Middle Bronze Age migrations (Ancient Near East)

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Migrations in Anatolia around 1900 BCE based on older research. According to Mellart, the Hittite migration displaced other peoples living in Anatolia, who in turn displaced the Middle Helladic Greek-speaking peoples to the west. This is contradicted by newer research. Mass migration of Greece and Turkey in 1900BCE.svg
Migrations in Anatolia around 1900 BCE based on older research. According to Mellart, the Hittite migration displaced other peoples living in Anatolia, who in turn displaced the Middle Helladic Greek-speaking peoples to the west. This is contradicted by newer research.

Various outdated theories have postulated waves of migration during the Middle Bronze Age in the Ancient Near East. Drews and Dietrich connect these alleged "mass migrations" with the coming of the Greeks, moving from former settlements into the southern and central Balkans, displacing the former pre-Greek inhabitants of Greece. [3] [4] Mallaart makes reference to a supposed migration of the Hittites to their earliest known home in Kültepe during the same period. [1]

Contents

While the turmoils Bronze Age collapse that separate the Late Bronze Age from the Early Iron Age are well documented, theories of migration during the Middle Bronze Age (20th century BCE) have little direct support.

Theories

Various outdated theories[ which? ] have postulated waves of migration during the Middle Bronze Age in the Ancient Near East.

Mellaart (1958)

According to Mellaart, in The End of the Early Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Aegean (1958), for reasons unknown, the Hittites moved into central Asia Minor, conquering the Hattians and later adopting their culture and name. This invasion by the Hittites displaced other peoples living in Anatolia, who in turn displaced the Middle Helladic Greek-speaking peoples to the west. This in turn caused an exodus from Northwestern Anatolia andcreated a wave of refugees who invaded what is now southern Greece and destroyed the Early Helladic civilization. [1] Yet, more recent theories and evidence suggest that a Proto-Indo-Hittite language dates back to the fourth millennium BCE, prior to the Bronze Age. [2]

According to Mellaart, archaeological evidence shows that the cities of Erzerum, Sivas, Pulur Huyuk near Baiburt, Kultepe near Hafik, and Maltepe near Sivas were destroyed during the Middle Bronze Age. The great trading city of Kanesh (Level II) was also destroyed. From there in the hill country between Halys the destruction layers from this time tell the same story. Karaoglan, Bitik, Polatli and Gordion were burnt, as well as Etiyokusu and Cerkes. Further west near the Dardanelles the two large mounds of Korpruoren and Tavsanli, west of Kutahya, show the same signs of being destroyed. [1]

The destruction even crossed into Europe in what is now Bulgaria. The migration brought an end to Bulgaria's Early Bronze Age, with archaeological evidence showing that the Yunacite, Salcutza, and Esero centers had a sudden mass desertion during this time. [1]

From the Dardanelles, the refugee invaders moved into mainland Greece, and the Peloponnese saw burnt and abandoned cities on par with the much later Dorian invasion which destroyed the Mycenaean civilization. [1] At this time, 1900 BC, destruction layers can be found at southern Greek sites like Orchomenos, Eutresis  [ de ], Hagios Kosmas, Raphina, Apesokari, Korakou, Zygouries, Tiryns, Asine, Malthi and Asea. Many other sites are deserted, e.g. Yiriza, Synoro, Ayios Gerasimos, Kophovouni, Makrovouni, Palaiopyrgos, etc. This destruction across Greece also coincided with the arrival of a new culture that had no connection with the Early Helladic civilization, who were the original inhabitants. [1] Northern Greece escaped destruction, as well as southern Anatolia, which during this time showed no disturbances. [1]

Minyan ware

Gray Minyan ware was first identified as the pottery introduced by this mass movement of new populations into southern Greece around 1900 BC. [3] [1] However, this theory was disproved in the 1950s when excavations at Lerna showed that Minyan ware had a predecessor in the preceding Early Helladic III Tiryns culture. [5] The advent of Minyan ware coincides with domestic processes reflective of the smooth transition from Early to Middle Bronze Age culture. [6]

Genetic research

Lazaridis et al. (2017) researched the genetical origins of the Greeks. [7] They found that the ancient Mycenaean and Minoan populations were highly similar, but not identical, and that "the Minoans and Mycenaeans descended mainly from early Neolithic farmers, likely migrating thousands of years prior to the Bronze Age from Anatolia, in what is today modern Turkey." [web 1] According to Lazaridis, "Minoans, Mycenaeans, and modern Greeks also had some ancestry related to the ancient people of the Caucasus, Armenia, and Iran. This finding suggests that some migration occurred in the Aegean and southwestern Anatolia from further east after the time of the earliest farmers." [web 1] Lazaridis et al. (2017) further state that "the Mycenaeans differed from Minoans in deriving additional ancestry from an ultimate source related to the hunter–gatherers of Eastern Europe and Siberia, introduced via a proximal source related to the inhabitants of either the Eurasian steppe or Armenia." [7]

See also

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History of Greece History of Greece

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Mycenaean Greece Late Bronze Age Greek civilization

Mycenaean Greece was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1600–1100 BC. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. The most prominent site was Mycenae, in the Argolid, after which the culture of this era is named. Other centers of power that emerged included Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece and Iolcos in Thessaly. Mycenaean and Mycenaean-influenced settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, the Levant, Cyprus, and Italy.

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Minyan ware

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Mycenaean pottery

Mycenaean pottery is an assemblage of terra cotta ceramics and ceramic styles originated, manufactured, or heavily used by the civilization termed Mycenaean in Greek history and prehistory. "Mycenaean" is a culture name rather than an archaeological one. It was originally a neologism of Heinrich Schliemann, a 19th-century archaeologist, who excavated at Mycenae, a geographic location in the northeast Peloponnesus. Believing in the factuality of the first known work of European literature, the Iliad, Schliemann assigned the geographic and cultural names of that work to his archaeological findings. The citadel at Mycenae thus became the capital and seat of the high king of the Achaeans, Agamemnon, who predominated over all the other kings of Hellas, or Greece. The language of the culture was not known at the time. Prophetically, he predicted that it would be Greek, which was finally substantiated long after his death.

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Military of Mycenaean Greece

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References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Mellaart 1958 , pp. 9–23.
  2. 1 2 Steadman & McMahon 2011 , p. 704.
  3. 1 2 Drews 1994 , p. 14.
  4. Dietrich 1974 , p. 4.
  5. Pullen 2008 , p. 40; French 1973 , pp. 51–57; Caskey 1960 , pp. 285–303.
  6. Edwards, Gadd & Hammond 1971 , Chapter XXIV(a) Anatolia, c. 2300–1750, p. 682: "Elsewhere the transition from Early to Middle Bronze Age culture seems to have been a smooth domestic process, unaffected by foreign influences. At individual sites, such as Troy, new wares take the place of old; but the arrival, for instance, of the so-called grey 'Minyan' pottery, which is now known to have been in use long before in neighbouring areas, suggests rather a peaceful acquisition rather than a foreign intrusion."
  7. 1 2 Lazaridis et al. 2017.

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