DISCOVER. HISTORY.
Ancient & Roman Times
The rise of Argos
After the decline of the Mycenaean civilization around 1100 BCE, the wider region of the Berbati Valley underwent a period of significant change and reduced prominence. This period, often referred to as the Greek Dark Ages, saw the once-thriving Mycenaean centers lose their power and influence.
Mycenae transitioned from a powerful city-state to a small, fragmented community. Art, trade, and writing (Linear B script) disappeared or were significantly reduced during this period. Despite the decline, Mycenae retained symbolic importance. Its ruins and legends were remembered in Greek oral traditions, which later became the foundation for Homer’s epics, the Iliad and Odyssey.
During the Archaic period the ruins of Mycenae became a site of veneration and pilgrimage due to the association with legendary figures like Agamemnon and the Trojan War. A new shrine, the “Agamemnoneion”, dedicated to Agamemnon, was founded.
In the Berbati Valley, which had remained virtually uninhabited since the end of the Late Bronze Age, a hero or tomb cult emerged at the site of the Mycenaean tholos tomb around 760-700 BCE and the valley was resettled from West to East, suggesting that the settlers came over the pass from Mycenae.
During the Archaic period (800-500 BCE), Argos emerged as a dominant city-state in the Argolid. It also became a major center for art, sculpture and metalworking. The founding of the Argive Heraion around 700 BC on its eastern border has been interpreted as a political demarcation and provocation towards Mycenae. The Heraion became a cultural and religious hub in the region, attracting worshippers across Greece. But despite its reduced status, Mycenae retained enough population and resources to maintain a degree of independence, challenging Argos’s attempts to consolidate the region. Mycenae’s heroic past gave it a cultural and mythological importance that Argos might have envied.
By the Late Archaic period, Argos’s dominance began to wane, partly due to the rise of Sparta as a military powerhouse. While Argos maintained a neutral stance in the Persian and Peloponnesian Wars, Mycenae actively supported the Greeks in the Persian Wars (490-479 BCE), which exacerbated tensions. The rivalry culminated in 468 BCE when Argos destroyed Mycenae, ensuring uncontested control over the Argolid.
The awareness of a heroic past in the Argolid continued during the Classical period rendering the centers of Bronze Age sites untouchable. This attitude changed in the Early Hellenistic period, which saw major construction work and resettlement at some of the Bronze Age sites in the Argolid.
The fragmentation of Alexander the Great’s empire and subsequent power struggles among his successors (the Diadochi) created an environment of frequent warfare and local instability. In the Berbati Valley the focal point of settlement had already moved to the eastern part of the valley, where a cluster of towered farmsteads as well as a shrine to an unknown deity emerged close to the Kontoporeia, the main route of communication between the Argolid and Corinthia.
These structures combined practical and defensive elements, reflecting the socio-economic and military realities of the turbulent Hellenistic times. The towers were designed to protect farmers and their produce during periods of instability or conflict. Raiders or rival forces frequently targeted rural areas in the Hellenistic period. Farmsteads were strategically placed on hilltops, near trade routes, or in fertile valleys. The elevated positions enhanced visibility and protection.
Roman villa culture
Rome began asserting dominance in Greece in the 2nd century BCE. After the Roman conquest of Greece, following the defeat of the Achaean League in 146 BCE, the Argolid, like the rest of Greece, came under Roman control.
The Early Roman period was dominated by economic decline, deserted lands and depopulation, a situation more severe in regions that had been directly afflicted by the wars. It was only after Augustus organized the peninsula as the roman province of Achaea in 27 BC, that Greece started to recover from the Roman conquest.
Argos maintained its prominence and continued to be a cultural center, famous for its festivals and artistic heritage. The Romans enhanced its urban infrastructure, including the construction of baths and an odeon. The ancient citadels associated with the Bronze Age, became tourist attractions. Roman travelers and writers documented the ruins and legends of Mycenae and Tiryns.
At first, local elites and Roman settlers sought to achieve their socio-political ambitions through their prominent presence in the cities and their euergesiai, following Hellenistic practices and internalizing Roman policies. After the second century CE, the increased competition that was brought about by the Diocletanic and Constantinian led elites to seek different venues for their self-promotion and self-display: The villa in the countryside.
After the separation from the western half of the Roman Empire, the growing demand for agricultural products in the eastern part, increased opportunities for many areas where agricultural products and oil could be produced and exported. Rural villas became integral to the Roman agricultural economy, acting as centers for large-scale production and export and often included facilities like olive presses, wine presses, granaries, and storage rooms for goods. The residential areas ranged from simple accommodations for farmers and overseers to more luxurious spaces for the owners when they visited. Wealthier estates included amenities like private baths and gardens and also served as retreats for their owners.
In adopting Roman villa culture, Greek notables appropriated the powerful associations that came with it. The increased social competition of the later empire led to the intensification of the entertainment practices, including bathing, for the dinner parties that took place in villas. Over time the luxurious country-house became one of the markers of elite status and a vehicle of self-promotion and self-display in Roman Greece.
In the Berbati Valley a wealthy roman villa with auxiliary facilities and a bath was built around 300 AD and played an important role for the settlements in the area.
The Geometric cult of the Berbati Tholos
The Tholos tomb was was reused as a religious site from Late Geometric II (c. 735–700 BC) to the end of the 6th century BC, possiby a little longer. While the exact nature of the cult is unknown it is usually interpreted as a hero or tomb cult. Similar cults in old tholos tombs are well known from other areas of the Argolis as well as the rest of the Mycenaean world.
The Geometric burial of the Western Necropolis
The burial of a young female of the geometric period as well as a vase deposit were uncovered during the excavations of one of the chamber tombs of the Western Necropolis.
The Rural Site of Pyrgouthi
Five main habitation phases over a period of 900 years were identified at the rural site of Pyrgouthi, which derives its name from its main feature, the Hellenistic Tower.
The Roman Villa
Around 300AD a roman country estate with special-purpose areas connected to agricultural production was built in the center of the valley and played an important role for the settlements in the area.
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Ancient and Roman Berbati at a glance
Check out some of our monuments and artifacts from Geometric, Classical, Hellenistic to Late Roman Times.
