Kefalonia was one of the first places in
Greece to be inhabited, as It is quite apparent that the whole island
was inhabited by the middle of the 11th century BC (organised burial grounds). That was
the about the time that Cephalus and the name Cephalonia appeared. Around 1300 BC,
Achaeans from Arcadia and Trifyllia in the western Peloponnese began to found colonies
farther afield, in Crete, Cyprus and even Sicily. The Achaeans were a people who formerly
had lived in Minyan Orchomenus in Thessaly which according to Homer was the most important
city in Mycenean Greece. Some of them wound up in Kefalonia, bringing Mycenean
civilisation. gods and heroes along with them. Finds from their settlements, the most
thriving of whici where in Crane, testify too links with the Peloponnese. From the middle
of the 11th century up to continuous human presence on the island. |
shown by fossil plants, animals, bones, etc. found
in Fiskardo and tools dating back to 50,000 BC discovered in Skala and Same. According to
the famous Kefalonian archaeologist and professor Spiros N. Marinatos (1901-1974), all
the conditions were present in Kefalonia to make it inhabitable. At a time when trade was
in its infancy, one of these conditions was that the motherland itself produce
everything necessary for survival. Kefalonia was the breadbasket of the other Ionian
islands. It also produced olive oil, wine and fruit. Its vast forests provided plenty of
timber to build ships and develop trade. During Mycenean times and the age of Homer, the
island undoubtedly derived a good part of its wealth from the forest of Ainos. Recent
research has proved that the columns in the palace at Knossos were made of Cephalonian
Fir! This in turn proves the existence of trade. Moreover, Kefalonia's geographical
position made it a stepping-stone between East and West. The Kefalonian archaeologist
and academician P. Kavadias stresses the similarity between the inhabitants of the
colony of Fiskardo with peoples from neighbouring Epirus, the Peloponnese and southern
Italy (Pelasgian tribes). From the pre-Mycenean and 
Mycenean tombs in Lakithra
we may draw the conclusion that they were a bellicose people; anthropological
examination of skulls has revealed that most of them had suffered repeated blows.