The Greeks

Significant contact between the Aegean and the Levant is attested as early as the Middle Bronze Age. This early evidence, however, indicates contact with Minoans, rather than with Greeks proper.

It is not until the Late Bronze Age that evidence for contact between the Greeks and Palestine begins to appear. The Cape Gelidonya and Uluburun shipwrecks attest to widespread Mediterranean trade during the late Bronze Age, including trade between the Mycenaean Greeks and Palestine (Sasson 1966). Ceramic remains likewise indicate trade between Greece and Palestine during the Late Bronze Age: Canaanite pottery is found throughout the Greek mainland (e.g., Mycenae, Athens, and Tiryns), and Mycenaean pottery appears at sites in Palestine (e.g., Tell Aby Hawam, Lachish, Tel Dan; Cline 2009, 48-59; Wijngaarden 2002, 31-124; Stubbings 1951, 53-89).

After the crisis years of the Late Bronze Age, contact between Greece and Palestine is first attested during the late tenth century B.C.E., when Protogeometric Greek pottery is attested throughout the Iron Age at northern sites (e.g. Tell Abu Hawam, Megiddo, Samaria, Dor, Tel Dan, and Tel Kabri) as well as southern sites (e.g., Tel Miqne [Ekron], Ashkelon, Arad, and Meṣad Ḥašavyahu). Most of the pottery forms represented are kitchen vessels (e.g., skyphoi, kraters, oinochaoi, jugs). This strongly suggests the presence of Greek-speakers in the areas because vessels of this type would normally not be imported from Greece. At some of these sites, particularly Meṣad Ḥašavyahu and Tel Kabri, these Greeks were almost certainly mercenaries. Classical sources attest to the presence of Greek mercenaries at Palestine during the Iron Age (Alcaeus, Frag. 48 LP; 350 LP), as does the Hebrew Bible, which notes that Carians (כָּרִי) served as bodyguards for Athaliah (2 Kgs 11:4, 19). Thus, although little evidence exists for a substantial Greek population in Palestine during the Iron Age, there is good evidence for the presence of Greeks in Palestine, many of whom were probably traders, artisans, and mercenaries (Hagedorn 2005, 89-93).