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

Marine Creatures and the Sea in Bronze Age Greece: Ambiguities of Meaning

Like most cultures, prehistoric Greek communities had an ambiguous relationship with the sea and the creatures that inhabit it. Positive and negative associations always co-existed, though the particular manifestations changed over time. By drawing together evidence of consumption of marine animals, seafaring, fishing, and iconography, this article unites disparate strands of evidence in an attempt to illuminate the relationship prehistoric Greeks had with marine creatures and the sea. Based on the marked reduction in seafood consumption after the Mesolithic and the use of marine creatures in funerary iconography in the post-palatial period, it becomes apparent that the sea-then as now-is an inherently ambiguous medium that captures both positive and negative emotions. On the one hand, the sea and the animals residing in it are strongly associated with death. On the other hand, the sea's positive dimensions, such as fertility and rebirth, are expressed in conspicuous marine consumption events. © 2013 Springer Science+Business Media New York