Change in Early Helladic II

Abstract

The second Early Helladic period (Lerna III) has been the subject of much excavation and research since Caskey's authoritative article in Hesperia 29 (1960) 285–303, defining the differences between it and the subsequent period EH III (Lerna IV). In this essay I have tried to summarize the new contributions to our understanding of EH II and to suggest some possible interpretations. Excavations at Tiryns and elsewhere in the Argolid, Thebes, Aigina, Elis, Messenia, Euboea, and the Cyclades have added much new information and have led, particularly at Tiryns, to new interpretations for the end of the period. The discoveries of several more corridor houses like the House of the Tiles, and Shaw's recent study in AJA 91 (1987) 59-79, have focused attention on this remarkable monumental form. Surveys, particularly those of the Argive peninsula sponsored by Stanford University, have added to our knowledge of the size and distribution of sites; and new hypotheses developed by the Stanford team and by Renfrew and his colleagues, among others, have drawn on evidence of many kinds. My own study of the pottery and stratification of Lerna III has made clear to me some strong differences between earlier and later EH II, a distinction already demonstrated by Weisshaar and much earlier by Blegen. We can now see that the "corridor houses," associated with the fortifications, fired tiles, sealings, frequent potter's marks, and a range of pottery distinctly different from the earlier, belong to the end of the period, when an increasingly rapid pace of change was leading southern Greece toward a high level of social and economic complexity. These changes rest upon a longer and slower series of changes which began in the Neolithic age. The changes during late EH II probably coincided in part with the appearance of Kastri/Lefkandi I elements at many sites; there seems a possibility of some connection between them.