GREEK PREHISTORY AND LANGUAGE

[X99Lynx at aol.com]

Dear IEists:
I'm not always quite sure how interested members of the list are in the
historical and archaeological evidence.  And I'm not always sure about how it
even impacts linguistic conclusions.

IF it is in any way important to any of the members, perhaps this quick note
is worthwhile.

At this point in time, THERE IS NO MATERIAL EVIDENCE AT ALL AS TO WHEN
GREEK-SPEAKERS APPEARED IN GREECE.  THE ONLY EVIDENCE OF A SIGNIFICANT
MIGRATION DURING THIS PERIOD (3000BC-1650BC) IS FROM ANATOLIA.

ALTHOUGH THIS MIGRATION MAY HAVE INTRODUCED GREEK INTO GREECE, THERE IS NO
REAL EVIDENCE TO JUSTIFY EVEN THIS CONCLUSION.  I give a fairly current
summary of the evidence below.

List members may want to be aware that the following statement by Mr. Crist
may not be particularly accurate with regard to the current knowledge
regarding Greek prehistory.

On10/6/99 12:48:29 AM, kurisuto at unagi.cis.upenn.edu wrote: << perhaps you
mean that the Greek-speaking presence in what is now Greece goes back further
than e.g. 2100-1900 BCE.  The most widely accepted view is that the
destruction of sites which we find in that period represent the invasion of
speakers of an early form of Greek.  The preceding cultural tradition in
Greece is substantially different.>>

I'm not sure what sites or culture are being spoken of above.  But there is
no special break in "cultural tradition" - except one - that occurs during
this time.  More importantly, there is a continuity in many aspects of the
early Greek material culture that remain consistent right from the end of the
Neolithic (about 3500BC) through to the end of the Middle Helladic (about
1500BC).

Currently (1990's), the generally accepted stratigraphics of cultures in
Greece from this period runs sometime like:

Late Neolithic (ending about 3500BC)
   - Early Helladic -
Eutresis (ending about 2650BC)
Korakau (about 2650 - 2150BC)
Lefkandi (2400 - 2150BC ) (co-existing)
Tyrins (2150BC-2000BC)
   - Middle Helladic (2000-1650BC)
(all of these might be dated somewhat later based on new evidence gathered
from the Santonini/Thera eruption sites.)

There is clear CONTINUITY between all of these cultures EXCEPT for Lefkandi
I.  (Tyrins is described as "the result of a process of "cultural fusion"
between the Korakou and "Lefkandi I" cultures,... Significantly, this process
of fusion did NOT extend all over Mainland Greece. In Messenia, Laconia, and
the interior of west-central Greece (Aetolia, Acarnania), the Korakou culture
may have continued while the Tiryns culture flourished elsewhere." )  (Caps
theirs.)

The main attributes of Middle Helladic (starting about 2000BC) e.g. Gray
Minyan pottery and longhouses/megarons, are now viewed as CONTINUATIONS of
Korakou or Tyrins  (which itself was a "fusion" culture.)  In the bad old
days, Gray Minyon was associated with "the arrival of the Greeks" from the
north, but it is now quite clear that the pottery style is a continuance that
never appears father north than the Pelopenese.

By far, the single striking example of an abject change in material culture
on the Greek mainland before the Mycenaean period is associated with the
appearance of "Lefkandi" culture.

What is very apparent about Lefkandi however is that it DOES NOT represent
any invasion or migration from the north, but rather the sudden appearance of
a well-established culture from Anatolia.

"The Lafkandi culture of the late EH II central Greek Mainland is probably
best viewed as the result of a trans-Aegean population movement from Western
Anatolia through the northern Cyclades (attested there by the EC IIB or EC
IIIA "Kastri Group" of Naxos, Delos, Syros, and Keos) and Sporades (at the
site of Palamari on Skyros) to the eastern seaboard of central Greece
(Euboea, Raphina, Pefkakia).

"Although the "Lefkandi I" culture penetrates westward into the interior of
Boeotia..., it does not appear to have extended southwards into the
Peloponnese,... This westward movement across the Aegean in NOT marked by
violence at any known site. Indeed, there is considerable continuity from the
EH/EC IIA to IIB periods at sites such as Chalandriani (Syros), Ayia Irini
(Keos), Raphina (Attica), and Thebes and Eutresis (Boeotia). [Caps theirs.]

"Although it is at first difficult to imagine such a dramatic change in
ceramics, and in some cases seemingly in architecture [megara] as well,
having taken place without the introduction of new people(s), some
authorities (e.g. Davis) have suggested trade rather than migration as a
preferable interpretative scenario."

(I'm traveling but I did have this info on my hard drive.
Most of the info above can be found on the Dartmouth webite
-http://tenaya.cs.dartmouth.edu/history/bronze_age - or in works cited in the
exhaustive bibliography that can found there.)

To sum up:  THE ONLY EVIDENCE OF A SIGNIFICANT MIGRATION INTO GREECE BETWEEN
NEOLITHIC AND MYCENAEAN TIMES IS FROM ANATOLIA.  THERE IS NOTHING TO CLEARLY
IDENTIFY THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF GREEK WITH THIS MIGRATION.

Sean Crist also wrote:
<<Given that the latest date of PIE unity is around 4000 BCE (again, pace
Renfrew), there's only so much of a time range to play with; you might manage
to make a case that the Greeks were in Greece a little earlier, but not
massively earlier.>>

Based on the evidence above, there is nothing to preclude the conjecture that
"Greeks were in Greece" during or even before the Neolithic.  If one connects
PIE with the first appearance of agriculture (a la Renfrew), then that could
move the date of "proto-Greek" or its ancestors being in mainland Greece back
towards 7000BC.

Regards,
Steve Long