One of the primary purposes of the prehistoric development of permanent sites of habitation was defence, as illustrated by the preponderance of settlements on naturally defensible terrain. The first major Aegean urban centres, complete with elaborate fortification systems, flourished in mainland Greece and the Cycladic islands by the second half of the 4th millennium BC.
The Early Bronze Age Aegean displays a large variation in community size and organization. Small villages (approximately 150–300 people) and scattered hamlets predominate, but in other regions large settlements with a considerable build-up of population (hundreds to the lower thousands) were present. The difference between large sites and average villages is indicated not only by size, but also by complexity of layout, differentiation in terms of scale and construction of some buildings, and by evidence of the centralization of some political, economical and military activities. Defensive warfare was already organized in a primitive fashion in the fortified settlements of the pre-Minoan cultures such as Kastraki and Dimini in Thessaly, Kastri and Panormos on the Cycladic islands of Syros and Naxos, and Lerna in Argolis.
The settlement that developed on Kastraki Hill and the area around it covered a large area of at least 100,000 sq. m during the Middle Neolithic Period. The stone foundations of blocks of houses are easily visible. The houses at Kastraki are usually small, with narrow passageways between them, in places forming squares. Outside Kastraki, in the settlement that extended to the west, the houses are rather more spacious with a clearly planned layout. This organized settlement comprised 500–800 houses. All houses have stone foundations, a clay brick superstructure, a pitched roof with beams covered by clay and a hole to emit smoke. The houses were surrounded by large walls, which should not, however, be thought of as defensive work, but merely as retaining walls.
In Dimini six curvilinear enclosures, not surviving in their entirety, indicate the phases of habitation development. They were built of local slate and were 0.6–1.4m wide. Their height was 1.5m where they were free standing, while at points where they functioned as house walls they reached 1.7m. They were arranged radially and were interrupted at four points by passages 0.85–1.1m wide, leading to the interior of the settlement. In this way activity could take place in five areas: the central courtyard and the four sections around it. The passages towards the central courtyard were slightly sloping and partially paved with slats.
Selection of early Aegean daggers:
1) 5500 BC from Aya Marina
2) 4800 BC from Ayios Dimitrios
3) 4800–3300 BC from Dimini
4) 4800–3300 BC from Sesklo
5) 2800–2300 BC from Amorgos
6) 2000 BC from Cyprus
7) 2000–1800 BC from Kretes
8) 1700 BC from Haghia Triada
9) 2300–1900 BC from Mesara
10) 1700 BC from Psychro Cave
11) 1600 BC from Malia
12) 1700–1600 BC from Malia
13) 1700 BC from Haghios Onofrios
14) 1600 BC from Haghia Triada
15) 1600 BC from Haghia Triada
16) 1450–1400 BC from Archanes (razor). (Drawing by Andrea Salimbeti)
During the most significant period, from 2700 to 2000 BC, the Aegean inhabitants lived in organized settlements and small citadels complete with a fortified wall and bulwark, towers and gates to provide protection against invaders from the sea or internal conflict between various settlements. Despite the absence of any sign of conflict or destruction, the small Cycladic forts presumably reflect the insecurity of the times. The architecture of those fortifications may be viewed as a miniaturized version of the great defensive circuits of earlier stages at sites such as Troy I–II, Limantepe and Lerna. One of the most remarkable fortified Cycladic citadels is Kastri on Syros. Located on a steep hilltop, its fortifications consist of a wall with six hollow projecting bastions built of small to medium slabs. Outside the wall there is a second defensive wall or breastwork. Entrance into the fort is gained through one of the bastions. The interior of the settlement consists of clusters of small rooms. Panormos on Naxos is another small fortification; the interior is irregular, with several roughly semicircular bastions and a single entrance from the east. There is no clear purpose to a pile of circular stones lying just outside this entrance. Mount Kynthos on Delosa was probably another small fort perched on a hill consisting of several bastions, within which were some irregularly shaped rooms and at least three small apsidal houses.
Selection of early Aegean spear points:
1) 2700–2300 BC from Amorgos
2) 2300 BC from Dokathismata
3) 2300 BC from Haghia Paraskevi
4) 2300–2000 BC from Amorgos
5) 2000 BC from Amorgos
6) 2000 BC from Sesklo
7) 2300–2000 BC from Vounous (Cyprus)
8) 1900–1700 BC from Vounous (Cyprus)
9) 2000–1800 BC from Malia
10) 1600 BC from Archanes
11) 1500 BC from Apolodou
12) 1500 BC from Haghios Onofrios
13) 1500 BC from Haghios Onofrios
14) 1500 BC from Archanes
15) 1500–1450 BC from Knossos. (Drawing by Andrea Salimbeti)
Selection of early Aegean helmets and caps from 5000 to 1500 BC, from frescos, finds and sculptures. (Drawing by Andrea Salimbeti)
Lerna is one of the largest (c.180 sq. m.) prehistoric mounds in southern Greece and probably owed its importance to its position on the narrow strip of land between sea and mountains that formed the route from the Argolid to the South Peloponnese. It is located in the marshy region on the Gulf of Argos (10km south of Argos). Early Bronze Age Lerna had substantial fortified walls and a palace or administrative centre in a central building referred to as the ‘House of Tiles’. This was a large two-storey building with terracotta roof tiles and several storage rooms where clay sealings were found. In classical times the area was claimed as home of the Nereids, the place where Herakles slew the Hydra and the location of the entrance to Hades (through the Aleyonean Lake).
The major Cyprean settlements in the Bronze Age, located along the coast and in the central part of the island, were built as defensive fortresses, generally of square or rectangular design, surrounded by a massive wall about 6m high and closed on all four sides by defensive ramparts. All around the fortress were dwellings for the soldiers and the access gate was in some cases protected by a rectangular tower.
Archaeological surveys show that sites of habitation were more likely to be located away from the coast in the intermediate zone, suggesting Minoans felt vulnerable to attack from the sea, presumably by pirates. Further support comes from structures referred to as guardhouses or guard posts that are present both in the countryside and adjacent to settlements, and which appear to have had a defensive function. A different suggestion for the role of the guard posts and smaller sites, called vigla in modern times, was initially advanced by Arthur Evans – that they were established to exercise ‘palatial control over the routes and therefore circulation’ on Crete. In either case, they suggest some degree of underlying social or political conflict. A differing view that is consistent with the peaceful Minoan model sees these structures as rest posts along communication routes, although some sites are located on largely inaccessible ridges. One example of a guard post lies on a ridge overlooking the Choiromandres Valley. It appears to belong to a ‘network of isolated buildings of similar size and topography, whose aim was the control of the communication axes and the defense of the hinterland’. Another line of evidence is the presence of what are termed ‘refuge sites’ on almost inaccessible locations in regions that were accessible from the sea. These seem to have been secure places to which the inhabitants of local settlements could relocate in times of danger and insecurity.
Arrowheads from Phaistos, 16th century BC. Iraklion Archaeological Museum. (Author’s photo, courtesy of the museum)
Type II variant B decorative dagger from Knossos, ex Evans 1921, dated by Evans to MM period (1700 BC), but most probably dated to LM IA or LM IB period (1500–1400 BC). The engraved bronze dagger blade shows a warrior engaged in a boar hunt and a fight between bulls. The handle attachment of many daggers was weak and many specimens, such as this, show breaks precisely at the points of the rivets holes.
Despite having found ruined watchtowers and fortification walls, Evans argued that there was little evidence for ancient Minoan fortifications. But, as S. Alexiou has pointed out, a number of sites, especially Early and Middle Minoan sites such as Haghia Photia, are built on hilltops or are otherwise fortified. According to Nowicki, quoting the example of Myrtos-Phyrgos, one of the hundreds of fortified sites already particularly common by the end of the Protopalatial Period, the history of the defensible and fortified sites in Crete is long and complex, and points to the tension between territories or states on the island as a whole, going back as far as the Prepalatial Period.
Clear evidence of the presence of fortifications in Neopalatial Crete is visible in the recently discovered clay seal of the Lord of Chanià (the ‘Master Impression’), where a fortified structure, crowned with sacral horns, appears raised on the top of a cliff in front of the sea. Archaeological evidence of centres quickly fortified in emergency or against violent attack appears in particular from the end of MM II, with the construction of the defensive squared walls in Pyrgos where the area was furnished with two cisterns, and the discovery, in Malia, of metallic tripods hidden underground, as if the inhabitants feared a raid and tried to keep their most precious objects safe. Also, Walberg proposed a military cause for the second destruction of Phaistos Palace, linked with the classical Kamares MM II pottery.
Bronze votive double axe from Zakros dated about 1525–1450 BC (LM IB). This beautiful example from Zakros Palace, West Wing, Room XXV, is 48cm long. Iraklion Archaeological Museum. (Author’s photo, courtesy of the museum)