Geometric and Archaic Periods
Pelasgians 10th – 6th century BC
The date of the Pelasgians’ arrival on Lemnos is uncertain but it certainly took place after the end of the second millennium BC. The Pelasgians were inhabitants of Attic, who were forced by the Athenians to look for a new homeland. When they settled on the island they forced the Minyans to leave and the latter were dispersed to many places.
From the renowned Kaminia Stele, of the Archaic period, and some fragments of inscriptions from Hephaistia, it is concluded that the Pelasgians of Lemnos used Greek characters of Aeolian type to write their own language. These inscriptions are unique testimonies of the written word of the Pelasgians. According to researchers, the use of the Aeolian alphabet indicates the Pelasgians’ affinity with the Hellenic tribes. Some researchers argue that the Pelasgian language is akin to Etruscan. Of the ancient historians, Herodotus (ΙΙ, 51) writes that the Pelasgians were the ethnos of ‘Tyrrhenians’ or Etruscans, and Dionysius of Halicarnassus (Roman Archaeology, Ι 17) designates the Pelasgians as Hellenic.
The Pelasgians prevailed on Lemnos and the neighbouring islands, dominated the sea and developed into excellent seafarers. They are attributed with inventing the ram/beak (empolon) on warships. In Myrina, they continued, improved and strengthened the pre-existing Cyclopean fortification of the Minyans, constructed of enormous boulders. The few extant architectural remains indicate the strong fortification of the site of their settlement, on the rocky headland, with ultimate point of defence the citadel, on the summit of the hill.
Although the surviving parts of the Pelasgian fortification walls in the area of the kastro are meagre, their presence is nonetheless conspicuous in three places.
1. To the southeast of the central entrance to the castle, a stretch of Pelasgian wall 12 m long survives on the northwest-southeast axis. Wedged between the crags, it is built without mortar, of large and medium-size boulders and smaller stones filling the interstices.
2. To the southwest there are remains of Pelasgian wall consisting of two branches of different length, at right angle to each other, the shorter branch running north-south and the longer one oriented east-west. In the first branch an opening can be seen, with suggests the existence of a gate.
3. Last, impressive is the presence of a section of Pelasgian wall about 50 m long, on the northeast side of the citadel on the east-west axis, under a later construction.
Also worthy of attention and investigation is a row of boulders of visible length about 17 m, which is located on the north-south axis on the terrace of third postern gate, the boulders of which refer to a Cyclopean fortification wall.
Finds from the 7th and 6th centuries BC
Finds dating from the seventh and the sixth century BC, which have been collected from the eastern slopes of the kastro, included fragments of and almost intact terracotta female figurines, part of a terracotta Siren, painted terracotta spools, and sherds of locally-produced black-glaze vases, which seem to belong to a sacral deposit (apothetes) of a nearby sanctuary. Moreover, in surface survey on the south slopes of the kastro, the sole inscribed potsherd of the Archaic period was found.
The end of Pelasgian domination
The long domination of the Pelasgians on Lemnos ended in 511 BC, with the capture of the island by the Persians, who ruled it until 479 BC (with a brief interlude of Athenian sovereignty in 499-494 BC).
