The gradual development of communities defines not only the particular manner in which individuals and groups act and interact, but also the manner in which land is acquired, parceled, and organized.
Date: From 20,000 b. c.e.
Category: Cities and civilizations
Earliest Evidence The population associated with Franchthi Cave in the southeastern Argolid, which presents the longest recorded sequence of continuous occupation in Greece (20,000-3,000 b. c.e.), consisted of egalitarian hunter-gathers. No comparable evidence has been found for the preNeolithic Cyclades or Crete. During the earliest part of the Neolithic period, Greece was colonized gradually from south to north. Settlements were concentrated along fertile river valleys and consisted of small clusters of single-unit households whose members domesticated animals and cultivated cereals. It is during the early Neolithic period that the first permanent settlers arrive on Crete (at Knossos) and the Cyclades (at Ayios Petros on Kyra Panayia).
Bronze Age Initially, Aegean societies in the Cyclades remained small-scale and tied to agricultural exploitation. On Crete and the mainland, there is early evidence for a developing hierarchy of settlements in the form of a few scattered, large towns with populations in the hundreds and several smaller villages. The social organization of these sites remains elusive, but the continuity of their collective burials emphasizes hereditary social patterning.
In the Middle Bronze Age, settlements evolved into larger nucleated communities, such as Knossos. On Crete, large communities concentrated around towns, some with palatial structures as their focal point. As a corollary, surrounding populations became interdependent either through specialized labor (dependent on centralized, palatial patronage) or because of the variability (shortage and surplus) of agricultural production. On the mainland, new populations, probably from Anatolia, disrupted earlier developments.
In the Late Bronze Age, the mainland centers reemerged. Wealthy burials such as those at the citadel of Mycenae attest to the stratified society and argue for fewer, but larger communities. Late thirteenth century b. c.e. Linear B tablets from Crete and the mainland indicate that Mycenaean society was organized into at least a king (wa-na-ka), a warrior class (e-qe-ta), a slave class (do-e-ro), priests, and other minor officials.
Emergence of City and State The twelfth century b. c.e. destruction of the Mycenaean palaces and the fragmentation of the social system resulted in extended social and demographic atrophy. There was a return to rural communities that were small and scattered, composed of household groups of mostly equal size and part of ranked, rather than stratified, societies.
Around 1000 b. c.e., Dorian Greeks had arrived at the mainland and the islands, while different groups migrated to the west coast of Asia Minor (Ionia). The increased population and its corresponding competition for resources came to a head in the eighth century b. c.e. when city-states or poleis (singular, polis) emerged and colonies (apoikia) were founded, particularly in the West. The Homeric epics, the Iliad (c. 750 b. c.e.; English translation, 1611) and the Odyssey (c. 725 b. c.e.; English translation, 1614), give some indication of the general character of social organization and movement of populations during this period.
The political organization of these city-states and their agrarian hinterland (chora) fell to the best-families (aristoi) rather than the masses, or demos. The prosperity of the city-states caused stress within the social order. In some city-states, individual strongmen or tyrants (tyrannos) took over, often with popular support against the excesses of the aristoi. Sparta developed a martial approach for meeting the needs of its territory. Sparta reduced its non-Dorian inhabitants to subservient state-subjects (helots) and subjugated its Dorian neighbors (perioikoi) to Spartan military service and foreign policy.
The “Democratic” State By the fifth century b. c.e., the vast territory of Attica was politically unified and its citizens enjoyed a greater degree of equality. The reforms were set in motion by a series of tyrants whose legacy was the shift from political power in the hands of the aristoi to all citizens of a village. or deme. New governing bodies were created to reflect the more democratic social organization of the populace.
The increased equality in the Greek city-state was primarily a male one. Women served only as agents for transmitting citizenship through childbirth. Resident aliens (metics) were restricted in their professional, economic, and political opportunities but were still obliged to pay taxes. Slavery was common throughout the history of Greece, but with the rise of the polis, it reached sophisticated levels. Slaves were typically considered property, but in Sparta they were closer to serfs. The philosopher Plato (c. 427-347 b. c.e.) offers rich insight into the social dynamics between citizens and noncitizens in his Politeia (c. 388-368 b. c.e.; Republic, 1701).
Ascendancy of Macedonia While the Greek city-states fretted over their own ambitions and the Persian threat, the kingdom of Macedonia was forming into a formidable force. Macedonian kingship was more streamlined and absolute, allowing Philip II (382-336 b. c.e.) to consolidate power in the north and by 338 b. c.e. to establish political hegemony over all of Greece. It was left to his son Alexander III (356-323 b. c.e.), better known as “the Great,” to realize territorial expansion as far as India. At his death, Alexander left a vast multiethnic world-city (cosmopolis) that could ultimately not be managed by a single successor. The generals of Alexander divided the empire into kingdoms, the most important of which were Bactria, Egypt, Macedonia, Pergamon, and Syria. Each city-state became subordinate to the fortunes of the individual kingdom. The rise of these kingdoms was also affected by large population shifts, whether to avoid conflict or to resettle in an area ripe with opportunities.
Further Reading
Bryant, J. M. Moral Codes and Social Structure in Ancient Greece: A Sociology of Greek Ethics from Homer to the Epicureans and Stoics. Albany: State University of New York Press, 1996.
Cullen, Tracey, ed. Aegean Prehistory. Boston: Archaeological Institute of America, 2001.
Morgan, Catherine. Early Greek States Beyond the Polis. NewYork: Rout-ledge, 2003.
Osborne, R. Greece in the Making, 1200-479 B. C. New York: Routledge,
1996.
Pomeroy, Sarah B., et al. Ancient Greece: A Political, Social, and Cultural History. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.
Whitehead, David. The Demes of Attica, 508/7-ca. 250 B. C.: A Political and Social Study. Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1986.
Victor M. Martinez
See also: Alexander the Great; Athens; Crete; Daily Life and Customs; Government and Law; Hellenistic Greece; Linear B; Macedonia; Mycenaean Greece; Philip II of Macedonia; Plato; Trade, Commerce, and Colonization.
World History
