(2019) Understanding (Early) Neolithic Chipped Stone Production in North-Western Aegean from an Eastern Aeegan perspective (original) (raw)
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The relative chronological scheme of the Early Neolithic period in Greece relies on sequences elaborated in the 1950s based on evidence from limited trenches. Between 1950 and 1970 concepts deriving from the Near East were applied also in Aegean archaeology. The terms “Preceramic” and “Aceramic” were adopted shortly after the recognition of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic in the “Fertile Crescent.” Culture change was explained predominantly by colonization processes, based on the assumption that all items belonging to the “Neolithic Package” appeared simultaneously in Southeastern Europe at the very beginning of the Neolithic. Fundamental in this model are the economic products (domesticated species) or single objects and their manufacturing techniques (pots and tools). But change seems to explain only partially the processes of the mid-seventh millennium B.C.: attention needs to be focused on the evidence for continuity as well. Therefore, the superordinate systems of social and cultural behaviour (burial customs and exchange networks) are essential in the model presented here. Accordingly, the foundation for the transformations in the Aegean was the mobile way of life for both intra- and extralocal groups of late seafaring foragers-fishers and early seafaring fishers-farmers, with their face-to-face contact resulting in the transfer of innovations. The Neolithization process in the Aegean is in this view the result of connectivities in time (with the Mesolithic) and in space (circum-Aegean).
2017. Chipped Stone Aspects of the Interaction among Neolithic Communities of Northern Greece
2017
This paper focuses on communication and interaction among the Neolithic people of northern Greece from the perspective of the chipped stone industries. Chipped stone is a durable and variable material encountered in all Neolithic settlements. At the same time, it is a dynamic tool of analysis and knowledge, mainly because the production sequence can be studied and reconstructed in its entirety. Lithic raw materials are, in addition, assignable to specific or potential sources (local, regional, or distant) on the grounds of geochemical and petrographical evidence. The primary aim of this study is to analyze the different aspects and characteristics of the chipped stone assemblages of northern Greece in order to look more closely into patterns of acquisition, production, and exchange. Within this framework, emphasis is placed on shifts in chipped stone patterns during the settlements’ lifespan. Evidence that comes from lithic procurement sites and activity areas, although partial and preliminary, may also contribute toward a better understanding of production contexts and lithic resource management from a territorial perspective. In this regard, chipped stone analysis is expected to provide an insight into the changing conditions in which Neolithic farmers interacted with each other.
Final Neolithic Crete and the Southeast Aegean: Supplement 1
Th is work is the fi rst in a series of articles intended as supplements to the book entitled " Final Neolithic Crete and the Southeast Aegean " , published in 2014. Although the book was released only a year ago, it represents the state of research of early 2013, and in the meantime some new data have come to light which are relevant to the analysis of the transition between the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age in the south Aegean. Additionally, I have realised that some elements of material culture, in particular pottery and stone tools, require more detailed presentation and richer illustration than so far possible. My book was focused on the topography of individual sites, settlement development, the role of landscape in settlement patterns and new territorial organization of the island, and the processes which were behind the dramatic changes of settlement location during the fourth millennium BC. Th is analysis was complemented by the publication of basic surface evidence (essential for reliable dating), but due to space restrictions the pottery and stone tools were illustrated in the book in the form of drawings only. However, a more detailed photographic presentation is needed to support some of the proposed hypothesis, and to allow other colleagues to develop their opinions on the interpretation of this material.
Long and short revolutions towards the Neolithic in western Anatolia and Aegean
Documenta Praehistorica 46, 2019
This paper provides an overview of our current knowledge about the transformation towards the Neolithic in western Anatolia and the Aegean, and offers a narrative for their interpretation. Within the longue durée perspective of the long revolution in the Near East, the first millennia of the Holocene of the Aegean and western Anatolia are contrasted with each other. Economic strategies, environmental conditions, technologies, raw material procurement and cultural practices in the Aegean Mesolithic and the Pre-Neolithic times in western Anatolia are analysed to classify potential similarities and differences. The evidence of new cultural and symbolic practices, economies, and technologies in the seventh millennium is discussed as the paradox of a short revolution embedded in a long-term process of interaction, knowledge-transfer and adaptation, setting the scene for the Neolithic pioneers establishing a new social life.
Archaeopress Archaeology, 2021
The aim of this paper is to review and discuss the basic features of Melian obsidian networks operating in the western part of the Aegean (Greece) during the Neolithic period. To our view, any discussion about lithic networking should comprise two aspects a. distribution (geographical extension of network, i.e., obsidian representation and stage of obsidian importation to sites) and b. technology (techniques employed during the chaîne opératoire). Although fully aware of the inextricable interrelation of the two aspects, due to space limits the current article will focus mainly on distribution, with discussion on the products of these networks whenever possible. Specifically, we lay down old and new data together in Tables and let them 'speak' without trying to fit them to a standardized interpretative scheme. At the same time, this paper underlines the need to dismantle past ‘narratives’ and truly accept restraints as well. Moreover, there is need to overpass state limits and widen our regional scope of study to perceive past trade networks in their entirety.
2015
Over the years, lithic analysis has become an integral part of Neolithic research in Greece. In the past, chipped stone tools were considered as potential chronological and cultural markers. Pottery, however, and polished stone implements attracted the greatest deal of attention for many decades. During the 1960s, prehistoric archaeology shifted toward a positivist approach away from the culture-historical perspective. Pioneering characterization studies and exchange theories made obsidian a focal point of interest in Aegean archaeology. In the course of time new ideas began to challenge old perspectives, offering different interpretations of the Neolithic past. The concept of the operational sequence or artefact biography started to dominate the field of lithic analysis, providing insight into human behaviour and mind. Currently, the artefact biography approach is used to explore space structuring and depositional practices from a contextual point of view.
During the last decades there has been a remarkable intensification in the research of Neolithic sites in Anatolia. This increasing knowledge of the Anatolian Neolithic went hand in hand with new research in the whole area between the Near East and Southeastern Europe. Despite of these advances in Neolithic research, one of the most important key points for the understanding of the genesis of the early Neolithic of Southeastern Europe remained nearly unknown: The area which is structured by the Aegean, the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea. Due to the special geographical situation of the Thracian peninsula, Northern Greece and Western Anatolia this area always functioned as a “cultural bridge” between the Near East and Europe. After smaller surveys and rescue excavations in the 1980s, the national and international archaeological research increased during the last years in that area. Although we are still at the beginning, there are first encouraging results about the role of Southeastern European and Anatolian cultures, on one hand, and on the importance of local traditions in the process of the Neolithization, on the other hand. In September 2002, at the EAA 8th Annual Meeting at Thessaloniki, international scholars discussed aspects of these problems. The main objective of the publication of the session “Aegean – Marmara – Black Sea: Present State of the Research of the Early Neolithic” is to present, evaluate and discuss the present state of research of the early Neolithic cultures in the contact region of the Aegean, the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea and to stress the importance of international interdisciplinary research, including papers on zoology, botany, and physical anthropology.