Editing Tenedos (section)

===Archaic period===
It was at Tenedos, along with Lesbos, that the first coins with Greek writing on them were minted.{{sfn|Rose|2008|ps=}} Figures of bunches of grapes and wine vessels such as [[amphorae]] and [[Kantharos|kantharoi]] were stamped on coins.{{sfn|Akpınar|Saygın|Karakaya|2011|p=338|ps=}} The very first coins had a twin head of a male and a female on the obverse side.{{sfnm|1a1=Hands|1y=1907|1p=58|2a1=Ridgeway|2y=1892|2p=318|ps=}} The early coins were of silver and had a double-headed axe imprinted on them. [[Aristotle]] considered the axe as symbolizing the decapitation of those convicted of adultery, a Tenedian decree.{{sfn|Ridgeway|1892|p=318|ps=}} The axe-head was either a religious symbol or the seal of a trade unit of currency.{{sfn|Hands|1907|p=58|ps=}} Apollo Smintheus, a god who both protected against and brought about plague, was worshipped in late Bronze Age Tenedos.{{sfnm|1a1=Wood|1y=1996|1p=234|2a1=Farnell|2y=1907|ps=}} [[Strabo]]'s Geography writes that Tenedos "contains an [[Aeolians|Aeolian]] city and has two harbours, and a temple of Apollo Smintheus" ([[Geographica|Strabo's Geography, Vol. 13]]). The relationship between Tenedos and Apollo is mentioned in Book I of the Iliad where a priest calls to Apollo with the name "O god of the silver bow, that protectest Chryse and holy Cilla and rulest Tenedos with thy might"(''[[Iliad]]'' I).{{sfn|Price|2006|ps=}}

During the later part of the Bronze Age and during the [[Iron Age]], the place served as a major point between the Mediterranean and the Black Sea. Homer's ''[[Iliad]]'' mentions the Tenedos of this era. The culture and artisanship of the area, as represented by pottery and metal vessels recovered from graves, matched that of the northeastern Aegean. Archaeologists have found no evidence to substantiate Herodotus's assertion Aeolians had settled in Tenedos by the Bronze Age. Homer mentions Tenedos as a base for the Achaean fleet during the Trojan war.{{sfn|Takaoğlu|Bamyacı|2007|p=120|ps=}}

The Iron Age settlement of the northeast Aegean was once attributed to Aeolians, descendants of [[Orestes]] and hence of the [[House of Atreus]] in [[Mycenae]], from across the Aegean from [[Thessaly]], [[Boiotia]] and [[Akhaia]], all in mainland Greece. [[Pindar]], in his 11th Nemean Ode, hints at a group of [[Peloponnese|Peloponnesians]], the children of the fighters at Troy, occupying Tenedos, with Orestes, the son of [[Agamemnon]], landing straight on the island; specifically he refers to a Spartan Peisandros and his descendant Aristagoras, with Peisandaros having come over with Orestes. [[Strabo]] places the start of the migration sixty years after the Trojan war, initiated by Orestes's son, Penthilos, with the colonization continuing onto Penthilos's grandson.{{sfn|Rose|2008|ps=}}

The archaeological record provides no supporting evidence for the theory of Aiolian occupation. During the pre-archaic period, adults in Lesbos were buried by placing them in large jars, and later clay coverings were used, similar to Western [[Asia Minor]]. Still later, Tenedians began to both bury and cremate their adults in pits buttressed with stone along the walls. Children were still buried covered in jars. Some items buried with the person, such as pottery, gifts and safety-pin-like clasps, resemble what is found in Anatolia, in both style and drawings and pictures, more than they resemble burial items in mainland Greece.{{sfn|Rose|2008|ps=}}

While human, specifically infant, sacrifice has been mentioned in connection with Tenedos's ancient past, it is now considered mythical in nature. The hero Paleomon in Tenedos was worshipped by a cult in that island, and the sacrifices were attributed to the cult.{{sfn|Hughes|1991|p=134|ps=}} At Tenedos, people did sacrifice a newborn calf dressed in [[buskins]], after treating the cow like a pregnant women giving birth; the person who killed the calf was then stoned and driven out into a life on the sea.{{sfn|Hughes|1991|p=86|ps=}} According to Harold Willoughby, a belief in the calf as a ritual incarnation of God drove this practice.{{sfn|Willoughby|1929|ps=}}