The Emergence of Civilisation SEATED MARBLE FIGURINE OF THE KEROS -SYROS CULTURE The Emergence of Civilisation The Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium BC COLIN RENFREW OXBOW BOOKS OXFORD & OAKVILLE Published by Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK This book is available direct from Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK (Phone 01865-241249; Fax 01865-794449) and The David Brown Book Company PO Box 511, Oakville, CT 06779, USA (Phone 860-945-9329; Fax 860-945-9468) or from our website www.oxbowbooks.com © 1972, 2011 by Colin Renfrew ISBN: 978-0-9774094-7-1 (hardback) ISBN: 978-0-9774094-6-4 (paperback) A CIP record for this book is available from the British Library. Cataloging data available from the Library of Congress. Text type 11 pt Minion Pro Display type 18 / 12 pt Myriad Pro Printed in the United States of America on acid-free paper. To the Memory of V. Gordon Childe Wonders are many on earth and the greatest of these Is man, who rides the ocean and takes his way Through the deeps, through the wind-swept valleys of perilous seas That surge and sway. He is master of ageless Earth, to his own will bending The immortal mother of gods by the sweat of his brow, As year succeeds to year with toil unending Of mule and plough. He is lord of all things living: birds of the air, Beasts of the field, all creatures of sea and land He taketh, cunning to capture and ensnare With sleight of hand; Hunting the savage beast from the upland rocks, Taming the mountain monarch in his lair, Teaching the wild horse and the roaming ox His yoke to bear. The use of language, the wind-swift motion of brain He learnt; found out the laws of living together In cities, building him shelter against the rain And wintry weather. There is nothing beyond his power. His subtlety Meeteth all chance, all danger conquereth. For every ill he hath found its remedy, Save only death. FROM SOPHOCLES ’ ANTIGONE TRANSLATED BY E. F. WATLING Contents List of Illustrations IX Notes to the Illustrations XIII Site map XVIII Foreword, by John Cherry (2010) XXI Preface and Introduction (2010) XXVII Preface (1972) LI Acknowledgements (1972) LIII Introduction 1 Civilisation 3 2 The Explanation of Culture Change 15 3 The Multiplier Effect 27 4 The Minoan-Mycenean Civilisation and its Origins 45 Part I Culture Sequence 5 The Neolithic Background 63 6 Crete in the Third Millennium BC 81 7 Mainland Greece in the Third Millennium BC 99 8 The Third Millenium BC in the Eastern Aegean 121 9 The Early Cycladic Culture Sequence 135 10 The Grotta-Pelos Culture 152 11 The Keros-Syros Culture 170 12 The Phylakopi I Culture 186 13 Aegean Interrelations and Chronology in the Third Millennium BC 196 Part II Culture Process 14 Patterns of Settlement and Population in the Prehistoric Aegean 225 15 Natural Environment and the Subsistence Subsystem 265 16 The Development of Aegean Metallurgy 308 viii THE EMERGENCE OF CIVILISATION 17 Craft Specialisation and the Transformation of the Physical Environment 339 18 Social Systems 362 19 Symbolic and Projective Systems 404 20 Trade, Communication and Innovation 440 21 The Multiplier Effect in Action 476 APPENDIX 1 Gazetteer of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Sites in the Cycladic Islands 507 APPENDIX 2 Local Groups with the Grotta-Pelos and Keros-Syros Cultures of the Cyclades 526 APPENDIX 3 Data for the Matrix Analysis of the Early Cycladic Cemeteries 539 Bibliography 549 Full Captions to the Plates 589 Index 593 Plates 603 List of Illustrations FIGURES FIG . 0.1 Important excavated sites of the third millennium BC in the Aegean xviii FIG . 1.1 Contrasting density of settlement at Teotihuacan and Tikal in Mesoamerica. 6 FIG . 1.2 The activities of man: diagram. 9 FIG . 1.3 Anthropocentric view of the activities of a man: diagram. 9 FIG . 1.4 The developing environment of a human culture and the life-space of a child and adult, in terms of topological psychology. 10 FIG . 1.5 Insulation of man from nature by artefacts: diagram. 11 FIG . 2.1 Six kinds of interaction: diagram. 19 FIG . 4.1 Man’s created environment: entyrance to the palace at Knossos. 46 FIG . 4.2 Vegetation zones of Greece and Extent of Minoan-Mycenaean civilisation. 48 FIG . 4.3 Clay tablet from Knossos, inscribed in Minoan Linear B script. 51 FIG . 4.4 The Middle Minoan palace at Mallia. 59 FIG . 5.1 Complete village plan of the later neolithic period (Căscioarele). 66 FIG . 5.2 Evolution of the burnished bowl in Chios. 73 FIG . 5.3 Aegean later neolithic bowls. 74 FIG . 5.4 Regional groups of pattern burnish pottery in the Aegean. 78 FIG . 6.1 Early Minoan Pyrgos ware. 83 FIG . 6.2 Early Minoan Aghios Onouphrios. 85 FIG . 6.3 Pottery vessel assigned to the ‘Early Minoan III’ period. 87 FIG . 6.4 House blocks of the early Aegean. 91 FIG . 6.5 Plan of the Early Minoan II settlement at Phournou Koriphi, Myrtos. 92 FIG . 6.6 Incised stone pyxis lid from Mochlos. 94 FIG . 6.7 Ivory seals from Platanos. 95 FIG . 6.8 Early Minoan gold jewellery from Mochlos. 96 FIG . 6.9 The hypogeum at Knossos. 97 FIG . 7.1 Pottery ‘sauceboats’ from Lerna. 101 FIG . 7.2 Tankards of the Tiryns culture. 102 FIG . 7.3 Comparison of pottery from Poliochni, Manika, and Iasos. 104 FIG . 7.4 Early Helladic houses. 106 FIG . 7.5 Major buildings of the Korakou culture. 109 FIG . 7.6 Aegean rock-cut tombs of the third millennium bc. 111 FIG . 7.7 Clay sealings from the House of the Tiles at Lerna. 113 FIG . 7.8 The Burnt House at Sitagroi. 119 FIG . 8.1 Pottery of the Troy I culture. 122 FIG . 8.2 Pottery of the Troy II culture. 124 FIG . 8.3 Jug from Troy IV. 125 FIG . 8.4 The early bronze age town at Thermi in Lesbos. 128 FIG . 8.5 The ‘Great Treasure’ from Troy. 130 FIG . 9.1 The Cycladic islands. 137 FIG . 9.2 Close-proximity structure for the Early Cycladic cemeteries (presence-absence similarity coefficients). 144 FIG . 9.3 Close-proximity structure for the Early Cycladic cemeteries (percentile similarity coefficients). 145 FIG . 9.4 Test for geographical patterning in the the close-proximity structure for the Early Cycladic cemeteries. 149 ix x THE EMERGENCE OF CIVILISATION FIG . 10.1 Bowls of the Grotta-Pelos culture. 154 FIG . 10.2 Grotta-Pelos forms from Phylakopi and Grotta. 156 FIG . 10.3 Vessels from the Grotta-Pelos cemeteries. 160 FIG . 10.4 Comparison of shapes from Iasos and Grotta-Pelos graves. 164 FIG . 10.5 Distribution of Cycladic marble beakers. 165 FIG . 10.6 Distribution of ‘Kum Tepe Ib’ bowls. 168 FIG . 11.1 Forms of the Keros-Syros culture. 171 FIG . 11.2 Forms of the Kastri group of the Keros-Syros culture. 173 FIG . 11.3 Metal types from the Chalandriani cemetery. 175 FIG . 11.4 Fortified strongholds of the Keros-Syros culture. 177 FIG . 11.5 The Attic-Cycladic Mischkultur. 180 FIG . 11.6 The mainland ‘frying pan’. 181 FIG . 11.7 Findspots of ‘frying pans’, and pottery decorated with stamped circles. 182 FIG . 11.8 The evolutionary development of the Early Cycladic figurines. 184 FIG . 12.1 Forms of the Phylakopi I culture. 187 FIG . 12.2 Incised pottery forms of the Phylakopi I culture. 188 FIG . 12.3 Plan of the Third City at Phylakopi. 191 FIG . 12.4 Findspots of duck vases in the Aegean. 193 FIG . 13.1 The logical structure for the relative chronology of the third millennium. 197 FIG . 13.2 Calibration chart used for the conversion of radiocarbon dates. 218 FIG . 13.3 Aegean radiocarbon dates for the third millennium bc. 220 FIG . 14.1 The contrasting distribution of neolithic tell mounds and major late bronze age sites in the Aegean. 228 FIG . 14.2 Growth of settlement numbers in the prehistoric Aegean. 233 FIG . 14.3 Two patterns of growth. 234 FIG . 14.4 Comparison of settlement growth. 235 FIG . 14.5 Size comparison of prehistoric Aegean settlements. 239 FIG . 14.6 Size comparison of settlements in the prehistoric Aegean and Near East. 241 FIG . 14.7 Diagrammatic simplification of settlement growth in the Aegean and the Near East. 242 FIG . 14.8 Early Aegean site plans compared with Early Dynastic Uruk. 243 FIG . 14.9 Continuity in the occupation of settlements in the prehistoric Aegean. 246 FIG . 14.10 Growth in settlement numbers in the Cyclades. 250 FIG . 14.11 Estimated growth of population in the prehistoric Aegean. 252 FIG . 14.12 Estimated population densities in the prehistoric Aegean. 254 FIG . 14.13 Settlement growth in prehistoric Messenia. 256 FIG . 14.14 Settlement hierarchy in prehistoric and modern Crete. 259 FIG . 14.15 Two types of settlement in the third millennium Aegean. 261 FIG . 15.1 Typical tree and forest zonation in the Mediterranean. 268 FIG . 15.2 Correlation between the distribution of neolithic tell sites and the wheat-bearing lands of Greece. 272 FIG . 15.3 The changing spectrum of agricultural production at prehistoric Sitagroi. 276 FIG . 15.4 Distribution of barley and of cattle in Greece. 277 FIG . 15.5 The changing livestock spectrum at Sitagroi. 279 FIG . 15.6 Correlation between major Minoan-Mycenaean sites and viticulture in Greece. 283 FIG . 15.7 Wine and oil in the third millennium Cyclades. 286 FIG . 15.8 Large pithos from Knossos. 292 FIG . 15.9 The storage and processing of food at the palace of Mallia.