Bronze Age in the Aegean: Transition from Neolithic to Minoan & Mycenaean Civilizations
Bronze in the Aegean
The Transition from Neolithic to the Bronze Age
After 6000 BC, a transition occurred in the Aegean from a Neolithic lifestyle of food gathering in caves to one based on agriculture. Remains of a settlement at Knossos from the early Neolithic period, which lasted until the Cretan Minoan era, reveal that people lived in crowded one-room houses with a rectangular shape. The types of crops, livestock, and Mediterranean farming techniques suggest that the origin of the Cretan Neolithic population may be in Asia Minor.
Similar Neolithic settlements existed around 5500 BC in the Argolid, Thessaly, and Asia Minor (some dating back to before 6000 BC). These settlements show evidence of early trade and rudimentary manufacturing and crafts. Their pottery ranges from large storage jars to tiny objects, figures, and weapons. Their most important cult involved an earth goddess, the Great Mother, a symbol of fertility for women, animals, and crops typical of Neolithic societies. This cult was widespread among the first farming communities in Europe and Western Asia and likely continued in the Minoan civilization until the arrival of the Mycenaeans.
This cult appears to reflect a matriarchal society. In early agricultural societies, men were involved in hunting, while women stayed home caring for the home and nurturing crops. As agriculture provided more food than hunting, women occupied a central role in society. The shift to patriarchy in the late Neolithic and Bronze Age may be attributed to the introduction of heavier agricultural tools that women could not handle, leading to men taking over these tasks.
Aegean Neolithic agriculture is characterized by a progressive diversification of typical Mediterranean crops: grapes, corn, olives, legumes, and nuts. Their tools were crude: carved stone, bone, and obsidian. Craft specialization emerged, with carpenters, blacksmiths, basket weavers, and others. This led to social distinctions and the construction of fortified settlements around 4500 BC, possibly indicating fear of the emergence of new people, such as the Indo-Europeans. From this time, the Megaron appears as the ruling house.
The End of the Neolithic Period
According to Cotterell and other historians, the end of the Neolithic period seems to be marked by an influx of people. This influx may not have been violent, and there could have been a mixture of indigenous peoples with new intruders from Anatolia and the Balkans. This would explain the change in the era without evidence of massive destruction resulting from an external invasion.
In the Cyclades, the situation is somewhat different. The first towns appear around 4200-3700 BC, with a greater reliance on fish and less on cattle. However, they were not as populous as the mainland or Crete until 3000 BC. This could be because they had a pre-Neolithic population and were a mixture of Neolithic (non-Indo-European) and new non-indigenous people from the mainland (possibly Indo-European, but non-Greek) who inhabited the island for the first time in a sedentary manner.
The Bronze Age
The year 3000 BC marks the beginning of the Bronze Age, with a population shift to the south (probably Indo-Europeans, but not Greek) and greater prosperity. The Bronze Age did not bring about a sudden and unified adoption of metallurgy. Initially, objects of gold, silver, copper, and bronze were primarily used for religious and decorative purposes. Metal began its journey in the Aegean basin as a luxury material. It was not until the transition from the third to the second millennium BC that metal saw increased use in everyday tools and production.
The reason for this is attributed to the scarcity of metals in the Aegean. Tin, copper, and iron were imported, and metal trade routes developed, making places like Troy II prosperous crossroads, acting as a bridge between Asia Minor and the Aegean.
Apart from archaeological evidence, events in the prehistory of the Aegean are scarce and are known only through myths and later traditions. Crete, and to a lesser extent central Greece, the Peloponnese, and the Cyclades, began using the new metal technology. Mediterranean agriculture, including corn and livestock, became fully established. Olive oil became commonly used in food, ointments, and lighting. Cereals and legumes were introduced in most regions of Greece, leading to an increase in population due to improved nutrition, especially in Crete and Messenia.
Trade and specialization also increased. The Indo-Europeanization of Greece was completed. The Bronze Age lasted from approximately 3000 to 1100 BC in the Aegean basin, divided into two phases: a formative period up to 2000/1800 BC and a second phase marked by the emergence of great Mediterranean civilizations, the Minoan civilization on Crete and the Mycenaean civilization on the mainland.
Variations within the Aegean Bronze Age
The Bronze Age was not homogeneous throughout the Aegean basin. While Mycenae’s splendor came after Crete’s, there was growing militarism in mainland Greece and the Cyclades, with fortifications of settlements (including settlements in strategic locations and well-protected by nature) and the concentration of wealth in the hands of a few princes. In contrast, Crete never had fortifications for its settlements (which were located in open fields and plains, often without strategic locations or natural defenses) until it fell under Mycenaean influence.
This has been explained by the fact that the native population on the mainland and in the Cyclades was not Neolithic, while in Crete it was, or at least had not been fully subjected to another group (in any case, other people would have been a minor component). This can be seen in the two settlements that are prototypes of the Bronze Age: Chalandriani on the mainland and Vasiliki on Crete. Chalandriani has a defensive line made up of six semi-circular towers projecting from a thick stone wall, while Vasiliki is a typical Neolithic agglomeration of houses without a wall demarcating the settlement.
The Arrival of the “Minyans”
Around 2100 BC, there may have been an arrival of a people who have been called “Minyans” (named after the discovery of miniaturized ceramics in Orchomenus, whose mythical king was Minyas). They are characterized by gray polished ceramic that mimics metal pots, found in Greece and northwest Asia Minor. They have been identified with the Luwians, an Anatolian Indo-European group, and are thought to be responsible for place names with the suffixes -(s)s- and -nth-, gray pottery, and the Megaron as a new type of construction. This thesis is controversial but has not been completely discarded (perhaps the Minyans were the original Greeks?).
Whoever they were (Minyans or possibly Greeks), those who attacked mainland Greece in 2100 BC caused an interruption in the cultural advancement of mainland Greece and the Cyclades. They were barbarians and culturally backward, appearing to have recently emerged from the Neolithic and joined the Bronze Age very late. They invaded Greece from the north through the Balkans (perhaps their original home), which would explain their low cultural level as mountaineers. However, over several decades and centuries, they absorbed the higher culture of the people where they settled, eventually giving rise to the Mycenaean civilization in the 16th-15th centuries BC. These new settlers, who were not Indo-European, arrived in Crete during Mycenaean times and therefore had a higher cultural level.