The first thing to note is that there is less of a chronological disjunction between the age of migration and the age of colonization than is often assumed. It is true both that the eighth century - and especially its latter part - sees a marked intensification of overseas contacts and that most Dark Age settlements on the Greek mainland are characterized by introspection and isolation (see pp. 59-65), but communication with the outside world never really ceased after the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces. The fact that the Greek dialect spoken on Cyprus is closely related to that of Arcadia makes it virtually certain that Peloponnesians left for the island in the twelfth century, even if there are few archaeological signs of their arrival. Conversely, the settlement of Asia Minor by Greeks from further west is an archaeologically documented fact. Miletus, which seems to have been occupied by Greeks in the Mycenaean period, was destroyed ca. 1100 but resettled almost immediately afterwards. The Iron Age settlements at Ephesus and at Assarlik on the Halicarnassus peninsula probably date to the eleventh century, while the earliest houses at Old Smyrna should belong to the beginning of the tenth. Occupation at Phocaea, Clazomenae, and Iasus is probably not much later. The Protogeometric pottery from Miletus and Ephesus shows some affinities with Attic styles and this has often been taken as confirmation of the literary tradition that the settlers of Ionia set out from Athens. On the other hand, the literary tradition was by no means univocal with respect to the origins of the Ionians of Asia Minor (see p. 50) and the bulk of the earliest pottery at East Greek sites is locally made, deriving its influences as much from Euboea and Thessaly as from Attica.
Claims that the Euboeans had established a foothold in the Chalcidice as early as the eleventh century have recently been challenged by one of the excavators of Torone, a site situated on Sithonia, the central of the three promontories. On the other hand, the material from Torone and from other Chalcidian sites does include imports and imitations of Euboean, Thessalian, Cycladic, East Greek, and especially Attic vessels, so clearly there was some traffic of goods across the Aegean in these centuries. The Northern Aegean was later to become a prime destination for colonial ventures. Eretrians, Chalcidians, Ach-aeans, Corinthians, and Andrians are credited with establishing colonies in the Chalcidice, the poet Archilochus describes how a mixed group of settlers under Parian leadership colonized Thasos in the mid-seventh century, and Samians are said to have settled Samothrace in the second half of the sixth century.
The attestation of tenth-century pottery at the Phoenician city of Tyre is also a clear indication for contacts between the Aegean and the Levant, but the site that has excited the most scholarly controversy is Al Mina, situated on the Orontes River in the modern Turkish province of Hatay. That there is Greek pottery in the earliest levels of Al Mina is undisputed, but exactly where it comes from, when it should be dated, and how it should be interpreted are all questions that have generated heated debate. The matter is not helped by the extremely disturbed stratigraphy at the site. Many art historians and archaeologists are adamant that Euboean wares dominate the early assemblages - especially two-handled cups, or skyphoi, decorated with inverted compass-drawn concentric semicircles (“pendent semicircle skyphoi”), which are often considered to be the hallmark of Euboean overseas activity (Figure 5.1). Scientific analysis confirms that at least some of these vessels do, in fact, originate from central Euboea but others have pointed to the presence, alongside the Euboean wares, of what was originally described as Attic, Samian, and Rhodian (perhaps now to be re-identified as North Ionian) pottery. Although the chronology of the pendent semicircle skyphoi continues to be debated, those found at Al Mina should probably be assigned to approximately 770-750.
More vexed is the issue of how the Greek material arrived at Al Mina. For some, the absence of Greek everyday items, Greek burials, and Greek cults argues against any permanent Greek presence. The fact that only a very restricted range of pottery shapes - primarily drinking vessels - is found at Al Mina could suggest that these were dining wares, imported through the entrepot of Al Mina to grace the tables of Levantine elites. Such trade would have been in the hands of Phoenician merchants, who constitute a familiar character-type in the
Figure 5.1 Euboean pendent semicircle skyphos. Source: © 2013. Image copyright The Metropolitan Museum of Art / Art Resource / SCALA, Florence
Homeric epics but whose earlier activities can be documented by North Syrian and Phoenician artifacts deposited in tenth - and ninth-century graves in Cnossus, Athens, Lefkandi, and the Dodecanese. At Kommos, on the southern coast of Crete, an earlier cultic building was replaced ca. 800 by a tripillar shrine that may be of a Phoenician type. It is only prejudice, it is argued, conditioned by nineteenth-century racism and anti-Semitism, that conspires to deny to the Phoenicians a fundamental role in the opening up of the Mediterranean.
Others maintain, however, that a distinction should be made between items of North Syrian and those of Phoenician provenance. The former enjoy an earlier, though more restricted, distribution than the latter and since the Aramaeans of North Syria were not renowned as sailors, objects of North Syrian provenance must have been carried by either Greeks or Phoenicians. Had it been Phoenicians, however, we would have to suppose that they targeted markets in Attica and Euboea only, studiously avoiding other areas until the second half of the eighth century when Phoenician goods are found throughout the Mediterranean. This is, perhaps, an unlikely hypothesis and might suggest that earlier trade was in the hands of Greeks, and particularly Euboeans. Perhaps relevant in this regard is the distribution of seals depicting a lyre-player. Of North Syrian manufacture, they are attested widely throughout the Mediterranean in the second half of the eighth century but generally at Greek rather than Phoenician sites. This may imply that it was Greeks who transported them, although we cannot exclude the possibility that they were consciously targeted at Greek consumers, much as Attic “Nikosthenic” amphorai were to be produced for specifically Etruscan markets in the sixth century (see pp. 274-5). Furthermore, one may also doubt whether Levantine elites would have been particularly impressed by ceramic wares when they were more accustomed to vessels of metal. While the absence of everyday items or even burials is troubling, recent studies suggest that Greek wares account for about 93.3 percent of the early ceramics at the site, with non-Greek - especially Cypriot - ceramics only rising to prominence later in the eighth century. For some, so high a proportion can only be explained by assuming a permanent Greek - and specifically Euboean - presence at Al Mina.
As so often, the truth probably lies between the two extremes. Ethnic categories such as “Greek,” “Cypriot,” or “Phoenician” are almost certainly anachronistic in this period and, given that long-distance trade involved considerable absences from home, it is not entirely certain that terms such as “Athenians,” “Euboeans,” or “Rhodians” possess much more validity in capturing the character of ancient trade. That Greek-speakers resided on at least a temporary basis at Al Mina is a reasonable enough hypothesis, though since part of the site has been washed away by the Orontes, the apparent absence of non-Greek material from the earliest levels should not be overemphasized. That some, perhaps many, of these residents originated from Euboea is also entirely feasible, though not all Euboean wares - if that is what they are - need have been brought to Al Mina by Euboeans, making it unwise to consider Al Mina a uniquely Euboean settlement.
The contacts that the Mycenaeans had forged in the west may never have been ruptured entirely and were almost certainly not forgotten. Scoglio del Tonno, opposite the Greek city of Taras in southern Italy, seems to have been in intermittent contact with the Aegean throughout the Dark Age while three early ninth-century sherds of Corinthian provenance have been reported from Otranto, on the Adriatic coast of Puglia. Pendent semicircle skyphoi are known from the Quattro Fontanili necropolis in the Etruscan site of Veii, northwest of Rome, Pontecagnano in Campania, Villasmundo in eastern Sicily, and Otranto. The earliest pottery is normally considered to be Euboean in style though in the first half of the eighth century, Corinth seems to have extended its contacts to the island of Ithaca and, beyond there, to Epirus and, on the opposite side of the Adriatic, Puglia.
Evidence for settlement at Pithecusae - the modern Lacco Ameno on the island of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples - probably dates to ca. 770 and is thus contemporary with Al Mina. As at Al Mina, the character of the settlement here has been much discussed, though unlike Al Mina we do have literary sources which refer to the site. Livy (8.22.6) says it was founded by Chalcis, while Strabo (5.4.9) attributes its foundation to Eretrians and Chalcidians but adds that the latter left after an argument. Some Euboean imports have indeed been found among the earliest material from a dump on the ancient acropolis (Monte de Vico) but all the indications suggest that Pithecusae’s origins were rather more diverse than the literary tradition suggests. The fact that Euboean wares were swiftly swamped by Corinthian imports and imitations is not in itself significant since this is - as we shall see - a pattern common to most Greek settlements in the west, whether or not they considered themselves to be Corinthian foundations. But there are also Cretan and East Greek imports and, more significantly, credible evidence not only for Levantine contacts but also for the actual physical presence of Phoenicians in the settlement.
Pithecusae - like Al Mina - was long considered to represent an emporion or trading-post, different from later, more permanent foundations (apoikiai) both for the mixed origins of its settlers and for the primary activity in which they were engaged (commerce in the former case, agriculture in the latter). Today, the distinction between emporion and apoikia seems less valid. That settlers were drawn to Pithecusae to exploit metal ores is still a reasonable conjecture, but the recent realization that there were other major settlements on Ischia and that the island was fairly extensively exploited probably indicates that agriculture was not of subsidiary importance. Furthermore, Pithecusae seems to be rather large for a trading-post, with an estimated population of between 5,000 and 10,000. Thirdly, the burials in the Valle di San Montano cemetery paint a picture of a hierarchically structured society in which both men and women as well as all age groups are represented - not, perhaps, what one would expect from a community of traders and craftsmen. Typically, pit inhumations and pot burials cluster around cremation burials: the latter are reserved for adults, while pits were used for adolescents and pots for infants. It is supposed that these clusters of burials represent family groups and that the different treatment afforded the different age groups serves as an index of social inclusion (i. e. the different stages by which one came to be accepted within the full sociopolitical community). But around 40 percent of adults are inhumed rather than cremated and these burials are generally unaccompanied by grave goods. If the social inclusion hypothesis is correct, then we have to reckon on the existence of a large class of adults to whom full sociopolitical recognition was not extended.
According to a tradition on which Thucydides (6.3-5) drew, the first permanent Greek colony on Sicily was Naxos, founded by Chalcidians in 734, and this initiates a spate of colonial foundations in the west and beyond (for the dates, see pp. 37-8). Other Chalcidian settlements were established before the end of the eighth century at Leontini, Catana, Zancle, and Rhegium, on the opposite side of the Straits of Messina (Map 5.1). Corinthians were also active on Sicily from an early period: 733 is the traditional date given for the foundation of Syracuse, a city which founded its own colonies at Acrae and Casmenae in the mid-seventh century and at Camarina at the beginning of the sixth. Megara Hyblaea, supposedly founded by Megarians in 728, founded a colony at Selinus a century later. Similarly, Gela, whose foundation is attributed to a collaborative venture between Rhodes and Crete in 688, established a daughter colony at Acragas in 580. In mainland Italy, Achaeans are credited with the foundations of Sybaris and Croton towards the end of the eighth century, Metapontum and Caulonia in the second half of the seventh century, and Poseidonia (Paestum) in the early sixth, while Taras is said to have been founded by Spartan dissidents in the last decade of the eighth century and Epizephyrian Locri by Locrians at the beginning of the seventh.
Another major area of colonial activity was the region around the Hellespont, Propontis, and Black Sea (Map 5.2). To judge from a fragment of the Corinthian poet Eumelus (fr. 2), which may constitute the earliest reference to the legend of the Golden Fleece, the Greeks were already familiar with the Black Sea by the eighth century, although the archaeology suggests that the earliest foundations date to the seventh century. According to our sources, it was again tiny Megara that took the initiative, establishing settlements at Chalcedon and Byzantium (modern Istanbul) to guard the entrance to the Bosphorus; the dates that Eusebius assigns to these foundations (677 and 670 respectively) may find some confirmation in the mid-seventh-century pottery found under the Ottoman palace of Top Kapi. In 554, Megarians are said to have collaborated with Boeotians in founding Heraclea Pontica (modern Karadeniz Eregli in Turkey). Another important player in the region was the city of Miletus, which, according to Strabo (14.1.6), settled “the whole Black Sea and the Propontis and many other places” (in itself, a demographic impossibility). Imported East Greek pottery at Sinope is broadly congruent with Eusebius’ date of 631 but Sinope itself was said to be the metropolis of Trapezus (Xenophon, Anab. 4.8.22), which would mean that Eusebius’ date of 756 is mistaken. Histria, Apollonia, and Amisos probably also date to the later seventh century, with Tomis (modern Constanta in Romania) and Olbia (opposite Berezan island in Ukraine) following in the early decades of the sixth century and Odessos (Varna in Bulgaria) ca. 560. Towards the end of the seventh century, the Athenians founded Sigeum and the Samians established Perinthus, while the Tean colony of Phanagoria probably dates to the middle of the sixth century.
Meanwhile, the small island of Thera (modern Santorini) is believed to have founded Cyrene in Libya towards the end of the seventh century; Cyrene, in turn, founded the cities of Tokra, Euhesperides, and Barka. Finally, in the far west, settlers and refugees from Phocaea are credited with the foundation ca. 600 of Massalia (modern Marseilles) in southern France, followed by Emporion (Ampurias) in Spain, and, ca. 565, Alalia on the island of Corsica. Thus, by the end of the sixth century, settlements of predominantly Greek-speaking residents dotted the shores of the Mediterranean and Black Sea areas. However, the nature of these early settlements and the circumstances under which they came to be established are questions that are worth pursuing further.
World History
