Early Greece & Balkans Cultures (Mesolithic)

The system which has evolved to catalogue the various archaeological expressions of human progress is one which involves cultures. The task of cataloguing the vast range of human cultures which emerged from Africa and the Near East right up until human expansion reached the Americas is covered in the related feature (see link, right).

Subsequent cultural complexity appeared and increased as human populations increased and became more widespread. What had been a single human culture across Europe eventually divided in two which - at least at first - can be equated to Northern Europe and Southern Europe.

Within the latter region, the Early Greece & Balkans area formed a southern zone below the Balkans. Covering a wider area than today's nation state of the same name, it comprised modern Greece, North Macedonia, southern Bulgaria, and part of Albania. The late Palaeolithic Epigravettian culture emerged across much of Italy, the Balkans, and western Ukraine (the latter also categorised within Eastern Europe). It entered areas of Greece too, although fairly lightly.

The region's role in human development played a small and fragmented part during the Mesolithic. Hunter-gatherer sites are surprisingly rare along the northern Mediterranean coastline, Greece included. This is partially due to post-glacial sea level rise until around 5000 BC which will have inundated many of the older coastal Mesolithic sites.

Even so, it does seem from available finds that the population was thinly spread, not helped by a narrow literal zone across much of the Mediterranean coast which is backed by high mountains, along with a low tidal range and a relatively low range of food sources.

Unlike Northern Europe or the Near East, Greece lacks large-scale, named Mesolithic cultures such as Iberia's Azilian or the Near East's Natufian. Archaeologists instead classify the Greek Mesolithic into regional techno-complexes and local evolutionary sequences which primarily are defined by distinctive stone tools, seafaring networks, and coastal adaptations.

The primary archaeological traditions and cultural groupings in Greece during this period between approximately 9000-7000 BC include the Balkan Epigravettian, the predominant lithic tradition in eastern continental Greece which traces its routes back to the local Upper Palaeolithic.

They also include the Antalyan Entity, an Epigravettian-related tradition which originated in western Anatolia and which influenced the eastern Aegean islands, and then 'Sauveterroid / Castelnovian Influences' which emerge later in the sequence. This involved stone industries in southern Greece - such as at Franchthi cave on the Gulf of Argos in the Peloponnese. These show strong technological traits which are related to those of the Italian Mesolithic and Iberian Mesolithic. Franchthi cave was used from around 18,000 BC right down to the Greek Neolithic period.

Regional island and coastal groups are much harder to find. Here they are categorised by insular seafaring and obsidian-trading networks due to the post-ice age rise in sea levels. The 'Aegean Insular Hunter-Gatherers' are defined by settlements on islands such as Ikaria, Kythnos (Maroulas), and the Northern Sporades (Youra/Alonnisos). These cultures are known for advanced maritime travel, red deer hunting, and the use of obsidian from Melos and Yali.

'Ionian Coastal Foragers' were centred in the Ionian Sea area, especially around Sidari on Corfu. The Mesolithic people of this region are known for a heavy reliance on coastal resources such as shellfish and for their specific microlithic tool types.

The 'Southern Mainland Foragers' are best documented at Franchthi cave, the well-known localised culture which transitioned through various hunting and foraging stages, producing some of the only known Mesolithic burials in Greece.

Finally there are 'Thessalian Inland Foragers' who are documented at Theopetra cave. These people represent an inland adaptation in the fragmented Greek mosaic of Mesolithic communities.

Mesolithic evolution in the Aegean islands lasted until the beginning of the seventh millennium BC, as is indicated by radiometric determinations for the younger Mesolithic layers in Cyclope cave. Population groups across the Aegean must have been able to navigate across considerable distances to be able to arrive at the site of Nissi beach on Early Cyprus, as investigated by A Ammerman, where the pebble-flake industry reveals several common features with their Aegean origins.

Epipalaeolithic sites in the northern part of the Aegean basin such as that on Lemnos exhibit close techno-morphological associations with the early Holocene Epipalaeolithic industries of south-western Anatolia, especially with those around Antalya, on the Anatolian coast to the north-west of Cyprus.

It was only the arrival of the Greek Neolithic between about 7000-6700 BC in the form of the Neolithic Farmer revolution which disrupted Greece's Mesolithic network, with its people either becoming isolated or quickly absorbing and adopting farming practices.

European Kingdoms

Early Cultures

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