W.

Sheppard Baird
The Early Minoan Colonization of Spain
The author discusses the archaeological evidence for an Aegean Minoan maritime
colonization
of southeastern Iberia. The primary causal factor for this was the development of
the alloying
technology of arsenical copper. The alloy's hardness and castability made the
woodworking tools
of the saw, bow drill, and lathe possible. These tools set the stage for the invention
of the first
efficiently produced planked wooden ships with keels in the Aegean that set out on
voyages of
exploration early in the 4th Millennia B.C. in search of the prestige metals of gold
and silver
resulting in the Los Millares culture in southeastern Spain.
Los Millares Reconstruction
Santa Fe de Mondjar, Almeria, Andalusia, Spain
The discourse begins with the first archaeological evidence of human travel on the
open sea
before 9000 B.C. and continues with the development of the Aceramic Anatolian
and Natufian
Neolithic package, the radiation of the Aegean Neolithic package, the rise and fall of
the
Millaren culture, the Atlantic Tin trade with Britain during the Bronze Age, and ends
with the
catastrophic collapse of the Aegean El Argar culture in about 1350 B.C.
The First Evidence of Human Travel on the Open Sea
before 9000 B.C.
The earliest archaeological evidence of human transport over the rough open sea
that is known to

me is the Akrotiri Aetokremnos rock shelter occupation site on the southern coast of
Cyprus
(Swiny 2001). The remains of the site associate humans with burnt bones of the
pygmy
hippopotamus. Before this time Cyprus was inhabited only by the indigenous
Pleistocene fauna.
While sea level would have been lower at this time the minimum distance from the
coast of
Cyprus to the mainland of Anatolia would still have been about 65 km. The
undeniable
deduction is that some form of raft or boat must have been used to transport the
humans to the
site. Akrotiri Aetokremnos is dated to the late Pleistocene in the 10th millennia B.C.
A raft is a device that relies on the floatation of the material (typically wood) used to
construct it.
For any given carrying capacity a raft is much heavier and more unwieldy when
compared to its
boat equivalent. This makes them extremely difficult to directionally navigate in the
current and
winds of the open sea. A typical boat relies on its shape to provide buoyancy from
the water it
displaces and minimize the lateral forces of the current and wind on its hull as it
moves through
the water. This allows its crew to more effectively control and maintain a
predetermined course.
If you want to reliably paddle or row a craft to a destination and return, you need
the control that
some form of a boat provides.
The early maritime explorers of Cyprus may have used boats constructed with a
skeleton of
wood covered with sewn animal skins, but boats of this kind are much more
vulnerable to the

rough and stormy conditions of the open sea than well-built wooden ones. Skin
boats work well
enough in rivers and near land along the coast, but one split seam can be deadly
when out at sea
far from land. It is possible that strong sea-worthy wooden boats sculpted with stone
tools and
fire and stitched together with the fibers of hemp or yew wood were navigating the
eastern
Mediterranean Sea well over 11,000 years.
The Development of the Anatolian Aceramic Neolithic Package
11000 B.C. to 6000 B.C.
The basic technological assemblage that comprised the Neolithic package
developed between
11000 B.C. and 7000 B.C. in places like Tell es-Sultan (Jericho) in the Levant among
the
Natufians and Pinarbasi in southwestern Anatolia. This was an amazingly innovative
and
creative period in human recorded history. For the first time large groups of people
came
together in an interdependent way to solve their problems of survival and to
improve their
quality of life by settling permanently in areas of natural abundance. The
specialization of
productive labor that spread its benefits to everyone is perhaps the greatest
revolution in human
socialization.
In about 10200 B.C. houses were being built in Hallan emi Tepesi in eastern
Anatolia where
they used stone incised bowls and made extensive use of wild plants and animals.
The site has
some of the earliest evidence of possible pig domestication. The settlement of
Cayn was

formed in 8500 B.C. in southeastern Anatolia and developed elaborate buildings

with terrazzo
floors. They used awls and fishhooks of cold-hammered native copper, and show the
earliest
evidence of the possible use of flax to weave linen textiles. At about this same time
Nevali Cori
built monumental stone structures that were probably shrines. After 8000 B.C. Asikli
Hyk
became a real town surrounded by a city wall with a large obsidian industry. Over
the next 2,000
years these trends toward urbanization culminated in the settlements of atal
Hyk and Can
Hasan in Anatolia.
atal Hyk Reconstruction
Konya, Turkey
While maintaining the Mesolithic practices of hunting, fishing, and gathering they
began to
systematically cultivate crops of wheat, barley, rye, flax, legumes, peas, and vetch
(faba beans).
They domesticated sheep, goats, pigs, and dogs and would begin the process of
domesticating
cattle (Bos Taurus) which provided them with a stable and reliable source of food,
raw materials,
and labor for the fields. The domestication of the large Anatolian Aurochs would be
completed
sometime between 6500 and 6000 B.C. Their toolkit included flint and obsidian
blades and
bladelets, polished stone celts (axes), grinding stones and mortars, and harpoons
and fish hooks
of bone. The Anatolians developed stone and mud brick architecture, basketry, and
works of

leather and the Natufians had stone shaft straighteners indicating the use of spears
or archery.
atal Hyk Interior Reconstruction
Konya, Turkey
Credit: Bla Stipich
The Origin of the Aegean Minoans
7000 B.C.
By 7000 B.C. the Neolithic culture at atal Hyk that worshipped the Mother
Goddess and
Sacred Bull spanned Anatolia from ayn in the east to Hacilar in the west and
boldly reached
over the sea to Khirokitia on Cyprus and, more profoundly, to the hill of Kephala
(Knossos) on
the Aegean island of Crete. The Knossos settlement near the coast of north-central
Crete
represents the origin of the Minoan civilization. Before this time Crete was, like
Cyprus before
Akrotiri Aetokremnos, uninhabited by humans. There can be no arguments of any
indigenous
development here. This is unquestionably a case of Anatolian maritime pioneer
colonization. The
boats they used must have been built of solid wood and quite durable with a cargo
capacity of, at
least, a few tons in order for the crew to transport their domesticated sheep, goats,
provisions,
and passengers. None of the domesticated animals the Anatolians brought with
them to Crete had
ever existed on the island before.
The Development of Large Durable Wooden Ships
7000 B.C. to 6000 B.C.

At the time the first settlers set foot on Crete, the island was carpeted by vast
ancient forests of
old-growth Cypress trees. Many of them were over 40 meters in height with very
thick trunk
diameters. It must have been a very arduous and time-consuming task for
woodcutters to take
down one of these trees with their polished stone axes. Cypress is an excellent
wood for boat
building and is still used for that purpose today. It is relatively strong yet light and
flexible and is
naturally repellent to insects. Its best feature from the point of view of a crewman of
a Cypress
boat in distress out at sea is that the wood floats in water. Under normal conditions
a Cypress
boat or ship will not sink. A person alone out at sea far from land stands little
chance of
surviving, but if they could cling to their swamped, yet still floating, ship they have
a good
chance of eventually making it to safety.
The Aegean Sea has over 1,400 islands and islets, many of which are within sight of
one other.
This makes it a natural incubator for naval and maritime technological
development. The strong
north winds and uncompromising gales of the Aegean are well known and must
have been quite
a challenge for any ancient boat builder. Given the rigors of the Aegean and the
abundance of
huge Cypress trees, human innovation, over the next 1,000 years, must have
transformed the
vessels of the initial colonization into large rugged sea-going stitched wooden ships
that were
capable of transporting their newly domesticated cattle in wooden pens.

Ferriby Boat Half Scale Reconstruction ~ 1800 BC

North Ferriby, East Yorkshire, England, UK
They were probably similar to the Ferriby Boats from Britain dated to about 1800
B.C. They
were constructed of thick Cypress planks sculpted with fire and stone tools (axe,
adze, chisel,
awl, etc.) and stitched together with yew fibers. Theoretically, some of these strong
durable boats
could have easily exceeded 30 meters in length and may have used a sail made of
animal hide.
With or without the use of the sail, they were powered primarily by human muscle
working the
oars and tiller. A 30 meter ship of this type could have been propelled by well over
thirty oars
and carried a cargo of 30 to 50 tons.
The Radiation of the Anatolian Neolithic Package in the Aegean
7000 B.C. to 6000 B.C.
By 6800 B.C. the Argissa settlement appeared in Thessaly on the mainland of
Greece. It was
soon followed by establishment of Sesklo in about 6500 B.C. together with the
AraptepeBekirlertepe settlement north of the Bay of Izmir in the eastern Aegean. Within
about five
hundred years (6500 B.C.) of the settlement of Knossos the Anatolian Neolithic
package had
moved into the Mesara Plain of south-central Crete. The seaport settlement of
Kommos was
founded on the coast to the west of the plain at about this time. The settlements of
Nea
Nikomedeia in northern Greece and Karanovo in Bulgaria and Thrace appeared in
about 6200

B.C. In the timeframe of 6000 B.C. Emporeio on the island of Chios in the eastern
Aegean was
founded, but Khirokitia on Cyprus and Pinarbasi in Anatolia seem to have been
abandoned.
Hacilar in southwestern Anatolia would continue on for another 1,000 years of
occupation before
finally collapsing. Also, the Neolithic Package reached the Franchthi Cave settlement
on the
Argolid Gulf in the Peloponnese in about 6000 B.C. Franchthi Cave had been
occupied for at
least 14,000 years before the arrival of the Neolithic.
The Development of Pottery
6600 B.C. to 6000 B.C.
Pottery began to appear in Thessaly and Catal Hoyuk around 6500 B.C. The
invention of pottery
solved several problems for the Neolithic people. It enabled them to securely store
large volumes
of water and other liquids in something other than a laboriously made stone vessel
or flask or
bladder of sewn animal skins. Water is quite heavy and a bladder's ability to
securely and
reliably hold it is limited. It also allowed them to store grain and other food products
much less
expensively while keeping them relatively free from contamination and insects.
Once pottery
found its way to Crete among the builders of the cattle-carrying ships, they must
have
immediately realized that they could now economically provision their vessels for
significantly
longer voyages without exhausting their supplies of water and food.
The Aegean Neolithic Package

6000 B.C.
The invention of pottery, the domestication of cattle, and the development of large
durable
wooden ships completed the Aegean Neolithic assemblage that would soon spill into
Europe
through exploration, colonization, and the assimilation of the local Mesolithic
peoples by two
main routes. The southern route was predominantly taken by shipping from the
Aegean that
worked their way west along the northern coastlines of southern Europe using the
Mediterranean
Sea as a highway. The northern route rapidly spread into central Europe using the
Danube river
basin as its highway. The southern radiation is known as the Cardium Pottery or
Cardial culture
after the incised Aegean pottery carried on their ships, much of which was imprinted
with the
shells of the marine mollusk Cardium edulis.
The northern Danubian expansion of the Aegean Neolithic is mainly represented
initially by the
Karanovo culture and then by the almost simultaneous appearance in about 5600
B.C. of the
Vinca, Cucuteni, and Linear Pottery cultures in southeastern Europe. All four of these
cultures
were based on the Aegean Neolithic package and directly linked to it. While the
Karanovo,
Vinca, and Cucuteni generally remained in the southeast, the Linear Pottery culture
led the
advance up the Danube into central Europe. Mysteriously, after a rapid advance
over the next
few hundred years the Aegean Neolithic's march to the northern coast of Europe
was suddenly

halted and the southern route's advance also stopped after reaching the Atlantic
coast of Iberia
(Portugal). The only viable explanation for this is that there must have been large
populations of
Mesolithic people inhabiting the coastal regions of northern and western Europe that
actively
resisted any further colonization, assimilation, or acculturation (Price 2000).
The Aegean Neolithic (Cardial) Package arrives in Iberia
5600 B.C.
The first archaeological evidence of Aegean settlement in Iberia is the appearance
of shards of
Cardium incised pottery around 5600 B.C. (Price 2000). This pottery is also referred
to as
Cardial or Impressed Ware. Cardium pottery has been found from the Levant in the
eastern
Mediterranean to the Atlantic coast of Iberia (Portugal). When the Aegean Neolithic
package
arrived in Iberia it included the same stone and bone tools, cultivated crops, and
breeds of
domesticated sheep, pigs and cattle when it started its advance a few hundred
years earlier
(Zilho 2001, Pereira 2006, Kennett 2006). The settlement of the Iberian coastlines
seems to
have been a relatively non-violent process of both pioneer maritime colonization
and inland
diffusion to the indigenous peoples until the sudden halt of its advance on the
Atlantic coast.
Neolithic Cardium Pottery, La Sarsa Cave
Valencia, Spain
The Iberian settlers lived in caves, rock shelters, and open-air settlements like La
Darga in

Catalonia (Price 2000) with structures estimated to be 3 to 4 meters high with

several hearths. In
Cabecicos Negros they built small structures made of stone and mud with roofs of
vegetation.
They used tools of bone, polished stone axes, wood diggers, sickle blades, and
stone hand mills.
They produced stone projectiles, pottery, basketry, leather work, and produced flour
with their
mills. Textile production was limited to small looms, as evidenced by weaving thread
separators,
similar to the backstrap type.
The Age of Pure Copper
8500 B.C. to 4000 B.C.
Copper is one of the few metallic elements that exists in its pure form in nature
(Native Copper).
It is much more commonly found combined with other elements in the form of oxide
or sulfide
mineral ores. The oxide ores include Azurite, Cuprite, and Malachite while the most
abundant
sulfide ore is Chalcopyrite. Tools of pure copper can be hardened by reheating
(annealing) and
hammering, but there is a limit to the degree of hardening that can be achieved. A
copper axe
would have been superior to its polished stone equivalent only while it retained its
sharp edge. If
freshly sharpened copper axes were rotated in to replace those dulled from the
pounding, the
work required for chopping down a tree would have been significantly reduced when
compared
to axes of polished stone. Implements of pure copper would have been valued as
tools, but

regular sharpening during usage would have been required thus reducing the life of
the tool. A
subtle but very important property of tools of copper is that they are recyclable.
When worn out
they can be returned to the furnace and recast anew. But a harder, tougher metal
tool that held its
edge indefinitely would have been the dream from the beginning.
Several isolated finds of copper objects have been discovered from before the 6th
Millennia B.C.
The earliest artifact of pure copper known to me is a 2.3 cm pendant found in the
Shanidar Cave
located in northeastern Iraq that is dated to 9500 B.C. (Hummel 2004). The pendant
was shaped
by cold-hammering native copper and could have been carved with stone tools.
Many objects of
cold-hammered copper have been found in Cayn in southeastern Anatolia
including awls and
fishhooks dated to about 8500 B.C. A single copper bead was discovered in Nevali
Cori that has
been dated from 8500 to 8000 B.C. Asikli Hyk produced several copper beads
(8000 - 7500
B.C.) made from rolled thin sheets of native copper (Yalin 2000). Several copper
beads like
those at Asikli have been unearthed at atal Hyk dated to about 6750 B.C.
(Mellaart 1967). A
14.3 cm long copper awl was found in Balomir, Romania in a context dated before
6000 B.C.
(Mulhy 1996). All of this culminated in the discovery (6000 - 5900 B.C.) of a large
mace head of
cast native copper in the Anatolian settlement of Can Hasan (Yalin 1998).
Evidence of extensive copper working in a fully developed form has recently
appeared in the

Neolithic Vinca settlement of Prokuplje in southern Serbia. The unpublished site has
been dated
to 5500 B.C. by archaeologist Julka Kuzmanovic-Cvetkovic from the Prokuplje
Museum and
Dusan Sljivar of Serbias National Museum. This was not just the cold-hammering of
native
copper. It included the extraction of copper oxide ores from a mine located on the
nearby Mlava
river. The ores were transported to a local copper smelting workshop and melted for
casting. The
tools found included a chisel, a two-headed hammer, and an axe. By comparison
the copper
artifacts found at Hacilar in southwestern Anatolia in 5300 B.C. were nothing more
than a few
beads and pieces of pins. It appears that the origin of organized metallurgy may
have taken place
in the Neolithic Balkans. Between 4500 and 4000 B.C. Balkan metal workers were
mining
copper ores in underground shafts and galleries and they had discovered how to
smelt the sulfide
ores of copper as well. They were producing hundreds of axes and adzes
(Betancourt 2006). The
Balkans looms large over the entire Aegean Neolithic period with respect to the
development of
metallurgy.
Copper Ingot
Crete, Greece
Metallurgy developed at a later time on Crete. There is no evidence known to me of
copper, or
any other, mining on the island in ancient times. Copper-bearing ores have been
discovered in

modern times but they are very insignificant and uneconomical. All metals had to be
imported to
Crete by ship either as mineral ores, processed metal, or finished products.
Chrysokamino is a
copper smelting site on the Bay of Mirabello in northeastern Crete excavated in
1996-97 with
dates beginning in 4500 B.C. (Johnson 1996). The source of the ore smelted at
Chrysokamino
has not been definitively identified by provenance studies (Betancourt 2006). The
nearest
possible sources are Laurion in Attica and the island of Kythnos in the Cyclades. The
site is an
isolated, windswept place ideal for smelting operations. The wind would heat the
furnace and
blow the fumes away from the workers. During this period many new settlements
were
established in the eastern part of the island and in the south-central Mesara plain.
The Prestige Metals - Gold and Silver
Besides Laurion in Attica, Macedonia and Thrace are the only areas where
significant deposits of
gold can be found in Greece. The Balkans have a relative abundance of gold and
silver ores
especially in southern and western Bulgaria and some areas of Serbia. Silver
deposits are quite
rare in Greece except again for Laurion. Copper is much more commonly distributed
throughout
the region when compared to gold and silver and availability should not have been
a factor in its
development and production except in places like Crete which had no useful mineral
ores at all.
Elite Grave Goods
Varna Necropolis

4500 - 4000 B.C.

Varna, Bulgaria
Gold beads have been excavated in Dimitra in eastern Macedonia and are claimed
to be from
5500 to 5250 B.C. If confirmed they could be some of the earliest gold objects yet
discovered
(Betancourt 2006). A disk of gold has been found at Ftelia on the northern coast of
the island of
Mykonos dated from 5000 to 4500 B.C. (Facorellis and Maniatas 2002). Objects of
gold make
their appearance in a very opulent way especially in the period from 4250 to 4000
B.C. in the
Balkans. The Varna necropolis on the eastern coast of Bulgaria has hundreds of
graves. Just four
of the most lavish ones contained some 2,200 golden objects (Renfrew 1986). This
is an
indication of the immediate and great value placed on gold by the elites of the
period. Many of
these objects were disks and pendants of the "ring-idol" design with a perforation in
the center.
This seems to have been a common theme in the Aegean and Balkans at this time.
Many objects of gold and silver have been unearthed in the Aegean from 4500 to
3500 B.C. This
was the period when gold and silver metallurgy emerged to robustly develop
throughout the
region. The evidence includes gold pendants from Theopetra cave, Anavissos, and
Platomagnoulia on the mainland of Greece. Silver pendants appear in Alepotrypa
cave in the
Mani peninsula, Amnisos cave on Crete, and the cave of Euripides on Salamis. A
hoard of silver
jewelry was discovered in Gournes in Central Crete in an Early Minoan I cemetery
that included

bracelets and 168 beads.

The Age of Arsenical Copper
4000 B.C. to 2500 B.C.
Most of the Early Bronze Age was actually an age of arsenical copper (Betancourt
2006) and the
distinction should be made for the sake of clarity. The advent of the controlled
mixing of an
alloying element (arsenic) with copper in an effort to make their tools harder was a
great advance
in tool making. Not only did it make their tools much harder, the alloy melted at a
lower
temperature and its greater fluidity made the casting of complex and finely shaped
molds
practical. This led to the realization that they could now for the first time cast tools
like the drill
head and saws with sharp, hard teeth for cutting wood and stone that would stand
up much better
in a production environment. This was the beginning of a revolution in stone and
wood working
and especially ship building. The alloy of arsenical copper (nominally 1% to 6%
arsenic) was
related to the development of furnace technology and to the use of copper ores and
not native
copper (Lambert 1997).
Standard with Two Long-Horned Bulls
Arsenical Copper, 2400 2000 BC, Early Bronze Age III, North Central Anatolia
H. 6 1/4 in. (15.9 cm)
In Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
2000. (October 2006)
Finds of arsenical copper have been made throughout the Aegean and especially on
Crete - the

island with no metals of its own. Four artifacts, a dagger and three needles,
surfaced in
Thaurrounia cave in Euboia with an average 3.12% arsenic content (MangouIoannou 1999)
dated to about 4000 B.C. (Sampson 1996). Some 16 artifacts with an arsenic
content of 1% to
6% have been found in an Early Minoan context in Hagia Photia on Crete (Gale
1990). These
may be the earliest in the Aegean besides those in the Thaurrounia cave. Poros, a
harbor town for
Knossos on Crete, was an important center for the production of arsenical copper
during the
Early Minoan period (Betancourt 2006). Daggers have been found in the Cyclades,
Hagia
Triadha, and the Pyrgos cave associated with Early Minoan pottery. Long daggers,
saws, knives,
chisels, and fishhooks have been recovered from the many tholoi on the Mesara
plain at this
time. Nine artifacts with an average of 2.9% arsenic were discovered in
Petromagoula in
Thessaly dated from 3700 to 3300 B.C. (Johnson 1999). Eight artifacts from the
palace hoard of
Arslantepe level VIA in eastern Anatolia showed an average of 4.16% arsenic
(Hauptmann et. al
2002).
Since the 1980's the Skouries foundry site on the Cycladic island of Kythnos was
associated by
pottery and radiocarbon dated charcoal found in the slag to the first half of 3rd
Millennia B.C.
The lead isotope analysis of the ores and slag done at that time suggested that the
"fingerprint"
matched many objects found in the Cyclades and the copper based artifacts found
in the Minoan

Mesara tombs (Platanos, Marathokephalo, Hagia Traidha, Koumasa, Kalathiana,

Hagios
Onouphrios, Porti) (Gale 1990) and those at Hagia Photia (Stos-Gale 1999). But this
came into
serious question in the 1990s by the Laboratory of Archaeometry at Demokritos in
Greece when
it was established that the results of Gale could not be repeated by succeeding
investigations.
Therefore the location of the source(s) of the mineral ores used in "any" of these
copper artifacts
is presently unknown (Betancourt 2006). It appears that all the copper ores smelted
at Kythnos
were not mined on the island.
The Invention of the Sawn Planked Wooden Ship
and
Beginning of the Minoan Mediterranean Empire
Sometime after 4000 B.C. the first effective woodcutting saws were cast in arsenical
copper.
This revolutionized woodworking in general and shipbuilding in particular. There
must have
been attempts to cast saws with pure copper but the difficulty of casting such a thin
piece and the
amount of sharpening required would have negated their use in a production
environment. When
the new saws came into use on Crete it allowed them to cut planks of wood with a
consistent
thickness to almost any length and width they desired. The shipbuilders must have
soon realized
that if they could edge-join the planks they could make significantly lighter yet still
strong hulls
for their ships. A lighter ship can carry more people, provisions, and cargo than an
equivalent

ship made by sculpting planks with the axe and adze.

In the beginning they were probably stitching the planks together with yew or
hemp, but in time
they invented or adopted the use of the bow drill and lathe so they could more
securely mate the
plank edges of their hulls with locked mortise and tenon joinery. They would have to
cut the
round holes for the binding pegs using a drill and cut the smoothly rounded sides of
the pegs on
the lathe to fit them snugly into the locking holes. This very strong wood joinery
technique is
still widely used today. These large, much lighter ships capable of long distance
travel would
have placed greater importance on the use of the sail as a supplementary source of
power to
increase their efficiency.
Great distances can be traveled by rowing ships primarily powered by human
muscle if their
average speed is sustained over time. If you assume that such a ship could
maintain an average
velocity of eight kilometers per hour, which is a brisk walking pace for most
humans, and
maintain it constantly around the clock by rotating the work at the oars in shifts
among the
available men on board, the ship would travel 192 kilometers in 24 hours. The
rowing distance
between Kommos, Crete and the southeastern coast of Spain is approximately
2,400 kilometers.
This distance could be traveled in 12.5 days using these parameters. The manpower
requirements
of such a ship would be, at least, double the number of oars to be worked. A ship
with 40 oars

would probably need to be manned by something like 100 crewmen to maintain a

good constant
rowing pace.
Minoan Miniature Frieze Admirals Flotilla Fresco Shipping Scene
Late Bronze Age (LBA), Neo-Palatial Period
Akrotiri, Santorini (Thera), Greece.
Once the first of their large planked Cypress ships took to the seas there was
nothing anywhere
else in the world that could compete with them either economically or militarily. The
Aegean
Minoans were the first true masters of ship construction and the use of the
movements of the Sun
and North Star(s) to determine their latitude were well understood allowing them to
confidently
navigate on the open sea. Their skills in navigation were not exceeded until John
Harrisons
invention of the marine chronometer in the 18th century A.D. that allowed ships at
sea to
accurately determine their positions longitude. The Minoan technological maritime
and naval
advantage was so great that they would eventually come to dominate and impose
their will on all
shipping in the entire Mediterranean Sea including the Black Sea. Their commercial
shipping
was probably unopposed, except by pirates, anywhere they traveled in the
Mediterranean until
the massive eruption of the Theran volcano (Santorini, Greece) in about 1630 B.C.
The Iberian Pyrite Belt
and
First Minoan Settlements in Southeastern Iberia
3800 B.C. to 3200 B.C.

The western Mediterranean area is much more heavily mineralized than in the east
except in the
Balkans and northern Greece. Over time their ships would have come to a place in
the western
seas that provided them with all the valuable mineral ores they had so little of and
could ever
desire. That place was southern Portugal and Spain. This is the location of the
renowned
geological formation known as the Iberian Pyrite Belt. It is one of the most heavily
mineralized places on earth with an abundant supply of the prestige metals of gold
and silver as
well as copper and tin that is still being mined to this day.
The new Cypress ships must have been a source of amazement wherever they were
sighted by
the coastal Neolithic peoples. During the time since the completion of the spread of
the Aegean
(Cardial) Neolithic package, local and regional coastal maritime trading was active
as well as the
influx of new settlers every year from the eastern Mediterranean. The Minoans
probably began
exploring the shores of the Mediterranean for mineral ores between 3900 and 3700
B.C. and
arrived on the eastern coast of Iberia during this time. At least one person on these
ships of
exploration would have been keenly observing the beaches and rivers along the
coast for the
glittering signs of alluvial gold in the sands and sediments. If gold was found at the
mouth of a
river they would know that somewhere up that river would be the quartz-bearing
ores that
produced it. The same would be true for silver with its mineral ores of Argentite and
Acanthite

and the brightly colored ores of copper (Azurite, Cuprite, and Malachite).
Aside from their ships, the use of metals, and their Mesaran Crete funerary
practices they would
have used the same Neolithic agro-pastoral technological package as the
indigenous Iberians.
When they surveyed the river basins of Almeria in southeastern Spain they found
everything
they were looking for. For several centuries they probably would have been satisfied
to sift the
alluvial sediments for metals and established settlements in the river basin areas.
Eventually,
they would have moved up to the inland sources of the alluvial metals to form
permanent mining
settlements and that's exactly what they did. By 3200 B.C. many of the fortified
towns of the
Aegean Minoan colony (Los Millares culture) had been founded and all of them were
directly
linked to mining operations or their defense (Almizaraque - Silver, El Barranquete Gold, El
Tarajal - Gold and Silver, Los Millares - Copper, Los Pilas - Gold, etc.).
The Question of the Origination of Metallurgy in Iberia
Before the early radiocarbon dates for the Millarens were confirmed, many scholars
mistakenly
believed that the culture was the result of Mycenaean colonization and associated
their tholos
tombs with the famous circular tombs at Mycenae in Greece from the Late Bronze
Age. The
Myceneans would not come onto the scene until much later. So it is understandable
that many of
today's scholars believe that Iberian metallurgy was an independent invention of
the indigenous
Neolithic people. But this can't be correct.

Besides the obvious selection of settlement sites directly associated with the
Eastern
Mediterranean prestige metals of gold and silver, there appears to be no discernible
period for the
exclusive use of purified copper by the Millarens as seen in the east where it truly
did originate.
In about 3200 B.C. Otzi the Iceman was still using the old technology of pure copper
(axe head 99.7 % pure copper) while the Millarens were working with the advanced Aegean
alloy
technology of arsenical copper. This does not speak well for the indigenous
origination of
Iberian metallurgy. While artifacts of relatively pure copper are found among the
Millarens they
appear to be contemporaneous with those of arsenical copper. The Millarens seem
to have
bypassed the "Age of Pure Copper" and began with, at least, a basic understanding
of the alloy
technology of arsenical copper from the beginning. Twenty-seven copper artifacts
from the Los
Millares site have been found to contain an average of 2.3% arsenic and sixteen
objects from El
Malagon had a concentration of 1.7% arsenic (Lambert 1997). The most probable
conclusion
from this evidence is that there was no indigenous origination of metallurgy in
Iberia. It was the
direct result of Minoan maritime exploration and pioneer colonization.
The Millaren Tholoi of Iberia
Los Millares Tholos Tombs
Santa Fe de Mondjar, Almeria, Andalusia, Spain
Many of the towns and settlements of the Millarens had cemeteries consisting of
tholos (beehive)

tombs. Los Millares had a necropolis of some 90 tholoi built in the distinctive style of
the Early
Minoans of the Mesara plain in south-central Crete that were used by the elites of
the society.
The first evidence of tholos building techniques is the mud brick "Tholoi of
Arpachiyah" of the
Halafian culture in northeastern Syria which lasted for about seven hundred years in
the 6th
Millennia B.C. But they appear to have been used for domestic or ceremonial
purposes and not
as tombs. The next appearance of tholos construction is in Lebena in southern Crete
in the 4th
Millennia B.C. This was at a time when caves and rock shelters served as the
primary means of
burial of the dead on the island. Tholoi became the only commonly used method for
burial in
southern Crete for well over 1,000 years with some tombs still being used into the
Late Bronze
Age.
Los Millares Tholoi - Sectional
A typical Cretan tholos tomb was circular, constructed of unworked fieldstones, and
built above
ground. The interior walls were corbelled to slope inward in an arched beehiveshaped fashion to
enclose the space near the top. How the roof was capped is still a matter of debate.
A passageway
led to a small doorway that consisted of a trilithon of two vertical standing stones
capped by a
horizontal lintel. The door opening was closed with a slab of stone on the exterior.
Rectangular
rooms or annexes were often built adjacent to the outside wall of the tombs.

The appearance of Minoan tholoi among the Millarens is certainly more than just a
curiosity. The
idea of the spontaneous origination of this very unique style of funerary structure in
Spain at the
same time they were being built and commonly used by the Aegean Minoans on
Crete is highly
improbable. This is additional strong evidence for the colonization of southeastern
Iberia by
Minoan maritime pioneers in search of wealth.
The Extent of the Minoans Western Exploration
There is no reason for the Minoan explorers to have halted their endeavors in
southeastern Iberia.
Their new ships were certainly more capable of traveling in the ocean that the
stitched boats that
reached the Atlantic coast of Iberia during the Aegean (Cardial) Neolithic period.
They would
have simply continued to methodically scour the Atlantic coastlines and river valleys
for
evidence of metals to the north and south once they had passed through the "Pillars
of Hercules".
Notably, there is evidence from the analysis of alluvial sediments that the vast Rio
Tinto copper,
silver, and gold mines in southwestern Spain, north of Huelva on the Atlantic coast,
began to be
worked during the 3rd Millennia B.C. (Nocete 2005). The nearby, smaller Sao
Domingos and
Tharsis mines that are quite close to Rio Tinto may have also been discovered at
this time. It is
highly probable that the Rio Tinto ores were originally mined by the Millarens, but I
know of no
archaeological finds at the site. After 5,000 years of mining, the Rio Tinto area is
one of the most

cratered, destroyed, and polluted places on earth.

Apparently they found no metallic ores of interest south of the Pillars of Hercules
along the
northwestern African coast. But the sediments of the northern coastlines of western
Europe
would have yielded the alluvial evidence of abundant metal ores. They may have
discovered the
gold, silver, and tin in Brittany in northwestern France before making the discovery
of gold, tin,
and other metals in southwestern Britain and Wales. Even though the superior
alloying properties
of tin with copper were unknown at this time its availability should have noted by
the explorers.
Also, there were deposits of gold, silver, and copper in Ireland. The explorers may
have
discovered the Canary, Madeira, and Azore islands and traveled far beyond, but I
know of no
archaeological evidence to support this. How far the Minoan voyages of discovery
went north
from the Pillars of Hercules along the coastlines of Europe can only await future
archaeological
evidence.
The Los Millares Culture
3200 B.C to 2600 B.C.
Los Millares Fortifications
Santa Fe de Mondjar, Almeria, Andalusia, Spain
The "Los Millares Culture", also known as the "Culture of the Thousands", eventually
covered
an area of about 20,000 square kilometers along the southeastern coast and
possibly the lands to

the west around the Rio Tinto mines north of and including the modern city of
Huelva on the
southern Atlantic coast. The town of Los Millares was a large copper mining
settlement of over
1,000 people about 17 km north of Almeria on the southeastern coast near Santa Fe
de Mondjar
that was discovered in 1891 by Luis Siret. It was protected by several outpost forts
and used
concentric rings of defensive stone walls. There must have been considerable
resistance to this
foreign incursion from the indigenous peoples.
Los Millares Reconstruction
Santa Fe de Mondjar, Almeria, Andalusia, Spain
The period of 3000 B.C. to 2600 B.C. was the height of the Millaren Culture. There
was an
expansion of the town's walls and fortifications. There is evidence of maritime trade
with the
eastern Mediterranean from the remains of pottery, hippopotamus ivory, and ostrich
eggshells.
The distribution of accumulated wealth would have been uneven from the beginning
and led to
the development of social stratification and economic elites that justified their
status with rituals
and symbolism. The hierarchical nature of the society was demonstrated by the
privatization of
property and the presence of prestige objects found in the graves of the elite. There
is evidence
for the existence of an early form of nation state with centrally controlled
commercial networks.
The Rise of the Bronze Age
and

Fall of the Millarens

2600 B.C. to 2200 B.C.
True bronze (copper with 6% to 15% tin) began to rise to dominance over arsenical
copper as the
metal of choice among the Aegean Minoans by 2600 B.C. and became one of the
essential
ingredients of their economy. Many scholars believe that the change to bronze from
arsenical
copper was because of the arsenic's poisonous effects on humans and this may be
true to an
extent, but bronze is a superior metal and is significantly harder than arsenical
copper. Tin is rare
and sparsely distributed geographically relative to the sources of gold, silver, and
copper.
Cassiterite and stannite are the main mineral ores of tin. Cassiterite is the primary
(oxide) ore of
tin and like gold can be found in alluvial settings. Stannite is a secondary sulfide ore
of tin. The
ores of tin are very rare in the eastern Mediterranean. The only known source of
cassiterite in the
area was the mining town of Kestel-Gltepe in the Taurus mountains of southcentral Turkey. It
was occupied and supplying tin to the east from 3290 B.C. to 1840 B.C. when the
ores became
uneconomical or ran out. Cassiterite was abundant in the west in places like central
and western
Iberia, Brittany in northwestern France, and especially Cornwall in southwestern
Britain.
During the period of 2600 B.C. to 2400 B.C. there were signs of stress beginning to
appear in the
Millaren culture. Their fortifications were reinforced and enlarged to their maximum
extent

indicating violent encounters or war with the neighboring peoples from the west and
north of
them. It was in this period that the first Maritime Bell Beaker pottery appeared
among the
Millarens. The pottery spread quickly throughout the region on the existing maritime
trade
networks. By 2400 B.C. the social stress facing the Millarens began to worsen into a
crisis and
the large settlements began to depopulate. The graves of the elites were
increasingly
accompanied with weapons indicating the violent nature of the time. By 2200 B.C.
the town of
Los Millares was abandoned after a sequence of catastrophes (probably large-scale
warfare).
There is evidence of widespread fires and damage to the fortifications. But amid the
destruction,
the first settlements of the El Argar arose to take their place. The period began with
the use of
bronze in the Aegean in 2600 B.C. and ended in 2200 B.C. with it being used by the
Beaker
people in Britain.
The Western European Bell Beaker Peoples
The whole of Iberia was populated with different groups of Beaker people by 2600
B.C. that
faced the borders of the Millarens in the southeast. If there was a war involving the
Millarens it
may have been a civil war rooted in the hierarchical nature of the society, but it was
more
probably a war with one or more of the Iberian Beaker groups over access to
resources. The Bell
Beaker Package of technologies most probably originated in Iberia sometime after
3000 B.C. and

over time spread northward along the Atlantic and Mediterranean maritime trade
routes into the
coastal regions of France, Britain, Ireland, the Netherlands, Denmark, and eastward
into the
interior of central Europe. These were the people that erected the first stones at
Stonehenge in
about 2600 B.C.
The earliest known copper mining in the British Isles was in Ireland at Ross Island in
Killarney
in about 2400 B.C. It is interesting to note that the three small knife blades found in
the grave of
the Amesbury Archer near Stonehenge in southern Britain dated to about 2300 B.C.
were cast
with purified copper that came from France and Spain. This is the same technology
used in Otzi
the Iceman's axe head almost 1,000 years earlier. Britain was still in the "Age of
Pure Copper" in
2300 B.C., but by 2200 B.C. bronze was available and in use. There was, essentially,
no "Age of
Arsenical Copper" in Britain and by 2000 B.C. bronze was being used in Brittany and
Ireland. A
short time later the huge deposits of copper ore at Great Orme near Llandudno in
northern Wales
began to be seriously mined in about 1860 B.C.
The El Argar Culture
and
Atlantic Tin Trade with Britain
Just as in modern times where oil is a primary commodity necessary for the
functioning of the
world economies, tin was a primary commodity in the Bronze Age. There were three
sources of

tin available to the Aegean Minoans before 1840 B.C. - the tin from faraway
northeastern
Afghanistan, ores from the Kestel-Gltepe mines in south-central Turkey, and the
vast amounts
of tin in the west (Iberia, Brittany, and Cornwall). In about 1840 B.C. the KestelGoltepe mines
shut down and tin from the west became more important. The Minoans would have
totally
monopolized the supply of western tin into the eastern Mediterranean with their
navy and
shipping.
The nearest tin ores available to the Millarens in 2600 B.C. in Iberia were in the
areas of
Cardenas and Madrid in central Spain (mindat.org). The stress that began to build in
the Millaren
society at that time may have been due to their attempts to gain access to these
resources of tin.
The Beaker groups affected by this policy may have been highly resistant to any
incursions into
what they considered their lands. Rather than have the Millaren colony fall to its
complete
destruction in 2200 B.C. and be faced with the inevitable loss of Iberia's vast
mineral wealth the
Aegean Minoans may have come to their aid militarily to sustain the flow of metals.
An influx of
settlers from the burgeoning populations of the east may have reinforced the
surviving Millarens
to found the new settlements of the El Argar and advanced to secure the sources of
tin in the
Iberian interior by military force.
Penalosa - El Argar Fortified Town Reconstruction
Huelva, Andalucia, Spain

It could be just a coincidence but the fall of the Millarens, the rise of El Argar, and
the first use
of bronze in Britain occur at about the same time - 2200 B.C. This may have been
due to the
beginning of a Minoan Atlantic tin trade with Cornwall in Britain (the Cassiterides?)
based from
their Iberian El Argar colony to supply the markets of the eastern Mediterranean.
The Minoan
leadership in the Aegean would have to be strongly centralized, unified, and
effective in order to
implement these aggressive and sustained policies. They may have secured the
supply of metals
they desired but the friction and hostility that had been long brewing among the
Iberian Beaker
peoples would have been greatly exacerbated and smoldered into an evolving
conflagration.
The shutdown of the Kestel-Gltepe mines in 1840 B.C. may have been due to the
Minoans
flooding the market with cheap tin from the west or the mines may have simply run
out of tin.
Whatever the case the Minoans controlled the price of tin in the eastern
Mediterranean until
something completely extraordinary occurred. In about 1630 B.C. the huge Theran
(Santorini,
Greece) marine volcano in the south-central Aegean Sea exploded with such
colossal violence
that it nearly destroyed the Minoans in the Aegean. The social dynamic constructed
on economic
imperatives had continued to build until the bubble was burst by the volcanic
eruption that
changed the world.
Several decades after the eruption the Mycenaeans from mainland Greece
conquered the

surviving Minoans in Crete and assumed control of the western maritime trade
networks of
metals from the west. The Iberian El Argar were incorporated and continued to
function as an
Aegean colony under the Mycenaeans. The Motillas (forts) of the Bronze of Levante
culture like
the Motilla del Azuer in La Mancha were probably Mycenaean era defenses for a Tin
Road
connecting the inland tin mines of Cardenas and Madrid with their ports in the
southeast. The
Mycenaean El Argar era lasted for about two hundred and fifty years until its
catastrophic
collapse in about 1350 B.C.
W. Sheppard Baird
Created: June 20, 2007.
Updated: December 9, 2007.
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