Η πρωτοβυζαντινή οικία DOMUS 5 στη Θάσο [La demeure protbyzantine DOM5 à Thasos] (2015) (original) (raw)
Athens and Attica in Prehistory: Proceedings of the International Conference, Athens, 27–31 May 2015, 2020
Struggling with “Dhrakonera” (=Dragonwaters): environmental change at an EH site within the Marathon “great marsh” by the end of the 3rd millennium BC The Kato Souli-Schinias archaeological record is empirically linked to long-lasting questions addressing social change and en- vironmental adaptation in human societies. Excavation undertaken due to works in preparation for the Athens 2004 Olympic Rowing Center (hereafter ORC), unearthed EH contexts. This paper attempts to place data deriving from the small scale of a salvage dig, within successive contextual scales: comparison departs from the Marathon plain, to the EHII-III transition on the Hellenic mainland and in the Aegean and to the large scale of globally significant circumstances at the end of the BA. To this aim, site-specific archaeological stratigraphy, involving a loose cluster of EH houses and related ditches and pits in a wetland environment, is examined in cross-reference to the geological stratigraphy of the Marathon plain. It is argued that there is an observable human response to a rather abrupt environmental change. Questions are formulated within a methodological frame- work proposed to investigate the validity of possible links between this observation and the abrupt changes in BA cultures at the end of the 3rd millennium with an environmental event.