The World of Neolithic Greece - The First Seafarers, Traders and Farmers of Prehistoric Greece

Before the great Minoan, Mycenaean, Archaic, and Classical civilizations that once occupied the land and islands that we today know as Greece, there were earlier peoples who made that same territory their home. Their actual names and the languages that they spoke are lost to us today, but they've left behind many examples of their material culture in the form of tools, pottery, and the foundations of some of their dwellings that have helped to give us a glimpse into their fascinating and yet mysterious world. Our species, Homo Sapiens, are believed to have first entered the Greek mainland about 40,000 years ago. These people lived as hunter-gatherers, who often migrated great distances in search of food that included deer, boars, as well as fish, and also types of various fruits, plants, and nuts that grew in the wild. In the eastern Peloponnese, there is one of the prehistoric world's most interesting sites, the Froncti Cave. About 20,000 years ago, a group of hunter-gatherers lived there and used the cave for shelter, which at the time was about 4 miles from the shores of the Argolic Gulf, and overlooked a broad plain where animals once grazed. Initially, such animals provided food for the cave's inhabitants, but over the next 12,000 years, the sea level incrementally rose and turned the once fertile pasture into a marshland that brought the shore further inland to perhaps just over a kilometer from the cave. Instead of leaving and migrating to elsewhere, the Froncti Cave's hunter-gatherer community gradually adapted to their new environment and replaced the wild game animals that their ancestors had once hunted with a new diet consisting primarily of fish, lentils, oats, barley, and local fruits that grew in and around the surrounding marshlands and nearby hills. While the adaptability of these people over thousands of years is to be commended, the organic remains left behind by the community once living within the Froncti Cave and the surrounding areas doesn't truly reflect their ingenuity. However, perhaps findings of objects whose source was relatively far away do. Discovered within the cave were primitive blades made out of obsidian, with the oldest of the bunch dating back to around 1300 years ago. Obsidian forms when molten lava rapidly cools and then solidifies to give it a distinctive, glassy appearance. It's also exceptionally sharp when fractured, which made it extremely good for making cutting tools and weapons such as arrowheads. Obsidian, though, isn't found naturally within the vicinity of the Froncti Cave. In fact, when scientists analyzed the blades found there, they discovered that they had come from the island of Milos, which, depending upon the sea route being traveled, could be 100 to 150 kilometers or just over 60 to 90 miles away. This means that the people of the Froncti Cave either sailed to the island of Milos to obtain the obsidian, or they traded with others for it. Both of these scenarios show that the hunter-gatherers living there were, far from being isolated to their cave, members of a greater maritime trading network. About 12 to 10,000 years ago, a new, innovative way of producing and procuring food developed in the region of the Near East that we today call the Fertile Crescent. It was one that sparked the transition from the predominantly hunter-gatherer lifestyle to that of a more sedentary one, as well as fostered the domestication of plants and animals. This period of human history is generally known as the Neolithic Revolution, though many simply call it the Agricultural Revolution. By 7000 BC, the Neolithic Agricultural Revolution had traveled west and reached the regions of Thessaly and Argolis in eastern Greece. No one knows exactly how knowledge of farming came to these areas, and later, to the rest of mainland Greece, but one contributing factor may have been some of its inhabitants coming into contact with traders from the east, specifically other parts of the Aegean, Anatolia, and the eastern Mediterranean. It's thought that knowledge of early farming techniques, which most believed started in Mesopotamia and Egypt, would have gradually made its way to Greece via these regions. This makes sense since the first major civilizations, as well as early innovations such as writing, initially came from these two parts of the world. But as our own technology improves and enables us to understand the past better, it becomes apparent that the answer is no longer so simple. Radiocarbon dating and analysis can give modern scientists very close estimates as to the age of objects from the Neolithic era, such as bones, seeds, wood, and animal hides. In short, the results indicate that people in Neolithic Greece may have already established farming communities as early as the 7th millennium BC. This doesn't necessarily rule out that traders or even farmers migrating from the Near East could have introduced domesticated cereal grains and planting techniques to the peoples of Greece and southeastern Europe, but it does open up the possibility that such innovations could have been developed independently by them. The same seems to be true for the domestication of cattle, which may have also occurred in Greece around the same time as it did in the Near East. The transition to farming and animal domestication in Greece was gradual. As initially the men of a most to agricultural production. They were the ones who used digging sticks to till the soil and plant seeds, and later harvest crops. However, as people learned how to better domesticate and breed animals for food, less men were needed to hunt, and eventually they too helped in the fields and with herding livestock, tasks that eventually relatively young children were also able to participate in. During the early Neolithic period in Greece, which most have estimated to have been between 6500 to 5800 BC, villages sprang up in Macedonia, Thessaly, Boeotia, Attica, and the eastern Peloponnese. The spread of agriculture would soon follow to other areas of the mainland, but it was also limited due to the country's terrain. Less than 15% to 20% of Greece is suitable for cultivating crops, as most of the land consists of mountains that make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for large-scale farming. Wherever farms could be established, small villages usually followed. The houses of early permanent settlements were mostly one room, one entrance, and rectangular dwellings that could be up to 40 feet in length, though some also had circular floor plans. At the site of Sesklou in Thessaly, several of the houses had two stories and even basements. Regardless of its shape, the typical house in Neolithic Greece consisted of a wooden frame that supported walls made out of clay or mud brick. Several houses from the time period were found to have had stone foundations and clay ovens inside for baking food. While the exact numbers for settlements such as Sesklou and nearby Dimini are hard to determine, many archaeologists believe, due to findings in nearby cemeteries, that each of them may have once been home to several hundred people. During the years between 5800 to 5300 BC, which makes up the span of time known as the Middle Neolithic period, such settlements became greater in number, with villages now exhibiting what appear to have been narrow streets and even town squares. Houses with multiple rooms and stone foundations became even more common. Somewhere towards the middle of the house would have also been a hearth, used for heating, cooking, and as a source of light. Countless figurines of humans and animals have also been found in such dwellings, but their actual function isn't known. Were they used for some sort of religious purpose, or simply to decorate the home? It may have been a bit of both. While the specifics of their religious practices are unknown, most scholars are convinced from the cemeteries and the grave goods within them that the people of Neolithic Greece did believe in some sort of afterlife. Pretty much every household during the latter part of the Neolithic period, that is, between 5300 to 3300 BC, had the following objects. Clay vases and jars of different sizes for storing food items, especially grain, a loom for making clothing, and tools made of stone, bone, clay, and by the 4th millennium BC, copper. Shaped out of clay that was mixed with sand and straw to help strengthen it against breakage and heat, Neolithic pottery was relatively simple but extremely durable. It also came in many varieties depending upon the region, and it evolved over time. For example, early pottery from Thessaly is primarily monochrome, but later it contained reddish designs upon a light surface, such as that found at Sesklou. Other regions had their own varieties as well. By 3000 BC, a new technology, bronze, which is an alloy made from copper and tin, had become relatively common throughout the Greek mainland and the nearby islands. Its adoption coincided with new changes and innovations within society that started the period of history named after it, the Bronze Age, which we'll continue to talk about more in future programs. Thanks for watching. I'd also really like to thank the channel's patrons for making videos like this possible. 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