Lithics in the Neolithic of Northern Greece: Territorial perspectives from an off-obsidian area

C. Renfrew's research in the Aegean at the beginning of the 1970's and his hypothesis on the diffusion of obsidian from the island of Milos greatly influenced views of Greek Prehistory. Further lithic studies, especially in the Southern Aegean, have served to further confirmation the prevalence of obsidian in this area during the Neolithic. The aim of this paper is to draw attention to areas such as Northern Greece that are situated on the periphery of the Melian obsidian domain, where local materials occur in connection with imported ones from the North and South. With the aid of various examples from major Neolithic sites, we will discuss the question of procurement strategies in association with the reduction sequences of each material in use in this region, and outline trends of territorial organization among Neolithic farmers in the area

New archaeological sites and finds on Zakynthos

The archaeology on Zakynthos is less well-known than that on the other Ionian islands. Partly, this is the result of a lack of archaeological research and partly because the archaeological record on the island shows a high degree of destruction and fragmentation. Since 2006, the participants of the Zakynthos Archaeology Project, which is aimed specifically to deal with such a difficult archaeological landscape, have been applying a range of interrelated methodologies to investigate the archaeology of the island. It has become clear that Zakynthos has known human activities and habitation from early prehistory to the present day. The archaeological record, albeit fragmented, is particularly rich for the Palaeolithic, the Late Bronze Age and the Hellenistic-Roman periods. The project of landscape archaeology presented here, begins to reveal the significance of the archaeology at Zakynthos

pXRF analysis of obsidian artifacts from Albania: Crossroads or cul-de-sac?

Archaeologists first identified obsidian artifacts in Albania in the early 20th century, but their numbers were small and the contexts insecure. Their source was never determined. Nor was it clear why, given the large numbers of obsidian artifacts recovered in regions to the south and north, in areas like central and southern Greece and Croatia, more obsidian artifacts were not found in Albania. In an attempt to address these problems in Albanian prehistoric archaeology, we analyzed eight obsidian artifacts from six sites – out of a total of only 16 known pieces from the entire country, many of which are now lost – using portable X-ray fluorescence spectroscopy (pXRF). One of these, from the Putanja site, is from Lipari, Italy. The other seven are from Melos, Greece. All eight appear to date from the Middle/Late Neolithic to Late Bronze Age (5500–1050/25 BCE). The absence of obsidian in Albania is not the result of poor archaeological sampling; several, recent intensive surface surveys and excavations in south and north Albania produced no obsidian. Rather, it may be that obsidian was not imported to prehistoric Albania due to the presence of abundant, accessible, very fine flint sources, located in particular in the southwest of the country. Consequently, the prehistoric inhabitants of Albanian were out of the loop or otherwise uninterested in obsidian during those periods of Mediterranean prehistory, specifically from the Late Neolithic to the Bronze Age, when it was traded most extensively. © 2019 Elsevier Lt

The Zakynthos Archaeology Project: preliminary report on the 2010 season

The 2010 campaign of the Zakynthos Archaeology Project took place on the peninsula of Vasilikos in the south-east of the island, where we had surveyed also in 2006. In addition to covering more ground by archaeological survey, the return after four years also enabled us to evaluate survey methodologies and changes in the landscape. In the area near ‘Banana beach’, where the landscape is being changed to accommodate tourist facilities, spots with buried ceramics dating to the Early and/or Middle Bronze Ages were discovered. The same periods were represented at a newly discovered site in the hills of Vasilikos-Doretes. A rediscovered Mycenaean tomb, a Hellenistic-Roman defensive post and a number of find concentrations show that Vasilikos constitutes an important diachronic archaeological landscape from the Palaeolithic to the present day

The lowest levels at Dikili Tash, northern Greece: A missing link in the Early Neolithic of Europe

Famously capture the historical sequences of the earliest farmers - but digging them is not easy. With a depth of strata of 17m at Dikili Tash, the earliest occupation was out of reach of a trench. But our researchers got there by coring, extending the date of the first occupation back 1000 years, and deducing, from small samples, the changing environment and possible connections with Anatolia. © Antiquity Publications Ltd