HISTORY

From the 8th millennium BC to the 2nd century BC. It is believed that seafaring people appeared in Greecelong before the first farmers and shepherds. Some 10,000 years ago, according to archaeological discoveries, these seafarers began to explore the Aegean. The open sea held no terrors for these early sailors; on the contrary, it was a positive factor, an incitement to action, movement and adventure. The closeness and clear visibility between the islands must have been an invitation and a challenge to sail across and explore the neighbouring lands. The ancient inhabitants of the Aegean, apart from the needs of survival that pushed them to travel, must also have been full of curiosity to know the islands nearby. This is how the first short exploratory wanderings across the sea must have begun, to become later on hazardous voyages to distant lands. During the Bronze Age ships sailed to every corner of the Aegean. Other factors that played a part in the formation of the sea-loving character of the Aegean dwellers were the climate and geography of the region. The sort spring, long hot summer, wonderful autumn and mild winter make the Greek climate the pleasantest in the Mediterranean. The indented coasts of the Aegean and the sea scattered with islands must have acted as an incentive to the inhabitants to take to a nautical way of life. Hence the sea very early on became a bridge linking Europe and Asia. The distance from island to island is small. A sailing vessel, putting out at dawn from the eastern shore of the Greek peninsula could, with a stern wind, make the opposite coast of Asia Minor by the same evening. Each bit of the Aegean has its own nautical history to tell and its own evidence to present linking it to the nautical pursuits of the folk that inhabited its coasts. Scholars have concluded that the Aegean developed a civilization with its own character, having a relationship with the neighbouring civilizations of Egypt, Assyria and others. In the course of the 2nd millennium BC the Cretomycenean civilization left us striking evidence of the activity of Aegean sailors and their ships. One example is the 15th c. BC fresco, “The Fleet”, which Sp. Marinatos uncovered in 1972 while excavating at Akrotiri on Thera. The destruction of this city goes back to the time of the great eruption of the Thera (ancient “Strongyli”) volcano in the 15th c. BC, which caused the submergence of some two thirds of the original island and great destruction in the south Aegean. It is thought that Crete in particular suffered widespread devastation, which led to the decline of the Minoan civilization and its final replacement by the Mycenean. Toward the end of the 2nd Millennium (12th century BC) the Trojan War occurred, which together with the adventures of Odysseus, were described much later by Homer in his two epic poems, the “Iliad” and the “Odyssey”. In the Odyssey, especially, there is a wealth of nautical information and description concerning the types of ships and methods of construction, and also about the maritime activity of the period. For the 1st millennium BC the evidence that has come to light is more extensive and definite, thanks to written records and the representations of ships coins and vases and in paintings, reliefs, sculpture, mosaics and incised works. All these valuable sources have helped create a more complete picture of the evolution of the ship and of the sailor’s work in the Aegean at this time. We have also gained valuable evidence from explorations of the seabed and the raising of wrecks like that of the Kyrenia ship (4th c. BC). One of the most important developments of the 1st millennium BC was the period of the Great Colonization (8th to 6thc.). During that time the Greeks launched out beyond the Aegean and founded many colonies all along the shores of the Mediterranean (South Italy, Sicily, Nice and Marseilles). There was now a need to build better ships to carry out these voyages, which were long ones for those days. Distinction also began to appear between war and merchant ships (the warships were long, the merchantmen round). Another important event in the first millennium was the Persian Wars. The naval Battle of Salamis (480 BC), which decided the fate not only of Greece but of the whole of Western Civilization, gave rise to a great increase in trade and consequently to a more vigorous development of the merchant ship in the Aegean. It was at this period that Athens grew to be the dominant naval sea power in the Aegean, and Athenian trade and merchant shipping underwent an unprecedented expansion (Pericles´s “Golden Age”). Piraeus became from every point of view an ideal commercial and naval port with a great many harbour installations and splendid buildings. It soon developed into the most important naval and commercial centre of the ancient world in the 5th c. BC. In the centre of the harbour seafront stoas were built, known collectively as the emporium to facilitate.