Settlements in the Bronze Age

[akritas]

Hellenic Mainland


Early Period

General
The architectural remains of the Early Bronze Age on mainland Greece reveal that the form of the settlements depends on the geomorphology of the region, the number of the inhabitants of the community, and, during the EH II and III on the degree of economic development, and on the social and administrative structure of the community. The are three types of town planning which are identified in the settlements that have been examined to date: the irregular or extensional, the linear and the one occurring around a common centre.

Most settlements present an irregular or extensional arrangement which is a result of the growth of population. The houses form dense clusters which are separated by roads and narrow paths, for example Askitario in Attica, Zygouries in Corinthia, Manika in Euboea and Platygiali of Astakos. The settlements with rectangular buildings (Lerna III), circular (Orchomenos of Boeotia) or apsidal ones (Lerna IV, Tiryns-phase 9) which are situated in flat plains which favour free arrangement are of irregular arrangement as well.

A more sparse case is when buildings are disposed on the sides of a central road which runs through the whole settlement, such as Lithares of Boeotia. This is the linear town planning. Its basic feature is the concentration of buildings of a special function, such as "The Sanctuary of the Bulls" in Lithares, on the main road.

Finally, a unique example of the town planning that occurs around a common centre is preserved in the ruins of Aegina V. Building blocks composed of identical buildings radiate from an imaginary centre. The building blocks are separated from one another by parallel roads which are intersected by other broader ones.
All these town plans have provided for roads and large or small squares or public courts that serve activities of the community. The existence of town planning constitutes one of the most important criteria for the characterization of an EH settlement as an urban centre.

Habitation
The increase of population which occurs during the Early Bronze Age, particularly in south Greece results in the raise of the number of settlements compared to the Chalcolithic Age (4500-3200 BC). The settlements are built on high hills (30 metres) or low ones which are usually close to the coast. The fertile plains as well, whether they are coastal or in the inland, favour the development of populous settlements (e.g. Manika, Lithares). Most of the known settlements occupy 1 to 3 hectares (1 hectare = 10.000 square metres) while very few of them exceed 8 hectares (Manika-45, Thebes-20).

Settlement architecture varies and some urban planning systems are identifiable. Many sites have dense building structure in clumps which are separated by roads and narrow paths (irregular or extensional, e.g. Zygouries, Askitario). The sites whose main building unit consists of buildings with curvilinear walls (Orchomenos, Lerna IV) have an irregular arrangement. More rarely, the buildings flank a central road which runs through the whole settlement (linear, Lithares). Finally, the radiating arrangement of building blocks composed of identical buildings separated by parallel streets (around a common centre, Aegina V) is unique. Many EH settlements have preserved parts of defensive-fortification walls of a simple or complex form. The buildings in south Greece are made of stone foundations and walls of unbaked mudbricks. They are rectangular, trapezoid, circular or apsidal and usually have only one ground floor. The total surface varies from 30 to 50 square metres.

Their interior includes hearths and kilns for cooking and stone benches for sleeping, food preparation or the deposit of goods. Products were stored in pithoi or amphoras, containers made of wood, hides or reeds but also in storage pits ("bothroi") which are dug into the ground. Special buildings, as the rectangular"Corridor Houses" (300 square metres) and the "Rundbau" of Tiryns are significant examples of the EH II architecture. Researchers associate these buildings with the ecomonic and social changes of the EH II period and interpret them as political-administrative and economic centres of the EH communities. specialization The elements that lead to the identification of early urban centres in many of the EH II and III settlements are: the area and town planning of many settlements, the arrangement of stone paved roads and squares for public use, the existence of fortification systems and buildings with special functions, the specialization of production and the function of workshops, the practice of trade, etc..

The Early Bronze Age settlements in Macedonia and Thrace are composed of rectangular and apsidal, timber-post framed houses (Mandalo, Sitagroi, Dikili Tash) and more rarely stone built ones (Kastanas, Agios Mamas, Toumpa of Thessaloniki) and do not show an urban character.

[akritas]

Middle Period


Settlement Setting
With the exception of certain settlements that had been abandoned during the last phase of the Early Bronze Age, settlement in the Middle Helladic period seems to develop normally from the Early Helladic . The Middle Helladic settlements are often built on the ruins of the Early Helladic ones, on rocky citadels or on hill tops. In some sites, such as Asine, settlement extended in the Middle Helladic period to the foot of the citadels.

Apart from the hill tops, Middle Helladic settlements were also built on mountain slopes or in plains. These positions offered extensive arable land Moreover, it seems that places close to springs and rivers were particularly preferred. The cases in which people chose to settle in mountainous and inapproachable areas that offered natural fortification, such as Malthi, are rare and constitute the exception to the rule.

Areas close to gulfs that were protected from the wind, and the safe ports such as Kirra in Phocis, Pefkakia in Thessaly and Lefkandi in Euboea were also preferred as places of settlement. In these settlements, which must have been connected to a large marine trade network, a larger number of imported products than that of the neighbouring settlements of the inland occurs.

Important sites of the end of the Middle Helladic and beginning of Late Helladic period in the plain of Argos.

Settlement Organizations
The Middle Helladic settlement remains have been disturbed at a great extent by the intramural burials of the settlements or have been destroyed by the artificial levelling and the intensive building activities of the Mycenaean period, as most important Middle Helladic sites were reoccupied in the late phases of the Late Bronze Age. Despite this fragmentary image provided by the Middle Helladic settlements, the general traits of their town planning can be outlined.

The Middle Bronze Age settlements present a simple but well organized town planning system. The buildings were built in small groups among which space for small narrow roads and little squares had been provided. To date no building with signs of social stratification have been found. Thus, the general impression of social equality, at least in building planning, prevails.

The building complexes of settlements on hill tops and slopes extended from the centre to the different levels of the hills forming building zones of unequal levels in a radiating arrangement. A very typical and well preserved example of this sort of town planning is known from the Middle Helladic settlement on the hill Aspida, close to Argos.

In parallel to this basic building system, a second type of town planning is observed in the Middle Bronze Age; it occurs mainly in fortified settlements such as Aegina and Malthi. The buildings of this system are developed one next to the other, adjacent to the internal side of the fortification wall.

source:
www.ime.gr

[zefs]

There has also been an inertia factor. Manning noted that if the existing chronology were wrong, it would mean rewriting the dates in museums and textbooks. And, it would have a more far-reaching effect, requiring a rethinking of some of the basic assumptions about the origins of European history.

“You would have a concertina effect, since you can’t move one part without upsetting the whole apple cart. Thus, it has been said that rewriting the chronology is impossible,” Manning said.

The 'Pompeii of the Aegean'
During the Minoan eruption, the volcano on what is now Santorini spewed ash and rocky debris up to hundreds of kilometers around. It was one of the largest eruptions in recorded history, and some researchers have even proposed that it was the basis for the legend of Atlantis.

The widespread volcanic ash layer offers a reference point that could potentially help line up the ages of various sites in the eastern Mediterranean, but researchers have not been able to date the layer precisely enough until now.


Science
Scientists found this branch from an olive tree that buried in its living position by the volcanic ash.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A remarkable solution to the problem emerged when Walter Friedrich and his graduate student Tom Pfeiffer, both of the University of Aarhus in Denmark, found the branch of an olive tree that was buried in its living position by the ash. The remains of the tree’s bark, leaves and twigs showed that the tree was still alive at the time of the eruption.

“I’ve been working on Santorini for 30 years and this is the first time I have seen such a thing,” Friedrich said.

By analyzing and dating the tree rings, Friedrich’s research team was able to pinpoint the age of the eruption more precisely than ever before, since the outermost ring was formed in roughly the same year that the volcano erupted.

The new timeframe for the eruption is between 1627 and 1600 B.C., a century earlier than archaeological studies have suggested.

“This was one of the biggest eruptions known to mankind, and now we have a precise date for the first time,” Friedrich said.

Before and after the eruption
The new age for the eruption fits in neatly with a much larger series of radiocarbon dates put together by Sturt Manning and his colleagues.

Manning’s team collected a large number of seeds and some tree-ring samples from a 300-year time span that included the Minoan eruption. They put together sets of data in a known sequence from before, around, and after the eruption and used sophisticated statistical methods to define new, more precise dates than before.

Given past controversy, they took a number of precautions, such as analyzing the seeds at two separate labs, to reduce the uncertainty of the earlier radiocarbon studies. The picture now from the radiocarbon seems fairly clear, according to Manning, but in conflict with the established dates and history.

Overall, the radiocarbon results indicate that the formation and high point of the New Palace period of Crete, the wall paintings of Akrotiri, the Shaft Grave period of the Greek mainland, and the political changes on Cyprus all occurred before approximately 1600 B.C. This is not only about 100 years earlier than thought; it also implies that the overall cultural era involved lasted much longer than researchers had assumed.

The new chronology makes the world of New Palace Crete even more important and interesting, Manning said, turning the later 18th and 17th centuries B.C. into an exciting new “cultural cauldron” from which significant elements of European history may have originated.

There has also been an inertia factor. Manning noted that if the existing chronology were wrong, it would mean rewriting the dates in museums and textbooks. And, it would have a more far-reaching effect, requiring a rethinking of some of the basic assumptions about the origins of European history.

“You would have a concertina effect, since you can’t move one part without upsetting the whole apple cart. Thus, it has been said that rewriting the chronology is impossible,” Manning said.

The 'Pompeii of the Aegean'
During the Minoan eruption, the volcano on what is now Santorini spewed ash and rocky debris up to hundreds of kilometers around. It was one of the largest eruptions in recorded history, and some researchers have even proposed that it was the basis for the legend of Atlantis.

The widespread volcanic ash layer offers a reference point that could potentially help line up the ages of various sites in the eastern Mediterranean, but researchers have not been able to date the layer precisely enough until now.


Science
Scientists found this branch from an olive tree that buried in its living position by the volcanic ash.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

A remarkable solution to the problem emerged when Walter Friedrich and his graduate student Tom Pfeiffer, both of the University of Aarhus in Denmark, found the branch of an olive tree that was buried in its living position by the ash. The remains of the tree’s bark, leaves and twigs showed that the tree was still alive at the time of the eruption.

“I’ve been working on Santorini for 30 years and this is the first time I have seen such a thing,” Friedrich said.

By analyzing and dating the tree rings, Friedrich’s research team was able to pinpoint the age of the eruption more precisely than ever before, since the outermost ring was formed in roughly the same year that the volcano erupted.

The new timeframe for the eruption is between 1627 and 1600 B.C., a century earlier than archaeological studies have suggested.

“This was one of the biggest eruptions known to mankind, and now we have a precise date for the first time,” Friedrich said.

Before and after the eruption
The new age for the eruption fits in neatly with a much larger series of radiocarbon dates put together by Sturt Manning and his colleagues.

Manning’s team collected a large number of seeds and some tree-ring samples from a 300-year time span that included the Minoan eruption. They put together sets of data in a known sequence from before, around, and after the eruption and used sophisticated statistical methods to define new, more precise dates than before.

Given past controversy, they took a number of precautions, such as analyzing the seeds at two separate labs, to reduce the uncertainty of the earlier radiocarbon studies. The picture now from the radiocarbon seems fairly clear, according to Manning, but in conflict with the established dates and history.

Overall, the radiocarbon results indicate that the formation and high point of the New Palace period of Crete, the wall paintings of Akrotiri, the Shaft Grave period of the Greek mainland, and the political changes on Cyprus all occurred before approximately 1600 B.C. This is not only about 100 years earlier than thought; it also implies that the overall cultural era involved lasted much longer than researchers had assumed.

The new chronology makes the world of New Palace Crete even more important and interesting, Manning said, turning the later 18th and 17th centuries B.C. into an exciting new “cultural cauldron” from which significant elements of European history may have originated.

[zefs]

Olive branch solves a Bronze Age mystery
Discovery rewrites history of ancient Mediterranean civilizations

Science
View of Santorini, Greece, from Fira. The Akrotiri peninsula (top left) was an area of major Bronze Age settlement that was destroyed but preserved by a massive volcanic eruption, which has now been dated to the 17th century B.C., a century earlier than previously thought.
View related photos

Science Mysteries
• Check out the journal Science on the Web
• More science news from EurekAlert
• More Mysteries of the Universe

Most Popular
• Most Viewed • Top Rated • Most E-mailed

• The Complete List: 1,000 Top U.S. Schools
• What Makes a High School Great?
• Bush in ‘chipper’ mood at reporters’ dinner
• Booming Dubai offers promise and disillusion
• Jets couldn’t ask for more with great draft
• Most viewed on MSNBC.com
• Girl shines in LPGA tourney for dying mom
• Man credits goose with helping him live longer
• Text of letter sent to Sago victims’ families
• Healing plants found in threatened rainforest
• Senator warns White House on spy program
• Most viewed on MSNBC.com
• The Complete List: 1,000 Top U.S. Schools
• What Makes a High School Great?
• Booming Dubai offers promise and disillusion
• Bush in ‘chipper’ mood at reporters’ dinner
• While you were sleeping, the paperboy grew up
• Most viewed on MSNBC.com

RSS FEEDS ON MSNBC.COM
Add these headlines to your news reader

• Science
• Learn more about RSS
By Kathleen Wren
Science
Updated: 3:04 p.m. ET April 27, 2006
WASHINGTON - Compared to the well-studied world of Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey, the civilizations that flourished in the eastern Mediterranean just before Homer’s time are still cloaked in mystery.

Even the basic chronology of the region during this time has been heatedly debated. Now, a resolution has finally emerged -- initiated, quite literally, by an olive branch.

Scientists have discovered the remains of a single olive tree, buried alive during a massive volcanic eruption during the Late Bronze Age. A study that dates this tree, plus another study that dates a series of objects from before, during and after the eruption, now offer a new timeline for one of the earliest chapters of European civilization.

Story continues below ↓
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
advertisement

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The new results suggest that the sophisticated and powerful Minoan civilization (featured in the legend of Theseus and the Minotaur) and several other pre-Homeric civilizations arose about a century earlier and lasted for longer than previously thought.

The new timeframe also downplays Egypt’s role in the region, suggesting that the cultures of the Levant, the stretch of land that includes Syria, Israel and Palestine, may have been a more important outside influence.

The pair of studies appears in the 28 April issue of the journal Science, published by AAAS, the nonprofit science society.

During the Late Bronze Age, large building complexes appeared on Crete and later on mainland Greece as part of the Minoan “New Palace” civilization. At its high point, this civilization seems to have been the dominant cultural and economic force across the region, as the result of trade rather than military strength.


Sturt Manning
This collapsed main staircase is one of the remains uncovered at Akrotiri, once a major prehistoric settlement on Santorini.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Santorini, a major prehistoric settlement called Akrotiri was buried by the Minoan eruption, preserving what’s often called “the Pompeii of the Aegean.” Archeologists have uncovered three- and four-story houses and many other finds there, including an extraordinary collection of wall paintings that offer a glimpse into Minoan life. Women apparently played important civic and religious roles, including joining men in the sport of “bull-leaping,” which seems to have been religiously significant and as dangerous as the name implies.

The people of the Shaft Grave culture on mainland Greece, meanwhile, are known for burying their rulers with an eye-catching array of weapons, tools, pottery and other gold-rich ornaments. One grave contained a face mask that was originally identified as that of Agamemnon, the legendary king of Mycenae who led the Greeks against Troy in the Iliad.

The new findings suggest that it belonged to an earlier chief or king instead.

Also around the same time, major new coastal political systems were growing on Cyprus, fuelled by the island’s important copper industry that supplied the metal-hungry civilizations in the east Mediterranean.

Rethinking the timeline
It’s generally thought that these cultural developments in the eastern Mediterranean occurred during the 16th century B.C., along with the New Kingdom period in Egypt, when Egypt expanded its influence into western Asia.

The new studies suggests that these developments probably took place instead during the preceding “Second Intermediate Period,” when Egyptian power was weak and a foreign Canaanite dynasty even conquered northern Egypt for a while.

According to the new chronology, the Late Bronze Age civilizations in the Aegean and on Cyprus may have developed in association with 18th- and 17th-century Canaanite and Levantine civilizations and their expanding maritime trade world. These cultures were very different from the Egyptians’ in terms of culture, language and religion.

“If the papers published this week in Science are correct, then a critical new historical context may explain aspects of the development, languages, literature, religion and mythology of the Aegean and the later Classical worlds,” said Sturt Manning of the Cornell University and the University of Reading in the United Kingdom, who is the lead author of one of the studies.

[zefs]

Late Bronze Age in Aegean a Century Older, Study Says (Update1)
April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Radiocarbon dating pushes some events in the middle of the second millennium B.C. 100 years back into the past, possibly revising history in the Aegean Sea area near Greece and Turkey, a study in tomorrow's Science said.

``A new story may be written on the origins of early classical and Aegean civilization, which effectively becomes much of Western civilization,'' said Stuart Manning, a Cornell University professor of classics.

The findings concern a critical time for development of Late Bronze Age cultures in the Aegean, Cyprus, Anatolia and others and may change how cultural relations are viewed in the period, said Manning, the lead investigator, in a telephone interview from London. The conclusion solves one of the big challenges to archeologists in the past 30 years, he said.

One of the world's largest volcanic eruptions also occurred on Santorini during that time, turning it from an Aegean isle into an outer rim of islands and affecting climate as far away as Ireland and California, according to evidence cited in the study. Santorini is part of Greece.

A separate study in Science placed the Santorini explosion at 1627 to 1600 B.C. instead of late 1500 B.C., using the branch of an olive tree on the island ``killed by the eruption and covered by 14 inches of brimstone,'' said Jan Heinemeier, director of the AMS C14 Dating Centre at the University of Aarhus in Denmark, in an interview today.

``We have for the first time a very precise and direct date for the Minoan eruption,'' said lead investigator Walter Freidrich, associate professor of geology at the University of Aarhus, in a phone interview today.

Braced for Challenges

The Aegean Late Bronze Age traditionally includes the height of New Palace civilization on Crete, new coastal policies on Cyprus and the Shaft Grave period on Greece's mainland, the researchers of the first study wrote.

The investigators tested a large database of 100 new samples including seeds and wood spanning several centuries and performed a sophisticated statistical analysis, Manning said. Radiocarbon dating hasn't been precise enough until recent years to prove such a point, he said. Study sponsors included the U.K.'s National Environmental Research Council.

The study's date for the eruption was in a range of about 1660 to 1613 B.C., the researchers said.

People studying the Late Bronze Age period traditionally have based their chronologies on the examination of ceramics and other ancient artifacts and by comparing them to similar items from Egypt, Manning said. Those dates are inconsistent with the new findings, the researchers said.

New Timeline

The new timeline places a number of events before about 1600 B.C., including the formation and high point of the New Palace period on Crete, the Shaft Grave period on the Greek mainland, and the Middle to late Cypriot period on Cyprus, the scientists said. The New Palace era, when Crete dominated Aegean trade and culture, stretched across more than 250 years, they wrote.

The chronology also shows those eras are contemporary with Egypt when it was controlled by a Canaanite dynasty with links to the Levant, not the earlier New Kingdom Dynasty, they said.

``There's been 30 years of controversy in this field,'' Manning said. ``There will be plenty of scientists lined up to be interviewed in the next week or so, happily enough, to say, `Well, this is just impossible.'''



To contact the reporter on this story:
Theresa Barry in Washington at Tbarry2@bloomberg.net.
Last Updated: April 27, 2006 19:00 EDT