Helladic Period - Early Helladic (EH)

Early Helladic (EH)

Further information: Aegean civilization and Proto-Greek

The Early Helladic is characterized by an agricultural population who used basic techniques of bronze-working first developed in Anatolia with which they had cultural contacts. Their emergence is the beginning of the Bronze Age in Greece. The Early Helladic period corresponds in time to the Old Kingdom in Egypt. Important Early Helladic sites are clustered on the Aegean shores of the mainland in Boeotia and Argolid (Lerna, Pefkakia, Thebes, Tiryns) or coastal islands such as Aegina (Kolonna) and Euboea (Lefkandi, Manika) and are marked by pottery showing Western Anatolian influences and the introduction of the fast-spinning version of the potter's wheel. The large "longhouse" called a megaron is introduced in EH II. The infiltration of Anatolian cultural models was not accompanied by widespread site destruction.