ORIGINS OF THE GREEKS AND GREEK DIALECTS

Abstract

The coming of the Greeks is associated with one of the major transformations: at the beginning of the Neolithic (when the Indo-Europeans appeared there, from which the Greeks separated), at the beginning of EH, in EH II/III, and at the beginning of LH I. With the exception of the first hypothesis, the others try to associate these transformations with migrants from the steppe. In fact, in none of these periods there is material comparable to the steppe. The Greeks came in EH IIB from northwestern Anatolia and slowly spread across the south of the Balkan Peninsula. The Anatolian origin of the Greeks is indicated by many features in Greek mythology, as well as by archaeological and linguistic evidences. In Greece, the aliens found a Luwian substrate, whose assimilation took a long time. An important feature of the process was that it was not one-time migration, but a prolonged colonization with the establishment of strong and extensive trade relations.

Keywords

• greek origins, dialects, early helladic ii