Neolithic Greece

The Neolithic (New Stone Age) era in ancient Greece must be reckoned to date from around 6800 BCE to 3200 BCE. Climatic changes made it possible for groups of people to settle in fixed locations and for the hunter-gatherer economy of the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic eras to give way to more settled ways of life, including farming, stock-rearing, and the creation of pottery. Around 1,000 sites have been identified that show signs of occupation in the Neolithic period.

Communities grew up where there was an adequate water supply and suitable conditions for growing food. This included settlements where mud huts were built in groups, in both coastal locations and further inland, and places where caves were used as shelters. The plains of Thessaly and Macedonia were the mostly densely populated areas, and the more mountainous districts less so.

The archaeological evidence shows that some communities were more advanced than others, such that some had houses built at least partly of stone, or bricks made from dried mud. They were mainly single-room dwellings, but some may have been two-storey. Villages were often surrounded by a ditch or a stone wall.

In the early Neolithic, communities probably consisted of extended families who decided to settle in one place, but during the later Neolithic it seems likely that several families grouped together to create villages of 50-100 people. As villages started to produce objects such as pottery, arrowheads and jewelry, some members of the community would have acquired greater social status and taken on leadership roles.

Pottery production became necessary for the storage of food, particularly grain and legumes, and the existence of pottery workshops indicates that professional potters must have been at work. Likewise, the development of metallurgy led to the rise of specialist metal-workers and producers of jewelry.

Evidence for the existence of religious practices in Neolithic Greece is sparse. However, many small figurines, made of terracotta or stone, have been found which may have a religious significance. These are often in the form of naked female figures, with exaggerated breasts, bellies and buttocks. These have traditionally been regarded as depictions of a Mother Goddess, with connotations to fertility symbols, but more recent scholarship has cast doubt on this interpretation.

It is more likely that the Neolithic Greeks performed quasi-religious ceremonies at burials and carried out animal sacrifices. The figurines mentioned above also appear to have played a role here, because excavated offering pits have been discovered containing animal bones and figurines as well as ash and pot fragments.

Ceremonies and rituals from the classical era of ancient Greek civilization certainly seem to have had ancient roots. In particular, at one site, sacrifices to the goddess Demeter took place within a stone circle. Demeter was the corn goddess of the classical Greeks, but her worship seems to have had much earlier origins, based on primitive ideas of a goddess who descends to the underworld by force every Winter and pushes up the corn on her release in the Spring.

Again, agrarian festivals in the classical period often featured sacrifices of a pig, and terracotta pigs, which would have been studded with corn, have been found in shrines to Demeter. An impressive clay pig, dating from the Neolithic, has been found at a site near Marathon. The link is unmistakable.

Clearly, much of what we think we know about Neolithic Greece, and especially its religious practices, must be speculative, as there is no written evidence. However, it seems highly probable that the classical Greeks, most of whom were descended from immigrants to the area from around 1000 BCE, absorbed at least some of the culture and religion of the indigenous people whose ancestry in the region went back much further.

© John Welford

Mount Olympus: facts and mythology

One fact to make clear at the outset is that Mount Olympus and Olympia are two entirely separate places. The latter is on the western side of the Peleponnese peninsula of southern Greece, whereas Mount Olympus is more than 160 miles distant, on the eastern side of mainland Greece, where Thessaly meets Macedonia. No Olympic Games were ever held on the slopes of Mount Olympus!

The facts of Mount Olympus include that it is the highest mountain in Greece at 9,570 feet (2,919 metres), and that it rises virtually from sea level, making its appearance all the more impressive. Its top is covered in perpetual snow, even when tourists are basking in Mediterranean sunshine on the Greek beaches and islands not far away.

It is a massive cone-shaped mountain, with eight distinct peaks, the highest being Mytikas. It is popular with hikers and climbers, although it should not be attempted during the winter months, when the weather makes the slopes particularly dangerous. Even so, a climb to the summit and back is a two-day excursion for most. The views from the top, on a fine day, are well worth the effort, with the Aegean and its islands and peninsulas stretching to the horizon.

The lower slopes of Mount Olympus are covered in dense forests of oak, beech, cedar and pine, which are home to a vast array of plants and animals, the latter including bears, wolves and lynxes. It is no surprise that the area around Mount Olympus was declared Greece’s first national park in 1937.

It is also no surprise that the ancient Greeks held Mount Olympus in very special esteem. It marked the northern limit of Greece proper, so it was the edge of their world. It was also so high, and more often than not had its summit lost in cloud, that it was the natural location for the home of the gods. When people looked to the north and saw and heard lightning and thunder coming from storms on the mountain, they knew that this had to be the place where Zeus lived and from where he threw his thunderbolts.

This was not a mountain that people dared to climb, so the ancient Greeks could literally believe that the gods lived here. The legend of the giants trying to assail the gods had them piling two other mountains on top of each other so that they could reach the upper slopes of Olympus where the chief gods lived in splendid mansions, consuming nectar and ambrosia to preserve their immortality. According to Homer, the gods had their council chamber right at the top, hidden from the eyes of mortals by a wall of cloud. However, the cloud did not prevent the gods from seeing what mortal men were up to, and interfering in their affairs when the mood so took them.

In the Odyssey, the abode of the gods is described as a peaceful abode unshaken by storms, and the same notions are found in the poems of Hesiod and some other poets. However, most of the later Greek poets either regarded the true abode of the gods as being in the vault of Heaven above the mountain and not actually on it, or they thought that the mountain was infinitely high and therefore reached all the way to the aether, or Heaven.

Whether you believe the myths or not, the mountains of northern Greece are impressive enough to deserve their reputation. Where else would the most powerful gods live, if not at the top of the most powerful mountain?

© John Welford