Greek Colonization Research Articles

Y chromosome genetic variation in the Italian peninsula is clinal and supports an admixture model for the Mesolithic–Neolithic encounter

The Italian peninsula, given its geographical location in the middle of the Mediterranean basin, was involved in the process of the peopling of Europe since the very beginning, with first settlements dating to the Upper Paleolithic. Later on, the Neolithic revolution left clear evidence in the archeological record, with findings going back to 7000 B.C. We have investigated the demographic consequences of the agriculture revolution in this area by genotyping Y chromosome markers for almost 700 individuals from 12 different regions. Data analysis showed a non-random distribution of the observed genetic variation, with more than 70% of the Y chromosome diversity distributed along a North–South axis. While the Greek colonisation during classical time appears to have left no significant contribution, the results support a male demic diffusion model, even if population replacement was not complete and the degree of Neolithic admixture with Mesolithic inhabitants was different in different areas of Italy.

MORTUARY DISPLAY AND CULTURAL CONTACT: A CEMETERY AT KASTRI ON THASOS

Summary. This article explores how the patterns of development within the local populations prior to Greek colonization, or even Greek contact, can elucidate the process of Greek colonization. Focusing upon the Thracian Early Iron Age cemetery of Kastri on Thasos, it suggests that past interpretations of such cemeteries as undifferentiated is due to the imposition of modern ideas of value. This article instead uses the criterion of diversity to suggest that the cemetery in fact has clear patterns of social differentiation in the first and last periods of use. Furthermore imports are restricted to graves of highest diversity in the last period of use (the early seventh century BC). This pattern is repeated over Early Iron Age Thrace, and is indicative of a social change within Thrace prior to Greek colonization which saw nascent Thracian elites seeking out imports from many areas in order to bolster their status.

Satellite-based recognition of landscape archaeological features related to ancient human transformation

This paper deals with the use of QuickBird images for the identification of features linked to ancient transformations, the landscape induced by human activities. The methodological approach adopted for the identification of these features is mainly based on the use of data fusion and edge detection. The data fusion enabled the integration of the high spatial resolution of the panchromatic image with the spectral capability of multispectral images, thus allowing us to achieve improved capabilities that are not possible solely using the individual datasets. The use of edge detection enhanced the spatial feature, thus facilitating their identification. The investigation was performed on Metaponto, one of the most important archaeological sites in the south of Italy. The analysis focused on the identification of ancient land divisions related to the Greek colonization age. The obtained results showed that the use of QuickBird images enables the detection of the archaeological features linked to buried remains with a high level of detail.

Negotiating a Greco-Corsican Identity

The Greek settlement in Corsica, dating from 1676, is remarkable among the colonies of its time for its very slow assimilation—a process that did not become irreversible until two centuries later, with some sense of Greek identity persisting to this day. However, while past commentators have interpreted this as indicating undying loyalty to Greece, the Greco-Corsican construction of identity has been rather more precarious. To establish how and to what extent a distinct Greco-Corsican identity was maintained, the particular historical circumstances of the colony are considered, along with its recorded attitude towards its Corsican neighbors, the continuity of its folk culture with its Greek antecedents, the conditions giving rise to its creedal identity, and the contrasting outcomes in assimilation of transplanted Greco-Corsican colonies. With this information, an account of the delay in assimilation is given in terms of Social Identity Theory, and the particular role the colonists' creed played in the formulation of their distinct identity.

Integrated geophysical surveys at the archaeological site of Tindari (Sicily, Italy)

The results of geophysical survey carried out at the archaeological site of Tindari, located 70 km west-north-west of Messina (Sicily, Italy), are presented and discussed. The site is one of the most important archaeological sites, about 90 ha large, on the north-eastern side of Sicily and it was one of the last Greek settlements in Sicily. Keeping in mind the vastness of the site, according to the archaeologists an area, of about 1200 m 2 was selected, for a geophysical survey. Electrical resistivity tomography (ERT), including induced polarization (IP) measurements, and seismic refraction tomography were applied in the course of geophysical exploration in the area. The objective of this preliminary geophysical investigation was to verify the effectiveness of the technique for a spatial definition of the buried archaeological structures (mostly walls, columns, etc.) to determine their characteristics and to study the presence of collapsed columns within the zone of archaeological interest, in view of their application in the rest of the site, that, for obvious reasons, could not be entirely excavated in brief times. The geophysical data, visualized in 3D space, revealed a distribution of low-contrast shallow anomalies that indicate the presence of different types of buried structures in the surveyed area. Also, the probable accumulations of collapsed columns could be determined. These results confirm the hypothesis of a large northern extension of the archaeological site and provide useful information to design a more efficient excavation plan.

Preserving cultural heritage and developing a modern city: the difficult case of Euesperides

AbstractThis note reports on a paper presented at the American Institute of Archaeology 107th Annual Meeting (Montreal January 2006). The theme of the American Institute of Archaeology Annual meeting was ‘Management and Preservation of Cultural Heritage’. The Euesperides Project presented a paper on Euesperides (Sidi Abeid, Benghazi), the Archaic Greek settlement founded in the sixth century BC. Although the site was declared a protected area for its historical and archaeological importance, it still lacks effective protection. The site, important also from a naturalistic point of view, is used as an illegal rubbish dumping area and is awaiting a long-promised wall to prevent indiscriminate access to it.The paper stressed that many sites in Libya are in need of preservation and protection, even more so after the opening of the country to tourism. The need to develop new infrastructure, if not carefully planned in respect of the cultural heritage, may result in indiscriminate development, as witnessed at Apollonia, where a harbour was being built near the site, obliterating the ancient port. The paper discussed also the Project's proposal presented to the local authorities, concerning the realization of an archaeological park and museum of the history of Benghazi. These projects are important not only to attract tourists, but above all for the local schools and educational programmes directed to inform the younger generations about the importance of their past.

DEAD MEN TELL NO TALES: ETHNIC DIVERSITY IN SICILIAN COLONIES AND THE EVIDENCE OF THE CEMETERIES

Summary. There have been recent suggestions that an indigenous element in ancient Greek settlements in Sicily can be detected through funerary customs. This paper reviews the evidence for ‘indigenous’ burial methods in Greek cemeteries, concentrating on multiple, contracted and acephalous burials. It argues that such evidence is limited and open to various interpretations and that while it is highly likely that Greek settlements did incorporate an indigenous population, the funerary record cannot be used as a reliable identifier of such groups. The paper also briefly assesses the evidence for the presence of Greeks deriving from areas other than the historical mother‐cities and suggests that such individuals are also very difficult to detect. It concludes that the general impression given by Sicilian Greek cemeteries is one of overall subscription to coherent burial systems, which may be viewed as part of an attempt to forge a unified and independent cultural identity.

Orthodox Communities in Eastern Anatolia in the Thirteenth to Fourteenth Centuries. Part 2: The Time of Troubles*

Eastern Asia Minor underwent profound changes in the thirteenth to fourteenth centuries. The period in question is marked by the decline of the Greek Orthodox Church in Anatolia. Why did the Greek population, prosperous in the thirteenth century, dwindle in the next century? The answer may lie in the general development of Eastern Anatolia at that time: the wealthy provinces of the Sultanate of Rūm and the state of Ayyubids became an arena of constant struggle between powerful warlords, which led to depopulation of many cities. Neither Islamisation nor the process of Turkisation seem to have been a decisive factor of the decline of the Greek settlements in Eastern Asia Minor.

Archaic Greek colonies in Libya: historicalvs.archaeological chronologies?

AbstractThe presently accepted ceramic chronology places the earliest episodes of Greek colonisation in Libya some three to four decades earlier than the traditional historical dates. A similar offset between the archaeological and historical chronologies can be seen at Naukratis and other Archaic Greek sites. A review of ‘fixed points’ for Archaic dating shows that the balance of evidence now strongly favours a reduction of late seventh to early sixth century BC Greek ceramic chronology by three to four decades. Such a reduction would bring harmony between the archaeological and historical pictures for the founding of the Cyrenaican colonies, restoring confidence in the account given by Herodotus.

Postcolonial Concepts and Ancient Greek Colonization

Irad Malkin is Maxwell Cummings Chair for Mediterranean History and Culture and professor of ancient history at Tel Aviv University, where he coedits the Mediterranean Historical Review and directs the Center for Mediterranean Civilizations Project. Among his publications areReligion and Colonization in Ancient Greece (1987), Myth and Territory in the Spartan Mediterranean (1994), and The Returns of Odysseus: Colonization and Ethnicity (1998), as well as an edited collection, Ancient Perceptions of Greek Ethnicity (2001).

Las sandalias de Apolo. Sobre el origen griego de los cinturones «célticos»

The «romboid-plate and recesses» bronze belts are a type of numerous and characteristic objects on Iberian Iron Age archaeology. These objects have been considered by the Spanish traditional research as the results of cultural influences from Central Europe, and they have so called Celtics belts. In this paper a series of new archaeological evidences are presented. They seem demonstrate that those iberian bronze-belts don't have a Celtic but a Greek origin, as other scholars have already proposed. From these new data, is proposed a different pattern of chronological, ' commercial and craftsmanship organisation for those productions concerning the Greek Colonisation of the «Far West».

Urbs fide atque aerumnis incluta - acerca del mite de Sagunt en època augústea

Este artículo revisa y examina la evidencia textual en las fuentes antiguas sobre el mito de la ejemplar fides Saguntina, comparándola con los datos de la investigación arqueológica, epigráfica y numismática. Frente a la tesis de investigaciones anteriores, no puede probarse una relación entre la población indígena de Arse y el asentamiento mítico griego ni una relación con los Rutuli latinos. En contra de la opinión de algunos investigadores modernos, ni siquiera el relato de los bravos Saguntini que se sacrificaron a raíz de su alianza con Roma parece ser anterior a la época final de la República romana. Los Saguntini inventaron una tradición a partir de los recuerdos vagos de la conquista cartaginesa para fortalecer los lazos con el Imperio Romano y para no ser considerados como bárbaros hispanos.

The Greek demographic expansion: models and comparisons

For much of the first millennium BC, the number of Greeks increased considerably, both in the Aegean core and in the expanding periphery the Mediterranean and Black Sea regions. This paper is the first attempt to establish a coherent quantitative framework for the study of this process. In the first section, I argue that despite the lack of statistical data, it is possible to identify a plausible range of estimates of average long-term demographic growth rates in mainland Greece from the Early Iron Age to the Classical period. Elaborating on this finding, the second section offers a comprehensive rebuttal of the notion of explosive population growth in parts of the eighth and seventh centuries BC. In the third section, I seek to determine the probable scale and demographic consequences of Greek settlement overseas. A brief preliminary look at the relationship between population growth and the quality of life concludes my survey. The resultant series of interlocking parametric models is meant to contextualize the demographic development of ancient Greece within the wider ambit of pre-modem demography, and to provide a conceptual template for future research in this area

Archaeopalynology of synanthropic vegetation in the chora of Chersonesos, Crimea, Ukraine

Palynological analyses of Late Holocene soils and sedimentary deposits within the agricultural territory ( chora) of the ancient city of Chersonesos provide information on landscape transformation of the Heraklean Peninsula of the Crimea prior and after the Greek colonization (5th–2nd centuries BC). Pollen research focused on the interpretation of anthropogenic indicators in pollen assemblages as a method to reconstruct synanthropic flora, including local secondary plant communities of sub-Mediterranean type (shiblyak and phrygana), cultivated plants, and segetal vegetation (weeds). The interpretation of the fossil pollen record is partially based on modern pollen spectra obtained from several plant communities and managed environments in the Heraklean Peninsula. In the deposits studied, there is no evidence that the grapevine ( Vitis) was cultivated before Greek colonization, or that walnut ( Juglans) was present before the Roman period. Cerealia-type pollen appears in pre-Hellenistic and Hellenistic deposits in low frequencies, only acquiring greater significance in more recent deposits. Olea pollen was absent in the deposits studied here, suggesting that its adaptation to Crimea was never achieved in antiquity. The incursion of Mediterranean floristic elements in the pollen records show that the “mediterranization” of the southwestern Crimean landscapes began during the Middle Holocene with the warming and intensification of summer drought, which is also testified by the development of cinnamonic soils. The adaptation of Mediterranean managed environments intensified during last 3000 years.

Of dogs and men: Archilochos, archaeology and the Greek settlement of Thasos

This article involves a case-study of one of the most generally accepted literary accounts of a Greek settlement abroad – the Greek colonisation of Thasos. Here, according to the generally accepted account, we have an eye-witness, Archilochos, son of theoikist, who actually settled on Thasos not during the first Greek settlement but during a subsequent wave of settlers. He didn't like it much – he calls it ‘thrice-wretched’ (228W), the settlers were the dregs of Greece (102W), the island looked like the back of an ass (21W), it wasn't pretty like Sybaris in Italy (22W), and the Thracians were described as ‘dogs’ (93aW). Fighting between Greeks and Thracians is portrayed (5W).The archaeological evidence for the first period of Greek settlement on Thasos is scarce, but what there is has been marshalled in support of this literary model. Archaeology's main role has been to be used in chronological disputes. The orthodoxy dates the Parian colonisation to 680 BC, arguing that the Delphic oracle concerning the foundation of Thasos has Archilochos' father asoikist.The subject-matter of several of the poems has allowed Archilochos' poetry to be dated to 650 BC, and therefore the colonisation of Thasos to a generation before. Pouilloux (1964), indeed, has used the archaeological evidence from a house in the lowest levels of Thasos town to argue for this early date for the Parian settlement, seeing the ‘Thracian’ (and distinctly un-Cycladic) character of many of the finds as indicative of a certain amount of interaction between Parians and Thracians in the first generation of the colony.

Eighth-Century Corinthian Pottery: Evidence for the Dates of Greek Settlement in the West

Eighth-Century Corinthian Pottery: Evidence for the Dates of Greek Settlement in the West

Trade and Agriculture at Megara Hyblaia

The terms of twentieth–century debate on the causes of Greek overseas settlement were set by Gwynn and Blakeway: overseas settlements were either founded to feed hungry mouths in an overpopulated homeland, or they were founded to improve Greek trading opportunities in the rest of the Mediterranean and Black Sea. Although the trade versus agriculture dichotomy is increasingly being regarded as false, its legacy lingers on, even in recent work. Detailed attention to the earliest remains at one of the best–known Greek overseas settlements, Megara Hyblaia in south–east Sicily, provides strong evidence in favour of seeing agriculture as central to Greek settlement abroad, but agriculture as a basis for trade rather than agriculture for its own sake.

The Colonization of Samothrace

Three aspects pertaining to the Greek colonization of Samothrace are addressed: the origin of the colonists, the foundation date, and relations between Greeks and non-Greeks. Relevant literary sources and other indications make it clear that the Greek colonists came from Samos; the current theory that they were Aeolians should be abandoned. No foundation date is preserved in the ancient sources, but archaeological remains, especially from cemeteries on the island, point strongly to the first half of the 6th century B.C. Evidence for a Greek takeover of a non-Greek cult, and, especially, for the use of a non-Greek language as well as Greek, makes the coexistence of Greeks and non-Greeks a plausible hypothesis.

Greek colonization and the eponymous apollo

In the world of ancient Greece, more than 40 colonies and cities bore names which seemingly derive from the name of the god Apollo. Since Apollo was the patron of colonial establishments, it has been tempting to assume that all these foundations were directed by an oracle of Apollo and/or that Apollo was considered the divine founder of the colony or city. However, analysis of the evidence of the origins of the place names reveals that there were, in many cases, other reasons for the Apolline place name.

New light on Thracian Thasos: a reinterpretation of the ‘Cave of Pan’

This short article concentrates upon a very small part of the material culture of Thasos in an attempt to show how knowledge and discussion of the local archaeology can not only elucidate the study of Greek ‘colonization’, but also is vital to a clear understanding of the process. The Greek colonization of Thasos, and indeed of Thrace, is currently written from a wholly Hellenocentric and text-based perspective, behind which lies an unspoken and pervasive comparison with Western European colonialism. Behind my discussion lies the opposing conviction that Greek colonization must be considered at the local level, and in the context of an understanding of social developments within the area settled. This discussion of the cave of Pan thus indicates both how an archaeology that concentrates only upon Greek material culture can miss important features, and how an awareness of the archaeology of local populations can elucidate the processes of Greek ‘colonization’.