Sentence:  Those modern scholars who urge that we must keep in mind the fundamental continuity of Aegean development from earliest times - granted occasional irruptions of peoples and ideas from outside - are correct ; but all too many observers have been misled by this fact into minimizing the degree of change which took place in the <WSD>early</WSD> first millennium . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  at or near the beginning of a period of time or course of events or before the usual or expected time