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Modern Description: Across the ridge of hills from Moudros on the east coast of the island, at *Polióchni (15.5 km), lies one of Europe's most important prehistoric sites, and perhaps the continent's earliest, organised urban settlement. Although pre-dating the Great Pyramid and Stonehenge by many centuries, and much larger and more complex in organisation than the remarkable hamlet of Skara Brae in Orkney, Polióchni came onto the scene more than three millennia after Çatal Hüyük in Anatolia had established itself as what many consider to be the world's first, known urban complex. The settlement covers a large area on top of a low cliff at the end of a long curving bay which is tucked under a promontory offering shelter from the north winds. The natural characteristics of the site – beautiful, but not dramatic – are strangely reminiscent in configuration of prehistoric Phylakopí on Milos. Excavations in 1931-36 by Alessandro della Seta of the Italian School of Archaeology uncovered four principal, successive settlements: an unfortified town of the Late Bronze Age, beneath which lay a city of the Copper Age, with two earlier Neolithic cities further below. The earliest (4th millennium BC) is believed to pre-date Troy. While undoubtedly of primary interest to the specialist, the site impresses the amateur visitor nonetheless with its extent and organisation, and comprises a number of striking monuments and constructions.
First inhabited around 4,500 BC by settlers coming from the coast of Turkey opposite, the site initially consisted of a village of huts of roughly elliptical form. Throughout the 4th millennium BC it steadily grew, acquiring terracing, retaining- and fortification- walls, streets, assembly spaces and public buildings, which bear witness to a high level of social organisation and urban development. Dwellings began to be organised into blocks and to acquire a more structured, megaron-type form, with a square plan and an antechamber. The site possessed good water (two plentiful wells) and was situated at the mouth of the Avlaki torrent which irrigated and rendered fertile a broad valley inland of the town. To the north, Cape Droskopos provided shelter for a rudimentary harbour. In the widest context, the site was ideally placed to be a bridge between the civilised world of the Near Eastern mainland and a Europe as yet still ignorant of urban organisation. Around 2,100 BC the settlement was abandoned after a catastrophic earthquake. During the following millennium – while its neighbour, Troy, flourished preeminently – Poliochni remained a drastically reduced settlement clustered around the wells of fresh water on the hill-top.
An itinerary is suggested here which is contrary to the general direction indicated on the site, but has the virtue of being more chronologically coherent and starting with the earliest and most impressive monumental remains. By heading for the furthest point below and to the right-hand (west) side of the excavated area as viewed from the site-entrance, you will come to the earliest monumental gate to the city (4th mil. BC), after passing beside the long brow of the later, mid-3rd millennium BC walls. The early gate is clearly recognisable from the impressively paved ramp (3rd mil. BC) that leads up through it into the city between two gate-bastions. To the left-hand side as you enter and climb up, is a deep, rectangular grain-store: this would have been a covered and closed structure, amply protected by the ramparts into which it is built. Opposite it to the right (south) is the *assembly space, the earliest example of such a communal facility yet found in Europe. Roughly rectangular in shape, with stone seats accommodating approximately 50 people along one side, and a separate, apse-like adjunct at the south end through which the building was entered, this may have been the meeting place for the fifty or so elders of the family nuclei of the community. At the summit to the left is one of the settlement's two principal wells – circular in form and lined with stones to a considerable depth, constituting a notable example of early engineering. An open paved area surrounds the well which functioned as the early town's main square; to the north side is one of the largest of the megaron buildings which, because of its prominent size and position, has often been considered to be a ruler's residence. This hypothesis has been given support by the finding in an adjacent room (#643) of the only hoard of gold jewellery which has so far been unearthed in Polióchni. Some of the pieces are on display in the Museum in Myrina; the remainder are in Athens. The side rooms of the large megaron also contain sunken storage vases. The building and the surrounding area date from the last epoch before the earthquake of c. 2000 BC. The main street of the settlement continues north along the eastern edge of the hill to a second square, this time with a well of square section, similarly lined with stone blocks. Across an open space and to the north stood a rectangular building conspicuous by its size and relative isolation. This has often be called a ‘temple', but no specifically cultic finds have been made on its site. The fine and distinct layer of large monoliths laid flat at its base beneath the walls distinguish it from other buildings on the site. At the northern extremity of the excavations are the bases of walls and buildings uncovered in the last two decades: amongst those that have come to light is a large building with a central pilaster and a stone bench around the inside wall, which may also be seen as the seat of the community's most powerful person.
Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poliochne
Wikidata ID: Q1542545

Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands

(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)

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