Credit: Iklaina Archaeological ProjectThe little-known site, Iklaina, on the Peloponnesian peninsula was a major center of Mycenaean culture; findings now indicate that it was the very first city-state in ancient Greece.
Iklaina marks the transition from a world without organized states to a world where the state is the dominant political institution. In the city-state located in todays’ Messenia prefecture, archaeologists have discovered the oldest written text in Europe on a tablet made of clay.
Situated at a strategic location overlooking the Ionian Sea, Iklaina appears to have been an important capital city of the Late Bronze Age (ca. 1600-1100 BC) that became famous for such mythical sagas as the Trojan War.
Iklaina may be first city state in ancient Greece
An open-air pagan sanctuary, an early Mycenaean palace, giant terrace walls, murals, an advanced drainage system, and a clay tablet from between 1450 and 1350 BC featuring an early example of Linear B writing have reinforced the view that this ancient Greek town was one of the earliest complex states in ancient Greece by hundreds of years, if not the first.
The massive buildings that have been unearthed apparently served as administrative centers, and the clay tablet is the earliest-known governmental record in Europe.
