Helladic Period - Middle Helladic (MH)

Middle Helladic (MH)

Further information: Minyans and Origin of the Greeks

In Greece, the Middle Helladic period begins with the wide-scale emergence of the Minyan Ware, which may be directly related to the people whom ancient Greek historians called Minyans; a group of monochrome burnished pottery from Middle Helladic (and EH III) sites was conventionally dubbed "Minyan" ware by Troy's discoverer Heinrich Schliemann. Until about 1960, Gray Minyan ware was often identified as the pottery introduced by a Middle Bronze Age migration.; excavations at Lerna have revealed the development of pottery styles to have been continuous. In general, painted pottery decors are rectilinear and abstract until Middle Helladic III, when Cycladic and Minoan influences inspire a variety of curvilinear and even representational motifs.

The Middle Helladic period corresponds in time to the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. Settlements draw more closely together and tend to be sited on hilltops. Middle Helladic sites are located throughout the Peloponnese and central Greece (including sites in the interior of Aetolia such as Thermon) as far north as the Spercheios River valley. Malthi in Messenia is the only Middle Helladic site to have been thoroughly excavated, but Lerna V will be the type site when it is fully published (Rutter).