The archaeology of “the other Greece” is gradually rising in favor amongst researchers, strongly aided by vigorous archaeology departments in the provinces of Northern Greece, innovative work by the local Archaeological Services, and a growing number of international field projects (see Andreou et al. 1996, Andreou 2001). It is still difficult to gain a full picture of Bronze Age developments in this large region, however, and one suspects many surprises are in store when ongoing research becomes accessible through international publications.
As occurs also in later Bronze Age times, the coastal zone of Thessaly near modern Volos has revealed sites with strong exchange connections to the South Aegean and interesting features pointing to more complex social organization. Pevkakia is a promontory once flanked by two bays, with a circuit wall and an area of ca. 2 ha, where excavations have shown large buildings at different phases of the EBA. Nearby Petromagoula also has a circuit wall. However further evidence that might suggest a political or settlement hierarchy is lacking. Inland, the very dense Thessalian Neolithic tell societies undergo radical settlement discontinuity to the EBA. Large-scale abandonments are followed by relocations, and initially a drop in site numbers, recovering only in later Bronze Age times. The smaller sites of the Neolithic are widely replaced by rarer larger tells, although these are best evidenced in Middle to Late Bronze Age times. A wider use of the landscape is associated with a broadening of the economy, and one can suspect that much of the locational and economic shifts are connected to the full adoption of the plough, animal traction, and the Secondary Products Revolution. Some argue that because painted wares decline in the Bronze Age and households make their storage and workplaces more private, there has occurred a process of disruption of
Neolithic communal dining and social interaction, emphasizing competitive families. Nonetheless signs of the rise of an elite are lacking away from the coast, whether in houses, art or burial. Within Thessaly and to a small extent with other Aegean regions, exchanges of pottery continue, but their significance is unclear.
In Macedonia, the western regions also see expansion of site locations from Neolithic into the Bronze Age, attributed partly to the same economic developments as in Thessaly. Additionally, since increasingly hilltop locations are favored, the role of intercommunity warfare has been raised, and perhaps also the appearance of some minor district centers. Although clear evidence for the latter is lacking, local researchers now question whether Northern Greece need any more be assumed to stagnate into undefended village life in the EBA whilst the South develops successive civilizations. In central Macedonia a similar discontinuity in settlements is observed to that in Thessaly, with widespread abandonments and relocations between Neolithic and EBA times, plus site number reductions. However this is followed by a settlement recovery in the later Bronze Age, and we can still see an overall wider use of the landscape over time. Only in the later Bronze Age are there clear signs of an emergent settlement hierarchy. In eastern Macedonia and Thrace, a broadly similar sequence of large-scale settlement transformations seems indicated.
In Northwestern Mainland Greece (Tartaron 2004), ongoing survey and excavation projects promise to revolutionize our knowledge of the Bronze Age, so the traditional assumption of minimal development may need serious revision, something not unexpected when we consider the isolated elaborate burials already discussed from offshore Levkas island.
World History
