000–33,000 B.C.). The beginning of the Late Paleolithic period (33,000–8,000 B.C.) is marked by the total disappearance of ‘Neanderthal Man’ and the appearance of Homo Sapi- ens, whose way of life was characterized by both a radical technical change and the production of cutting tools, which had fundamental consequences for the subsequent intellectual and social development of mankind. Most scholars maintain that human settlements spread to Europe by way of the Near East and that Greece was an area of transit and development. In the Near East, during the 12th to 10th millennia, B.C., the ‘Neolithic Revolu- tion’ – considered one of the most crucial milestones in the history of mankind – took place. Man gradually abandoned the life of the hunter and began to engage in farming and animal breeding, establishing permanent settlements. Due to its geographical position, Greece was the first European region to see this basic change, around the 6th millennium, B.C. The first Neolithic settlements were created (Argissa, Sesklo, Soufli-Magoula in Thessaly, et al.), where cultural advances (the ‘Sesklo Culture’) into the Middle Neolithic period (5,000–4,000 B.C.) took place and was extended to other island areas, such as Crete and Cyprus, which took on increased significance in the Late Neolithic period (4,000–2,800/2,700 B.C.). The ‘Saliagos Culture’ (a small island in the Cyclades), the ‘Dimini Culture’ in Thessaly, as well as other finds in Epirus, northwest Madedonia, and Thrace during this age 255 256 Appendix: A Brief Historical Retrospect: On the Origins of the Greek People present dissimilarities compared to features of their immediate predecessors, lead- ing to conjectures about ‘invasions’ and influences from neighboring territories, for example Asia Minor. The small figurines of Neolithic Greece provide us with evidence of the social and intellectual life of man during this period. It is significant that the element of the occult, which appears in other geographical areas, is entirely lacking here. The ‘Urban Revolution’ took place around 3,000 B.C. in the Near East, accompa- nied by the appearance of the first great Cultures with writing. This second landmark in the history of mankind, which corresponds to the spread of the use of metal (Early Bronze Age, 2,800/2,700–1,900 B.C.), marks the beginning of a new epoch. The new culture would spread through Greece to Europe by way of the islands and the shores of the Aegean, thus falling under the Aegean ilsand influence. During this age the ‘Prepalatial Minoan Civilization’ developed in Crete, the ‘Protocycladic Culture’, in the islands of the Aegean, and the ‘Protohelladic Culture’ on mainland Greece, from Thrace to the Peloponnese, under the influence Eastern and local elements. It is believed that during the Early Bronze age the earliest signs of the unification of the Greek nation also appear, and possibly the Greek language, independent of influences from eastern monarchies and theocracies – an event which would prove decisive in the subsequent development of Greek thought. During the Middle Bronze Age (1,900–1,600 B.C.) Crete developed the ‘Pro- topalatial Culture’ (Knossos, Phaistos, Malia), which was suddenly cut short by a catastrophic earthquake around 1,700 B.C. The ‘Middle Cycladic’ Culture appears to be the link between the ‘Middle Minoan’ and the ‘Middle Helladic’ Culture. The latter -in contrast to the ‘Minoan’- possessed a retrograde character, the cause of which has given rise to many theories. According to the most recent and prevail- ing one, there was a migration of agrarian Greek-speaking tribes of Thessaly -the ‘Protohellenes’- under the pressure of invasions by other, more northern, possibly Indoeuropean races, bringing once more to Southern Greece a closed, agrarian econ- omy, with many settlements but no cultural center. This hypothesis is supported by ancient tradition, which places the Greek theogony and cosmogony in the Thessalian region. The total destruction of all the important Cretan centers, around 1,700 B.C.was followed by the ‘Neopalatial Culture’ through three glowing centuries (1,700–1,450 B.C.), the first high culture in Europe, which was marked by the development of large settlements around the three new palaces of Knossos, Phaistos, and Zakros. During this period, when Crete became the ruler of the seas, commerce flourished and the dynamism of the ‘Neopalatial Culture’ led to its acme and spread to sur- rounding areas, an event, which would contribute three centuries later to the climax of the ‘Mycenaean Culture’. During the same period, the Cretan hieroglyphic script was gradually replaced by the Minoan Linear Script (Linear System A and B). The end of this high Cretan Civilization was as sudden as it was tragic: the culture was wiped out around 1,500 B.C. by a gigantic tidal wave caused by the great eruption of the Thera volcano. In southern mainland Greece during the Late Helladic period (1,600–1,100 B.C.), the Achaeans developed the ‘Mycenaean Civilization’, which would constitute the Appendix: A Brief Historical Retrospect: On the Origins of the Greek People 257 greatest cultural upsurge during the Helladic Bronze Age. The ‘Mycenaean culture’ was characterized by a competitive, organizational spirit, and was deeply influenced by the advanced ‘Minoan’ and, in part, ‘Cycladic’ cultures, to such a de- gree that many scholars (e.g. A.J. Evans and others) maintained that its creation was the result of Minoan colonization – a theory that does not appear to stand today. Besides, the recent decoding of the Cretan-Mycenaean script of Linear B, proves that the language of the Mycenaean cultural centers was Greek, even that of the Knossos archives, a fact that underlines the parallel influence exercized by the ‘Mycenaean’ culture on the ‘Minoan’ during the Late Mycenaean period (1,450–1,350 B.C.). The Early Mycenaean Phase (1,500–1,425 B.C.) is marked by escape from iso- lation. Various cities, like Tiryns, Pylos, Athens, Thebes, Orchomenos, Iolkos, but especially Mycenae, developed commerce and shipping. During the Middle Myce- naean period (1,500–1,425 B.C.), the Mycenaeans took the lead, extending their influence to the Aegean isles and the Asia Minor shore. The abrupt destruction of the palace at Knossos by fire, around 1,400 B.C., also marked the end of the dominant Cretan rule and competitiveness, leaving the field free during the 14th and 13th century B.C. for the development and establishment of Achaean hegemony. It spread both toward the North in Hellenic territory (Macedonia, Epirus) and over- seas, where Mycenaean settlements and commercial centers multiplied, in Crete, the Dodecanese, Cyprus, the Asia Minor seaboard (Miletus, Ephesus, et al.), and on the shores of the Eastern Mediterranean, all the way to southern Italy (Akragas, et al.). All these cultural centers were closely tied to commercial transactions, and were marked by a unified advanced civilization with all its expressions in life and the arts. During the same period, the expedition against Troy also took place, a mobilization, which for the first time would unite the Greeks of the Mycenaean world in a common cause. “Before Troy, it seems that Hellas never undertook a common effort”.1 The 12th century B.C. marked the decline of the ‘Mycenaean’ Civilization. The displacement of the ‘people of the sea’ southward in the Eastern Mediterranean led to the violent dismemberment of the Hititie empire (around 1,175 B.C.) and a massive intermixing of populations from Asia Minor to Egypt, thus disorganizing the entire Achaean commercial network in the Near East. The inevitable decline of productivity and economic activity, with a corresponding drop in living standards, unavoidably led to a weakening of Mycenaean influence and to a great wave of Achaean expeditions to Crete, the Dodecanese, Cyprus, and Southwestern Asia Mi- nor. During the Subminoan and Submycenaean period (1,125–1,050 B.C.), which also forms the transitional period between the end of prehistoric and the beginning of historic times, the final decay and disintegration take place in Mycenaean culture, which – following the Minoan civilization – was the next peak civilization in Europe. Common tradition and ethnic heritage, however, endure, and they 1 Thucidides, Peloponnesian Wars,I,3. 258 Appendix: A Brief Historical Retrospect: On the Origins of the Greek People contributed the connective tissue enabling the crucial transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age – the beginning of historic times. Into the vacuum created by the Achaean’s desertion of central Greece, Greek tribes descended from the northern border, backward mountain people, who became the link between Helladic territories and the more northerly peoples of Europe.

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