A ceramic compositional and socio-technological perspective on FN Late to EH II Late Geraki

This PhD research investigates the FN Late to EH II Late ceramics of Geraki (3500-2200 B.C) from a compositional and socio-technological perspective. Geraki is a large, fortified settlement located at the inland of Laconia in southern Greece. The study focuses on the first periods of habitation of the settlement and investigates how patterns of interaction can be traced through the pottery. So far, investigations towards interaction have primarily focused on communities that are located in coastal areas and on islands, leaving the role of inland sites largely unexplored. The contrasting, inland perspective offered in this study therefore provides an important contribution to our understanding the diachronic developments of the social dynamics of interaction during the Final Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age in the Aegean. In this research, patterns of interaction are studied through an integrated macroscopic, petrographic and chemical ceramic analysis. This analysis has shed light on the composition and technological characteristics of the pottery and has, in relation to geological clay samples, provided insights into the provenance of the pottery and the production practices involved. The study has demonstrated that a large degree of continuity in ceramic composition and technology existed from FN Late to EH II Early, with significant changes occurring in EH II Late, both in terms of local production practices and in the scale and character of inter-community interactions. This knowledge has gained new information into the way objects, technological knowledge and ideas were exchanged, thereby shedding light on the changing scale and character of interaction within which the community of FN – EH II Late Geraki was engage

Searching for Neolithic sites in the Bay of Kiladha, Greece

Since the excavations at Franchthi Cave in the 1960s and 1970s, the possibility of finding a submerged Neolithic site in the Bay of Kiladha has been discussed. Initial research, based on marine geophysical survey and core sampling, brought contrasted results. Starting in 2012, new parts of the Bay were investigated, using different techniques and improved methods, such as geological-geophysical survey, further core sampling (including the finding of artefacts and anthropogenic indicators of a given date in the cores), shallow water ERT (with an adapted methodology), and underwater excavation. The combined evidence leads to a reconsideration of previous work, to the discovery of submerged structures directly off the cave, which might well be Neolithic walls, and points to the existence of two new submerged sites, one dating to the Neolithic, in the middle of the Bay, and the other to the Final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age I, at Lambayanna. The implications of these findings are discussed as well

The sanctuary at Keros in the Aegean Early Bronze Age : from centre of congregation to centre of power

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