The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples - RePub - Erasmus Universiteit ...

certainty about the 8th century BC colonization of Sinope
and Trapezus on the northern Anatolian coast, because this
cannot be backed up by archaeological evidence. But the
refoundation of Sinope by the Milesians Kretinos and
Koos after the period of the Kimmerian invasion coincides
with late 7th century BC east-Greek and a little Korinthian
pottery from graves. Similarly, the Milesian colonization
of Histria in present-day Romania, which is variously
dated to 656/5 (Eusebios) or the late 7th century BC
(pseudo-Skymnos), is archaeologically matched by Middle
Wild Goat (= east-Greek) style pottery dating from c. 630
BC onwards. Furthermore, the likewise Milesian colony at
Borysthenes or Berezan, an emporion near the mouth of
the river Bug, the foundation of which is dated to 646/5
BC by Eusebios, produced a wide variety of east-Greek
(besides some Attic and Korinthian) pottery from occupation
deposits dating from the second quarter of the 7th century
BC onwards. Here were also found Milesian coins
(late 7th century BC) and a Greek inscription on a bone
plaque (late 6th or early 5th century BC). As a final example
from the Black Sea region, we may point to Khersonesos
in the Crimea, which was founded by Dorians from
Herakleia Pontica (the latter being a Megarian colony) in
422/1 BC, but used already before this date as a trading
station. Next to burials in amphorae from Samos and
Thasos dated to the beginning of the 5th century BC, “ostraka”
from about the same time were found here inscribed
first in the Megarian alphabet and later in the Milesian one
with Dorian personal names. 19
If we turn to Egypt, it so happens that pharaoh Psammetichos
I (664-610 BC) granted Greeks, who had served
him as mercenaries, the right to settle in a trading colony
called Naukratis – a site 3 km from present day el-Niqrâš
along the western branch of the Nile delta. The validity of
this historical information is underlined by the fact that
Greek pottery is attested for the earliest layer of the site
dating from c. 630 BC onwards. The privileged position of
the Greeks at Naukratis is subsequently reinforced by
Amasis (570-526 BC), under whose rule the Greeks built a
joint sanctuary, the Hellenion. In this sanctuary pottery has
been found inscribed with the Greek text “to the gods of
the Greeks”. Next, there have been excavated temples of
individual states, like that of Aphrodite (Chian), Hera
(Samian), Apollo (Milesian), and the Dioskouroi (unspeci-
19 Tsetskhladze 1994: 115-23; for the Berezan inscription on a
bone plaque, see Onyshkevych 2002.
22
fied), whereas pottery finds range from Rhodian, Chian
(one inscribed with a dedication by Sostratos [= Aeginetan
trader who also dedicated an inscription at Graviscae in
Etruria] to Aphrodite), Samian, Clazomenian, Lesbian
(bucchero) from the Aegean islands to Spartan, Korinthian,
and Attic from the Greek mainland. Interesting also is a faience
factory producing scarabs and other Aegyptiaca for
the Greek market. 20
Finally, the Greeks also expanded into the western
Mediterranean. The earliest site in this area is Pithecussae
on the island of Ischia before the coast of present-day
Naples. This emporion produced Euboian and Korinthian
ware next to Greek inscriptions (among which the famous
Nestor cup) dating from c. 770-675 BC, which coincides
nicely with the fact that according to literary evidence
Euboians from Khalkis and Eretria were once stationed
here. Of these two Greek population groups, the Khalkidians
went over to the Italian mainland and settled at Cumae
– “the oldest of all the Sicilian and Italiotic cities” 21 – , an
event reflected in the archaeological record by Greek inhumation
graves dating from c. 725 BC onwards. 22 But as
Naxos in Sicily is the earliest Greek colonial foundation in
the west, we should refrain from considering Pithecussae
and Cumae as purely Greek enterprises. In Pithecussae,
next to Greek inscriptions, Aramaic and proto-Etruscan
ones came to light, indicating the presence of Aramaean
and Tyrrhenian merchants and/or resident aliens from
North Syria and the Aegean, respectively, whereas Cumae
is named after Kume in Aiolia on the coast of western
Anatolia, and, next to Greek graves, produced a very rich
Etruscan cremation burial, the so-called fondo Artiaco, and
an Etruscan inscription in the earliest period of its existence.
23 The story of the subsequent colonization of Naxos
(by the Khalkidians, 734 BC), Syracuse (by the Korinthians,
733 BC) and the other sites in Sicily, and their importance
for the absolute chronology of Greek (especially
Korinthian) pottery, may be considered familiar by now. 24
Still interesting to adduce is that the historical tradition of
the Phokaians from Aiolia in western Anatolia sailing all
20 Boardman 1994; cf. Boardman 1999: 118-33.
21 Strabo, Geography V, 4, 4.
22 Boardman 1999: 165-9.
23 Buchner 1982: 293; Woudhuizen 1992a: 154-64; Woudhuizen
1998-9: 176-8 (cf. section 10, esp. notes 298 and 303-5 below).
24 Boardman 1999: 169 ff; cf. Dunbabin 1999 (esp. 435-8).