The separation of the Peloponnese from the mainland and its upheaval to its present altitudes can be shown to be geologically recent from the strong resemblances in structure and relief between the mountains of the Peloponnese and those of central Greece both east and west of the Isthmus (of Corinth). At the end of the Pliocene (about two million years ago) much of the peninsula was still covered by a shallow sea or lakes, while the remainder consisted of subdued mountains or hills. When the crust eventually began to break irregularly, the bottoms of new gulfs sank as bordering land was thrust up. This new land around the margins (‘Neogen’) was composed of clays, marls, sands and conglomerates, the old inland region being made up mainly of limestone.
Tectonically Lakonia, as we have defined it, falls into six sections. (The geomorphology of Messenia is discussed more briefly in Chapter 8.) From east to west they are: the east Parnon foreland; Parnon; the west Parnon foreland, including the Malea peninsula; the Eurotas furrow; Taygetos, including ancient Aigytis and Dentheliatis; and the west Taygetos foreland. The principal features of their relief and geology may now be described in this same order.
The east Parnon foreland extends south from Mount Zavitsa to Cape leraka, where the Parnon range sheers off obliquely and runs out into the sea. It takes the form of an inverted triangle whose base is formed by the Parthenion mountains and their continuation eastwards as far as the pass of Anigraia. The region subdivides naturally into a northern section, the ancient Thyreatis or Kynouria (the ancient names were interchangeable: Meyer 1969), and a southern section south of the river of Ay. Andreas. These differ from each other especially in geological composition. The Thyreatis is a high upland plateau, made up principally of Olonos limestone but overlain sporadically by schist, whose imperviousness provides spring water and so encourages settlement (Bintliff 1977, 100). The cultural centre in antiquity was the deltaic alluvial plain of modern Astros formed by the action of the River Tanos and that of Ay. Andreas which flow into the sea just six
Figure 2 The geology of Lakonia
Kilometres apart. The southern section of the foreland by contrast is mainly Tripolis limestone and, so far as is known, schist occurs only on the margins of Parnon. The coastline is the steep edge of a typical karstic plateau broken by a fault. The area around Leonidhion (ancient Prasiai) gives a good idea of the character of the area as a whole. Inland the broad, high plateaux for the most part reach 800 m. close to Parnon, fall away to 600 m. further east, only to rise once more towards the coast, this time to 1,200 m. The disappearance of the eastern portion of the foreland through foundering has caused the underground water of the remainder to flow steeply to the sea and made the surface more waterless than ever.
Not unexpectedly, therefore, settlements are today few and relatively large. Communications both within the foreland and between it and the rest of Lakonia are poor. True, the main route in antiquity from Sparta to Argos via Tegea crossed the Thyreatis (Chapter 10). But north-south travel by land was and is hindered by the deep, narrow and steep gulleys created by rivers flowing from Parnon, and there are no low passes over Parnon to link the foreland to the Eurotas valley. Hence communication continues to be chiefly by sea from coastal settlement to coastal settlement, although the exposure of the coast to north-easterly winds must have made seafaring under ancient conditions perilous. These physiographical features militated against the political unification of the area, but this was nevertheless achieved by the Spartans, in the teeth of Argive competition, after the middle of the sixth century (Chapter 9).
The mountain range of Parnon (only once so called in an ancient source, Paus. 2.38.7) is a residual ridge rising quite gently from the plateau. Beginning in the hills north of Dholiana it runs for ninety kilometres in a south-easterly direction, the outermost spurs reaching the sea north of Monemvasia (near ancient Epidauros Limera). Its northern section, about thirty kilometres long, is on average between 1,600 and 1,800 m. above sea-level. Here the summit of Mount Malevos (1,935 m.) is clad on both flanks with fir and black pine. Despite the claim of Bolte (1929, 1296) that the northernmost ridges are nowhere difficult to cross, although they are between 1,100 and 1,300 m., communication must always have been desultory. Central Parnon occupies the twenty-two kilometres between Platanaki Pass and Kounoupia (‘mosquito-place’—ill-omened name); like south Parnon, it is lower than the northern section. Geographically and geologically Parnon is but the continuation of the inner Arkadian chain, to which it is joined by the broad threshold known in antiquity as Skiritis. The blue-grey, coarse-grained marble, crystalline limestone and schist of the north give way to Tripolis limestone south of Kosmas (ancient Glympeis/ Glyppia?). Above the fir woods, which grow in places at 1,750 m., ‘alpine’ grasses provide pasturage for the numerous sheep, which apart from sporadic charcoal - or lime-burning today as in antiquity constitute the chief means of livelihood in this inhospitable area.
The west foreland of Parnon may be subdivided into two. The northern section to Goritsa expands southwards from about six to fifteen kilometres in breadth. It is joined to Skiritis, and thereby to the Eurotas furrow, on the west and borders on the Spartan plain further south. Although it is predominantly a limestone plateau thinly veiled by Kermes oak and phrygana (maquis-like scrub), impervious mica-schists crop out to provide sites for fairly large settlements. Skiritis geologically is a continuation of the central Arkadian highlands, but like Parnon is distinguished from them by its substrate of schist. The latter subdivides naturally at Kaltezai into a northern and southern section, the whole forming an inverted triangle thirteen kilometres wide at the base and only four at the apex where it disappears into the basin of Sparta. South of the latitude of Sparta outcrops of mica-schist become rarer, necessitating settlement on the limestone outliers of Parnon itself. Here the inhabitants are forced to rely on cistern water, but this is not plentiful since west Parnon falls in the rainshadow of Taygetos.
The southern section of the west Parnon foreland is for the most part a mere three kilometres wide, but it broadens out to nine kilometres where it abuts on the north-eastern perimeter of the Lakonian Gulf at Mount Kourkoula (916 m.). Generally it does not rise above 500 m. and is often hard to distinguish from Parnon itself. Worthy of note is a series of basin plains (‘Karstpolje’) extending south from Geraki (ancient Geronthrai) to the northern end of the Molaoi plain and thence towards the bay of Monemvasia. Their surface is composed of relatively fertile alluvial soil and contrasts with the surrounding area where life-facilitating springs occur only on the impervious schist. The foreland with few exceptions has never played any very important historical role and in recent times has suffered severe depopulation.
The Malea peninsula continues the west foreland and not Parnon. It is bounded on the north by a line running N 55° W from Epidauros Limera to the northern end of the plain of Molaoi and thence around Mount Kourkoula to the Lakonian Gulf. From Molaoi to Cape Malea (of ‘round Malea and forget your home’ notoriety) is a distance of fifty kilometres; below Neapolis (ancient Boiai) the peninsula is only five kilometres wide. Apart from a few depressions filled with Pliocene deposit and alluvium, the upland is composed of strongly folded schists overlain by massive black or grey Tripolis limestone. On the east the highland descends abruptly to the sea, while on the west groups of flat-topped hills fall steeply to the Lakonian Gulf. Settlements today are located on the edges of plains or at the junction of schist and limestone, as for example the chain of villages near Neapolis. The area is noted for its production of onions, part of which is exported. But in antiquity by far the most important natural resource it contained was iron (Chapter 7). Attempts to re-open the workings in the nineteenth century failed for lack of water, adequate transport and, it was said, enthusiasm on the part of the workers.
Three offshore adjuncts of the Malea peninsula deserve separate mention—Elaphonisos, Kythera and Antikythera. In Pausanias’ day, the second century AD, what is now the island of Elaphonisos (ancient Onougnathos or ‘Ass-jaw’) was still joined to the mainland (3.22.10). It had become separated by at the latest AD 1677, and in the process of separation at least one ancient settlement, the Bronze Age site at Pavlopetri (Chapter 6), found its way underwater. The cause of the separation is perhaps to be sought in a eustatic rise in sea-level rather than in crustal movements due to earthquakes or in the compaction of sediments (Bintliff 1977, 10-26, esp. 15, 25f.); but these are troubled interpretative waters into which I need only dip my toes. At any rate, the area has certainly been strongly affected by seismic activity during the period since records have been kept (Galanopoulos 1964). Further up the Lakonian Gulf at Plytra (ancient Asopos) submarine remains suggest a land-shift of at least two metres. Elaphonisos is now a roughly triangular slab of soft dark limestone rising to 277 m. Its light and sandy topsoil is liable to erosion and unsuitable for cultivation. For its water-supply the population (a mere 673 in 1961) relies on a few deep wells.
Kythera belongs today to the province of Attiki. Previously it had been incorporated in the province of Argolis, and it has often been somewhat distinct, historically, from the rest of Lakonia—not least, as we shall see (Chapter 4), in the Bronze Age. The separation of the island from the mainland is geologically recent: its structure is similar to that of the Malea peninsula, consisting largely of Tripolis limestone. South of the limestone hills around Cape Spathi a belt of schist stretches from coast to coast as far south as Potamos, in whose vicinity a fine-grained white marble is found. Despite the general lack of fertile and cultivable land, the economy remains primarily agricultural, supplemented by a plentiful supply of seafood. The present-day pattern of settlement is dictated by considerations of security rather than accessibility to natural resources, a reversal of the ancient priorities.
Antikythera (variously named in antiquity) lies equidistant from Kythera and western Crete. It resembles an oval with extended points, having a longitudinal axis of ten kilometres and a maximum width of almost four. Its plains and terraces rise to 364 m. and are composed of marl up to 60 m. Although the island is poor in water and mainly provides only fodder for goats (hence perhaps one of its ancient names, Aigilia), it also yields barley in the valleys and is self-supporting. However, population density in 1961 was a paltry eight per km2.
In the sharpest possible contrast the Eurotas furrow is, and must always have been, the heartland of Lakonia: population density in 1961 was sixty-eight per km2. It occupies an area of about 800 km2 between the basin of Megalopolis and the Lakonian Gulf. From a width of only six kilometres in the north it broadens out to twenty-five around the Gulf. Its relationship with the Megalopolis basin is not clearly defined, for the upper reaches of the latter spill over into the furrow at 500 m. without a break, and the tributaries of the Alpheios and Eurotas are linked by a valley watershed at 483 m. The furrow takes its name from the Eurotas, the second largest river in the Peloponnese, which flows mostly along its eastern margin but is diverted below Goritsa to the western. Almost exactly in the centre of the furrow, on the Eurotas itself, lies Sparta, the ancient and modern capital of Lakonia. For convenience of exposition the furrow may be split into four: a northern section stretching as far south as the Langadha gorge on the west and the confluence of the Kelephina (ancient Oinous) and Eurotas on the east; the Spartan basin; a section comprising the hill-country of Vardhounia on the west and the Pliocene table of Vrondama on the east; and finally the present Helos plain.
The northernmost section lies between north Taygetos and Skiritis, whence flow the upper course and most important tributaries of the Eurotas. Geologically the upper part of this section is Olonos limestone and flysch, the lower schists. Population here has remained more or less static since the end of the nineteenth century, but Georgitsi (near ancient Pellana) has suffered appreciable depopulation, from 1,646 in 1928 to 984 in 1961.
The basin of Sparta lies between the sharply defined central portion of Taygetos and Parnon. It is twenty-two kilometres long, between eight and twelve kilometres wide, and trends in a south-south-east direction. It was originally filled with Pliocene deposits of an inland sea, the ‘Neogen’ soil which formed the backbone of agriculture in our period. But these have been partly removed by erosion and partly overlain by the recent alluvium generated during the late Roman/mediaeval climatic oscillation mentioned at the end of Chapter 1. There are today three main cultivated areas: the well-watered piedmont of Taygetos, thickly forested with citrus (a post-classical import), olive and mulberry (now fostered by artificial irrigation), and fertile in vegetables; the centre of the Spartan plain, which bears olives, wheat, barley and maize (an import of the sixteenth or seventeenth century AD), the peculiarity of its soil being that it can produce two cereal harvests in a single year; third, the hills along the Eurotas, which yield wheat or barley. Population in the basin has unsurprisingly fluctuated little overall in recent times. Sparta itself has grown by well over a half since 1928, despite the relatively primitive level of industrialization.
In the south the basin of Sparta is blocked by the Vardhounia hill-country, eighteen kilometres wide. Its western portion merges with Taygetos and is composed largely of schists; its eastern limit is marked by the stream west of modern Krokeai, the Kourtaki. The area rises to 516 m. at Mount Lykovouni and is geologically very similar to south Taygetos. East of Vardhounia lies the Vrondama plateau, composed of Pliocene conglomerates and marls and named for its most important modern village. The plateau is separated from the Spartan basin by a limestone ridge south-west of Goritsa. It declines gradually from 300 m. in the north to 150 m. at Myrtia along a bed of conglomerate overlying the marl. West of Grammousa the Eurotas buries itself in the Tripolis limestone causing routes of communication to deviate from the river and pass either over the Vrondama plateau south-eastwards to the Malea peninsula or through Vardhounia to Gytheion.
The Helos plain and adjoining land are bounded on the west by the Vardhounia hills and on the east by Mount Kourkoula, whose spurs in the form of a Pliocene table-land reach down to the marshy coast. Apart from this narrow strip of marl on the east the soil is alluvium brought down by the Eurotas and its tributary the Mariorhevma (which preserves the name of ancient Marios). A fact of inestimable significance, however, is that the present form of the Helos plain differs markedly from that of its ancient forerunner, which indeed was not strictly a plain. For the ‘Younger Fill’ around the head of the Lakonian Gulf is due to the climatic oscillation already noted, in which cool and moist phases promoted alluviation and coastal aggradation (Figure 3). The ancient shoreline, that is to say, lay appreciably further inland and, as has recently been proved by a deep core, the ancient landscape lies buried beneath in places five to fifteen metres of recent alluvium. Thus the agricultural character of the region today cannot simply be read back into antiquity. For example, the abundant irrigated crops of citrus, cotton and rice grown on the ‘Younger Fill’ are post-classical and indeed, in the case of the two last, twentieth-century imports.
The Taygetos range, known locally as Pendedaktylo (‘five-fingered’) or Makrynas (‘far-off one’), runs for some 110 km. from the Megalopolis basin to Cape Matapan (ancient Cape Tainaron), the second most southerly point in continental Europe. In structure it is an upfold of several Peloponnesian rock-types. Crystalline schists and marble are overlain by various slates and limestones. With the last major upheaval great faults appeared along both sides of the range, the western marking the shore of the Messenian Gulf and
Figure 3 The Helos plain: geological change
The high eastern edge of the plains of Messenia. Transverse faulting split the range into three main sections, the central being elevated above the rest.
Northern Taygetos extends south as far as the Langadha gorge and the north-east angle of the Messenian Gulf. Its breadth (from twenty-one to twenty-four kilometres) falls into three longitudinal subdivisions. The eastern ridge is narrow and straight, rising gently southwards to 1,610 m. above the Langadha, and is made up of dark limestones, schists and shales. The western ridge is fairly broad but never exceeds 1,300 m.; it is uniformly composed of massive limestones. Between these two ridges lies much lower country worn out of the sandstones and fissured limestones by the southward flowing Nedhon (ancient Nedon) and the northward draining Xerillos (ancient Karnion). The inhabitants of this intermediate zone, which embraces the ancient Aigytis and Dentheliatis, were the most backward of any encountered by Philippson.
Central Taygetos extends for thirty-six kilometres from the Langadha to the valleys of Xirokambi and Kardamyli (ancient Kardamyle) on the east and west respectively. This is the highest part of the range, the limestone peaks culminating in Proph. Elias at 2,407 m. The magnificence of the aspect on the east stems from the sharp contrast between the craggy walls of Taygetos and the flatness of the Spartan plain. To the west the lower crests are of marble and mica-schist; the eastern terrace is composed by bold limestone bluffs interrupted by deeply etched ravines. Central Taygetos seems to have been largely uninhabited in antiquity, when it was used by the Spartans as a hunting-ground (Chapter 10). Today the schist has been extensively planted to wheat, barley, rye and maize (the latter up to 1,300 m.).
Southern Taygetos comprises the block between the Xirokambi-Kardamyli pass and the gap between Karyoupolis and Areopolis, which carried the main ancient route to the southern Mani from Gytheion. This section is considerably larger than the preceding and less sharply defined from its surroundings. The eastern limestone chain sinks abruptly from the summit to
1,500 m., but rises again to 1,700 m. at Mount Anina. On the west the marble is less rigid and is dissected by valleys. The region as a whole is more favourable to vegetation and habitation than those to north and south. The whole eastern side is today rich in small settlements, which often perch picturesquely on ridges and slopes amid dense tree-growth; this may, however, have been largely virgin forest in our period.
South Mani is a continuation of Taygetos. Its main summits, which are of marble, decline southwards from 1,100 to 310 m. three kilometres north of Cape Matapan. In only a few places is the marble overlain by mica-schist, where the mere four springs known to Philippson take their rise. Unusually scanty amounts of soil result from the weathering of the hard marble, and this is quickly swept away in winter by rain-storms. Where it does stay put, it is mixed with coarse blocks and small stones (‘the Mani is all stones’ is a proverbial saying)—the farmer’s bug-bear. In such a context the annual migration of the quail is of more than sporting interest; hence Porto Kayio (on the site of ancient Psamathous) from the Venetians’ Porto Quaglio and the Frankish Port des Cailles. Depopulation in the twentieth century has been drastic.
The final tectonic division of Lakonia, the western foreland of Taygetos, runs from Kalamata (ancient Pharai) to Cape Grosso not far north-west of Matapan. It is a coastal terrace and a remarkable erosion-feature, originally cut level by the waves but unequally elevated thereafter by earth-movements. Later still, rivers incised deep ravines, at whose mouths inlets have been produced by sinking. The latter process has probably been furthered by the solution of the marble through weathering. At Cape Kitries in the north the terrace is eight kilometres wide; it narrows to its smallest breadth at Trachilas Bay. From 400 m. at Kitries (ancient Gerenia?) it declines to 98 m. at Cape Grosso. From Kardamyli to the estuary of the river of Milia (Little Pamisos, an ancient frontier between Lakonia and Messenia: Chapter 15) the foreland is chiefly composed of Tripolis limestone patchily overlain by marl; in the Milia valley a zone of mica-schist gives rise to the exceedingly rare spring water. Further south marble is ever-present covered only by a shapeless mass of loam produced by weathering. However, despite the forbidding nature of the terrain, Perioikic communities succeeded in maintaining themselves here—a suitable reminder with which to close this chapter that man is never wholly the slave of the physical environment.
Notes on further reading
The outstanding though somewhat outdated contribution to our understanding of Greek geography has been made by Philippson: Kirsten 1956 includes a bibliography of his numerous works (by no means confined to Greece); for his discussion of Lakonia and Messenia see Philippson 1959, 371-523. Also useful for many points is the Admiralty Naval Intelligence Division Geographical Handbook of Greece (3 vols, March 1944, October 1944, August 1945). See now, however, Bintliff 1977, I, ch. 2; II, chs. 3-4. The technical terminology can most easily be grasped through Whitten and Brooks 1972 and Moore 1976. For the relief of Lakonia and Messenia, and for the location of modern place-names, the regional maps issued by the Greek Statistical Service should be consulted. My Figure 2 is modified from the map produced by the Institute of Geology and Subsurface Research at Athens (1954). I have also used the air photographs taken by the RAF in the last world war, prints of which are housed in the British School at Athens.
In general I have avoided citing modern population figures, partly because there are inherent dangers in interpreting census-returns (Cox 1970, 33-43), in part because the most reliable modern census, that of 1961 (Kayser 1965), was taken well after Greece had been sucked into the orbit of international finance capital. It is, however, perhaps worth noting that one third of the total population was then living on less than 5 per cent of the total surface area, almost one half on less than 15 per cent.
The survival in the north Parnon region of a language which retains certifiable traces of its ultimate Doric ancestor, Tsakonian, bears eloquent witness to the isolation of the region.
Rogan 1973 is the work of an interested amateur; but her maps clearly mark the extent and subdivisions of the extraordinary Mani, and she traces settlement here from prehistory to the present day site by site (with some bibliography).
World History
