Ancient Meteora in prehistory
The Peneios River, flowing on the outskirts of Kalabaka town, has played a central role in human development in this region. The earliest evidence of human presence has been found near its banks. According to recent archaeological findings, human habitation in the area dates back to the Mid-Paleolithic era, approximately 130,000 years ago. In recent years, important artifacts and human remains have been uncovered at Theopetra Cavern, where significant excavations have been conducted continuously for the past 25 years. The last glacial period of the Paleolithic era began to retreat, and the climate started to warm around 16000 years ago.
This climate change lasted for another 5000 years, culminating with the Younger Dryas catastrophe ~12.000 years ago and the mass extinction of the megafauna at the end of the Pleistocene. By the time the climate became stable again, approximately 10.000 years ago, the first waves of Anatolian farmers bringing the agricultural revolution had swept through the fertile plain of Thessaly and the ancient region of Meteora!
The domestication of animals soon followed, less than a thousand years later! It’s fascinating that very few places outside Mesopotamia can yield such consistency in the archeological findings of the successive evolutionary stages of the agricultural revolution. Today, ancient Meteora visitors can see all of the prehistoric findings in the small museum of Theopetra. The museum exhibits Meteora’s prehistoric artifacts and burials found in Theopetra Cave.
The Neolithic period and the first seeds of civilization
Recently, Greek scientists completed the facial reconstruction of a woman who lived and died almost 10,000 years ago, during the Mesolithic period in Theopetra Cave. The lady was named by Greek scientists “Avgi,” meaning “Dawn,” and became world-famous when she was featured in a National Geographic magazine article this year.
This period marked a significant growth in Thessaly’s Neolithic economy, characterized by mass population movements and the establishment of the first permanent settlements, such as Sesklo and Dimini, primarily located in the eastern part of Thessaly near the Aegean Sea. Sesklo experienced its peak around 5500 BC. The settlement covered an area of more than 13 hectares and likely housed only a few hundred inhabitants. The buildings in Sesklo had stone foundations and a superstructure made of pisé (compact earth), topped with a gable hip roof constructed from a thick layer of clay supported by a timber frame. Most of these structures were one room each, measuring 10 to 50 square meters.
Thessaly’s prehistoric connection to Athens
Dimini covers an area of 0.8 hectares, and the astonishing fact about this site is the six concentric circular enclosures. Initially, it was thought that they represented defensive walls, but recent reexamination points to the better organization of the land. Dimini was established sometime after 5000 BC, and its buildings are within the concentric circles mentioned above. In that same period, Thessaly was known as Pelasgia, and its Neolithic inhabitants were called Pelasgians.
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Let us take care of transportation and hotels as you enjoy the hidden gems of Meteora.During the early 20th century, archaeological excavations conducted by the Italian Archaeological School and by the American Classical School on the Athenian Acropolis and other sites within Attica revealed Neolithic dwellings, tools, pottery, and skeletons from domesticated animals (i.e., sheep, fish). These discoveries resembled the Neolithic discoveries on the Thessalian acropolises of Sesklo and Dimini. They helped provide physical confirmation of the literary tradition in Greek mythology that describes the ancient Athenians as the descendants of a Pelasgian tribe called “Lapiths.” A group of legendary people who lived in the valley of the Pineios and appear to descend from the Neolithic inhabitants of ancient Meteora.
The Bronze Age and the Heroic period
A few thousand years later, around 1500 BC, during the Mycenaean period, several larger settlements began to emerge in the Thessaly region, known as Aeolia. As mentioned in Homer’s Iliad, these Bronze Age settlements became strong enough to participate in the Greek campaign to conquer Troy. Thessalians of that period ranked among the strongest and wealthiest of Bronze Age Greeks, the most prominent among Thessalians being Achilles and his fellow warriors, the famous Myrmidons.
This is the Age of Heroes, or the heroic period. The wealthy nobles of that period who could afford the expensive armor made mainly of bronze would become known for their bravery. In the battlefields of that period, there was not yet a phalanx to fight within its ranks as a cohesive unit, only the warrior as a single fighting entity. He was distinguished by his bravery, his armament, and his fighting skills. Achilles was a great hero and a warrior from the epic of the Iliad in the Homeric period. Still, later, he was the archetypical ideal of a warrior hero during the Mycenaean times!
The cities mentioned by Homer, located around the region of ancient Meteora, were Trikki (present-day Trikala), Oechaliae, and Ithomi (most likely present-day Kalabaka). Ruled at that time by Asclepios, a demigod and the son of the god Apollo. He became famous for his medical skills, and Greeks later worshiped him as the god protector of medicine in temples called “Asclepeion.” According to 1st-century geographer Strabo, the most famous Asclepeion was in ancient Trikki, modern-day Trikala.
Later Periods and the Roman Conquest
Those 3 Thessalian cities around the ancient Meteora region, mentioned by Homer in his catalog with all the participants in the expedition, formed at a much later period under the name of Estiaeotis, one of the four administrative states of the Thessalian confederation. The Thessalian confederation lasted until 353 BC, when, in the aftermath of the Macedonian victory in the battle of Crocus Field of King Phillip II against the Phocians, the Thessalians appointed King Philip “Archon” of Thessaly.
This appointment for life gave Philip, the father of Alexander the Great, control over all the revenues of the Thessalian Confederation. Furthermore, this made King Philip II the supreme leader of the United Thessalian army!
The rest of the Greeks highly regarded the Thessalian cavalry of the Hellenistic period of 16.000 horsemen for its combat effectiveness. During the early Hellenistic times, Alexander the Great used it in numerous battles, mainly against the Persian Empire. From that point on, Thessaly became one of the closest allies of the Macedonian dynasties, and they remained so until the invasion of the Romans during the early 2nd century BC and the battle of Cynoscephalae in 197 BC.
The ancient town of Kalabaka, known at that time by the name Aiginion, stayed loyal to the Macedonian dynasties till the very end, resisting the Roman conquest of Greece. A few years after 168 BC, the year when the Romans sucked the ancient town of Kalabaka, ancient Meteora was finally annexed by the Roman Empire and became a Roman province for centuries to follow.
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