When J.L. Caskey saw the ancient settlement for the first time he described it as:

A low rounded hillock stand[ing] by the south bank of the stream Amymone, which runs its short course from the Lernaean spring to the Gulf of Argos [Caskey 1954:3].

From 1952 to 1958, Caskey, then of the University of Cincinnati, and the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, conducted excavations at the site and recovered occupational debris dating from the Neolithic to the Roman period.

Lerna could be thought of as a "port city." Angel (1971:2) writes that it is on the western shore of the Bay of Argos directly across from Asine, Nauplion, and Tiryns on the eastern shore. By land, he continues, it is close to Corinth, the Isthmus, and the west of Greece. To the north of the Bay are the Saronic Gulf, the Euripos-Atalante Straits which end in the Lamia Gulf, the Thessalian Gulf, and the Macedonian Gulf among others. All these bays have fertile plains and are surrounded with mountains or hills. It was an area very inviting to fisherman-farmers from earliest Neolithic times onwards. Angel goes on to say:

For people living at Lerna there were wide possibilities. Lerna guards the route over the mountains into Arcadia. Sea contact is easy with the Peloponnese and with the Peninsula of Argolis, which separates the Gulf of Argos from the Saronic Gulf. Open-sea sailing, involving dependence on winds and seasons, as described later, gives less easy contact with Keos, Melos, Thera, and the other Cycladic Islands, and by this means either with Crete to the south or with Anatolia to the northeast [Angel 1971:2].

This easy access could have been one of the reasons for the heterogeneity (20% above normal) Angel (1971:33) found in the people of Middle Bronze Age Lerna.

The people of Lerna, as suggested by the animal remains, probably practiced agriculture and pastoralism. Gejvall (1969:58) suspects domestication of the pig and sheep in Early Neolithic. And by Early Helladic II breeding of domestic pig, sheep/goat, and cattle is taking place, with the introduction of the ass at this time. Many animal bones were found during the excavations around the settlement, but Caskey and his team found only two or three graves possibly associated with animal bones, and there is no way of determining how or when the animals got there. We do Gimbutas tells (1956) of areas in Europe where they practiced burying animal bones with the deceased, but based on the minimal amount of animal remains found in the burials at Lerna, no conclusion can be reached about the there.

Although the site spans a time frame from the Neolithic to the Roman period, Caskey's excavations concentrated on Bronze Age remains, primarily Middle Helladic II and III (ca. 2000-1600 BC). (See Table 3.1) The Bronze Age settlement was the size of a small village, 180 meters from east to west, and 160 meters from north to south. Caskey (1954:3) compared it to the Bronze Age location of Zygouries (Blegen 1928) and many other pre-Mycenaean settlements around the area during that time.

At the end of the excavations Caskey counted a total of 1694 pottery pieces, and 4471 miscellaneous objects of metal, stone, glass, ivory, bone, and terracotta (Caskey 1959:206). In his forward to the Gejvall (1969) volume and his Hesperia (1954, 1955, 1956, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1960) essays, Caskey provides a short summary of each period and the associated finds. This information is summarized below, along with Gejvall's (1969) summary of the fauna and Angel's (1971) demographic and pathological analyses of the people of Lerna.

A. The Neolithic

1. The Early Neolithic

In general, the architecture of this period was "relatively humble in scale and execution" (Caskey 1956:170). There were rectangular buildings of moderate size, consisting of one room or several clustered together (Caskey 1957:157). One such example measured about 3 m. in interior width and more than 5.25 m. in length (Caskey 1956:170). House walls were constructed of small irregular pieces of rough breccia bound together with sticky red clay. In some of the rooms were short internal buttresses which gave extra strength to the walls and supported ceiling beams and a probably thatched-straw roof (Caskey 1957:157). (See Figure 3.2)

Caskey (1969:ii) writes that the Early Neolithic levels at Lerna consisted of the characteristic "Rainbow" and spongy wares (Appendix A discusses the pottery types typical of Lerna and other sites in the Peloponnese during the Neolithic to Late Helladic periods). Angel (1971:26) writes that in general around Greece the earliest pottery found is monochrome, the color going from dark grey to buff to near-white, depending on firing. Typical bowls had round-bottoms and pierced lugs, with occasional ring bases. Painted pottery appeared in Greece early in the sixth millennium, and became more frequent, with geometric designs in red on a cream slip. Finger-impressed pots occur at Nea Nikomedeia. By the end of the Early Neolithic barbotine and cardial-impressed wares similar to those found at Yugoslavian sites such as Kakanj on the Bosna River, in a later Starcevo-Koros context appeared in Greece (Ehrich 1965 cited in Angel 1971:26).

Other objects, such as pins, awls, figurines, weapons and tools, etc., were made of chipped and polished stone, obsidian, and bone. The stone industry included scrapers and broad blades of flint and chert. The main style was the long blade, used for knives or sickles, and sometimes made of obsidian. Polished celts for hoes or axes were frequent, and stone manos and metates, pestles and mortars, hammerstones, and even stone vases occurred (Angel 1971:26). The dead were buried in pit graves within the settlement.

What type of environment did the early Lernaeans experience? Angel (1971:15) writes that the original vegetation of latest Paleolithic and Early Neolithic times of Greece was made up of pine and mixed forests in the north and in the mountainous areas of the Peloponnesus. The lowlands consisted of a dry, open forest of live oak, umbrella, Aleppo, and maritime pines, and of evergreen scrub, or thorny maquis, including shrubs like laurel and rhododendron, bulb plants like asphodel, and spring-blooming flowers like anemone, and wild grasses.

The first evidence of wild cattle comes from Lerna I. Whether there was domestication of cattle during this time was impossible to determine from the fragments (Gejvall 1969:31). Red fox and European hare were found at Lerna I; and the appearance of the European hare provides information on the type of landscape, says Gejvall (1969:43), because it prefers open fields. Red deer appear at Lerna I and continue through the eras. Gejvall (1969:45) speculates that deer-hunting played a definite although probably subordinate role at Lerna. He further hypothesizes:

...the Peloponnesian red deer may very well, for ecological reasons and due to selection...already in early times have developed into a local slightly diminished form....This may have been caused by the beginning of deforestation already during Lerna IV [Gejvall 1969:46].

Although the roe deer was found starting in Lerna IV and V, Gejvall believes that it was also present at other times. Roe deer and red deer both belong to forested regions as well as those with scattered clumps of trees, but the roe deer also likes open fields and cultivated areas (Gejvall 1969:47).

The fowl found in Lerna I were the mallard, a swimming duck which Gejvall says is confined mainly to shallow lakes or marshes; the gray lag goose, a swimmer which finds its biotope in wet, grassy places; and the crane, a wader, which finds its food in marshes or water-rich meadows (Gejvall 1969:48).

2. The Middle Neolithic

According to Angel (1971:27) the Middle Neolithic (ca. 5000-4000 BC) at Lerna saw houses which were basically similar but more complex than those of the Early Neolithic. The houses were still rectangular in shape, and commonly having up to three small rooms with internal buttresses, stone foundations held together with red clay, and more substantial mud-brick walls. Caskey (1969:ii) writes that the Middle Neolithic was distinguished by fine black and brown glazed ware, new pottery with shiny paint, which Angel (1971:27) says derived from the earliest Halaf style of the Near East, and which Saul Weinberg (1965 cited in Angel 1971:27) calls "Neolithic Urfirnis." [Neolithic urfirnis (glaze) describes a naturally lustrous surface without supplementary burnishing. Slip describes thick dull coatings on unburnished surfaces (Caskey 1957:137). See Appendix A on pottery for further explanation.] Also present were patterned wares, pottery found at many sites in Greece and typical of that time period in Greece. Tools were of stone, bone, and terracotta, and, at this time, terracotta female figurines appear. Angel (1971:27) writes that a "religious" culture complex diffused from the Near East which included new and more realistic female figurines like those at Lerna (Caskey 1958:136) as well as the rite of secondary burial (at Prosymna and Hageorgitika, shown on Figure 3.3). Angel also states that Weinberg further maintains that Central Greece had a still different pottery (Chaeronea ware) and cultural tradition. Burial at Lerna, usually in pits within the settlement, continued from the Early Neolithic (Caskey 1969:ii). According to Angel (1971:100) the people of the Neolithic period were primarily variations of Basic White (A) morphology (see Appendix B). Angel (1971:27) goes on to assert that before the end of the Middle Neolithic the Megaron house appeared at several sites; this house style is characterized by its "free-standing position, porch and doorway at one short end, and a single large rectangular chamber, with a central hearth" (Blegen 1963:48). A new pottery style also appeared at this time--carinated and black burnished. This type of pottery along with several types of grey ware continued in use especially in the south of Greece to the Bronze Age and at times showed connections with the Balkans.

Gejvall (1969:22-23) found fragments of domestic pig from Lerna II onwards, but asserted that wild boar probably existed in all the strata. There were two different types of domestic pig, and also wild boar in middle and south Europe during the Neolithic period. One was the small turbary pig (Sus palustris) believed to have been introduced from the East.

In general, during this time, the increase in the total number of sheep and goats at Lerna bears a normal relation to the increase in the total quantity of bone material, but during Lerna IV and V the trend is for more goats and fewer sheep (Gejvall 1969:28). Also, from Lerna II and III there is the first reliable evidence of bovine fragments that, Gejvall (1969:32) says, judging by their smaller size, had to be from domesticated animals. He asserts that the striking decrease in the number of wild species between the Early and Middle Neolithic periods was probably a result of primitive agriculture; but, later, at the beginning of Early Helladic II game seems to play a more important part in subsistence (Gejvall 1969:56). Gejvall contends that large game animals, such as wild boar, red deer and aurochs, increase considerably more in EHII than might be expected with the very moderate increase in the total number of bone fragments excavated. He continues:

At the same time we find an increase in game which is small but swift and harder to catch. These two circumstances, along with the introduction of the ass to the plains of the Argolid, must indicate improved hunting methods and cultural influences from abroad, possibly from the Near East [Gejvall 1969:56].

The fowl found at Lerna during this time were: cormorant, a sea bird that lives on lakes and is a good swimmer; heron, a stork-like wader; mallard; garganey, a swimming duck; and goshawk, which usually hunts in surroundings with scattered trees and brushwood (Gejvall 1969:48).

K.W. Butzer describes the climatic conditions from ca. 5000-2400 BC as a moist interval with somewhat more rainfall than today and higher rate of evaporation; a situation "halfway between that of the pluvial and modern conditions, and with temporary decreases in the rainfall shortly before and after 4000 B.C. and again about 3000 B.C." (Butzer 1957 quoted in Gejvall 1969:55). During the next phase, from ca. 2400-850 BC, there was a renewed decrease in precipitation, and a longer period of arid conditions, probably accompanied by greater warmth. Gejvall (1969:55) concludes:

In our material...we have found a change in the composition of the avian fauna...which strongly suggests an environmental change sometime between Lerna III and Lerna IV, which could be connected with the arid conditions...during Butzer's Postpluvial III period [2400-850 BC].

3. The Late Neolithic

In the Late Neolithic level there were traces of dark burnished and dull-painted ceramic wares at Lerna (Caskey 1969:iii). Some typical Late Neolithic pottery found by Caskey (1957:159) was composed of bisquit uniformly fired, with thin and even walls. It had monochrome surfaces with rectilinear patterns, at times coated with a naturally lustrous glaze, fired orange-brown, pinkish, reddish, or nearly black; or treated with a thick red-brown, some grey slip, thoroughly burnished. There were large open-mouthed vessels deeply scored with vertical and horizontal grooves on the inner surface (see Plates I and II).

According to Angel, Saul Weinberg (1965 cited in Angel 1971:27) chooses as the start of the Late Neolithic in Greece (4000 B.C.), the appearance of matt-painted ware similar in fabric, shape, paint, and patterns to the ware of the province of Ubaid, an Epipaleolithic and Neolithic site in Mesopotamia. Its pottery is thin-walled and finely shaped, painted with geometrical designs (e.g., triangles, squares, wavy lines, or chevrons) in black or brown on a white or greenish background (Woolley 1965:23). Polychrome matt-painted pottery appeared before the beginning of the Late Neolithic Dimini culture of Thessaly. Angel (1971:27) continues that Weinberg regards these as special local developments in response to influence from the Islands, where Late Neolithic sites on Thera and Antiparos and especially on Keos, are first evidence of settlement and the beginning of the Cycladic culture. This occurred just before the start of the Early Bronze Age. Gumelnitza influence from the Balkans at the end of the Late Neolithic also seems clear.

B. The Early Bronze Age

1. Early Helladic I

According to Angel (1971:28), the beginning of the Early Bronze Age (3000 BC) in Greece, is introduced by the invasion of the Cyclades by a metal-using culture, possibly from Anatolia. This Early Cycladic I culture subsequently spread to Greece, in several cases with a time gap, as at Lerna, before the new people took over. He contends that the relatively long Early Helladic II phase shows an increasing prosperity "most obviously based on trade in obsidian from Melos...although Mediterranean trade in pottery and other commodities also must have been involved" (Angel 1971:28). In Greece, in general, the Early Helladic I phase introduces red and brown burnished bowls, while in EHII glazed ware (Urfirnis) begins to appear. Bronze is rare, but long obsidian blades are ubiquitous (Angel 1971:28).

According to Caskey (1969:iii), Lerna appears to have been abandoned at the end of the Neolithic and remained unoccupied throughout the first stage of the Early Bronze Age, Early Helladic I. His main reason for reaching this conclusion was that he could not find at Lerna any of the characteristic EHI red and brown burnished pottery found at Korakou, Zygouries, Asine, and in great quantity at Eutresis. He states:

The chance that every trace of a stratum containing such pottery might have been obliterated is too remote to be seriously considered. We conclude therefore that Lerna remained uninhabited for a time at the beginning of the Early Bronze Age [Caskey 1960:288].

2. Early Helladic II

Angel (1971:28) writes that Weinberg poses the theory that a second immigration from the Islands came at the start of Early Helladic II, very soon after 3000 BC. From then on there was an increasingly dense farming population on the mainland extending inland from the Aegean. Angel (1971:28) speculates that the population density in the area south of Macedonia increased from about 5 to almost 15 per km.2, a density more than three times that of Early to Middle Neolithic times.

Early Helladic II is divided into four principal phases at Lerna. During this period, there was much rebuilding, and the town was fortified with a circuit wall and towers (Caskey 1969:iii). Some large houses, including the well-known House of the Tiles, date to this period. The House of the Tiles measured about 12 X 25 meters (Caskey 1956:163) (see Figure 3.4). It was rectangular in shape, with two large and several smaller rooms, and walls almost a meter thick (Caskey 1955:40fn). Staircases could be ascertained on each of the long sides of the house indicating there had once been a second story (Caskey 1955:39). Radiocarbon 14 dating shows that a great fire destroyed the House of the Tiles ca. 2200 BC (Caskey 1969:iii).

Caskey called the House of the Tiles a "palace." But during that time a palace would probably function as a multi-purpose building, for example, serving as a decision-making center and living quarters of the leaders or priests, warehouse and distribution center, and temple. Champion et al. (1984:179) write that the Early Bronze Age in southern Greece saw a marked population increase which they argue was due to the domestication of the olive and vine. Although they assert that most of the sites in Greece during this time were "agricultural hamlets," there were a few which exhibited characteristics that would cause them to be designated "regional centers." One of these was Early Bronze Age II Lerna (Champion et al. 1984:180).

Interesting to note are the many (more than 150) lumps of hardened clay bearing impressions of signets found in Room XI of the House of the Tiles (Caskey 1955:41). Caskey writes: "From marks on the under sides of the lumps it appears that the clay was pressed upon the surfaces of wooden and wicker chests and round-mouthed vessels, and was then in each case marked with multiple impressions of one or two seals" (Caskey 1955:41).

Sixty different patterns could be distinguished from the 150 clay lumps (see Plates III and IV). Caskey continues that analogous sealings had been found in Early Helladic contexts at Zygouries and at Asine. He further states that "their relationship to Early Minoan examples has been recognized" (Caskey 1955:41). He theorizes that Room XI could possibly have been a storage room as these seals were obviously used at one time to mark containers.

If this is the case, were the containers awaiting export or sale? If Lerna was exporting its own products and the seals were indications of the producers or manufacturers, then there were presumably sixty or more based at Lerna. On the other hand, if these containers were being imported from other areas into Lerna, or if Lerna was acting as a central distribution point (trading center?) for many different areas--north, south, east, and west--then the sixty plus odd seals in one place could relate to containers belonging to producers from all around the Mediterranean (and farther?). It could also be one explanation as to why at this particular time in the history of Lerna the inhabitants felt they needed such great fortifications. Caskey (1960:289) agrees:

...a double ring of walls, with gates and towers: a very powerful protection to the inhabitants, whose possessions must have been valuable enough to attract covetous eyes and therefore to warrant defense on a monumental and costly scale.

The House of the Tiles belonged to an early period in the history of Lerna, but before and during this time there is a good indication that there were new peoples settling at Lerna. The lack of burials hinders us from determining much about the population. But the strong fortifications around the House of the Tiles and the settlement indicates that the Lernaeans feared invaders who threatened their very existence. This fear must have been realized when the House of the Tiles was destroyed, as Caskey says, by a catastrophic fire. He concludes:

[O]ne is struck by the burning of the House of the Tiles, by the quite extraordinary respect paid to its ruins, and by the wholly different character of the settlement that succeeded. Taken together these factors surely imply deliberate warlike action, and a reoccupation of the site by people of a different material culture, if not of a wholly different ethnical stock. And events of such moment at one site in the Argolid justify a very careful scrutiny of the evidence at others [Caskey 1960:301].

The pottery throughout was typical of Early Helladic II: sauceboats, askoi, and saucers, and very little patterned ware (see Plate V). Wares thickly coated with red, brown, or black glaze, with an iridescent sheen, were found mainly in the earlier phases of EHII. The later phases had wares with a thinner glaze and plain uncoated vessels (Caskey 1960:289). Although decoration was scarce, there were some incised and impressed patterns (Caskey 1960:292). Tools were of copper or bronze and terracotta, but not many of stone and bone (see Plate VII). Clay sealings with rectilinear and curvilinear designs were used to secure containers of goods. And, as he could find none for this period, Caskey (1969:iii) assumes that burials must have been placed outside the settlement.

According to Gejvall (1969:52,54), it was during this period that a developed breeding system was put into operation for cattle, and that the ass was first introduced into Lerna; the real horse did not appear until Lerna V. He concludes:

...had wild asses or horses been present and hunted in the Peloponnese during the time covered by the excavations at Lerna we would probably have found some bone evidence for them also in the earlier layers of the site. The first occurence [sic] of the ass in Lerna III and of the true horse in Lerna V may thus give us the approximate time for the introduction of both these animals even better than does the occurrence of the other wild and domesticated animals which were originally eaten [Gejvall 1969:37].

Angel (1971:28) agrees with Champion et al. above that agricultural advances had taken place by this time that would have supported an increase in population. He states that there is good evidence that grapes were cultivated in EHII times, presumably for wine. The domestic olive was probably being used, though farmers on the mainland may not yet be pressing it for oil as the Minoans appeared to be doing at this time. Angel theorizes that the people must have extended considerably their dietary base by more fishing and more efficient cultivation of wheat and barley (Angel 1971:28). Existence of the plow is possible, but there is no positive proof that it was in general use in Greece, and the first socketed bronze plow-tip does not occur until the Middle Bronze Age (Angel 1971:29).

Gejvall (1969:48) lists the fowl during this period as: mallards; widgeon, a swimming duck that usually takes food in shallow waters, muddy shores and pasture land close to water; garganey; gray goose; and goshawk. The type of fowl in the area is a good indication of the climate and environment during the period.

3. Early Helladic III

Angel (1971:30) writes that the people finally resettled the site in Early Helladic III, which spans at least six to ten generations and four rebuilding stages. He asserts that the Lerna IV towns look impoverished, as if from diminished trade, although there still appeared to be some contact with Troy IV and the islands, and perhaps with Crete and the Balkans as well: "Generally, throughout Greece in E.H. III and through the Middle Helladic period there was no clearly marked palace, civic center, or temple" (Angel 1971:30). Angel is also uncertain about the burial customs at this time, and concludes that they may have been in flux.

Caskey (1960:294) also says that during this period, Lerna was "not a fortress and not a seat of central authority but a quite ordinary town, perhaps at first not more than a small village." Many of the new houses were built in an apsidal style, with a porch at the open end; but there were also as many of the original oblong houses. The apsidal style is thought to have originated at Troy and other sites in Anatolia, in which case it could point to the entrance of a new population into Lerna. On the other hand, after the destruction of the House of the Tiles, the area where it originally stood was encircled with stones (Caskey 1956:165) which would seem to indicate that the original people remained and considered this building as something special, probably sacred.

Radiocarbon 14 dates the Early Helladic III period to the close of the third millennium and beginning of the second millennium. The pottery "exhibits a strikingly new range of wares, shapes, and patterns" (Caskey 1960:295). It consisted of two-handled tankards and jars with painted patterns, two-handled bowls in an early version of gray Minyan ware (see Appendix A), plain wares, slipped and burnished wares, and a lumpy coarse ware (see Plate VI). Although imported pottery was not common in Lerna IV (Caskey 1960:297), a Trojan jar was found, "imported probably from Troy IV" (Caskey 1969:iii). Most of the pottery was still made by hand during this time, but Caskey (1960:295) finds the first indication of a potter's wheel (see Plate V):

...a very few [vessels] show spiral whorls at the bottom, inside, and parallel grooves on the rim and shoulder, that are too regular to be accounted for by any device other than a potter's wheel. It may have been a crude version of the mechanism, so clumsy that at first it seemed to most people a worthless innovation. But its use increases toward the end of the period.

From this one might assume that the potter's wheel was at Lerna at this time, but Caskey (1960:295) cautions that many uncertainties surround its actual presence. If it did exist at Lerna Caskey contends that it would be an important development in the economic history, for if it was known at Lerna it was also known at other sites in the Argolid. But where the knowledge originated and whether there were relations with other wheel-users, Caskey cannot say. He concludes:

Fairly rapid rotation is evident in the flaring bowls of Troy from Phase II b onward, long before the time of Lerna IV. Use of the "fast wheel" is established in Crete in Middle Minoan I b, a period which appears to be later than Lerna IV....[I]n recording the introduction of the wheel at this site I would emphasize that the marks are rare in Period IV and that they appear almost exclusively in a class of gray pots, exceedingly seldom in the other wares...[Caskey 1960:295].

Is it possible that these wheel-made pots were imported?

Tools were of copper, bronze, and bone, along with several small anchor-shaped double hooks of terracotta (see Plate VIII). A few infant burials were found among the houses (Caskey 1969:iii).

The badger, common otter, and beech martin first occur in Lerna IV (Gejvall 1969:40). He writes:

As with the other small mammals our great problem is...whether its [badger] first appearance in Lerna IV is simply a result of the much greater number of animal bone fragments than in Lerna III due to the greater area excavated, or whether it indicates alterations in the ecology or other environmental factors in favor of the species [Gejvall 1969:41].

During Lerna IV a change can be seen in the composition of the avian fauna which include heron; mallard; gray lag goose; whooper swan; crane; rock partridge; pigeon; eagle owl, the largest of the European owls; raven; and hooded crow (Gejvall 1969:48). Gejvall concludes:

...bird bones from the periods earlier than Lerna IV include only swimming birds and waders plus one raptor (goshawk), whereas the later periods include a series of additional species of typical rock (and stepp [sic]) dwellers and some domestic birds (?[sic]) as well [Gejvall 1969:49].

In general, the Lerna IV birds go from grallatorial and swimming birds to birds more confined to cultivated and arid fields--goshawk from Lerna II, III, IV, V, and VI; eagle owl from Lerna IV and V; and peregrine from Lerna V. Gejvall (1969:55) states that this trend is typical for a biotope which changes from humid conditions with high level ground water or temporarily submerged areas to drier or more extensively cultivated fields with lowered groundwater. Angel (1971:16) asserts that the chief changes in Bronze Age Greece and later were the reduction of game and the cutting down of forests for farming, ship-building, winter heating, and mining.

C. The Middle Bronze Age

According to Angel (1971:31), in general, the Middle Bronze Age of Greece begins with the full development of wheel-made grey pattern and other color Minyan and matt-painted pottery (see Plates IX, X, XI, XII), along with the custom of family burials around the houses. Economic revival began, and there appeared to be no urgent need to fortify towns.

Because there is no cultural break during the second millennium and because the Linear B clay tablets constituting royal palace records of late 15th to 13th centuries B.C. are in a Greek dialect....archeologists and linguists agree, with proper reservations, that the language of the invaders who destroyed towns of E.H.II and E.H.III culture between 2200 and 1950 B.C. must have been Indo-European [Angel 1971:31].

Angel (1971:33) observes that skeletons of Middle Bronze date from all around Greece "show a completely new balance of physical varieties including Nordic-Iranian and several short-headed forms in an incredible heterogeneity (variation over 20% above normal)." He continues that Middle Bronze Age skeletons which he studied earlier from Asine, Mycenae, and Attica (Angel 1946, 1951)

showed the probability of Anatolia (with Iran in the background) rather than only the Balkans as a direct source for intruders who might have been Indo-European in language, while in Mycenaean times maritime sources such as Cyprus or the Cyclades seems likely (Angel, 1955, p.70) [Angel 1971:33].

Caskey (1969:iii) agrees that the Middle Helladic period saw a gradual transition from the previous level rather than any violent action as was previously believed. He does not question the theory that the Middle Helladic people were ancestors of the Mycenaeans, but he adds his theory that the people of Early Helladic III were "closely akin to the Middle Helladics and thus also of direct or indirect parentage to the Mycenaean Greeks" (Caskey 1960:302). He indicates that what were previously thought to be signs of the Middle Bronze Age--e.g., gray ware of Minyan character and the potter's wheel--he now believes to have origins in the Early Helladic III. Caskey (1960:303) argues:

The new burial customs...reflect a change....Commercial activity...seems to have expanded with sudden vigor. Pottery of the earliest Middle Minoan styles...now makes its appearance on the mainland....There is a revival of trade with the Cyclades....[T]he transition from the first to the second architectural period at Phylakopi is parallel to...the change from Period IV to Period V at Lerna. The second main period at the Melian site, with its importation of Middle Minoan and Middle Helladic wares and the exportation of its own distinctive products, then follows in chronological sequence as a counterpart of Lerna V.

Caskey (1969:iii) summarizes Lerna V thus: apsidal and rectangular houses are typical of this era. Radiocarbon 14 dates this time period within the twentieth century BC. Pottery included moderate quantities of Middle Minoan IA vessels imported from Crete, Cycladic wares from the islands, and small handmade jars from an unknown source, possibly central Europe. Pottery typical of this period includes Gray Minyan, dark Argive Minyan, and Matt-painted wares; there was also a hard brittle fabric with patterns in lustrous paint. Tools consisted of new types of bronze, bored stone hammer-axes, and bone pins of fine quality. The burials were located between or under houses, and consisted of either stone cists or pit graves. Infants were sometimes buried in jars, reminiscent of Anatolia.

Gejvall (1969:51-52) asserts that among the domestic animals at Lerna at this time, cattle were the most important meat producers. From Lerna I-V they made up 15-21% of the total domestics. And during Lerna II-V, when there was a slight decrease in caprovines and domestic pig, cattle remained constant. But in Lerna VI, sheep and goat increase and cattle decrease sharply. Finally, in Lerna VII cattle increase again. Gejvall (1969:53) also found that 17.2 percent of all dogs came from Lerna IV and 44 percent from Lerna V, the two settlements from which there was the largest number of fragments of sheep and goat. Following this Gejvall theorizes that it is possible that most of the dogs were shepherd dogs or house dogs rather than hounds used in hunting.

Angel (1971:16) asserts that during this time the average farmer in Greece needed great skill and effort. He had to use every bit of cultivable ground available on a small holding of land, and needed good irrigation to raise enough cereal, tree, vine, and garden crops plus domestic animals on which to subsist. Angel (1971:16) maintains:

In the Mediterranean climate olive trees thrive in a dry and calcareous soil on stony hill slopes and valley bottoms, though not at any great height above sea level. But they are very delicate and need much care...they need much irrigation, turning of soil, manuring, and pruning. The labor involved was considerable.

Angel (1971:16) maintains that by Classical times olives had become the most valuable single crop.

But Angel goes on to say that non-cereal crops were probably of equal importance to the farmer. He had a wide variety of foods: figs, pomegranates, almonds, quinces, plums, pears, and apples; vegetables such as beans, lentils, asparagus, cabbage, lettuce, celery, cucumbers, leeks, onions, turnips, radishes, chickpeas; a wide variety of wild greens and herbs, such as garlic, horseradish, mint, parsley, rue, amaranth; and also, sunflower (Angel 1971:16). [The sunflower (Helianthus) is one of the main oil-producing plants, of which there are a total of about 50 wild species in its homeland North America, and about 15 more in South America. Although the sunflower is cultivated in Greece and other parts of the Old World today, the existence of the sunflower in Greece as early as the Middle Bronze Age may be questionable.]

Varieties of the scratch-plow were available, having been introduced at this time, and Angel strongly suspects that the threshing-sled was used on circular threshing floors, since typical backed blades of flint or obsidian occur at many prehistoric sites. Cereals included barley, 28-chromosome wheat (Triticum durum), emmer (T. dicoccum), and rarer 42-chromosome wheats, spelt, and eventually bread-wheat (T. aestivum) grown only in the north as spring wheats. Barley was the chief crop because of the soil limitations, with wheat making up only 10-20% of the total grain harvest (Angel 1971:16).

But according to Angel (1971:15), despite this apparent abundance, there could have been two important factors limiting the population density during the Bronze Age. One, that there was no adequate replacement for potassium in the fields; and two, that the total arable land was always limited, only 25 percent at most at the height of Classical prosperity. Angel (1971:15) continues:

These environmental limitations alone, in prehistoric times, would have put a premium on fishing or hunting and later on trade (oil, pottery, and silver in Classical times) for grain from the Pontic regions or Africa. Likewise quite critical, even in the Bronze Age, would have been the skill used in farming and the variety of crops and animals raised.

The true horse now appeared, together with new swords and shields and the rebuilding of massive fortification walls (Angel 1971:32). "In addition to farming, fishing, and raids and conquest, this society above all grew on trade that involved gold, amber, copper, tin, wine, some olive oil, pottery, wool and textiles, and livestock" (Angel 1971:32).

As for the wild fauna, Gejvall relates that the brown bear was found only in Lerna V; but he cautions that this may be largely because it was the most extensively excavated. "It is, however, to be supposed that in Early and Middle Helladic times here as, for instance, in Troy brown bears were held in captivity and that furs may sometimes have been merchandise" (Gejvall 1969:40).

The fowl at this time included the cormorant; mallard; wigeon; tufted duck; the diving duck, that likes biotopes in coastal or inland water districts; goshawk; peregrine; rock partridge; great bustard, a large land bird that lives on wide treeless grass steppes and in cultivated fields; eagle owl; hooded crow; and the first appearance in European prehistory as far as Gejvall (1969:48) was able to find--domestic fowl. The tortoise (Testudo hermanni hermanni), was found in all layers, but after Lerna V very few fragments of this turtle were registered (Gejvall 1969:49).

D. The Late Bronze Age

Material from the Late Helladic periods is scarce. It was at the Late Helladic I level that the two large Shaft Graves were uncovered. These graves were similar to the royal graves at Mycenae. The pottery found was attributed to late Middle Helladic and very early Mycenaean, including Cycladic types (Caskey 1969:iii). Several smaller graves were found in the same level. Because the Late Helladic levels were so near the surface most of the remains had been destroyed. The Late Helladic II and III levels revealed a Mycenaean street with pottery in IIIa and IIIb styles, and a few burials (Caskey 1969:iv).

There was not much fauna collected from Lerna VI. Gejvall (1969:59-60) states it makes up only 9.0% of the total number of fragments (25,287). But he goes on to say that some striking changes could be seen from this sample. There was a great decrease in size of both domestic cattle and pig, and a slight decrease in sheep; but there was a considerable increase in number of animals. The rest of the Late Helladic gave up too few bones to analyze.

E. Angel's Analyses of the People of Lerna

The sample population from Lerna which Angel used for his study consisted of four individuals from Early Helladic III (Lerna IV), 220 individuals from the Middle Bronze Age (Lerna V), and ten from the Late Bronze Age (Lerna VI). Infants comprised 35%, children 21% and adults 44% of the sample (Angel 1971:1). Because his sampling was so small for demographic purposes, Angel studied it as a single cohort (Angel 1971:69). Because Angel had mostly Middle Bronze Age data and treated these as one period there is no demographic information for the other time periods at Lerna.

On average, Angel (1971:74) estimates the male life span to have been 37 years and the female life span to have been 31 years (Angel 1971:74). He theorizes that a first child for a woman at age 19 suggests marriage at 17 (or even 16), and perhaps 19 for men. It would have been possible for a Lernaean female to bear a child every 2.2 years, with an average childbearing period of 12 years; but less than half the children born may survive to adulthood (Angel 1971:73).

Angel continues that the rate of natural increase (4.1--the difference between the birth rate and the death rate) in Middle Bronze Age Lerna doubled the population in from 7.5 to 10 generations. This, he says, was vastly higher than the rates which must have prevailed throughout the Paleolithic period in general. "It was accompanied, moreover, by a female life span shorter than that of the male by six years and an infant mortality about ten times greater than necessary, by modern standards" (Angel 1971:76).

He alleges that such a heavy biological load on the average MBA female would imply social conditions, values, and psychological forces more purposeful than merely the loving valuation of children usually found in hunting bands, and in farm families where many hands help to speed and lighten the workload, and large families tend to bring prestige (Angel 1971:76). "The extra motive already may have been the need for fighting manpower, and I think that the extra psycho-biological strength came from race mixture....The result, in any case, was the excess of deaths of infants and of their mothers noted above" (Angel 1971:76).

The infant mortality rate was 300 per thousand (Angel 1971:76). It appears that malaria was the main plague throughout the history of Lerna. Angel states that marshy spots are good breeding grounds for malarial mosquitoes such as Anopheles superpictus and A. sacharovi. "Before the recent eradication campaigns against mosquitoes, Greece was one of the most malarious regions of the Mediterranean...and the disease affected at least one-third of the population" (Angel 1971:77).

Angel (1971:78) alleges that most in authority deem malaria the most fatal disease of man and one of the oldest, but he has adapted to this parasite by antibody formation and resistance, and by genetic means. He continues that several recessive variants of normal human hemoglobin, such as sicklemia and alpha and beta chain variants of thalassemic hemoglobin, occur in extra frequency in malarious regions, although children who are homozygous (Heterozygous: having two different alleles for a given character at the corresponding sites on homologous chromosomes. Homozygous: having two identical alleles for a given character at the corresponding sites on homologous chromosomes. Allele: dominant or recessive form which a gene may take.) for either of these genes (one inherited from each parent) develop hemolytic anemia and often die. On the other hand, those heterozygous for sicklemia and thalassemia have extra resistance to P. falciparum. Angel (1971:78) explains:

[T]he extra viability of heterozygotes in a malarious ecologic setting causes, through natural selection, an increase in the frequency of these rather harmful genes until, against the background of reduced viability and of deaths from malaria among individuals having normal hemoglobin and lacking sicklemia, thalassemia, or G6PD [The enzyme Glucose-6-Phosphate Dehydrogenase] deficiency, a balance occurs between deaths or non-reproduction of homozygotes from anemia and the extra fertility of heterozygotes. These genes form balanced polymorphisms and may reach frequencies in which they are carried in heterozygous form in over half the total population and produce anemic homozygotes in four to ten percent of it. This is true of Greece, Cyprus, and some Mediterranean islands and parts of Italy where thalassemia is especially frequent...

Other diseases suffered by the people of Lerna were dysenteries, infant diarrhea, hookworm, tetanus, many infection (tooth abscesses), childhood diseases and possibly smallpox. But there were no bony signs of tuberculosis, venereal syphilis, or clear-cut cancer (Angel 1971:84).

Angel (1971:84) states that, in general, the food supply was excellent. There may have been problems with storage which would have been needed to compensate for a poor harvest. And although malnutrition was probably not severe, it may have occurred during winter months.

Lines of temporary arrest of tooth-enamel formation during childhood...occur in clear-cut form in 18% of 60 adult dentitions and in slight degree in another 43%....The inference is that childhood growth disturbance affected a good proportion of the Lerna adults, even though the causes are unclear [Angel 1971:84].

That the inhabitants experienced a time of shortage could be one explanation for the high frequency of heterogeneity discussed above. Champion, et al. (1984:162-163) theorize that such shortages (agricultural failures) caused people of the Early to Middle Bronze Ages to devise some sort of safety net in times of emergency. Since at that time movement of goods was a more difficult proposition than movement of people and animals to other resources, it stands to reason that the movement of people was a more practicable solution. But to do this would require the establishment of networks in different territories, and the best networks would be kinship networks, specifically marriage partners. They continue:

It is likely that the kin relations created by exogamy formed the medium for the equally essential mutual subsistence support at times of localized disaster, the two elements forming a cohesive system of inter-community relations at the local scale which was especially important at this time...[Champion et al. 1984:163].

Arthritis is found in varying degrees in 75% of males and 50% of females at Lerna, compared to under 50% of males in Classic to Roman times and under 19% of males in the same age group in modern America (Angel 1971:86-87). There is an unusually high incidence of arthritis of the neck, causing marked breakdown of neck joints, with probable subluxation; in some cases paresthesias of hands and arms and even muscle weakness must have resulted (Angel 1971:88).

Angel (1971:89) affirms that dental disease was fairly severe at Lerna. About one-quarter of all teeth were found diseased (lost, carious, abscessed, or carious plus abscessed). But he continues that this condition is comparable to that of other prehistoric and Medieval groups, of most primitive people, and healthier than that of modern urban populations.

We know that to some extent status can be inferred from the general health of certain individuals in a given society. Interestingly, in the case of Bronze Age Greece, Angel (1971:89) notes that:

the importance of adequate protein as well as phosphorus and calcium ions for enamel and dentine formation in childhood...is suggested by the extraordinarily good teeth of the Mycenaean shaft grave aristocrats who have only about one-fifth the dental disease rate of the Lerna common people; 11% of the rulers have perfect dentitions, as opposed to 6% of the Lerna group. Periodontal disease likewise is much less severe among the ruling families. This protein-mineral relationship remains hypothetical, however, since the only evidence for more meat in the diet of the aristocrats is their greater bodily size and robustness and the occurrence of gallstones in one of them.

Angel concludes (1971:91) that a susceptibility to dental disease could have resulted from the same intermittent childhood illness or malnutrition which was exhibited in enamel arrest lines in half the people at Lerna and seems to have also diminished body size and true pelvis depth. He goes on to say that there is an added possibility that active abscesses may have sometimes helped to bring on death, especially when they caused large cysts or invaded the maxillary sinus or mandibular nerve and artery canal. Dental abscesses could also have played a role in severe neck arthritis, either directly through spread of infection via the pterygoid and vertebral venous plexuses or indirectly through inflammation, muscle spasm, and effect on general health (Angel 1971:91). He contends that it is possible that there was a causal relationship between abscessed teeth and "collapse" of neck vertebrae, though aging certainly could have increased the association.

Angel (1971:31) theorizes that rather than great military strength or superior weaponry the invaders of Lerna were able to conquer the natives because of their general state of ill health, including falciparum malaria and undernutrition.

F. Summary

This general look at the ancient settlement of Lerna gives us some idea of the people who lived there. The beginning and progress of agriculture and pastoralism is shown through Gejvall's analysis of the fauna; and we can see the change and development of the people themselves through their burials, architecture, pottery, and other miscellaneous possessions. Angel gives us some idea of the demography and general overall health of the Lernaean population.

Caskey's excavations present a good picture of the development of the pottery. The Early Neolithic coarse "Rainbow" and spongy ware, Middle Neolithic Urfirnis, and Late Neolithic dark burnished monochrome bisquit gradually increase in variety through time to Early Helladic II ware thickly coated with red, brown, or black glaze, with an iridescent sheen, or plain uncoated vessels with a thinner glaze. Early Helladic III showed more of a variety of wares: gray Minyan, plain, slipped and burnished, and a lumpy coarse ware, to name a few; while Middle Helladic saw the full development of wheel-turned pottery in Grey and Argive Minyan, and matt-painted ware, among others. The Late Helladic saw a growth in the refinement of some pottery, with thinner and more delicate wares. The development of the types of pottery along with the use of the potter's wheel in Middle Helladic are an indication of the growth and progress of the society in general.

Around the same time as the appearance of the potter's wheel, a form of the plow came into use, and first indications of the horse appear at Lerna. These new developments of necessity must have helped ease the agricultural demands of an increasing population. At the same time there was an obvious growth of trade and migrations of peoples from other areas. The numerous clay sealings found in the House of the Tiles and the massive fortifications around the settlement bring up the possibility of a trading center at Lerna, at least during Early Helladic II.

If there was no hierarchical distinction among the Lernaeans in the early periods of Lerna, would all of this progress and change inevitably lead to a stratification of the society? How can the wealth of the Lernaeans be determine? Although Caskey (1960:289) states that he found no gold or other "intrinsically precious commodities" in the course of his excavations, he, nevertheless, theorized that "something valuable was kept in sealed containers"; and concludes that the "rich land of Argos was itself always worth defending."

Would riches be exhibited in any way in the burials of the people of Lerna? And if so, how would they appear? Was there any distinction between male and female, young and old in the burials? Can any form of religion or ritual be determined, and did it involve priests or priestesses? The next chapters will analyze the grave goods and treatment of the skeletal remains from the Neolithic through the Late Helladic periods to see if they indicate any distinctions as mentioned above, and to see if there is any change through time, and, if so, how and why there is change, and at what rate?

• The "Rich" Burials

• Frequency of Diverse Types of Grave Goods

• Bibliography