Early Lesbos between East and West: A 'Grey Area' of Aegean Archaeology

Early Lesbos between East and West: A 'Grey Area' of Aegean Archaeology Author(s): Nigel Spencer Source: The Annual of the British School at Athens, Vol. 90, Centenary Volume (1995), pp. 269 -306 Published by: British School at Athens Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/30104526 Accessed: 30/04/2010 11:15 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=bsa. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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EARLY LESBOS BETWEEN EAST AND WEST: A 'GREY AREA' OF AEGEAN ARCHAEOLOGY1 (PLATE

33)

IT HAS LONG been recognized from literary sources that Lesbos was one of the leading East Greek states in the archaic period, but the wealth of literary information about the island has continually drawn attention away from the island's archaeology.2 The reliance on these unusually rich contemporary sources for the archaic period has meant that for Lesbos, unlike many other regions of East Greece, there has always been less need to resort to archaeological data in order to build up a picture of the archaic period,3 and with the additional problem of i Thanksare due to Prof.Hector Williamsand Dr Caroline Williamsfor their continued help with my researchin Lesbos, especiallyin always making availableto me even unpublished materialfrom theirexcavationsin Mytilene.Prof.GeraldSchaus generouslyprovideda draftof his studyof the importedarchaic fine ware potteryfrom the acropolisat Mytilene in advance of p)ublication.I have benefited from useful discussions with FedericoUtili who is continuinghis studyof the greywaresfrom JohannesBoehlau'sexcavationsat Pyrrha(Lesbos),and I am also especiallyindebtedto both Prof.Dr WolfgangSchieringand Dr ChristofBoehringerfor theirgenerosityin allowingme to publish material from the same excavations, stored in the Gottingen ArchaeologicalInstitute.Thanks are also due to the Managing Committee of the British School at Athens for permission to publishmaterialfrom the archivesin Athens, to Ian Morrisfor offeringa draftof his forthcomingarticle'The art of citizenship', and to Hector Williams,Gerald Schaus, Wolfgang Schiering, Christof Boehringer, Alan Johnston, Irene Lemos, Richard Catling,Donald Easton,SusanAlcock,JohnBarron,Lin Foxhall, GrahamShipley,Maria-ChristinaTzannes,and the anonymous reviewerswho all read earlierversionsof this paper.Dr Dimitris Plantzoskindly helped with translationof the abstract,Thalia Sini with the translationof the catalogue;Mrs Pam Schausdrew FIG.2. The researchwas carriedout during a BritishAcademy Major State Studentshipand a BritishAcademy Postdoctoral Fellowship(generouslyfundedby Swan Hellenic/P&O). All dates to which referenceis made are BCunless otherwise stated.The followingspecial abbreviationsare used:

Axiotis i-ii = M. Axiotis, Hepxardwvrag trlAua/o (Mytilene, 1992), 2 vols.

Anatoliain Bayne = N. P. Bayne, TheGreyWaresof JNorth-west theMiddleand LateBronzeAge and the Early IronAge and their RelationtotheEarlyGreek Settlements (diss.,Univ. of Oxford, 1963) Buchholz = H.-G. Buchholz, Methymna (Mainz, i975) Charitonidis 1960-5 = S. Charitonidis, "Apxaltt6rTeg xa Csvlrlsa vilotv Aiyaciov',A. Delt. 16-20 (1960-5), Chronika

Chatzi I97I-3 = D. Chatzi, "Apxsat6trrsgxaci gyvrislsa voiacvAiyaciov',A. Delt. 26-8 (1971-3), Chronika derInselLesbos Koldewey = R. Koldewey,Die antikenBaureste (Berlin, 1890)

Kontis, Lesbos= G. D. Kontis, ArIsoaoxal s7) xaataartsuxi TrtlareptoXf(Athens, 1978) = id., Aeopltacxb Kontis, Polyptycho (Athens, 1973) 3ro2iarrvxo Lamb, Antissa 193o-I (1930-I), 166-78

= W. Lamb,

'Antissa',

BSA 31

Lamb, Antissa1931-2 = ead., Antissa', BSA 32 (I931-2), 41-67

Lamb, Thermi = ead., Excavationsat Thermi in Lesbos (Cambridge, 1936)

Page = D. L. Page, SapphoandAlcaeus(Oxford, 1955) Paraskevaidis = M. Paraskevai'dis,"H eelidda trg oAyiag HapaaxEvUfg 'ElrErpov (Athens, 1970) Aba/Oov" Schiering = W. Schiering, 'Pyrrha auf Lesbos', AA (1989), 339-77 Williams and Williams

1985-91 = H. and C. Williams,

'Excavations at Mytilene (Lesbos), 1984-90', annual reports in Echos du mondeclassique,vols. 29-35, n.s.

4-I0

(1985-91)

2 The prominence of Lesbos (especially Mytilene) in the archaic period was recognized even in early accounts of Greek history. K. J. Beloch, Griechische i (Strasburg, Geschichte, 1912), 218-19 (the Penthilidai), 256 (the literary sources for

the Lesbian founding of Ainos), 351 (Pittakos'constitutional reforms), 374 and 388 (the tyrannies in Lesbos and the war for Sigeion). Unfortunately nearly all subsequent works have limited their discussions to almost exactly the same few historical events and given minimal consideration to archaeology. 3 A. R. Burn, TheLyricAgeof Greece (London, 1960), ch. 12, pp. 226-46, constructedhis own picture of archaic Lesbos (to which he devoted a whole chapter) simply from the literary sources, giving only five sentences of comment on archaeological data. Even more striking is the absence of archaeological comment on Lesbos in L. H. Jeffery, Archaic Greece:The City-statesc.7oo00-5ooBc (London, 1976): throughout

the book much space is devoted to the archaeologyof Greece and the Aegean islands, but for Lesbos it is considered sufficientto mention simply the events known throughliterary sources (pp. 47, 53, 89-90,

232, 237-41). Even the detailed

picture of archaicLesbospieced togethervery skilfullyby Page 149-243 contains only one sentence alluding to the archaeology of the island (p. 169, where the traces of worship of Dionysos in the island are mentioned). This ignorance of the materialculture has continued to the present day, and the recently published paper of H. J. Mason, 'Mytilene and Methymna: quarrels, borders and topography', Classical Views/Echos du mondeclassique, 37 (I993), 225-50, reconstructs

many events in archaic Lesbian history without recourse to material remains; once again, only lip-service is paid to the archaeologyof the island:pp. 239-40, where the commentary on the single site discussedin any detail throughoutthe whole paper is poor.

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the region's turbulent history in this century together with its continuing military role as a frontier island, little archaeological research has been carried out.4 Archaeologically the island has become a 'grey area' of the Aegean with very few scholarly publications over the last century,5 and consequently there is an understandable ignorance of the material from

Lesbos in recent major studies of Dark Age and archaic Greek archaeology. The island is either completely ignored or it is observed simply that the lack of obviously 'Greek' material visible during these early periods makes the task of interpreting the data more difficult.6 There remains today a serious problem resulting from the lack of previous archaeological research in Lesbos. Namely, that the emphasis upon only the more accessible 'history' as portrayed by Alkaios and Sappho and an ignorance of the material culture have led to studies of archaic Lesbos constructing a Hellenocentric picture of the island, grouping Lesbos with other islands in the Aegean and regions of mainland Greece for comparative analysis.7 The vast majority of previous studies have focused on aspects such as the early constitution of Mytilene, emphasizing the parallels to be drawn with other states in Greece which went

through similar processes:an archaic oligarchy (includingan early bolla( = bould,council) and agora(assembly)mentioned by Alkaios);a series of short-lived tyrannies (again testified to by Alkaios); and a lawgiver figure (in this case Pittakos as aisymnetes).8Such studies and comparisons are not necessarily invalid, since there are certainly important parallels to be made with the constitutions of other poleis in mainland Greece in the archaic period. If consideration had been given to the archaeology, however, it would have revealed two 4 In over a century there have been only four excavations that have been published in any detail. Messa: Koldewey, 47-61 and pls 18-26; Antissa: Lamb, Antissa 193o-I and Antissa193I-2; Thermi: Lamb, Thermi;Mytilene: Williams and Williams 1985, 225-33; 1986, 141-54, 247-62; 1987, 135-49; 1989, 167-81; 1990, 181-93; I991, 175-91. 5 The main works on the island's archaeology since the late I9th cent. number only six: Koldewey; Lamb, Thermi; and Lesbos;Axiotis i-ii. Of these Buchholz; Kontis, Polyptycho books, Buchholz carried out little new fieldwork, largely cataloguing the finds made by others previouslyin the island, and the archaeological comment in both works by Kontis is often vague and inconsistent. 6 This last problem of the interpretation of EIA 'nonGreek' material from Lesbos is illustrated in A. M. of Greece:The PresentStateandFuture Snodgrass, An Archaeology Scopeof a Discipline(Berkeley, 1987), 177 fig. 52. In recent syntheses of Greek dark age and archaic archaeology there is an acute lack of awarenessof the island'smaterial, and in the indices of many such books 'Lesbos' or 'Mytilene' rarely Definitionand Origin appear: M. B. Sakellariou, ThePolis-state: (Athens, I989), 403, wholly overlooksthe Protogeometricand Geometric archaeological record in Lesbos in his examination of the Dark Age migrations to Ionia, whereas that of other regions of E. Greece is discussed. In the whole book, only the historical questions raised by the mention in the literary sources of the Penthilidai (p. 120) and Alkaios' description of Pittakos as 'tyrannos' (p. 176)receive attention and archaeological data for Lesbos are ignored completely. Another example is the absence of the EIA sites in Lesbos from the discussion of dark age settlement development and contact with the east in A. J. M. Whitley, Styleand Societyin Dark Age Greece(Cambridge, 1991), 44-5. This lack of

awareness of the island's archaeology has not been helped in recent years by the lack of reports in the Chronika ofA. Delt. from 1976 until 1986. 7 The comparisons made are mostly with Kylonian or Solonian Athens and also Bacchiad Corinth: Page, 170, where comparison is made between the faction of Alkaios, including Pittakos, and the Kylonian conspiracy; A. Andrewes, The GreekTyrants(London, 1960), 92-9, where the comparison of the tyrannies in Mytilene is made largely with Athens; O. Murray,EarlyGreece (London, 1980), 155-8, where the only discussion of archaic Lesbos focuses on the tyrannies in Mytilene and how they compare to the Bacchiads in Corinth; A. M. Snodgrass, ArchaicGreece:The Age of Experiment (London, 1980), 94-5, where the settlement of the tyranny and stasis in archaic Mytilene by Pittakos is compared to the actions of Solon in Athens; G. Kordatou, H lasrqd[ xat o0xoovwvixoiaylCveSazrrlAopo (Athens, 1982), 31. This hellenocentric bias in the study of the early historical periods has recently been criticized by S. Morris, 'Introduction', in G. Kopcke and I. Tokumaru (eds), Greece BC (Papersof theMeeting East and West:ioth-8th Centuries between at theInstituteof FineArts,NJewYorkUniversity, 15-r6 Mar. 199Io) (Mainz, 1992),xv-xvi. 25-32; id., Lesbos,146-52; Murray (n. SKontis, Polyptycho, 7); Snodgrass (n. 7); Kordatou (n. 7), 29-45: Sakellariou(n. 6), 12o, 176;Page, 149-243. Page (ibid.) does indeed speak about the constitution of archaic Mytilene as portrayed in Alkaios (177-9) but is the only author to give due consideration to the eastern elements in the culture also. He discusses the very un-Greek nature of some of the armour and weaponry described by Alkaios (209-23), the issue of Pittakos' foreign ancestry (170 and n. 8), and the part played by Lydia in the history of archaic Lesbos (n. 9 below).

EARLY LESBOS BETWEEN

EAST AND WEST

Lesbos'

GREECE

271

TURKEY

Chios

AEGEAN

SEA

FIG.I. Lesbos and the Aegean (dashed line representsmodern political boundary with Turkey).

features. Firstly (as one might expect), that despite general similarities between Lesbos and other regions of the East Greek world there are also subtle differences. And secondly, that Lesbos exhibits strong links to the east in the same period, and through the archaeological record one sees an island which in some respects is noticeably un-Greek in the Bronze Age and the early historical periods. The only enunciation made of these eastern links, however, again has tended to be limited to the fragments of the early literary sources in which the Lydians are occasionally mentioned by Alkaios and Sappho as external agents dabbling in the faction fighting in archaic Mytilene or as exportersof fineries to Lesbos.9 Apart from a lack of awareness of the island's archaeology, a further circumstance which has entrenched this disregard of the east (but probably also helped to create it) is modern 9 Page, 52-7, 88, 92-6, 132, 226-34.

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272

political geography, in which Lesbos lies on the very edge of Greece (FIG. I). The current national boundary which divides Greece and Turkey to the east of Lesbos leaves the island cut off from its most immediate neighbour, the coastline of Anatolia,'o and has imposed a break between two areas which were linked intimately from prehistory until the twentieth

century."lThis barrier has led to studies of Lesbos and the coastline of Anatolia to the east being carried out in almost total isolation from each other, even though they are integral parts of the same study area.'" The three main published studies of the island carried out in recent years have been by Greek authors'3 for whom there was even more difficulty in stressing the eastern (Turkish) material heavily.14 One of these studies specifically stated in its title to be including the coastal area of Turkey opposite the island (the Mytilenean peraea of antiquity),'5 but there was given only a brief geographical, geological and topographical outline (again based largely on literary sources) and the material remains of the peraea received almost no attention at all.16 The purpose of this paper, therefore, is threefold. First and foremost, the intention is to restore the archaeology of the region to the forefront of study, since it is only by doing this

that it becomes possible to produce a three-dimensional picture of Lesbos during the Early Iron Age. Secondly, by emphasizing the archaeology, the similarities and subtle differences between Lesbos and other regions of the East Greek world can be traced. And lastly, the examination of the archaeology will correct the previous 'Hellenocentric' bias of the literary picture, and it will be demonstrated that the island of Lesbos, lying as it does beside the mainland of Anatolia, was very much an extension of the Anatolian cultural tradition both before, and even after, the arrival of the Aiolian Greeks. The starting-point for the discussion, however, should not be the Iron Age when the Greeks were settled in Lesbos, but the Bronze Age, since it is only by a brief review of the latter that one can place what came later in its full context. 1o The coastline of Anatolia is much closer even than the nearest island (Chios), being only c.I8 km across the Mytilini strait, while Chios lies some 45 km to the s. 11The link to Anatolia from the EBA is examined below. Even in the late I9th and early 20th centuries, however, many families in Lesbos still had relatives living on the continent, others possessed lands there or went there for seasonal work, and some elements of the population on the coast of Asia Minor regularly made the journey over the narrow strait for important religious festivals on Lesbos. For families from Lesbos owning lands and working in Asia Minor see R. Siphnaiou, 'toLXEica yia t1v oixovoCla xcri lilv

Afopov to 190 atdLva',Aeoaltaxd, 12 (1989), 317; xotvovira tlg id. 'H Aiopog to 20 tlOO6 to 190 alt(va 0VQoa OtOg aci6 upoEEtVwig aknXloypagnieg',

Aea/taxid,

13 (1991),

289-90,

294.

For the

involvement of Greeks in Asia Minor in religious festivals in r v o~p', Lesbos see: Jacoby of Mytilene, 'Espil~ptan 5 (1952), 3; G. L. Parakseuaidis, Mtxpautartxa )povtxd, latter Mav6aidciog Adospov (Thessaloniki,

1987), 74-5 (the

notes that until 1922 Greeks living in Ayvalikand Moschonisi regularly crossed the Mytilini strait for the festival at the Taxiarchismonastery near Mandamados on 8 Nov., near the E coast of the island). 12 The one major study that both bridged the Greek-Turkish border and also considered the archaeological data in great detail (Bayne) was never published. The political schism has exaggerated the break

between the two halves of the study area, meaning that many finds from the island are today in museum collections in Turkey. 13Kontis, Polyptycho; id., Lesbos;Axiotis i-ii. 14 Kontis, Polyptycho, 5-14, and Lesbos, 136-7, begins his

respective studies of the Bronze Age by emphasizing strongly the cultural links of bronze age Lesbos to Anatolia, but at the same time (Polyptycho, 7) points out that Lesbos is to be seen as firmly within the bounds of the E. Greek world. The short article of S. Charitonidis, "H i6ro~toplpa tot3okheptaxo 5 (1966), 161-8 is AEOLtmaxd, orilYv pXa'ixio nyoXli', tono!loo also caught in this political minefield, since the author finds himself pushed into denying the eastern influences in archaic Lesbos (see esp. p. 167) despite arguing for a uniqueness of

Lesbian material culture in this period when compared to the rest of Greece. It is noteworthy that studies of other E. Aegean islands have managed to bridge this gap when they focus on the archaeology and have been carried out by scholars who had no political interest in denying the eastern (Turkish)material, e.g. G. Shipley,A Historyof Samos8oo-I8o BC(Oxford, 1987). 15Kontis, Lesbos.

16Kontis, Lesbos,58-87, in which only two pages (79-81) give somewhat sketchy comment on the archaeology of the peraea.A similar (more brief) review of the literary evidence for the Mytilenean

peraea (without

a single

mention

archaeological remains)appears in Kontis, Polyptycho, 24-5.

of

EARLY LESBOS BETWEEN BRONZE

AGE

LESBOS:

EAST AND WEST

AN OUTPOST

273

OF ANATOLIA

In ceramic terms the Bronze Age settlements throughout Lesbos consist of uniform assemblages,indicating that culturallythe island was an extension of north-westAnatolia and the Troad.17The best-knownsite is at Thermi on the E side of the island which was excavated by Winifred Lamb from 1929 to 1933,18 and other scatters of Early Bronze Age pottery have been reported further N along the E coast at Kastro Kydonias19 and Sarakinas (FIG.2).20 It is

noteworthy,however, that even the other main concentration of Bronze Age sites in Lesbos (around the central Gulf of Kalloni) shows basically the same ceramic repertoire, indicating that it was not simply the E coast of the island which was dominated by this Anatolian cultural tradition.21The most spectacularsite of this central group is at Kourtirwhere Chatzi's surface inspection and trial trenches led to the conclusion that the site had been approximatelyfive times as extensive at Thernm'i,making the site potentially one of the most significant in the north-eastAegean.22 The recent publication of the results of chemical analyses of metalworkfrom Thermi also supportsthe indicationsfrom the ceramic record that the cultural sphere of Anatolia extended 17 For the comparanda of Lesbian bronze age material with that from Troy, Yortan, and Beycesultan see Bayne, 137-9; Buchholz,

121-4. There are finds at Thermi which

indicate contact with other areas in the Bronze Age. In towns I and II there are clear Cycladic elements in the culture: the broad, square house plans (not typically Anatolian), an assemblage of stone figurines and marble bowl fragments; see Lamb, Thermi, 8, 208-9; K. Lambrianides, 'Present-day Chora on Amorgos and prehistoric Thermi on Lesbos: alternative views of communities in transition',in N. Spencer (ed.), Time,Tradition and Societyin GreekArchaeology:Bridging the 'GreatDivide' (London, 1995).In the MBA Lamb noted echoes of MH and MM pottery in the local red and grey wares, and by the LBA there were imports (and local copies) of Mycenaean pottery, Mycenaean sword types and arrowheads;see Lamb, Thermi, 2II-I2. It remains true, however, that the overwhelmingbias in the culture throughout was still very much an eastern one. It is also worthy of note that, as with the EIA and archaic archaeological data, the bronze age material from Lesbos has also been largely ignored in previous studies; e.g. Lesbos does not even receive an entry in Hope Simpson and Dickinson, GAC,even though nearby eastern islands such as Samos, Chios, and Psara are catalogued. 18Lamb, Thermi. 19Axiotis i, 149-50 and pl. 31. oni AIolo', 'Mla vyoa Ypo'looptLx.il 0o Archaiologia,40 (i991), 79-80; Axiotis, i. 185 and pl. 35. 20 M. Axiotis,

21Around the central gulf of Kalloni the sites at Chalakies, Lisbori, Kourtir, Pyrrha, Arisbe, Prophitis Ilias (Agia Paraskevi),and Makara have all produced evidence of EBA or MBA activity, again of the same Anatolian' character as the bronze age sites on the E coast. Chalakies: Charitonidis 1960, 237; Buchholz,

122-3; Axiotis

ii, 580; BSA sherd

archive, unpublished; DAI sherd archive, unpublished. Lisbori: Charitonidis 1960, 489-90; Axiotis ii, 550-1. Kourtir:

M. Paraskeva'dis, 'Niteg tpatokoytLig EV6elEtLg ylt til Aopo', Aeaptaxi, 5 (1966), 208, 217; Paraskevai'dis (n. I), 259; Chatzi 1971, 457; M. Paraskevaidis, 'Ti v~ca popkiraa ~ Trig Epevvagc~tv

tpo'ooptxfiv

obxtogifv T1]g A~oPov', ArEu/Laxac,

6 (I973), 128-9; Buchholz, 122-3; M. Paraskevatdis, 'Lesbos'

in PECS 503; Axiotis ii. 566-7; BSA sherd archive, unpublished. Pyrrha: W Lamb, 'Grey wares from Lesbos', JHS 52 (1932), 1-12 (the sherds are stored in the Gottingen

Archaeological Institute); W. Schiering, 'ZweihundertJahre gbttinger archaologischeSammlungen',AA (1967), 432-3 and fig. 28; Paraskevai'dis, 262; Buchholz,

123, 136; Schiering,

344. Arisbe: Bayne, 246; D. H. French, Anatolia and the Aegeanin the ThirdMillenniumBc, i (unpublishedPh.D. thesis; Univ.

of Cambridge,

1968),

232 fig. 29 a, b I; Chatzi

1972,

594-5 and pl. 546 a, y. Prophitis Ilias: M. Paraskeva'dis, "O tpoLotoptxbg oLxto~bogto0 X6oov npopilt] 'Hkla 'Ayiag napao2xE ;gAIopov', AEaLt3axi, 7 (1978), 161-88; id., "O 'H"Ha 'Ayig stpo'iroptxbg otlxbtoob ' 64bov npoilTy napaoxe~vr g Aop3ov', To PIMa, 15 July I979; Axiotis, i. 340-I;

BSA sherd archive, unpublished. Makara: French, op. cit. 232 fig. 29 a, b I; BSA sherd archive, unpublished. 22 The report of Chatzi, dated 14 Sept. I970,

ran as

follows: 'An extent of more than 300 m is full of sherds, and a scarp approximatelyfive metres in height is being eroded by the sea to the north-west side where parallel walls of houses can be made out (there are at least three strata of settlement) many of which are found at sea-level and entering into it. Sherds were picked out from different parts of the scarp, the majority of which are of EBA date similar to those from Thermi, a few are definitely late Neolithic, and a fair number are of the MBA. From all over the ground [above], which is intensively cultivated, were picked up a mass of middle and late bronze age Lesbian red and grey wares, but also a large number of imported Mycenaean sherds.' (The whole report is quoted in Paraskeva'dis 1973 (n. 21), 128-9).

Chatzi's confidence that the Late Neolithic was represented at Kourtir remains to be justified, although the pattern burnished sherd from Lesbos published by R. C. S. Felsch, Samos,ii: Das KastroTigani:die spiitneolithische Siedlung(Bonn, 1988), lo05 "n.413, may come from Kourtir (or Chalakies, see

J. L. Davis, 'Review of Aegean prehistoryI: the islands of the Aegean',

AJA 96 (1992), 724). For Kontis's

conclusion

regarding the original size of the settlement at Kourtir see Kontis, Lesbos,359.

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274

10Km

100m

Lesbos Mytilene

527

Kydonias Thermi

Interval

0

Kastro

Contour

of GERAS GULF

\Perama\

Sarakinas

913

Schaus). (P text in to

referred

Pyrrha

968

isbe Ar

sites

GULF of

890

archaeological KALLONI

main

Kourt

and island of

Methymna 542 654

Map 2. FIG.

Makara 589'

Antissa 512

Ereso

EARLY LESBOS

BETWEEN

EAST AND WEST

275

to the offshore islands. It is now known that the lead element in copper artefacts from Thermi towns III and IV possess similar lead-isotope signatures to finds at Troy and Yortan, and the latter are two sites with which the pottery of Thermi (and the other Bronze Age sites in Lesbos) find close parallels.23 A significant feature of the Late Bronze Age in the north-east Aegean is that the area not

only continues to show affinities with Anatolia, but also is clearly distinguished from other parts of the Mycenaean world in the Aegean and mainland Greece. Firstly,Lesbos is one of the very few areas of Greece to be mentioned in the Hittite texts.24 Furthermore, despite the local imitations of late Mycenaean pottery, imported vessels, and even Mycenaean-style metalwork at Antissa, Perama, Thermi and Kourtir25 (which led Bayne to suggest that Perama and Antissa were settlements of Mycenaean refugees in LH III B-c after the destructions in mainland Greece26), aspects of the culture are almost unparalleled in other regions during this period. At Makara on the w coast of the mouth of the Gulf of Kalloni (FIG.2) there are huge cist graves (suggested to be of LH III date) which were first noted by Charitonidis and are still visible today.27 Cist tombs are unusual this late in the Mycenaean sequence in mainland Greece and the Aegean,28 but graves similar to those at Makara appear nearby at Emporio on

Chios and on Psara, and this whole group has been seen as representingthe survivalof a preMycenaean, local tradition of burial in the north-east Aegean, thereby distinguishing the region from nearly all of the Mycenaean world.29 THE

COMING

OF THE

GREEKS?

Tradition held that at some point after the end of the Bronze Age there had been a colonization of the island by Aiolian Greek settlers from Boiotia and Thessaly,30 a claim which gains credence from the dialect of Greek later spoken by the Lesbians which is akin to that spoken in these two regions of mainland Greece.3'

23 E Begemann, D. Schmitt-Strecker, and E. Pernicka, 'The metal finds from Thermi III-IV: a chemical and lead-

LH III A Mycenaean imports: Lamb, Antissa 1930-I, 167-71;

isotope study', Studia Troica, 2 (1992), 237-8, cited in Davis (n. 22), 724 n. so6.

62 a.

24 Lesbos is usually assumed to be the 'Lazpas' of the Hittite documents. See G. E del Monte and J. Tischler, vi: Die Orts- und Ripertoiregiographiquedes textescundiformes, deshethitische Texte(Wiesbaden, 1978),245-6. Gewidssennamen 25 Buchholz,

135-7, catalogues

all the Mycenaean

finds

from the island, although no mention is made of the sherds at Kourtir, for which Chatzi's report (n. 22) is the only published account. The site Buchholz catalogues as 'Hiera' (cat. no. F 14 a.b/no.

G 3, pp. I23, 136) is that named

Perama by Cook and Bayne: J. M. Cook, 'Archaeology in Greece

139-40.

I949-50',

Details

JHS

71 (1949-50),

of more

unpublished

247;

Bayne,

I2-15,

late Mycenaean

sherds from Antissa are listed in the archive of the BSA, n. 26. 26 Bayne, 124, 139-40. The site at Perama has remained

unexplored since the visits of Cook and Bayne (n. 25), but some sherds were brought back to Athens where they were stored in the BSA. The LBA settlement found by Lamb at Antissa was especially significant, exhibiting impressive structural remains and ceramics which included copies of LH II wares in the local grey and red fabric together with

BSA W Lamb archive,Antissa 60. 27 Charitonidis

1961-62, 265; Axiotis, ii. 530-I and pl. 62,

280. Dickinson, 'Cist graves and chamber tombs', BSA 78 (1983), 61-2; id. The AegeanBronzeAge (Cambridge, 1994), 227,

231; M. S. E Hood, 'Mycenaeans in Chios', in J. Boardman and C. E. Vaphopoulou-Richardson(eds), Chios:A Conference at theHomereion in Chios,1984 (Oxford, 1986), I69. 29 Davis (n. 22) 725 n. Iio (cist graves at Emporio, Chios),

727 (Psara).For the use of cist graves in the NE Aegean as evidence for a pre-Mycenaean local burial tradition see Dickinson 1983 (n. 28), 62. It is perhaps also worthy of note that even in the Iliad Lesbos is grouped very much with Anatolia, since Achilles speaks of the island as the furthest outpost of Priam'skingdom, Hom. II. xxiv. 544-6. 30 The literary references are collected byJ. B6rard, 'La migration 0olienne',RA (1959),22-8. 31 See D. P. Mantzouranis, 01 arpciieg1yxaraarcaelg Tov 'Ellrvwv aulvAluoo (Mytilene, 1949), passim;C. D. Buck, The GreekDialects (Chicago, 1955), 147-54; Bayne, 158-62, 33I-40;

Kontis, Polyptycho, 16;J. M. Cook, 'Greek settlement in the eastern Aegean and Asia Minor', CAH ii. 2 (Cambridge, 1975), 777-8; Kontis, Lesbos, 116-24 (for the Lesbian dialect in

general).

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Cook believed that it was impossible to say even whether the Dark Age migrations to the island represented the first Greek or Aiolic settlement in Lesbos.32He proposed (with little supporting evidence) that the reason for the destruction of Thermi around the end of the fourteenth century and the abandonment of Perama in the twelfth century was the arrival of Greeks and the subsequent expansion of some sites such as Mytilene to the south which he described as 'flourishing'in the Late Bronze Age.33In conclusion he stated the following: 'we can only say that the Greek settlement there [in Lesbos] is not likely to have begun before 2300 BC or

later than IO1000 BC'.34

It may be true that one cannot be completely sure no Mycenaeans were visiting Lesbos in the Late Bronze Age (and perhaps even staying there for longer periods of time),35 but at all

the sites which have been explored in any detail there is no continuity between the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age (as Cook and Kontis had claimed there to be36).The sites which have been sufficientlyexamined to offer evidence for the transition from Bronze Age to Iron Age are those which developed into the polls centres of classical antiquity,and at all of these settlements there is a hiatus of varying length from Bronze Age occupation until the first signs of Iron Age activity (and the latter all seem to postdate Iooo). This hiatus at different sites suggests that there was certainly a period of colonization from Greece (either a renewal of a previous movement or a new initiative) after the end of the Bronze Age which started after 1000 and continued even as late as the Geometric period. As will be shown below in the examination of the data from the later polls centres, the

reason why it is difficult to prove exactly when the first Greek settlers arrived in Lesbos is because the new arrivals seem to have exerted little influence upon the pre-existing cultural (especiallyceramic) patterns in the island.37Bayne noted that at Antissa the earliest Iron Age pottery included very few painted wares (and possibly had been purely monochrome), thus making it especially difficult to pin down in terms of absolute chronology.38 Indeed, 32 Cook

(n. 31), 778. Mantzouranis

(n. 31),

22, and

Buchholz, 134 (and n. 338) also preferred to see the Greek arrival in the NE Aegean as predating the end of the LBA, for which the latter cited the graves on Psara and at Makara as evidence (despite the fact that such cist graves are extremely unusual when compared to mainland Greece in the LBA;see nn. 28-9 above). 33Cook, ibid.; Kontis, Polyptycho, i4, repeats this link of the destruction at Thermi to the arrival of the Aiolians. Cook's justification for the 'flourishing' of LBA Mytilene was the fact the 'Mycenaean sherds are said to have been found there' (ibid.). The sherds to which Cook refers, however, are those in the British Museum found by Newton in the I9th cent., and these may not even come from Mytilene itself, but could be from anywhere on the island. The island is often called 'Mytilene' (its medieval and early modern name) as well as 'Lesbos', and the sherds were labelled simply 'Mytilene' in the Museum's handwritten inventory. Some Mycenaean sherds are said to have been found recently in the building work for the new museum in Mytilini town (on the sw slope of the later acropolis; see n. 43 below), but to describe the site of Mytilene as 'flourishing' in the LBA on the current evidence is pure fiction. For the bibliography on the Mycenaean sherds from 'Mytilene' in the British Museum (and photographs of the sherds) see Buchholz, 136,

Foundation Lecture, Texas, 1984), 13-14, for the association

of an unexplored 'Cyclopean' acropolis site E of Methymna with the literary references by Homer and Parthenios to the raid of Achilles on Lesbos and the 'well-built' and 'highgated' cities of the island; Mantzouranis (n. 31), 28, for Brisa and Achilopigado; E. L. Shields, 'Lesbos and the Trojan war', CJ 13 (1917-I8),

673-4,

for the hypothesis

that the

Homeric figure 'Briseis' is to be understood as a 'girl from Brisa'. 36 Cook (n. 31), 778 (where the claim is made that there

was continuous occupation from the i4th cent. at Antissa); Kontis, Lesbos,139, repeats this mistaken interpretationof the finds at Antissa. Admittedly more work is required at all sites in the island before either continuity or a hiatus is proven, and the recent reports of PG material at Methymna (where previously only Geometric was known, see n. 40) indicate that one has to remain cautious. 37 Kontis, Polyptycho,16; Buchholz, 134; Cook (n. 31), 778.

pl. 14. d-i. 34 Cook

35See n. 25 for details of Mycenaean finds in Lesbos. The myths relating to the raid of Achilles on Lesbos during the Trojan war, his destruction of 'high-gated Methymna', together with place-names with Homeric echoes in the region s of Pyrrha (including Achilopigado' and the modern village of 'Brisa'),have been suggested to be further hints of Greek activity in the area at some point in the LBA. See P. Green, Lesbos and the Cities of Asia Minor (Dougherty

(n. 31), 778-9.

38 Bayne,

230, 238, 240, 330.

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throughout Lesbos recognizably 'Greek' material of Protogeometric and Geometric date is so rare that it is just as difficult to know whether the Early Iron Age material is representative of a Greek 'colonization' as the presence of Mycenaean wares previously.39 The earliest Iron Age material in Lesbos is to be found at Mytilene and Pyrrha where 'Protogeometric' material has been uncovered (of those pieces which are closely dateable, the phase represented is late in the Protogeometric sequence).40 New evidence from Methymna may also date the early Iron Age settlement there from the Protogeometric period (see n. 40), but at present the only published material (as at Antissa) is of Geometric date, whilst the two other settlements which became polis centres in the archaic period, Eresos and Arisbe, have produced nothing yet which can certainly predate the archaic period. If these first signs of post-Bronze Age activity at sites in Lesbos are representative of an influx of Aiolian Greek settlers to the island (and it is impossible to know this for certain), then the different periods to which material at each site dates suggests one of two possibilities. Either that the colonization, and the foundation of the sites in Lesbos, happened over a significant period of time, with many waves of movement from mainland Greece rather than a single voyage east by migrant groups.41 Alternatively, that after an initial, monolithic movement east to Lesbos and the west coast of mainland Anatolia, there was subsequently a period of further localized movement and colonization within the immediate area of Aiolis and to different areas of the island of Lesbos.42 (a) MYTILENE (FIG. 3)

The site of ancient Mytilene lies under the modern town of the same name, and the retrievalof remains of the ancient city has therefore been limited nearly exclusively to chance finds during construction work. Only the recent excavationsinside the Medieval kastrohave been able to progressunhindered by the limitations imposed by modern buildings or streets. Traces of Bronze Age occupation have been rare, and it was only recently during construction work for the new museum on the w slope of the ancient acropolis that finds of Bronze Age date were recovered.43Nevertheless, traces of settlement activity in the Protogeometricand Geometric periods have been known for many years, and these finds provide the earliestevidence of Iron Age occupation of the site. The most significant topographical feature of the ancient site which is no longer apparent is the narrow channel which ran between the north and south harbours.44This channel meant that in antiquity the area on which the Medieval kastro now stands was an islet separated slightly from the main shoreline of Lesbos. The modern Odos Ermou follows the approximate line of the ancient

39 This doubt regarding the interpretation of the (largely non-Greek) material in the E. Aegean in EIA Lesbos is clear in Snodgrass (n. 6).

the colonization was a long-drawn-out affair, see Bhrard (n.

accord well with the picture of extensive and continuous depopulation during the centuries after the Mycenaean collapse' (430); see also his fig. 52 (409) and the table (428) for details of the scale and duration of this depopulation throughout the EIA. 42 This possibility of a single movement is implied in Kontis, Polyptycho, 14-16, despite the literary traditions and archaeological record which both suggest that the Iron Age settlements in Lesbos were founded over a long period (see n.

30, esp. 8, 16-I7, and the account of Strabo xiii. I. 3 (582)

41).

40 Axiotis, i. 229 and ii. 740 n. 3, reports that in 1989 the

island's archaeological ephoreia may have located strata of PG date at Methymna, but these finds remain to be corroborated. 41 Bayne, 339-40.

The literary traditions also imply that

andPopulation quoted on p. 25) andJ. M. Fossey, Topography of Ancient Boiotia (Chicago, 1988), I, 428-9. Fossey, (pp. 424-31)

also notes that the discernable archaeological patterns in EIA Boiotia (from where some of the colonists to Lesbos are said to have come) supports the view that there was more than one wave of colonization: 'The extensive involvement of Boiotians in the various migrations and the length of time over which these movements took place

43Finds of EBA date were reported by the archaeological ephoreia in a report of their work in 1990: Axiotis, i. 19; Mycenaean sherds have been reported from the same excavation, but the precise chronology of both groups of pottery is still not published. 44 This feature was noted by A. Conze, Reiseauf derInsel Lesbos(Hanover, 1865), 4; Koldewey, 3, 12, and pls 1-2; Kontis, Polyptycho, 17-18 and fig. 12;Kontis, Lesbos,2II-I2.

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SPENCE

400m

Mytide

40. fig.

intervals. m 20 Lesbos, at