Early Bronze Age in Greece

Eutresis, red-slipped

EH IIA
move from hilltops to lower and coastal areas here and earlier
may indicate shift from pastoralism toward agriculture
may indicate increased contacts and reliance on resources abroad
oxen figurines

corridor houses
sauceboats
sanctuary of the bulls

Korakou
urfirnis

fortifications at Lerna predate HoT
HoT build on early BG building, which is contemporaneous with the fortifications
walls about 2 meters apart with orthogonal walls inside forming rooms
towers


Early Helladic IIB
House of the Tiles
points toward chiefdom sort of society
Lefkandi I on the mainland = Kastri on the islands

The Early Helladic II period ended at Lerna with the destruction of the House of the Tiles. Caskey's idea that this destruction took place throughout the Peloponnese at all EH II sites and was the result of an invasion is no longer substantiated. There is no pattern of destruction consistent with an invasion or destructive migration, and the items that have been associated with EH III, such as apsidal houses (with one rounded end), tumuli (burial mounds), terracotta "anchors", and shaft-hole axes, actually appeared at different times from EH II through the MH period as influence from many different areas. Nevertheless, there was a clear and major change between EH II and EH III. This change, dated to ca. 2200 BCE, corresponds to changes in climate seen in several parts of the world, including drought in the Near East and east Africa. Weiss blames these climatic changes for social collapse in Mesopotamia and elsewhere, a suggestion also entertained for the Greek mainland and the Cyclades at this time.

EHIII
first known tumulus at Lerna on the HoT
may have contributed to burial practices later
increase in apsidal homes

Early Bronze Age in the Cyclades

5200-3100 Late and Final Neolithic
earliest known Cycladeans in 5th millennium

early Cycladic no corridor houses, or megara
smaller settlements, more egalitarian
no chiefdoms, tribute from surrounding areas, hereditary power

must have been communication among islands, because many populations of individual islands too low to be independently sustainable

Campos group, notable for frying-pan shaped objects
Kastri group, monochrome burnished ware

cist graves

Cyclades centers selected for trade networks, not arable land, and not even bays (canoes could be drawn up on any foreshore)

MBA
shift toward arable land, nucleation of a few sites, good harbors
origins of sailing ships in between the Nile and the Levant, 3rd millennium if not earlier
Aegean contacts with this area increase around 2000 BCE, sailing ship is introduced
presumably would have changed island culture

also, more influence from Crete around this time

Prepalatial Crete

EM I 3200?
pottery surprisingly specialized from the very beginning of the Bronze Age
The most significant EM I deposit at Knossos is from a deep well full of communal drinking chalices and serving vessels, possibly remnants of ceremonial drinking and feasting activity. Knossos for much of its Minoan history was arguably a center of ceremonial consumption very much rooted in the symbolic meaning of the site as one of ancestral origins, and for this reason as a source of social and political power.

Early Minoan tholos (circular) tombs, which have no antecedents on the island
In most cases the entrance faces east

EM II 2700
ancestor worship
food and drink left at tomb while body still intact
other offerings continued for centuries later


2200