When did the Greeks arrive in Greece? This is a difficult question, as the one defining characteristic of the Greeks—their language—is not preserved in the early material records. It is clear that the Greeks must have arrived in Greece no later than 1450 b. c.e., as the Linear B texts from Pylos and Knossos are written in Greek, showing that the dominant populations of mainland Greece and Crete were Greek by this time.
There have been various dates offered for the coming of the Greeks, some of which have now been rejected. In 1918, excavators Wace and Blegen (1916-1918) noted the arrival of a new style of pottery in Greece—Yellow Minyan Ware—that dated to approximately 1900 b. c.e. This new pottery was considered evidence of a new population arriving in Greece at that time, until it became apparent that there was an older form of Minyan Ware (Gray) dating back into the previous two centuries. Another position lies in the theories of Hood (1973), who rejects the identification of Linear B as Greek and argues that the Greeks did not arrive in Greece until 1100 b. c.e. In another extreme position, Renfrew (1974) argues that the Greeks were indigenous to Greece.
Two dates are now suggested by scholars for the arrival of the Greeks in Greece: 2100 b. c.e., or the beginning of the Early Helladic III period, and 1650 b. c.e., or the beginning of Late Helladic I. Although the earlier date is the one most commonly accepted, evidence for both hypotheses is presented here.
A relatively advanced culture, or cultures, were evolving in Greece in the Early Helladic I and II periods (3000-2100 b. c.e.). Fine artwork and architecture from this period have been excavated at such sites as Eutresis and Or-chomenus in central Greece, and in Tiryns and Lerna in the Argolid. At this last site, excavators discovered not only a distinctive style of art, but also fortification walls; houses with sturdy, spacious, square rooms; and even a "palace" (large building)—the so-called House of the Tiles. The refinements in the art and architecture, and the central planning evidenced by the House of the Tiles, point to a sophisticated civilization with a sense of hierarchy, social community, or both.
At some point around 2100 b. c.e., at the boundary between the Early Hel-ladic II and Early Helladic III periods, a new population entered Greece, probably from the north, and wiped out this early society. Lerna, to provide one example, was burnt to the ground. The House of the Tiles was knocked down, buried over, and utterly abandoned. The houses that replaced the old homes at Lerna were small and irregular, and the new population showed no tendencies toward the distinctive art styles that had characterized the Early Helladic II population (Vermeule 1972). By contrast, these newcomers brought with them a new style of pottery known as Gray Minyan Ware, which replaced the previous pottery styles on the mainland. This introduction of a new pottery style, along with the new style of architecture, is significant to modern archaeolo-gists—it suggests that there was a new cultural group moving into Greece, and that these hostilities and warfare were not occurring between the previously established communities. Most scholars accept that this new, rather belligerent, population was the early Greeks moving into Greece for the first time.
An alternate theory is that the Greeks arrived in Greece at the dawn of the Late Bronze Age, around 1650 b. c.e. At this time, there was a surge in the Greek economy and a corresponding change in culture. Gold, silver, ostrich eggs, and even amber from the Baltic region began to appear in Mycenaean graves, which became far more lavish than in previous centuries. A new interest in warfare also became evident in the art from this period, with scenes of charioteers carved onto stelai (commemorative stone pillars) and painted onto walls, and knives and swords decorated with gold and niello (a black inlay made of copper, lead, sulfur, and borax) laid out beside their owners in the new-fashioned burials (see below).
These developments occurred at the same time as a wide-scale interest in horse and chariot warfare spread throughout the Near East, from Egypt to Iran. Drews (1988) has used this as evidence that there was a mass migration of Indo-Europeans (people with languages related to Greek) at the turn of the Late Bronze Age. These people dominated the native populations through their superior weapons technology, especially the chariot. This would account for the simultaneous arrival of the Greeks in Greece, the Vedic populations in India, and the general appearance of chariot warfare in the art of Egypt and Mesopotamia. Thus, the arrival of the Greeks might be correlated with a more general population movement from the Caspian Sea, west to Greece, and east as far as India. Not only would this account for the sudden interest in warfare and chariots in Greece, it also explains how so much wealth entered Mycenaean society so quickly—it was war booty.
Those in favor of the earlier date for the Greeks' arrival in Greece offer alternate theories regarding these changes in Late Helladic society. One idea is that the Mycenaeans served as mercenaries, especially in Egypt. Some Egyptian wall paintings from the seventeenth century show Aegean elements, indicating that Aegean populations made their way to Egypt to be influenced by Egyptian wealth and styles of warfare. If mercenary activity did become popu-
Lar in Greece starting around 1650—in Egypt or otherwise—it would explain how the new wealth and obsession with militarism came into the area without the introduction of a new population.
There is a strong cultural continuity between 1650 and 1450 on the mainland, so no new population could have arrived before the Late Helladic I population started writing Greek. We can conclude that the Greeks were in Greece from at least as late as 1650 b. c.e., probably as early as 2100 b. c.e., with continual occupation of that land until the present day.
World History
