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Barbarian Europe and Early Iron Age Greece

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 May 2014

A. M. Snodgrass
A. M. Snodgrass
Affiliation:
Department of Classical Archaeology, University of Edinburgh
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Extract

This paper is concerned with the nature of the relationship that existed between Central Europe and the Aegean area in the early 1st millennium B.C. Interest in Aegean-continental connections has been strong for a considerable time, but has been intensified, particularly from the continental standpoint, in the past fifteen years. Although some of these studies have been concerned with the contacts between 2nd millennium (Late Bronze Age) Greece and the north, others have examined in detail the evidence for the links between the Urnfield culture and Greece during the 10th, 9th and 8th centuries. For Greece, this is an utterly different period from the preceding one; the evidence for foreign contacts suddenly becomes scarce and that for military disasters is virtually non-existent. Yet some scholars have reached very similar conclusions, involving the transmission of objects and of the people who carried them from Central Europe into Greece, for this period as for the preceding Late Bronze Age. Such arguments have a recent exponent in Professor W. Kimmig, whose paper Seevölkerbewegung und Urnenfelderkultur ranges over the whole period from about 1200 to 700. His list of objects and practices in this period, which he considers to have been donated by the Danube-Balkan peoples to the Mediterranean world, is comprehensive indeed: it would include bronze shields and body armour, the equipment of Goliath, the knobbed ware of Troy VII B, the practice of cremation in the Iron Age, the ritual spoliation of weapons in graves, iron swords, spears, knives, bits, lugged axes, spits, fire-dogs, bronze personal objects generally, clay idols, the maeander pattern and the swans of Apollo.

Type
Research Article
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 31 , December 1965 , pp. 229 - 240
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 1965

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References

page 229 note 1 In Studien aus Alteuropa, 1 (Beihefte zu den Bonner Jahrbüchern, Band 10/1), pp. 220–-83.

page 229 note 2 See e.g. Foltiny, S., AJA, vol. 65 (1961), pp. 283–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar and vol. 68 (1964), pp. 255–6; Davison, J. M., Yale Classical Studies, vol. 16 (1961), pp. 125–7Google Scholar.

page 230 note 1 The Last Mycenaeans and their Successors (hereafter LMS), pp. 17–20.

page 230 note 2 Berytus, XI (1955). p. 99Google Scholar, pl. XX, 1–2; see Coldstream, J. N. in JHS, vol. 83 (1963), p. 212Google Scholar, and on the date of Megiddo V, Kenyon, K. M. in Samaria-Sebaste, III, pp. 198–204Google Scholar.

page 231 note 1 The find-spots are as follows:

Swords, bronze: Ancient Elis (Ergon for 1963, p. 121Google Scholar, f. 127); iron: Athens Kerameikos (4), Athens Agora, Athens Metropolis, Amyldai, Kapakli (several), Marmarianf, Kavousi (4), Vrokastro (several), Modi (more than one), Ialysos and perhaps Mouliana Tomb A.

Spearheads, bronze: Athens Kerameikos (3), Amyklai (2), Delphi, Tylissos, Knossos Fortetsa Tomb XI, 191; iron: Athens Kerameikos (3), Athens Agora (2), Athens Metropolis, Marmariani (perhaps one), Knossos Agios Ioannis, Knossos Tekke (2), Knossos Fortetsa (8 or more), Kavousi (2), Vrokastro (several), Kourtais (many), Kofiná (Panagia) (2 or more), Ialysos, Assarlik.

Daggers, bronze: Ancient Elis (Ergon for 1963, p. 119Google Scholar, f. 124), Vrokastro; iron: Athens Kerameikos (3), Argos Tomb 184, Knossos Agios Ioannis, Knossos Fortetsa Tomb XI, Kofiná (Panagia), Ialysos.

Knives, iron: Athens Kerameikos, Athens Agora, Asine, Marmarianí (several), Theotokou, Skyros, Tenos, Vrokastro (several), Kos (2), Ialysos, Assarlik.

Axe-heads, iron: Athens Kerameikos, Athens Agora, Vrokastro Kavousi (AJA, vol. 5 (1901), p. 132Google Scholar).

The references, with the exception of those given, can all be found in one or more of the following: Desborough's Protogeometric Pottery (hereafter PGP), Appendix B and Site-index (pp. 311–12, 315–28); the same author's LMS, Appendix A (pp. 264–70); and the lists in my Early Greek Armour and Weapons (hereafter EGA), pp. 93–103. 116–33, 166. I have not been able to see the reports of excavations at Phaestos and Modi in Crete (LMS, p. 267), where the finds of ‘iron weapons’ would further swell the iron figures given here.

page 232 note 1 Antiquity, vol. 38 (1964), pp. 300–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 232 note 2 I take these figures respectively from Cowen's catalogue in BRGK, vol. 36 (1955). pp. 138–51Google Scholar—those swords under the headings Spätere Entwicklungen and Langschwerter which he assigns generically or singly (see also 88-–92) to Ha B number some 48; and from Müller-Karpe's, H. catalogue in Die Vollgriffschwerter der Urnenfelderzeit aus Bayern, pp. 36–82Google Scholar, Königsdorf type to Tahlovice type inclusive—a total of, I think, 257, to which could be added some specimens of the Worschach type (ibid., pp. 33–5.)

page 232 note 3 Müller-Karpe, , Beiträge zur Chronologie der Urnenfelderzeit, p. 129Google Scholar, n. 8; Foltiny, , AJA, vol. 65 (1961), p. 289Google Scholar; vol. 68 (1964), p. 256; Kimmig, op. cit., pp. 274–81.

page 233 note 1 Mitt. Präh. Komm., Wien, II, 2 (1913), p. 148Google Scholar, f. 92.

page 233 note 2 Perhaps the closest parallel is the shorter of the two swords found in a votive deposit of c. 700 or later at Sunion: Ephemeris (1917), p. 207Google Scholar, f. 18. Since writing these words, I have been assured by more than one European scholar that there is material among the bronzes at St. Kanzian which must be of later, probably Ha B 3, date.

page 233 note 3 Knives: see LMS, pp. 61, 70–1. Dagger: Kerameikos, 1, p. 104Google Scholar, pl. 32.

page 234 note 1 Bronze examples, Catling, , Antiquity, vol. 35 (1961), pp. 120–1CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Iron examples are discussed in AJA, vol. 66 (1962), p. 409Google Scholar.

page 234 note 2 Antiquity, vol. 34 (1960), p. 178Google Scholar.

page 234 note 3 Osmankayasi, , WVDOG, vol. 71 (1958), pp. 29 ff.Google Scholar; Ilica, , AA (1964), pp. 321–32Google Scholar.

page 234 note 4 See especially LMS, p. 157; pp. 115–16.

page 235 note 1 See especially PGP, Appendix A, pp. 306–7.

page 235 note 2 Berciu, , Archeologické rozhledy, vol. 16 (1964), pp. 264–79Google Scholar. Piggott, , Antiquity, vol. 38 (1964), pp. 300–3CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 235 note 3 Antiquity, vol. 36 (1962), pp. 123–30CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

page 235 note 4 EGA, pp. 38–51.

page 235 note 5 AA (1948–1949), pp. 12 ff., with f. 3, 25.

page 236 note 1 Ephesus: Jacobsthal, , JHS, vol. 71 (1951), pp. 85–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Samos: Hanfmann, , Harvard Studies in Classical Philology, vol. 61 (1953), p. 9CrossRefGoogle Scholar, n. 42; Sparta: Boardman, , BSA, vol. 58, (1963) pp. 1–7Google Scholar.

page 236 note 2 JHS, vol. 70 (1950), pp. 17–21Google Scholar.

page 236 note 3 See e.g. LMS, p. 133.

page 236 note 4 Blinkenberg, , Fibules grecques et orientales, pp. 260–74Google Scholar, types XIV, 6–10 and XV, 1–11.

page 237 note 1 Perachora, I, p. 171Google Scholar, pl. 73, 18. The same goes for the bridle-piece, ibid., p. 182, pl. 82, 27.

page 237 note 2 Blinkenberg, op. cit., pp. 79–80, type III, 3; Milojčič, op. cit., f. 3, 10.

page 237 note 3 J. Wiesner's high dates (AA (1939), pp. 313–32) for these and other objects cannot stand today. See Kossack, G., Symbolgut der Urnenfelder- und Halktattzeit, pp. 62–9Google Scholar, pl. 7; Milojčič, op. cit., f. 3, 11, 12, 22.

page 237 note 4 Jacobsthal, , Greek Pins, pp. 12–13Google Scholar, f. 34–43; Milojčič, op. cit., f. 3, 2–3.

page 237 note 5 See Jantzen, , AA (1953), pp. 56 ff.Google Scholar; Maier, , Germania, vol. 34 (1956), p. 67Google Scholar. On double-shank pins, see also Alexander, , PPS, XXX (1964), pp. 170–4Google Scholar.

page 237 note 6 On diadems and Strbči fibulae, see Maier, op. cit., pp. 70 f. Among the early bracelets are AA (1936) p. 228, f. 1 (Skyros) and Corpus Vasorum Antiquorum, Mainz 1, 14–15Google Scholar, f. 6–10 (North Peloponnese). For later examples, see e.g. Milojčič, op. cit., f. 3, 24, 26–7.

page 237 note 7 Corslets, helmets, greaves, Herzsprung shields: see EGA, pp. 72 ff., 13 ff., 87–8 and 55–6 respectively. On the Pilsen find, Coles, J. M., PPS, XXVIII (1962), p. 162Google Scholar.

page 238 note 1 The extreme rarity of amber finds in Early Iron Age Greece, as Mr Donald Strong has pointed out to me, might be taken to support this thesis in a general way; here too the pattern in Macedonia is different from that of central and southern Greece (cf. below, pp. 239–40). But it must be admitted that there are a few amber finds from further south—Cist Tomb I at Kardiani, Tenos (PGP, pp. 128, 159) and the Temenos of Hera Akraia (Perachora, I, pp. 33–4, 77Google Scholar)—which are likely to be earlier than 750 and which may not be explainable as re-used heirlooms.

page 238 note 2 Excavation reports are spread over a wide range of journals; but the more detailed are in Praktiká for 1952 and 1953; Ergon for 1957 to 1961; Balkan Studies, vol. 2, pp. 89 ff.Google Scholar; and, most fully, Deltion, vol. 17 (1961–1962), pp. 218–88Google Scholar and vol. 18 (1963), pp. 217–32. For a summary, see LMS, pp. 38, 143–6.

page 238 note 3 PGP, pp. 180–94.

page 238 note 4 LMS, p. 144, n. 2.

page 239 note 1 Deltion, vol. 17 (1961–1962), pp. 241–2Google Scholar, pl. 146, a. For layout of tumulus, ibid. f. 28. Desborough's statement (LMS, p. 145) that there were no iron objects in this tomb apparently arose from an oral misunderstanding.

page 239 note 2 Fibulae, e.g. Hall, E. H., Vrokastro, vol. 140, p. 166Google Scholar, pl. xix D-E., Swords, Catling, , PPS, XXII (1956), pp. 106, 113Google Scholar and Antiquity, vol. 35 (1961), p. 117Google Scholar.

page 239 note 3 This statement must be fractionally modified since the discovery in Tomb LXVIII of a sword with iron blade and bronze hilt (Deltion, vol. 18 (1963), p. 222Google Scholar, f. 9). This seems to be a Vollgriffschwert of the class listed in Kimmig's catalogue (above, p. 232), in which case it is probably of Ha B 3 date.

page 239 note 4 BSA, vol. 28 (1926–7), pp. 197–8; Lorimer, , Homer and the Monuments, p. 114Google Scholar.

page 239 note 5 Kimmig, op. cit., pp. 257–62.

page 240 note 1 Maier, op. cit., p. 70.

page 240 note 2 On spectacle-fibulae, see now Alexander, , AJA, vol. 69 (1965), pp. 7–23CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Egtved, Brøndsted, Danmarks Oldtid, vol. 2 (Bronzealderen), pp. 72–4Google Scholar.