Greece: Early Human History

Part II: The Rise of Inequality as Humans Move to Greece

For over a million years homo sapiens and proto-humans lived in band societies, hunter-gatherer or foraging societies, which were quite small, usually between 20 and 50 individuals. These were egalitarian societies where everyone was guaranteed food, clothing and shelter. Sharing was the norm. There is little evidence that they were in conflict with other similar human groups.

There was a social division of labour, with males, usually the larger and stronger of the sexes, assuming the role of hunters and women gathering plants and small animals. This was a practical division of labour as women nursed children for a number of years. Plant food, gathered by women, provided perhaps 80% of the food consumed.

Given how long this lasted, one could argue that this social organization would seem to be the natural human social, economic and political system: an egalitarian, sharing society, based on the principle of social equality, the moral right of all to live a life as a valued member of their community.

In many areas around the world these communities moved to “horticultural societies” often employing slash-and-burn or swidden agriculture. These remained egalitarian, small societies with shifting residences.

The Development of Inequality 

              

Library at Ephesus, Ionia

                       

The evolution to a society based on hierarchy, inequality and war first developed in Mesopotamia, the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers in the near East, beginning around 11,500 years ago. As population increased, hunting wild animals could no longer provide adequate food. Humans (mainly women) began to collect wild seeds, and through careful plant breeding developed wheat, barley and legumes. Humans (mainly men) also began to domesticate animals: first dog and then pig, boar, and turkey, ca 10,000 years ago. Sheep, goats and cattle followed. Horses were domesticated around 6,000 years ago, as well as the donkey and the camel.

Agriculture was enhanced as these river societies developed canals and irrigation.The introduction of oxen, the plow and the wheel, is first seen in Sumer around 3500 B.C.

The neolithic revolution, the introduction of plow agriculture with oxen, resulted in a significant increase in food and population. This permitted the development of private household stores of food, followed by private ownership of land and the division of society on the basis of social class. A bureaucratic state was created around the control of irrigation. Farming done by slaves was introduced.The dominant class of land owners also extracted rent from small farmers, using various forms of share cropping.

Mesopotamia is also known for the development of the city, the state, and the first imperial wars. It is here that we find the development of organized religion as a state function designed to help control the lower classes. The priestly class was at the top of the social pyramid and lived in temples supported by taxes imposed on society. Myths were created claiming that there was life after death. It was claimed that the priests could decide who would survive in the after world.

Homo Sapiens move from the fertile crescent to Greece    

   

Erecthion of the Ionian League

 

New archeological evidence suggests that human beings began to move from Africa into Europe as early as 200,000 years ago. It is well established that around 35,000 years ago, during the Mesolithic era, peoples from the middle east migrated through Asia Minor to the Balkans, a region which was only mildly impacted by the last ice age.

Migration with farming and domestication of animals also moved north by hopping from Crete to the other islands of the Agean Sea and along the coast of Asia Minor to the Black Sea, Thrace and then Macedonia. Farming developed in mainland Greece between 7,000 and 6500 BC. The Bronze Age for Greece covers the civilizations for Crete, the Cyclades and the mainland between 3600 BC and 2000 BC. Ruins include palaces, large villas, houses, fortifications, temples, shrines, roads and bridges. Crafts included furniture, vessels, carvings, metal work, metal weapons, tools and jewelry. There are some clay tablets from Crete.

Mycenaean Greece and the development of classic, hierarchical civilization

The last period of the Bronze Age covers Greece between 1600 and 1100 BC. Agriculture was based on large estates, a landed aristocracy, with work performed by slaves and serfs. Small farmers also had to pay state taxes.

The political structure was centred around a hereditary king who was the head of the religious order, in direct charge of state administration, and the active head of the military order. He was assisted by an elite group of administrators. The king also controlled many businesses and much of the lucrative trade.

The Mycenaean era began to collapse around 1200 BC. This has been attributed to the invasion from the north by the Dorions, the rise of the Sea Peoples from the south, as well as radical changes in the climate.

The Dark Ages: Greece between 1100 and 800 BC          

With the collapse of the Mycenaen civilization, kingdoms and formal aristocracies disappeared, but farming continued with a new social structure. People lived in small communities surrounded by farmland that was distributed on a family basis. However, the political system was dominated by a group of large landowners, who constituted  a powerful political oligarchy.

There were a number of major developments during this period. Most important was a shift of a significant population from the Greek mainland to the Agean coast of Asia Minor. They occupied the many islands and then the coastal regions. These Greeks merged with the local Asiatics. This area of Greece became known as Ionia.

Iron and steel were invented. The Greek alphabet was created, which facilitated the spread of literacy. There was the beginning of science, which challenged the ideological dominant religions, and the beginning of materialist philosophy. Hippocrates and others introduced scientific medicine, which also challenged the established religious order.

In Ionia there was the development of the city-state and the creation of a new system of laws, not based on religious dogma but utilitarian community needs. A dozen of the most prosperous towns formed a political confederation. In addition these Ionian population centres created many colonies from the Black Sea to Italy and Spain.

A New Political Culture Emerges         

The era of the monarchy and a formal landed aristocracy ends by 700 BC. Communities were based on small subsistence farms, but political rule was by an oligarchy of large land owners. Most of the smaller farms were tenant farms dependent on borrowing from the large farmers. The norm was for the tenant farmers to surrender 1/6 of the farm’s product to the landlord. If they could not pay the rent, they surrendered their land. Farmers and their families could be sold as slaves.

There was also a “middle class” of independent farmers who owned their own land. With the development of iron and steel weapons, this class formed the basis of a new armed force. They became known as the hoplites, after the military infantry formation used very successfully in warfare. The dominant oligarchs commanded horses and chariots. There was a popular assembly at this time, but it had no power. Money was introduced around 700 BC, which allowed farmers, merchants and artisans to accumulate wealth outside land.

 Formal political rule was  vested in  the Council of Areopagos. The landed oligarchs  appointed the arkhons who comprised this institution and who served for life. Originally there were three arkons; six were added in the 7th century. They ruled with unchallenged authority. 

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