So Many Milleniums Ago: Chalcolithic Times

Column Parts at Kourion

column at Kourion

I love a good few hours wandering around an archaeological site ruminating on the lives of people who left traces of their existence for us to enjoy so many thousands of years later. The museums of the Mediterranean nations are filled with glass cases of gold jewelry, intricately painted pottery, coins, perfume bottles and the detritus of everyday life. And that is before we mention the marble and stone statues and temples of colossal proportions.



 I often wonder how the Greeks and Romans of two thousand years ago could have developed such a sophisticated system of communal living with little in the way of technology as we know it today.

It brings to mind that old saw,’ “When the English were living in huts, the Greeks were building the Parthenon.”

stone bases of circular houses of Chirokitia - 4500 BC

But here in Cyprus, I got a glimpse of even earlier civilizations, going back to Neolithic times.  Those sites have pushed my thinking in a new direction.

They say that humans first arrived in Cyprus in 9000 BC, probably from somewhere in present day Turkey. Over the next few thousand years, they evolved into a people who lived in walled villages. They hunted deer and smaller animals, gathered the tremendous variety of indigenous fruits and nuts found on this island but also raised sheep and goats and tended crops such as grains and lentils.

the round hut bases cover the hillside - Chirokitia - 4500BC

  
We have visited several excavated village sites dating from about 4500BC, the Chalcolithic period, and I was amazed to see the sophistication of the stone and mud brick houses, grouped on hillsides and surrounded by substantial stone walls with intricate entry systems into the village.

mock-ups of huts from Chalcolithic times

 The round huts were made of stones at the bottom and these are what remain, tightly packed together throughout the excavation sites.  Experts surmise that the top half of each dwelling was made of mud and straw bricks and that the roof was flat: made of logs covered with brush and twigs. In Chirokitia, they have created a mock-up of several little huts complete with the household implements they found in them. Their burial practices were to place their dead in a pit inside the house and cover the body with a stone and the dirt which formed the floor. I hate to imagine the putrefying perfume that would emanate from a home with a freshly deceased loved one, in the heat of the Cypriot summer.

mud bricks of existing house up close

mud bricks above stones of existing house

 In Kakopetria, a darling old village in the Troodhos Mountains, the government has slapped on an order prohibiting the destruction of the old buildings or the building of new dwellings within the old village. We stayed in an Inn comprised of village houses renovated in the old style. Lying in bed and looking up I noticed that the ceiling was made of logs placed about one foot apart, with many short twigs sitting behind them at right angles. Evident through the spaces was bracken, fern and moss. Of course, now there are roof tiles on top of that but it did seem rather like the building style of Chalcolithic times. In our walks around Kakopetria, the mud bricks and the stone foundations are obvious.

stone foundations of neolithic village of Tenta

So, if the people of Cyprus had developed this type of communal living by 4000 BC, it is not surprising that in another few thousand years, they would be able to erect large temples to Aphrodite, the primary pagan deity of the island. Dear Aphrodite, born out of the sea foam at a large rock between Paphos and Lemesos, has been revered through the ages in Cyprus. 

Aphrodite's Rock and Petra tou Romeou

 

The sanctuary of Aphrodite at Kouklia, has little but foundations left, but in Amathus, the Acropolis, at the top of the hill, had an enormous jar which dwarfed Minas.

Minas dwarfed by a huge stone jar at the Acropolis temple to Aphrodite, Amathus

Minas at Aphrodite's sanctuary at Kouklia

the steam baths of Kourion

So, my new thinking has to do with the importance of time. Once humans settled into established villages it was only a matter of chronological time before self-made improvements led to the great accomplishments and civilizations that are still being uncovered today.  The more sophisticated, and easier their lives became, the more personal time they had on the hands to pursue the art and architecture we have come to associate with the ancient Greeks and Romans.

columns still standing in Paphos

And to think that sophisticated Greek and Roman civilizations were eventually run over and eradicated by barbarians from the north, who had left their huts for just that reason.