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Hermahai Profile picture
@hermahai
Oct 24, 2022 • 16 tweets • 11 min read • Read on X
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A few words about the prehistory of Crete regarding the dialogue below... There is a relevant bibliography for what I am mentioning!
#Crete #Prehistory #Neolithic #AegeanBronzeAge #Minoans #Mycenaeans #Anatolia
1/ The Neolithic package in Crete appears for the first time around 7000 BC. in Knossos with a community of settlers from Western Anatolia, which did not know the technology of pottery (Pre-Pottery Neolithic).
2/The interesting thing is that recent surveys have shown that within the community, chipped stone objects were found that bear characteristics of the Aegean Mesolithic tradition,which means that this short-lived community came into contact with local Mesolithic hunter-gatherers.
3/ Crete has already been inhabited since the Lower Palaeolithic through the maritime migration of Neanderthal populations using improvised rafts and making use of the sea route Mani > Kythera > Antikythera > Western Crete > Gavdos.
4/ After a gap in the Neolithic presence in Crete, we have successive migrations of populations from Anatolia, holders of the complete Neolithic package, with the result that during the Middle Neolithic Crete has been completely Neolithic.
5/ During the FN - EBA in the Aegean (NE Aegean - Cyclades - Attica) a highly developed culture is created, which has influences from Western Anatolia, but also the Balkans and has as its main characteristics the development of metallurgy, navigation and long distance trade.
6/ From the FN to EM II, Crete, especially in its east, seems to have strong commercial, cultural and racial ties with the Cyclades (indications of marriages with Cycladic islands have been reported), ➡️
➡️ while in its interior there is a cultural and population homogeneity, despite some local deviations.
7/ When in the helladic area during the transition from EH II/III and similarly in the Cyclades, a strong cultural intersection / breach is observed as a consequence of a wave of destructions, in Crete a cultural continuity is demonstrated.
8/ The conditions of upheaval that are observing in the period before the establishment of the first palaces (EM III - MM I), is due to the intense competition of local elites for the power and not to the migration of new population groups. ➡️
➡️ Some of the achievements of the Minoan civilization are cultural loans from areas of the East through trade, contacts and man's need for progress and innovation.
9/ When the Mycenaeans first invaded Khania and Crete (<1450 BC) via the sea route from southern Laconia, they established an initial palatial administration in Crete that ensured military control of the main centers of the island.
10/ Until 1370 BC the Mycenaean control of Western and Central Crete was complete, while the local Minoan element had taken refuge in the east of the island with the Mycenaeans having no relations with this part of Crete.
11/ After 1240 BC we have signs of the collapse of the Mycenaean confederation (archaeological findings - Hittite texts) and the appearance of the first signs of insecurity in the Aegean (piracy / out control armed groups) ➡️
➡️ with Crete being one of the first areas which were affected, as indicated by the appearance of the first mountain refugee shelters (>1230 BC).
12/ Finally, as I mentioned the destruction of Troy VIi was due to attacks by multinational sea raiders and took place around 1210 BC. It is very likely that the majority of the raiders were wandering pirates of the Aegean and some of them have their bases in Crete.

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More from @hermahai

Hermahai Profile picture
Dec 5
1/Sicily has been a major trade crossroads since the Neolithic era,through which sea routes passed, connecting the peoples of the Eastern Mediterranean with the West and vice versa. The result of this event was the long-term habitation of the Sicilian land by a mosaic of peoples. Image
2/ Thus, when the Greek colonists arrived on the island after the mid-8th century BC, they found three population groups: the Sicilians in the E, the Sicanians in the C-W, and the Elymians in the NW. The origin of these peoples has been a subject of controversy since antiquity. Image
3/ The literary tradition has handed down to us several contradictory narratives, referring to mass migrations, often in the form of mythical tales. The best-known mythological tale is Minos' pursuit of the fugitive Daedalus in Sicily and the founding of Cretan cities there. Image
Read 16 tweets
Hermahai Profile picture
Nov 25
1/ Athens has been associated since antiquity with the city's patron goddess, Athena. However, although most people believe that the city was named after the goddess, perhaps the opposite was actually the case. The two words have a common root that is likely of pre-Greek origin. Image
2/ But let's start from the beginning. Long before the city of Athens became the dominant center of the region, its name was Actaea and it belonged to a wider community, Att(h)is < Attica. The inhabitants of Attica at that time were not Greek-speaking (pre-Greek substrate). Image
3/ Several scholars argue that both the word Actaea and Attica, and the word Athéne (Ἀθήνη), derive from the word Atthis through corruption. Athéne is the common root from which the word Ἀθῆναι and the word Ἀθηνᾶ came. So both the city and the goddess have pre-Greek origins. Image
Read 8 tweets
Hermahai Profile picture
Nov 23
1/ During the same period (1250/40 BC) that the major fortification works were taking place in Mycenae and Tiryns, and the hill of Midea was being rebuilt with new palatial buildings and Cyclopean fortifications, a new fortified palatial settlement was founded on the Acropolis. Image
2/ But who were the ones who built the new Mycenaean citadel Athens? The answer lies in the question of what purpose its building served. In my opinion, the Athenian elites had neither the financial means nor the know-how to construct such a project. Image
3/ So the project was designed and financed by a powerful Mycenaean actor outside Attica and he - according to the available evidence - was in Mycenae. The stakes were the limitation of Thebes' influence in Attica and in particular the exploitation of the mines of Lavrion. Image
Read 11 tweets
Hermahai Profile picture
Oct 20
1/ The Citadel of Dymaean Wall at the NW end of the Peloponnese has a special place in Aegean prehistoric studies, as it was previously believed to be proof (along with the Isthmus Wall) of the existence of a northern threat (Dorians) to the core of the Mycenaean palatial world. Image
2/ Recent field study has placed its presence on a more realistic basis. First of all, the human presence on the Hill of Kalogria where the Citadel is built bears evidence of human presence, residential remains and pottery, dating back to the end of the 4th millennium BC. Image
3/ The choice of location is due to its great strategic importance, at the intersection of the land and the sea, constituting a significant defensive stronghold and an ideal point of surveillance of the sea routes of the Ionian Sea, already since the end of the 3rd millennium BC. Image
Read 16 tweets
Hermahai Profile picture
Oct 9
1/ The Trojan War, as presented to us by the Homeric Iliad, is nothing more than a literary text with an epic-mythological character that captures in a single narrative various memories of events of the Mycenaean past, altered by time.
#Ahhiyawa #Homer #Troy Image
2/The main body of the myth of Trojan War - the gathering of the Achaean warlords under the leadership of the strongest of them, the king of Mycenae, and the naval campaign in the Troad - constitutes the only connection between the historical background and the Homeric narrative. Image
3/ During the palatial period, the Mycenaean world was structured into powerful local houses that recognized the supremacy of the Great King of the Achaeans, who had his throne in Mycenae and was equal to the powerful rulers of the Eastern Mediterranean (Hatti, Egypt etc). Image
Read 10 tweets
Hermahai Profile picture
Aug 25
1/ One of the biggest questions of Minoan archaeology is the existence of two scripts, which accur simultaneously in the same palatial centers (Old Palaces) or even in the same rooms: Cretan Hieroglyphics (2100-1700 BC) and Linear A' (1800-1450 BC).
#Minoan_Scripts Image
2/ This fact is not an unusual occurrence for the Eastern Mediterranean, as in Egypt and Anatolia two or more languages were used to serve different purposes. However, in Minoan Crete the coexistence of the two scripts for a period of about a century served the same purpose: 👉 Image
👉 the recording of administrative texts, mainly of a financial - accounting nature. What is the reason for this simultaneous presence of two different scripts in Crete? Does this fact conceal some linguistic differentiation between groups of the local population? Image
Read 11 tweets

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