from CHAPTER IV
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 March 2008
INTRODUCTION
Transition from the Early to the Middle Bronze Age in Aegean lands came about gradually at some places but suddenly and with violence at others. There can be no doubt that new people came into the land. The process of change, which is reflected by archaeological evidence from many parts of the region, cannot have been simple. Rather, as was generally the case when migrations took place, the newcomers arrived in groups of various sizes, probably over an appreciable period of time. The people whom they found in possession also varied in the size and prosperity of their communities, some ready to resist while others deemed it necessary or prudent to make terms with the foreigners. Unquestionably the immigrants in the present instance were strong and the pressure of the movement was unrelenting.
The culture which they brought and the period in which it flourished on the Greek mainland are called Middle Helladic (M.H.). In the islands of the central Aegean the corresponding term is Middle Cycladic (M.C.). Roughly parallel and contemporary was the age of the first great palaces in Crete, known by Sir Arthur Evans's designation as Middle Minoan (M.M.). The limits of this period cannot be determined precisely, but it is known to have spanned the early centuries of the second millennium B.C., the time of the 12th Dynasty and of the Hyksos in Egypt, and in Mesopotamia the Isin–Larsa period and the 1st Dynasty of Babylon.
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