Earliest human settlement in Greece

Mediterranean seafaring began even earlier, as far back as the Pleistocene, when early humans or pre-humans, perhaps Neanderthals, took to the sea and found good hunting on nearby islands.

Since animals unused to humans were easy pickings, these ventures soon died out for lack of game.

The earliest evidence of human settlement in Greece is to be found at Nea Nikomedhia, near Veria. Here traces of large, rectangular houses dated to around 6000 BC have been excavated.

It seems that people originally came to these eastern Mediterranean territory in fits and starts predominantly from Anatolia.

The 18th century BC saw Greek city-states develop from Sicily to Anatolia. The Polis, or city state first developed in places such as Smyrna on the west coast of Asia Minor.

The situation of the cities, surrounded by non-Greeks, meant that they had walled, defendable settlements.
Earliest human settlement in Greece