Helladic chronology

Helladic period

Period	Bronze Age Europe
Dates	c. 3200 BC – c. 1050 BC
Major sites	Thebes, Tiryns
Preceded by	Neolithic Greece
Followed by	Greek Dark Ages

Helladic is a modern archaeological term meant to identify a sequence of periods characterizing the culture of mainland ancient Greece during the Bronze Age. The term is commonly used in archaeology and art history. It was intended to complement two parallel terms, "Cycladic", identifying approximately the same sequence with reference to the Aegean Bronze Age, and "Minoan", with reference to the civilization of Crete.

The scheme applies primarily to pottery and is a relative dating system. The pottery at any given site typically can be ordered into "Early", "Middle" and "Late" on the basis of style and technique. The total time window allowed for the site is then divided into these periods proportionately. As it turns out, there is a correspondence between "Early" over all Greece, etc. Also, some "absolute dates", or dates obtained by non-comparative methods, can be used to date the periods and are preferable whenever they can be obtained. However, the relative structure was devised before the age of carbon-dating (most of the excavations were performed then as well). Typically, only relative dates are obtainable and form a structure for the characterization of Greek prehistory. Objects are generally dated by the pottery of the site found in associative contexts. Other objects can be arranged into early, middle and late as well, but pottery is used as a marker.

Helladic society and culture have antecedents in the Neolithic period in Greece with many innovations being developed and manifesting during the second and third phases of the Early Helladic period (2650–2050/2000 BC) such as bronze metallurgy, monumental architecture and fortifications, a hierarchical social organization, and vigorous contacts with other areas of the Aegean. These innovations would undergo further changes during the Middle Helladic period (2000/1900–1650 BC), marked by the spread of Minyan ware, and the Late Helladic period (1650–1050 BC), which was the time when Mycenaean Greece flourished.

Etymology

The three terms "Helladic", "Cycladic", and "Minoan" refer to location of origin. Thus "Middle Minoan" objects might be found in the Cyclades, but they are not on that account Middle Cycladic. The scheme tends to be less applicable in areas on the periphery of the Aegean, such as the Levant. Pottery there might imitate Helladic or Minoan cultural models and yet be locally manufactured.

Periodization

Stirrup vase with octopus decor, Rhodes, Late Helladic III C1, ca. 1200–1100 BC (Louvre).

The "Early", "Middle" and "Late" scheme can be applied at different levels. Rather than use such cumbersome terms as "Early Early", archaeologists by convention use I, II, III for the second level, A, B, C for the third level, 1, 2, 3 for the fourth level and A, B, C for the fifth. Not all levels are present at every site. If additional levels are required, another "Early", "Middle" or "Late" can be appended. The Helladic period is subdivided as:

Period	Approximate Date
Early Helladic I	3200/3100–2650 BC
Early Helladic II	2650–2200/2150 BC
Early Helladic III	2200/2150–2050/2000 BC
Middle Helladic	2000/1900–1550 BC
Late Helladic I	1650–1500 BC
Late Helladic II	1500–1400 BC
Late Helladic III	1400–1050 BC

Settlements of the Helladic period

See also: Historical urban community sizes and List of largest cities throughout history

These are the estimated populations of hamlets, villages, and towns of the Helladic period over time. Note that there are several problems with estimating the sizes of individual settlements, and the highest estimates for a given settlements, in a given period, may be several times the lowest.

Table 1: 3700–2600 BCE

City/Settlement	3700 BCE	3400 BCE	3100 BCE	2800 BCE	2600 BCE
Agios Dimitrios				120–180	120–180
Askitario				90–135	90–135
Eutresis				1,600–2,400	1,600–2,400
Lerna				200–700	200–700
Manika				6,000–15,000	6,000–15,000
Raphina				600–900	600–900
Thebes				4,000–6,000	4,000–6,000
Tiryns				1,180–1,770	1,180–1,770

Thebes

Tiryns

Manika

class=notpageimage|

Map of Greece showing major sites that were occupied in the Helladic period (clickable map).

Early Helladic (EH)

Further information: Aegean civilization and Proto-Greek

The Early Helladic period (or EH) of Bronze Age Greece is generally characterized by the Neolithic agricultural population importing bronze and copper, as well as using rudimentary bronze-working techniques first developed in Anatolia with which they had cultural contacts. The EH period corresponds in time to the Old Kingdom in Egypt. Important EH sites are clustered on the Aegean shores of the mainland in Boeotia and Argolid (Manika, Lerna, Pefkakia, Thebes, Tiryns) or coastal islands such as Aegina (Kolonna) and Euboea (Lefkandi) and are marked by pottery showing influences from western Anatolia and the introduction of the fast-spinning version of the potter's wheel. The large "longhouse" called a megaron is introduced in EH II. The infiltration of Anatolian cultural models (i.e. "Lefkandi I") was not accompanied by widespread site destruction.

Early Helladic I (EHI)

The Early Helladic I period (or EHI), also known as the "Eutresis culture", is characterized by the presence of unslipped and burnished or red slipped and burnished pottery at Korakou and other sites (metal objects, however, were extremely rare during this period). In terms of ceramics and settlement patterns, there is considerable continuity between the EHI period and the preceding Final Neolithic period (or FN); changes in settlement location during the EHI period are attributed to alterations in economic practices.

Early Helladic II (EHII)

The transition from Early Helladic I to the Early Helladic II period (or EHII) occurred rapidly and without disruption where multiple socio-cultural innovations were developed such as metallurgy (i.e. bronze-working), a hierarchical social organization, and monumental architecture and fortifications. Changes in settlement during the EHII period were accompanied with alterations in agricultural practices (i.e. oxen-driven plow).

Early Helladic III (EHIII)

Remains of a building from Olympia, Greece Early Helladic III 2150–2000 BC.

The Early Helladic II period came to an end at Lerna with the destruction of the "House of Tiles", a corridor house. The nature of the destruction of EHII sites was at first attributed to an invasion of Greeks and/or Indo-Europeans during the Early Helladic III period (or EHIII); however, this is no longer maintained given the lack of uniformity in the destruction of EHII sites and the presence of EHII–EHIII/MH continuity in settlements such as Lithares, Phlius, Manika, etc. Furthermore, the presence of "new/intrusive" cultural elements such as apsidal houses, terracotta anchors, shaft-hole hammer-axes, ritual tumuli, and intramural burials precede the EHIII period in Greece and are in actuality attributed to indigenous developments (i.e. terracotta anchors from Boeotia; ritual tumuli from Ayia Sophia in Neolithic Thessaly), as well as continuous contacts during the EHII–MH period between mainland Greece and various areas such as western Asia Minor, the Cyclades, Albania, and Dalmatia. Changes in climate also appear to have contributed to the significant cultural transformations that occurred in Greece between the EHII period and the EHIII period (ca. 2200 BCE).

Middle Helladic (MH)

Further information: Minyans and Minyan ware

In Greece, the Middle Helladic period (or MH) was a period of cultural retrogression, which first manifested in the preceding EHIII period. The MH period is characterized by the wide-scale emergence of Minyan ware, which may be directly related to the people whom ancient Greek historians called Minyans; a group of monochrome burnished pottery from Middle Helladic sites was conventionally dubbed "Minyan" ware by Troy's discoverer Heinrich Schliemann.

Gray Minyan ware was first identified as the pottery introduced by a Middle Bronze Age migration; the theory, however, is outdated as excavations at Lerna in the 1950s revealed the development of pottery styles to have been continuous (i.e. the fine gray burnished pottery of the EHIII Tiryns culture was the direct progenitor of Minyan ware). In general, painted pottery decors are rectilinear and abstract until Middle Helladic III, when Cycladic and Minoan influences inspired a variety of curvilinear and even representational motifs.

The Middle Helladic period corresponds in time to the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Settlements draw more closely together and tend to be sited on hilltops. Middle Helladic sites are located throughout the Peloponnese and central Greece (including sites in the interior of Aetolia such as Thermon) as far north as the Spercheios River valley. Malthi in Messenia and Lerna V are the only Middle Helladic sites to have been thoroughly excavated.

Late Helladic (LH)

Further information: Mycenaean Greece

The Late Helladic period (or LH) is the time when Mycenaean Greece flourished, under new influences from Minoan Crete and the Cyclades. Those who made LH pottery sometimes inscribed their work with a syllabic script, Linear B, which has been deciphered as Greek. LH is divided into LHI, LHII, and LHIII; of which LHI and LHII overlap Late Minoan ware and LHIII overtakes it. LHIII is further subdivided into LHIIIA, LHIIIB, and LHIIIC. The table below provides the approximate dates of the Late Helladic phases (LH) on the Greek mainland.

Gold Mask of Agamemnon, Late Helladic 16th century BC.

Period	Approximate Date
LHI	1650–1550 BC
LHIIA	1550–1450 BC
LHIIB	1450–1400 BC
LHIIIA1	1400–1350 BC
LHIIIA2	1350–1300 BC
LHIIIB1	1300–1230 BC
LHIIIB2	1230–1190 BC
LHIIIC (Early)	1190–1130 BC
LHIIIC (Middle)	1130–1090 BC
LHIIIC (Late)	1090–1060 BC
Sub-Mycenean	1060–1000 BC
Proto-Geometric	1000 BC

Late Helladic I (LHI)

Mycenaean armour, 1400 BC.

The LHI pottery is known from the fill of the Shaft Graves of Lerna and the settlements of Voroulia and Nichoria (Messenia), Ayios Stephanos, (Laconia) and Korakou. Furumark divided the LH in phases A and B, but Furumark's LHIB has been reassigned to LHIIA by Oliver Dickinson. Some recent C-14 dates from the Tsoungiza site north of Mycenae indicate LHI there was dated to between 1675/1650 and 1600/1550 BCE, which is earlier than the assigned pottery dates by about 100 years. The Thera eruption also occurred during LHI (and LCI and LMIA), variously dated within the 1650–1625 BCE span.

Not found at Thera, but extant in late LHI from Messenia, and therefore likely commencing after the eruption, is a material culture known as "Peloponnesian LHI". This is characterised by "tall funnel-like Keftiu cups of Type III"; "small closed shapes such as squat jugs decorated with hatched loops ('rackets') or simplified spirals"; "dark-on-light lustrous-painted motifs", which "include small neat types of simple linked spiral such as varieties of hook-spiral or wave-spiral (with or without small dots in the field), forms of the hatched loop and double-axe, and accessorial rows of small dots and single or double wavy lines"; also, the "ripple pattern" on "Keftiu" cups. These local innovations continued into the LHIIA styles throughout the mainland.

Late Helladic II (LHII)

The description of the LHIIA is mainly based on the material from Kourakou East Alley. Domestic and Palatial shapes are distinguished. There are strong links between LHIIA and LMIB. LHIIB began before the end of LMIB, and sees a lessening of Cretan influences. Pure LHIIB assemblages are rare and originate from Tiryns, Asine and Korakou. C-14 dates from Tsoungiza indicate LHII was dated to between 1600/1550 and 1435/1405 BCE, the start of which is earlier than the assigned pottery date by about 100 years, but the end of which nearly corresponds to the pottery phase. In Egypt, both periods of LHII correspond with the beginning of its "Imperial" period, from Hatshepsut to Tuthmosis III (r. 1479–1425 BCE).

Late Helladic III (LHIII)

Ivory head, Late Helladic 1250–1180 BC.

LHIII and LMIII are contemporary. Toward LMIIIB, non-Helladic ware from the Aegean ceases to be homogeneous; insofar as LMIIIB differs from Helladic, it should at most be considered a "sub-Minoan" variant of LHIIIB.

The uniform and widely spread LHIIIA:1 pottery was originally defined by the material from the Ramp house at Mycenae, the palace at Thebes (now dated to LHIIIA:2 or LHIIIB by most researchers) and Triada at Rhodes. There is material from Asine, Athens (wells), Sparta (Menelaion), Nichoria and the 'Atreus Bothros', rubbish sealed under the Dromos of the Treasury of Atreus at Mycenae as well. C-14 dates from Tsoungiza indicate LHIIIA:1 should be more nearly 1435/1406 to 1390/1370 BCE, slightly earlier than the pottery phase, but by less than 50 years. LHIIIA:1 ware has also been found in Maşat Höyük in Hittite Anatolia.

The LHIIIA:2 pottery marks a Mycenaean expansion covering most of the Eastern Mediterranean. There are many new shapes. The motifs of the painted pottery continue from LHIIIA:1 but show a great deal of standardization. In Egypt, the Amarna site contains LHIIIA:1 ware during the reign of Amenhotep III and LHIIIA:2 ware during that of his son Akhenaten; it also has the barest beginnings of LHIIIB. LHIIIA:2 ware is in the Uluburun shipwreck, which sank in the 14th century BCE. Again, Tsoungiza dates are earlier, 1390/1370 to 1360/1325 BCE; but LHIIIA:2 ware also exists in a burn layer of Miletus which likely occurred early in the reign of Mursili II and therefore some years prior to Mursili's eclipse in 1312 BCE. The transition period between IIIA and IIIB begins after 1320 BCE, but not long after (Cemal Pulak thinks before 1295 BCE).

The definition of the LHIIIB by Furumark was mainly based on grave finds and the settlement material from Zygouries. It has been divided into two sub-phases by Elizabeth B. French, based on the finds from Mycenae and the West wall at Tiryns. LHIIIB:2 assemblages are sparse, as painted pottery is rare in tombs and many settlements of this period ended by destruction, leaving few complete pots behind.

LHIIIB pottery is associated in the Greek mainland palaces with the Linear B archives. (Linear B had been in use in Crete since Late Minoan II.) Pulak's proposed LHIIIA/B boundary would make LHIIIB contemporary in Anatolia with the resurgent Hittites following Mursili's eclipse; in Egypt with the 19th Dynasty, also known as the Ramessides; and in northern Mesopotamia with Assyria's ascendancy over Mitanni. The end of LHIIIB is associated with the destruction of Ugarit, whose ruins contain the last of that pottery. The Tsoungiza date for the end of LHIIIB is 1200/1190 BCE. The beginning of LHIIIC, therefore, is now commonly set into the reign of Queen Twosret. The LHIIIC has been divided into LHIIIC:1 and LHIIIC:2 by Furumark, based on materials from tombs in Mycenae, Asine, Kephalonia, and Rhodes. In the 1960s, the excavations of the citadel at Mycenae and of Lefkandi in Euboea yielded stratified material revealing significant regional variation in LHIIIC, especially in the later phases. Late LHIIIC pottery is found in Troy VIIa and a few pieces in Tarsus. It was also made locally in the Philistine settlements of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza.

Fortified settlements

Model of Mycenae, citadel ruins from the Late Helladic period 14th century BC.

During the Helladic period, a number of major advances were developed including fortified urban settlements with monumental buildings such as corridor houses, which may prove the existence of complex societies organized by an elite or at least achieving corporate, proto-city state form. One of these settlements was Manika, located in Euboea, dated to the Early Helladic period II (2800–2200 BC). The settlement covered an area of 70-80 hectares, was inhabited by 6,000–15,000 people, and was one of the largest settlements of the Bronze Age in Greece.

Remains of stairway in the proto-palace House of the Tiles, 2500–2300 BC.

Another settlement was Lerna in the Argolid region, which was perhaps the most important and wealthiest of Early Helladic sites. The settlement has a monumental building known as the House of the Tiles, a "corridor house", notable for several architectural features that were advanced for its time, such as its roof being covered by baked tiles, which gave the building its name. The structure dates to the Early Helladic II period (2500–2300 BC) and is sometimes interpreted as the dwelling of an elite member of the community, a proto-palace, or an administrative center. Alternatively, it has also been considered to be a communal structure or the common property of the townspeople. The exact functions of the building remain unknown due to a lack of small finds indicating the specific uses of the building. The house had a stairway leading to a second story, and was protected by a tiled roof. Debris found at the site contained thousands of terracotta tiles having fallen from the roof. Although such roofs were also found in the Early Helladic site of Akovitika, and later in the Mycenaean towns of Gla and Midea, they only became common in Greek architecture in the 7th century BC. The walls of the House of the Tiles were constructed with sun-dried bricks on stone socles.

Tiryns, ruins from the Late Helladic period 14th century BC.

Other fortified settlements include Tiryns, which covered an area of 5.9 hectares sustaining 1,180–1,770 people, and had a large tiled two-storeyed "round house" (or Rundbau) with a diameter of 28 m on the upper citadel. It may have served as a palace or temple or perhaps it was a communal granary. Other sites include Ayia Irini, which covered an area of 1 hectare and had a population of perhaps up to 1,250, Eutresis covering 8 hectares with an estimated population of 1,600–2,400, Thebes covering 20 hectares with a population of 4,000–6,000, Lefkandi (unknown in size and population), and Kolonna (or Aegina), a densely populated settlement with impressive fortifications, monumental stone buildings and sophisticated town planning.

Already before 2500–2400 BC, Kolonna experienced remarkable economic growth and had its own administrative "Corridor House", the so-called "Haus am Felsrand". During the phase Aegina III 2400–2300 BC, which corresponds to the transition phase Lefkandi I-Kastri, the evidence of the economic structure and administrative and social organization of the community become more clear. The "White House" (Weisses Haus; 165 square metres) constitutes the monumental community building that succeeds the "Haus am Felsrand", which had the same function. Kolonna may constitute the Aegean's first state as it appears to be the earliest ranked society in the area outside Minoan Crete and perhaps a political center in the Middle Helladic period where it achieved state-level after the Minoans but before the Mycenaeans.

Population

Multivariate analyses of craniometric data derived from Helladic skeletal material indicate a strong morphological homogeneity in the Bronze Age osteological record, disproving the influx of foreign populations between the Early Helladic and Middle Helladic periods; ultimately, the Bronze Age inhabitants of mainland Greece (including the Mycenaeans) represent a single and homogeneous population of Mediterranean provenance.

See also

• Aegean civilization
• Cyclades
• History of Greece
• Linear B
• Minoan civilization
• Mycenaean Greece
• Mycenaean language
• Pelasgians

References

Sources

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• Bryce, Trevor (2006). The Trojans and their Neighbours. New York, NY: Routledge. ISBN 978-0-41-534955-0. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Caskey, John L. (July–September 1960). "The Early Helladic Period in the Argolid". Hesperia. 29 (3). The American School of Classical Studies at Athens: 285–303. doi:10.2307/147199. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Caskey, John L. (1968). "Lerna in the Early Bronze Age". American Journal of Archaeology. 72: 313–316. doi:10.2307/503823. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Chapman, Robert (2005). "Changing Social Relations in the Mediterranean Copper and Bronze Ages". In Blake, Emma; Knapp, A. Bernard (eds.). The Archaeology of Mediterranean Prehistory. Oxford and Malden: Blackwell Publishing. pp. 77–101. ISBN 978-1-40-513724-9. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Forsén, Jeannette (1992). The Twilight of the Early Helladics. Partille, Sweden: Paul Aströms Förlag. ISBN 91-7081-031-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• French, D.M. (1973). "Migrations and 'Minyan' pottery in western Anatolia and the Aegean". In Crossland, R.A.; Birchall, Ann (eds.). Bronze Age Migrations in the Aegean. Park Ridge, NJ: Noyes Press. pp. 51–57. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Hornblower, Simon; Spawforth, Antony; Eidinow, Esther (2012) [1949]. The Oxford Classical Dictionary (4th ed.). Oxford: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-954556-8. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Kuniholm, Peter Ian (1998). "Aegean Dendrochronology Project December 1996 Progress Report" (PDF). Cornell Tree-Ring Laboratory. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University: 1–7. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Lolos, Y.G. (1990). "On the Late Helladic I of Akrotiri, Thera". In Hardy, D.A.; Renfrew, A.C. (eds.). Thera and the Aegean World III. Volume Three: Chronology – Proceedings of the Third International Congress, Santorini, Greece, 3–9 September 1989. London: Thera Foundation. pp. 51–56. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• MacSweeney, Naoise (2004). "Social Complexity and Population: A Study in the Early Bronze Age Aegean". Papers from the Institute of Archaeology. 15: 52–65. doi:10.5334/256. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)CS1 maint: unflagged free DOI (link)
• Mellaart, James (January 1958). "The End of the Early Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Aegean". American Journal of Archaeology. 62 (1). Archaeological Institute of America: 9–33. doi:10.2307/500459. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Musgrave, Jonathan H.; Evans, Suzanne P. (1981). "By Strangers Honor'd: A Statistical Study of Ancient Crania from Crete, Mainland Crete, Cyprus, Israel, and Egypt". Journal of Mediterranean Anthropology and Archaeology. 1: 50–107. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Overbeck, John Clarence (1963). A Study of Early Helladic Architecture. University of Cincinnati. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Pullen, Daniel (2008). "The Early Bronze Age in Greece". In Shelmerdine, Cynthia W. (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to the Aegean Bronze Age. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press. pp. 19–46. ISBN 978-0-521-81444-7. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Sampson, Adamantios (1987). "The Early Helladic Graves of Manika: Contribution to the Socioeconomic Conditions of the Early Bronze Age" (PDF). Aegaeum. 1: 19–28. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Shaw, Joseph W. (1987). "The Early Helladic II Corridor House: Development and Form". American Journal of Archaeology. 91 (1). Archaeological Institute of America: 59–79. doi:10.2307/505457. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Shear, Ione Mylonas (January 2000). "Excavations on the Acropolis of Midea: Results of the Greek–Swedish Excavations under the Direction of Katie Demakopoulou and Paul Åström". American Journal of Archaeology. 104 (1): 133–134. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• van Andels, Tjeerd H.; Runnels, Curtis N. (1988). "An Essay on the 'Emergence of Civilization' in the Aegean World". Antiquity. 62 (235). Antiquity Publications Limited: 234–247. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Whittaker, Helène (2014). Religion and Society in Middle Bronze Age Greece. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-10-704987-1. {{cite book}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Wikander, Örjan (January–March 1990). "Archaic Roof Tiles the First Generations". Hesperia. 59 (1): 285–290. doi:10.2307/148143. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)
• Xirotiris, Nicholas I. (Spring–Summer 1980). "The Indo-Europeans in Greece: An Anthropological Approach to the Population of Bronze Age Greece". Journal of Indo-European Studies. 8 (1–2): 201–210. {{cite journal}}: Invalid |ref=harv (help)

Further reading

• Weiberg, Erika (2007). Thinking the Bronze Age: Life and Death in Early Helladic Greece (Boreas: Uppsala Studies in Ancient Mediterranean and Near Eastern Civilizations 29) (PDF). Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. ISBN 978-91-554-6782-1.

External links

• "The Bronze Age on the Greek Mainland". Athens: Foundation of the Hellenic World. 1999–2000.
• Horejs, Barbara; Pavúk, Peter, eds. (2007). "The Aegeo-Balkan Prehistory Project". The Aegeo-Balkan Prehistory Team.
• Rutter, Jeremy B. "Prehistoric Archeology of the Aegean". Hanover, NH: Dartmouth College.