ABDERA—A CAUTIONARY TALE?
The story of Abdera is a lesson about social choices. Thefirst inhabitants
of what was to become the archaic and classical city in the middle of the
north Aegean coastline comprised a group of Klazomenians from north-
west Asia Minor, who arrivedc. 650 bc. The evidence derived from
excavation of the nucleus around the sea shore, particularly analyses of
the skeletal remains of 235 burials (of the 309 recorded in all), presents a
rather grim tale. These pioneers onto new territory simply failed to
thrive. They seem to have had relatively restricted commercial connec-
tions with their former kin in northern Ionia. What is more, the ana-
tomical data set shows a distinct reduction in the quality of their diet,
exacerbated, perhaps, by the deleterious effects on infants of the marshy,
malarial environment. Herodotus tells a rather different story. According
to the Ionian historian, the Klazomenian pioneers were sent packing by
local Thracians.^15 There is noprima faciecase for this, judging by what
can be recovered from archaeology; but we cannot expect material
evidence to transmit nuances about social relations over an extended
period of time. The sudden arrival of a sizeable alien group of Ionian
settlers may well have triggered local anxieties (and not just among
indigenous Thracians—other Greek settlers may not have been particu-
larly welcoming either).^16 We can do no more than speculate about local
fears or curiosity, as we can about how the newcomers responded to the
local situation. The‘boundary conditions’for the Klazomenian new-
comers involved the need to adapt to local ecological circumstances.
The biological history of this new community suggests that this process
of adaptation exceeded its members’capacities.
The experience of the Klazomenians may have been extreme. The
second Abdera, set up, according to tradition, by a more intrepid group,
or groups, from Teos, was ultimately more successful. The usual explan-
ation for these two successive ventures is a combination of push and pull.
The political situation in Ionia was becoming problematic during the
second and third quarters of the sixth centurybc,asfirst the Medes, then
the Lydians andfinally the Persians began to put political and economic
(^15) Hdt. 1.168; Plut.Mor.812a, Solinus 10.9–10; Koukouli-Chrysanthaki 1986; Parissaki
2002, 463; Skarlatidou 2010. Parissaki (2002) claims that the Bistones and Paiones strongly
resisted successive waves of Greek colonists (citing Pindar’s Second Paian and Apollod.
Bibl. 2.5.8, Diomedes in the eighth labour of Herakles). The relationship between myth and
historical events may well be much more complex than is offered by a literal projection of
myth. The testimonia are briefly presented inInventoryno. 640. Picard 2007, 464–7, retains
the idea of polarized cultures.
(^16) Baralis 2008, 115–17.
The lure of the northern Aegean 255