Neolithic Pylos The region of Pylos has a long history, which goes hand in hand with that of the Peloponnese. It starts in the depths of prehistory, as the region has been inhabited since the
Neolithic, when populations from
Anatolia began to spread in the Balkans and Greece around 6500 BC, bringing with them the practice of agriculture and farming. Excavations have demonstrated a continuous human presence from the Late Neolithic period (5300 BC) on several sites of
Pylia, in particular in those of
Voidokilia and of ''Nestor's
cave'', where numerous
ostraca or fragments of painted, black and polished ceramics have been found, as well as later engraved and written pottery. The Neolithic period ended with the appearance of
bronze metallurgy around 3000 BC.
Mycenaean Pylos During the
Bronze Age (3000–1000 BC), the
Mycenaean civilization developed, particularly in Peloponnese. Pylos then became the capital of one of the most important human centers of this civilization and of a powerful kingdom, often referred to as
Nestor's kingdom of "sandy Pylos" (
ἠμαθόεις) and described later by
Homer in both his
Iliad and his
Odyssey (Book 17) when
Telemachus says: The Mycenaean state of Pylos (1600–1200 BC) covered an area of and had a minimum population of 50,000 according to the
Linear B tablets discovered there, or even perhaps as large as 80,000–120,000. It should not however be confused with the current city of Pylos. The urban center of ancient Pylos indeed remains only partially identified to date. The various archaeological remains of palaces and administrative or residential infrastructures that have been found in the region so far suggest to modern scholars that the ancient city would have developed over a much larger area, that of the
Pylia Province. and
Iklaina) or villages (such as Malthi) of the Mycenaean era have been recently discovered, which were quickly subordinated to Pylos. Thus, these clay tablets, generally used for administrative purposes or for recording economic transactions, clearly demonstrate that the site itself was already called "Pylos" by its Mycenaean inhabitants (
Pulos in Mycenaean Greek; attested in Linear B as
pu-ro, ). In 2015, the team of American archaeologists
Sharon Stocker and
Jack L. Davis of the
University of Cincinnati and under the aegis of the
American School of Classical Studies at Athens, discovered near the
Tholos tomb IV, a
shaft tomb (non-tholos) dated to the
Late Helladic IIA (LHIIA, 1600–1470 BC), of an individual of 30–35 years old and 1.70 m tall, the "Griffin warrior", named for the mythological creature, part eagle, part lion, engraved on an ivory plaque in his tomb. The tomb also contained armor, weapons, mirror and many pearl and gold jewels, including several gold signet rings of exceptional craftsmanship and thoroughness. Researchers believe it could be the grave of a
Wanax, a tribal king, lord or military leader during the Mycenaean era. It was also in this tomb that was found the
Pylos Combat Agate, a seal made of
agate dated from around 1450 BC, which represents a warrior engaged in a hand-to-hand combat. In 2017, the same team discovered two other exceptional tholos tombs,
Tholos tombs VI and VII. Although their domes had collapsed, they discovered that they were littered with flakes of gold leaf that once papered the walls and found a multitude of cultural artifacts and delicate jewelry, including a gold pendant representing the head of the Egyptian goddess
Hathor, which showed for the first time that Pylos clearly had trade relations with Egypt and the Middle East around 1500 BC. Pylos was the only palace of that time to have no walls or fortifications. It was destroyed by fire around 1180 BC, and many clay tablets in Linear B clearly bear the stigmata of the fire. The Linear B archives found there, preserved by the heat of the fire that destroyed the palace, mention hasty defence preparations due to an imminent attack without giving any detail about the attacking force. The site of the Mycenaean Pylos then seems to have been abandoned during the
Dark Ages (1100–800 BC). The region of Pylos, together with that of the
ancient Messene, was later enslaved by
Sparta. The ruins of a crude stone fortress on nearby
Sphacteria, apparently of Mycenaean origin, were used by the
Spartans during the
Peloponnesian War. (Thucydides iv. 31)
Classical Pylos It was one of the last places which held out against the Spartans in the
Second Messenian War, after which the inhabitants emigrated to
Cyllene, and from there, with the other
Messenians, to
Sicily. Its name is mentioned again in the seventh year of the Peloponnesian War. According to the Greek historian
Thucydides in his
History of the Peloponnesian War, the area was "together with most of the country round, unpopulated". The ancient city was not located at the modern Pylos, but north of the isle of
Sphacteria. In 425 BC the
Athenian politician
Cleon sent an expedition to Pylos where the Athenians fortified the rocky promontory now known as Koryphasion (Κορυφάσιον) or
Old Pylos at the northern edge of the bay, near the
Gialova Lagoon, and after a conflict with Spartan ships in the
Battle of Pylos, seized and occupied the bay.
Demosthenes, the Athenian commander, completed the fort in 424 BC. The erection of this fort led to one of the most memorable events in the Peloponnesian War. Thucydides has given a minute account of the topography of the district, which, though clear and consistent with itself, does not coincide, in all points, with the existing locality, Thucydides describes the harbour, of which the promontory Coryphasium (
Koryphasion) formed the northern termination, as fronted and protected by the island Sphacteria, which stretched along the coast, leaving only two narrow entrances to the harbour,--the one at the northern end, opposite to Coryphasium, being only wide enough to admit two triremes abreast, and the other at the southern end wide enough for eight or nine triremes. The island was about 15
stadia in width, covered with wood, uninhabited and untrodden.
Pausanias also says that the island Sphacteria lies before the harbour of Pylos like
Rheneia before the anchorage of
Delos. A little later, the Athenians captured a number of Spartan troops besieged on the adjacent island of Sphacteria (see
Battle of Sphacteria). Spartan anxiety over the return of the prisoners, who were taken to Athens as hostages, contributed to their acceptance of the
Peace of Nicias in 421 BC.
Middle Ages Little is known of Pylos under
Byzantine rule, except for a mention of raids by
Cretan Saracens in the area c. 872/3. In the 12th century, the Muslim geographer
al-Idrisi mentioned it as the "commodious port" of
Irūda in his
Nuzhat al-Mushtaq. Despite Nicholas II's intentions, however, it is unclear whether his nephew did indeed inherit Navarino. If he did, it remained his until his death in 1317, when it and all the Messenian lands of the family reverted to the princely domain, as Nicholas III had no children. At about this time,
Albanians settled in the area, while in 1381/2, Navarrese, Gascon and Italian mercenaries were active there.
First Venetian and first Ottoman periods In 1423, Navarino, like the rest of the Peloponnese, suffered its first Ottoman raid, led by
Turakhan Bey, which was repeated in 1452.
The Greek War of Independence of 1821 by
Peter von Hess|alt=|leftAfter the outbreak of the
Greek War of Independence against the Ottoman occupation in mid-March 1821, the Greeks quickly won many victories and proclaimed their independence on 1 January 1822. Navarino was besieged by the local Greeks on 29 March. The garrison, augmented by the local Muslim population of
Kyparissia, held out until the first week of August, when they were forced to capitulate. Despite their promise for safe conduct, the Greeks
massacred them all. Ibrahim's intervention proved decisive: the region of Pylos fell on 18 May 1825 after the battles of
Sphacteria (8 May) and
Neokastro (11 May), much of the
Peloponnese was reconquered in 1825; the gateway town of
Messolonghi fell in 1826; and Athens was taken in 1827. The only territory still held by Greek nationalists was in
Nafplion,
Mani,
Hydra,
Spetses and
Aegina.
The Naval Battle of Navarino (20 October 1827) , by Ambroise Louis GarnerayA strong current of philhellenism had developed in Western Europe, especially after the fall in 1826 of Missolonghi, where the poet Lord Byron had died in 1824. Many artists and intellectuals like Chateaubriand, Victor Hugo, Alexander Pushkin, Gioachino Rossini, Hector Berlioz or Eugène Delacroix (in his paintings Scenes massacres of Scio
in 1824, and Greece on the ruins of Missolonghi'' in 1826), amplified the current of sympathy for the Greek cause in the public opinion. By the
Treaty of London of July 1827, France, Russia and the United Kingdom recognised the autonomy of Greece, which remained a vassal state of the Ottoman Empire. The three powers agreed to a limited intervention in order to convince the
Porte to accept the terms of the convention. A plan to send a naval expedition as a demonstration of force was proposed and adopted; subsequently a fleet of 27 warships of the allied navies of
United Kingdom,
France and
Russia was sent to exert diplomatic pressure against Constantinople. An obelisk-shaped memorial dedicated to the victory of the Allied fleets and their three admirals, the British
Edward Codrington, the French
Henri de Rigny and the Russian
Lodewijk van Heiden was later erected on the central square of Pylos. The monument was the work of the sculptor Thomas Thomopoulos (1873–1937) and its unveiling took place in 1930, although it was completed in 1933.
The liberation of Pylos (6 October 1828) and the construction of the modern city On 6 October 1828, Pylos was definitively liberated from the Ottoman–Egyptian troops of Ibrahim Pasha by the French troops of the
Morea expedition commanded by
Marshal Nicolas-Joseph Maison. The mission of this expeditionary corps of 15,000 men, sent by king
Charles X of France to the Peloponnese between 1828 and 1833, was to implement the Treaty London of 1827, an agreement under which the Greeks would have the right to an independent state. The French troops liberated the cities of Navarino (Pylos), Modon (
Methoni), Coron (
Koroni) and
Patras in October 1828. Pylos's urban framework was designed by
Joseph-Victor Audoy, lieutenant-colonel of the
military engineering of the Morea expedition, who originated from
Tarn, a department of Southwest France. This plan was approved by the governor of independent Greece
Ioannis Kapodistrias on 15 January 1831, making it the second urban plan (after that of Methoni) in the history of the modern Greek state. The fortifications of
Neokastro were raised, a barracks was built (the "Maison's building" which houses nowadays the Archaeological Museum of Pylos), many improvements were made to the city (installation of school, hospital, church, postal service, shops, bridges, squares, fountains, gardens, etc.), the old Ottoman aqueduct, which had fallen into ruins until 1828, was restored (it then served until 1907), and the road between Navarin and Modon, the first road of independent Greece (which is still used today), was also built by the French engineers. whose work proved essential to the ongoing development of the
new Greek State and, more broadly, marked a major milestone in the modern history of archaeology, cartography and natural sciences, as well as in the study of Greece. According to one of their population censuses in the province of Navarino in 1829, it had a total of 1,596 inhabitants.
Eugène Sue and
Victor Hugo in 1827,
Edgar Quinet in 1830 and
Alphonse de Lamartine in 1832. In 1833, after the departure of the French, the name "Pylos" (in reference to the ancient city of King Nestor) was given to the new city of Navarino by royal decree of the newly installed king
Otto I of Greece.
capsized off the coast of Pylos, after the
Greek coastguard allegedly tried to pull the boat into the Italian
Maritime Search and Rescue (SAR) zone. More than 500 people were presumed dead. == Geography ==