Some European History from 2000-1500BC

Fresco of the "Saffron Gatherer" from
Akrotiri

This post will look at European history for the period from around 2000-1500BC. Due to the lack of sources we will have almost no written records to rely upon; none that we can read at least. As well as the lack of sources, the time period is too distant for ancient legends to be of much use, although there may be flickers of truth remembered in places. This means that to look at history for this place and time we have to rely primarily on the archaeological record. This is fine and useful, but like all methods of looking at history it has its flaws and caution must be used. The dates in particular must be treated with caution. Some of the issues with dating have been dealt with in the previous post on European history.

In the previous post, looking at European history for the period 3000-2000BC, we saw that megalithic architecture in Western Europe was gradually becoming less prevalent. Cultures that seem to be associated with Indo-European languages were spreading westwards from the lands north of the Black Sea. The Bronze Age spread across nearly the entire continent, except for the isolated northern fringes, with nearly all cultures having some familiarity with bronze-working.

Minoan snake goddess

In the century of 2000BC Newgrange, which is now the most famous megalithic site in Ireland, was abandoned. The nearby site of Knowth would see ritual use by other later cultures, but this is by and large the end of the era of great megalithic tombs in Ireland. Around this time the Bronze Age had come to Ireland and perhaps those who had brought the new technology had also brought new beliefs? Many stone circles now begin to appear in Ireland, and may be related to the shifts in belief, or the physical manifestations of these beliefs.

Further to the south in Ireland, in what is now the county of Laois, a ritual killing took place. A man was taken to a peat bog, where he was struck down with a sharp object, breaking his arm as he tried to parry the blow. After his death his back was broken in two with the sword and the man was buried in the bog. It would seem that he was a king who had failed to bring good harvests.

The role of kingship in Ireland was seen as a contract between the king and the gods, where the king would rule, but also bring the favour of the gods, in the form of good weather and harvests. Any king who failed this task would be sacrificed and a new king placed in his stead. This fusing of kingship, duty and sacrifice was held by a number of cultures in northern Europe. In this case, the body of the sacrificed man was preserved by the bog and was discovered in 2011. Many bodies are preserved across northern Europe in the bogs, but Cashel Man, as this man was known, is the oldest one whose flesh was preserved. His remains are a reminder of the sometimes brutal nature of our ancestors. I would hate to be responsible for plentiful harvests and good weather, in Ireland of all places.

Partially reconstructed palace of Knossos in Crete

In Finland large megalithic monuments known as Giant’s churches were built. The largest of these was built at Kastelli, measuring around 60x35 metres. Unlike the megalithic monuments of Atlantic coast of Europe, these appear to have been built by hunter-gatherers rather than Neolithic farmers.

In Greece, the Phylakopi culture came to an end on the Cycladic islands and the Middle Helladic began on mainland Greece. On the island of Crete, the first phases of the palace of Knossos began to be built, which would be the focal point of the first indisputable civilisation in Europe.

Around the century of the 1900’s BC new inhabitants may have arrived in the small island of Malta. Here their wooden wheeled carts began to erode ruts in the soft earth, and beneath it, the soft stone. One area of Malta is so rutted with these tracks that it is referred to as Clapham Junction, because the overlapping ruts look like a busy railway junction. The correct name for it in the Maltese language is Misraħ Għar il-Kbir and is near Siġġiewi.

Reconstruction of the tumulus at
Leubingen

Around the year 1942BC, in Leubingen in what is now Germany, a tumulus was built for a powerful member of the Unetice culture. We can be relatively certain of the year because an oaken beam in the tomb was tested using dendrochronology. The grave goods were impressive, with gold, bronze and stone items placed in the tomb. But the most impressive thing about the tomb was the size. The tumulus was roughly circular with a height of 8.5m and diameter of 34m, no small feat for the burial of one person. We know nothing of the person save that they must have been important. They may have been a tribal chieftain or king of unusual importance.

Around the century of the 1800’s BC, the Neolithic settlement of the Monte d’Accoddi in Sardinia, as new peoples and cultures began to inhabit the island and older beliefs were abandoned. It is unclear if there was a population transfer or if the islanders merely adopted the cultures of the mainland. It does not seem that the islanders began to speak Indo-European languages so it was probably more of a cultural shift.

Linear A writing from Crete

It was around this time that the Minoans began to develop the writing system known to us as Linear A. This was in addition to their previous writing system, known as Cretan Hieroglyphs. Neither of these has yet been translated satisfactorily and very few examples of the scripts survive. It probably does not represent a Greek language and it is likely that the language of the Minoans (or at least the Minoan scribes or elites) was not a Greek language. A number of the symbols are shared with a later script (Linear B) so, if we presume that Linear B copied Linear A and reused certain symbols for the same sounds we can make some educated guesses as to what it sounds like but so far the language has not been identified. Perhaps one day it will be translated, but so little remains that it may be an unsolvable problem.

Around the century of the 1700’s the Minoan culture in Crete was the most sophisticated in Europe. It was here that there were palaces and cities for the first time in Europe, discounting the anomalous and far earlier Cuceteni-Tripolye culture. Trade networks stretched across the eastern Mediterranean, connecting the Cycladic Islands and Greece to Crete and Crete to Egypt, Anatolia and the Levant. During this century however, a huge earthquake destroyed most of the palaces. The Minoans merely rebuilt on a scale even grander than before and this was the beginning of the golden age of the Minoans.

Tomb of Oscar and Agda Montelius
in a replica dolmen grave in Sweden

This time period marks the beginnings of the Nordic Bronze Age, which is an archaeological term for the period 1700-500BC when bronze was the primary metal in use in Scandinavia. It’s rather a catch all term, but it is interesting in that the person who devised this categorisation (Oscar Montelius) was the first person to split up history into the classic Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age types. It is such a fundamental concept to our understanding of history that we sometimes overlook it. Oscar and his wife Agda are buried under a dolmen, reflecting their love of ancient history, in Norra begravningsplatsen in Sweden. Their tale lies outside this time period, but they helped shape our understanding of it and they deserved to be remembered.

The Nuragic culture in Sardinia began around this time. This would see large tower-like structures being created that would serve as dwellings and fortresses for the peoples who lived here. I will discuss them in greater detail in the next blog.

Around this time, the Beaker culture in Britain and Ireland finally changed into other cultural phases. In central Europe the Beaker culture had evolved into the Unetice culture about five centuries earlier. We must remember that these cultures are created by archaeologists to help systemise the artefacts that are discovered. The term Beaker culture would have been meaningless to any person who belonged to it. Doubtless they would have been shocked to realise that they were being categorised on the basis of their pots rather than tribal groupings. Those tribal groupings are practically invisible to archaeologists today, but the pots still remain.

Mold Cape

One of the greatest treasures of the Bronze in Britain dates from this time and is known as the Mold Cape, after the town of Mold in Wales where it was discovered. It is a ceremonial golden object that was probably meant to be worn over the shoulders by priests or kings. It is a very beautiful and surprisingly well-preserved object. The exact dating is a matter of conjecture, as gold is very hard to date, but it is probably around this time period, with a couple of centuries as a margin of error.

Around the century of the 1600’s BC the Neopalatial Period of the Minoan culture began. The Cretan palaces and cities had suffered from a large earthquake in the previous century, but they had rebuilt and thrived. The palaces may or may not have housed kings and queens but may have functioned as distribution centres. So the people of Crete would bring the produce of land and trade to the palaces where functionaries would redistribute it. As many of the palaces were not fortified and contained large storage areas it seems likely that they had some redistribution function. There is one room in the palace of Knossos, the largest of the palaces, which may have been a throne room. But it may have had a religious function either.

Phaistos Disc

The Minoans were trading with the whole eastern Mediterranean. Their buildings were multi-storey, covered in decorative frescoes and sustained by pillars that held up the large ceilings. They had developed two types of writing, Cretan hieroglyphs and Linear A, which are the two earliest proven writing systems in Europe, although neither is translated. The Phaistos Disc is the best known example of the Cretan hieroglyph writing and dates from around this time. As the name suggests, it is disc shaped, with the hieroglyphs on both sides, arranged in a spiral pattern. Despite the beauty of this object it does not seem to have been very practical and it is probable that literacy was extremely limited in Minoan society.

Minoan religion seems to have involved worship of a mother goddess, perhaps similar to later Phrygian religion, but there were other gods as well. The most famous statuette of Minoan religion is one showing a bare-breasted goddess or priestess, with a flounced dress and snakes in both hands. The association of snakes and goddesses/priestesses would be carried over into later Greek religion, where the oracle at Delphi and the goddess Athena were both associated with snakes.

Fresco of bull-leaping

One ritual that is featured in their art was that of bull-leaping, where young men would vault across angry bulls while young women waited to catch them. This must have been a dangerous ritual and it is possible that the actual leapers of the bulls were slaves or foreign prisoners/hostages. If this was the case then this may be some foundation for the later myth of Theseus and the Minotaur. The roofs of some Minoan buildings may have been decorated with bull horn decorations.

Another ritual item that the Minoans seem to have been interested in is the double-headed axe. This was seen as a type of good luck charm, a symbol that would protect the bearer. The walls of the palaces are decorated with them and a number of these were created as votive offerings.

Frescoes from Akrotiri

The Minoans do not seem to have been particularly warlike, in that few weapons have survived, and no artistic depictions of war. But there may be a good reason for this. Later Greek myths spoke of a powerful Cretan king, called Minos, after whom the later archaeologists named the civilisation. They believed that Minos was the first to establish control of the sea, which would mean that the Minoans may not have needed to focus on fortresses and armour, when they could sink the fleets of any invaders long before they reached the shores of Crete. Perhaps there were roaming fleets based at every island of the Cyclades. The Egyptians were not noted seafarers and the other powers of the eastern Mediterranean were their trade partners, so perhaps they felt no need for land-based armies?

The art of the Minoans was beautiful. They created large stone vessels to store liquids, which were elaborately decorated. They also created delicate murals on their walls, frescoes on the plaster surfaces. These would show boxers, bull vaulters, scenes of trade and sea-faring and a host of other pleasant images. Their architecture was most evident in their palaces, which were sprawling complexes. They had none of the elegant symmetry of later Greek architecture, but instead were impressive through their sheer scale. The palace of Knossos had a large road that stretched down to the nearby seaport and this was one of the first paved roads in Europe. The palace of Knossos also had a drainage system and plumbing, meaning that it rivalled the palaces of Egypt and Mesopotamia for comfort.

Fresco showing ships from Akrotiri

The palace and adjoining city complex of Knossos was estimated to have around 100,000 inhabitants during this century. This is merely an estimate, but it is likely that Crete was one of the most densely inhabited parts of the world at this time and that Knossos was one of the largest cities.

The advances were not merely confined to the island of Crete alone. The city of Akrotiri, on the island of Santorini, was another prominent city that was associated with Minoan culture. It may have been a Minoan city, an ally, subject or merely a trading partner, but its culture was very similar to the Minoan culture. Like Knossos it was adorned with frescoes, but did not seem to have a central palace.

On mainland Greece a warrior culture emerged that would begin to challenge the Minoans. It seems to have emerged in southern Greece, particularly in the Peloponnese. They were known to later archaeologists as the Mycenaeans. They probably had trade contacts with the Minoans at this point, but because of Minoan dominance of the seas, all of the Mycenaean settlements were at least partially inland. The main centre was around the Argolid region, where a cluster of fortified settlements were created on high hills: Mycenae, Argos and Tiryns. The burials were in shaft-graves and the grave goods included weapons and golden death-masks that were meant to show the individuals. The previous pottery styles used in mainland Greece have been referred to as Minyan Ware; suggesting that they were the pottery used by the Middle Helladic culture. This pottery style evolved into the Mycenaean pottery styles and the Mycenaean period is sometimes referred to as Late Helladic.

Nebra Sky Disk

Also from around this time period but in a very different part of Europe, was the Nebra Sky Disk. This is a small disk in bronze and gold that represents the night sky. It is one of the earliest representations of the night sky anywhere in the world, although astronomical observations were clearly known to other ancient peoples. It was found in a tumulus in Germany, near the town of Nebra, in the region of Saxony-Anhalt. Some have speculated that it was used for astronomical observations, but I’m not sure that this would have worked, unless there was some other apparatus connected with it that has not been found. It was probably connected with the Unetice culture, which had also created the Leubingen tumulus. Around this time the Unetice culture was coming to an end and was replaced by the Tumulus Culture.

In the century of the 1500’s BC the Tarxien Cemetery Phase came to an end on Malta. This was the final phase of megalithic temple building in Maltese prehistory. Even with this, it was typified more by dolmens and other types of smaller graves rather than the magnificent temples that had been built earlier in the Neolithic period.

Another death mask from
Mycenae

Much farther to the north, the Kiukainen culture, the last Stone Age culture in what is now Finland, came to an end. This culture merged into the Bronze Age. It is important to remember that the eastern Mediterranean and Near East were quite heavily urbanised compared to the majority of Europe. New cultural patterns and technologies would often come from there and would take time to reach distant parts of the continent such as Ireland or Finland.

The El Argar culture in what is now south-eastern Spain came to an end around this time. It had been an early Bronze Age culture that had occupied much of the same territory as the Los Millares culture. The El Argar culture was probably an evolution of sorts from the Los Millares but with Bronze technology. Very little is known about this culture, but it is important to remember that the Iberian Peninsula was experiencing urbanisation as well as the eastern Mediterranean, just at a slightly slower rate.

So-called Mask of Agamemnon

The Mycenaean culture began to flourish, with the citadels now becoming ever more fortified and the burials even more elaborate. One of the most iconic symbols of the Mycenaeans was created around this time. One of their kings was buried in a shaft-grave. This grave was later excavated by the controversial archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann in the year AD1876. When Schliemann saw the golden death mask that had been buried with the king he is said to have written "I have gazed upon the face of Agamemnon". This was dramatic indeed. There was, and is, some suspicion that the artefact is forged, as nothing quite like it was ever found again in Mycenaean graves. But it is quite likely that it is genuine, although it has nothing to do with Agamemnon. It is an extraordinary object and is currently on display in the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.

It is not clear on the exact date, but at some point between 1630-1500BC the volcano of Thera erupted in one of the largest volcanic eruptions in human history. The eruption vaporised the centre of the island of Santorini and ejected it into the atmosphere. The city of Akrotiri was completely buried by ash in an early stage of the eruption and this shielded it from the full explosive power of the volcano when it erupted later with its full force. No human remains have been found at Akrotiri, suggesting that the people tried to evacuate. They may have been loaded on to ships or they may have tried to seek shelter in a different part of the island. I don’t know if they fully got away, but I hope that they did.

Boars' Tusk helmet from
Mycenaean culture

The violent eruption caused major localised earthquakes and landslides. The landslides subsequently triggered megatsunamis that would have swept through the eastern Mediterranean. The northern coast of Crete would have been particularly badly hit, including the port of Knossos. If any Minoan ships were beached there they would likely have been destroyed. Normal tsunamis have relatively small wave heights while at sea, so ships can pass unaffected over most tsunamis, providing they are in deep water. In the case of megatsunamis the wave height is high, as triggered by material falling into the ocean and thus acts like a ripple in a pool. Thus any ship caught by the wave was likely to have been sunk. It is likely that this event saw the destruction of the majority of the Minoan navy and trading fleet. Other seafarers would have been affected, but none worse than the Minoans.

The eruption at Thera was also close enough that the palaces and cities of Crete would have been affected with falling ash and earthquakes. At one point it was thought that this acted as the death knell of the Minoan civilisation, but it probably did not. The palaces themselves were functioning again almost immediately and the effect of the ash should not have destroyed the agriculture of the island. But the loss of their ships must have been devastating for a culture that was so closely tied to the sea. Perhaps this sudden loss of sea power was interpreted as a sign that the gods had turned against them. Perhaps it led to the nearby Mycenaean culture deciding to contest the mastery of the seas with the Minoans.

Excavated remains of the buried city of Akrotiri

The eruption of Thera and the destruction of Minoan cities there (there may have been other settlements other than Akrotiri that may have been more thoroughly destroyed or as yet undiscovered) may have been remembered by the Greeks. The Greeks have a number of different flood myths and it is possible that perhaps one of these, such as the myth of Dardanus, has some recollection of the tsunami. The most compelling parallel is the tale of Atlantis told by Plato in the Timaeus and the Critias dialogues. There are a number of similarities between the two cultures: the shape of the island, the preoccupation with bulls being two examples. While I find it very compelling to believe that Santorini is in fact Atlantis, I also remember that Plato was a man with a brilliant imagination. It is quite possible that the two islands are purely unrelated and that Plato invented the entire story.

So, this is where I will leave the reader. At the beginning of the period, there were parts of the continent that were only just entering the Bronze Age and there was no culture that could truly be said to be a civilisation (although the Minoans were certainly a proto-civilisation). At the end of the period, the knowledge of bronze-working had permeated every corner of the continent. Europe now had two fully-fledged civilisations in the Minoans and Mycenaeans. I will continue the story in the next blog.

Panorama of one edge of the crater of the volcano of Santorini, showing the full scale of the eruption size

Related Blog Posts:
Some European history from 4000-3000BC
Some European history from 3000-2000BC
Some European History from 2000-1500BC
Some European History from 1500-1000BC
Some European History from 1000-750BC
Some European History from 750-500BC