Contents and acknowledgement

p-ERRATA ANALECTA PRAEHISTORICA LEIDENSIA XIV 16 fig.9 ; stratigraphical drawing of the SW-NE section 26 fig.11; add: scale 1

38 fig.12; add: scale 1 42 fig.13; add: scale 1 44 fig.14; add: scale 1

57 ; VI.3.The plain of Larlsa, to the Northwest of Sesklo p.114 fig.25; legend as below

Isopachen des Plio-Pleistozans Synsedimentare Verwerfung

Esa

Oberkretazische Kalke und Flysch, jurasische Schiefer

PELAGONISCHE SERIE

li'i'i'i'il Marmor von Ossa und Mavrovounion

Marmor der Mittelthessalische Kristallinzone Gneis

ANALECTA PRAEHISTORICA LEIDENSIA XIV

ANALECTA PRAEHISTORICA

LEIDENSIA

XIV

THE EARLY NEOLITHIC 1 SETTLEMENT

AT SESKLO: AN EARLY FARMING

COMMUNITY IN THESSALY, GREECE

1981

IV

ISBN 90 6021 499 4 (this volume) ISBN 90 6021 450 1 (series)

Copyright ® 1982 by the Institute of the Prehistory, Leiden.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the copyright owner.

V TABLE OF CONTENTS

Acknowledgements 1 Chapter 1 Introduction 3 Chapter II The excavation at Sesklo

1. The excavation by Chr. Tsountas 7 2. The excavation at Sesklo by D.R. Theocharis 10

2. 1. Section C, excavation and stratigraphy 16 Chapter III Analysis of the Early Neolithic I pottery from Sesklo

1. Technology 21 1. 1. The clay 21 1.2. The non-plastic inclusions 22

1.3. Colour and firing conditions 22 1. 4. Forming and finishing techniques 24

2. Pottery typology 27 2. 1. Very coarse and crude ware 28

2. 2. Coarse ware 28 2. 3. Medium ware 30 3. Correlation 31 3 . 1 . Introduction 31 3. 2. Relationship to building phase 32

3 . 3 . Relationship to vessel form 34 3. 4. Colour - oxidising core 34 4. Subdivision of Early Neolithic I 34

5. Outline of Early Neolithic II and III pottery from Sesklo 35 Chapter IV Finds other than pottery

1. Chipped stone 39 1.1. Obsidian 39 1. 2. Chert implements 40

2. Miscellaneous stone artefacts 40

2. 1. Polished stone tools 41 2. 2. Grinding and pounding tools 41

2. 3. Other stone artefacts 43 3. Bone implements 43 4. Figurines 45 4. I. Ceramic figurines 45

4. 2. Stone figurines 46 5. Ornaments 46 6. Miscellaneous ceramic objects 47

7. The problem of Pre-Pottery Neolithic 48 8. Some notes on the chronology of the Early Neolithic period 48

V I CONTENTS

Chapter V Reconstruction of the settlement

1. Dwellings and settlement 50 2. Location and physical environment 50

2. 1. Climate 51 2. 2. Vegetation 51 2. 3. Fauna 52 3. Subsistence pattem 53

4. Raw materials 54 Chapter VI Early Neolithic sites in Thessaly

1. Geography 56 2. The plain of Almyros 57

3. The plain of Larisa 57 3. 2. Magoula Gioulberi 58 3 . 2 . Karamourlar 59 3. 3. Argissa 59 3. 4. Otzaki Magoula 60 3 . 5 . Soufli Magoula 61 3. 6. Gendiki 62 3 . 7 . Nessonis 64 4. The plain of Karditsa 65

4. 1. Achilleion 66 4. 2. Prodromos 67 Chapter VII Early Neolithic sites in Greece beyond the Thessalian region

1. Macedonia 69 1.1. Servia 71 1. 2. Nea Nikomedeia 72 2. Epiros 74 3. Boeotia 74 3. 1. Elateia 75 3. 2. Halae 76 4. Attica 77 4. 1. Nea Makri 77 5. The Argolid 78 5 . 1 . Franchthi Cave 79 5. 2. Lema 81 5. 3, Nemea 82 5. 4. Corinth 83 6. Messenia 85 7. The islands 86 7. 1. Sidari 86 7. 2. The Sporades 87 7. 3. Kythnos 88 7. 4. Knossos 88 8. Final remarks 90 Notes 91

CONTENTS VII

Chapter VIII Relationships with Asia Minor

1. Introduction 92 2. 1. Pre-Neolithic and Pre-Pottery occupation 92

2. 2, Domestication of plants and animals 93 2. 3. Possible contacts bet ween Southwest Asia and Southeast Europe 94

2. 4. Western Anatolia and the western coast of Turkey 95

2. 5. The artefactual data 95 3. Final remarks 98

Note 98 Chapter IX Summary and discussion 99

Appendix I Petrographic thin section and X-ray diffraction analysis of pottery from

Seskio and Achilleion (C.J. Overweel) 105 Appendix II The fauna from the Early Neolithic I phase at Seskio (CA. Schwartz) 112

Appendix III The geology of Eastem Thessaly (Th. Doutsos) 113

Tables 115 Bibliography 137 List of figures 145 List of tables 146

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Coming to think of it, it is hardly credible that barely ten years ago the name " S e s k l o " did not mean much to me; it was just one of those Neolithic sites in Greece. A chance meeting with D.R.Theocharis, when visiting the site on a holiday trip, changed this entircly. With a long discussion on Greek and Euro-pean prehistory, Dutch 17th century painting and cigars. all while enjoying one of the wonderful Sesklo cocktails, of which only Theocharis knew the secret, the base of a fruitful cooperation was laid. It would end only too soon with Theocharis untimely death in december 1977. At that moment I was already a good deal on my way with the study in precipitation of the present book. Although Theo-charis had enriched my knowledge of Greek pre-history enormously (without him the entire study would have been impossible) he had still left many questions to be answered. Many of the practical ones have been solved with the help of his wife, Mrs. Maria Theocharis-Papadopoulou (Athens) who gave me full access to all excavation notebooks and plans, both of Sesklo and of other Early Neoli-thic sites excavated by Theocharis.

In the museum of Volos practical and intellectual support was provided by G. Hourmouziades, Mr. and Mrs. E. Kakavoyannis (Rodos), Mr. and Mrs. B. Intsesiloglou, Mrs. Z. Malakassiotis, Mrs. V. Sismanis, Mrs. G. Michou, M. Nikolorakis, by my fellow Sesklo-authors K. Kotsakis (Thessaloniki), Miss A. Christopoulou (Athens), Mrs. F. Risopou-lou-Egoumenides (Cyprus), Mrs. A. Moundrea (Athens) and by the draughtsmen S. Hatzis and Mrs. Th. Makris.

For permitting me to study all material from other sites I owe much to K. Gallis (Larisa), John L. Caskey (University of Cincinnati), Mrs. M. Gim-butas (University of California, Los Angeles), Th.W. Jacobsen (Indiana University, Blooming-ton), John C. Lavezzi (Bowling Green State

Univer-sity, Ohio), the late V. Milojcic (Heidelberg, Insti-tut für Ur- und Frühgeschichte), S. Miller (Univer-sity of California, Berkeley), the Hon. C.C. Ridley (Stockton, England), J. Sakelarakis (Nat. Museum, Athens), R.J. Rodden (Saffron Walden, England), K.D. Vitelli (Indiana University, Bloomington), Saul S. Weinberg (University of Missouri).

Faunal and botanical remains were identified by Charles A. Schwartz (Los Angeles) and by H.H. Kroll (University of Kiel).

Geological Information was provided by Th. Doutsos (Geological Service, Larisa) and by H. Schneider (University of Saarbrücken). For all help in technical analysis of the ceramic material 1 am indebted to H.J. Franken and A. van As (Institute of Ceramic Technology, Leiden) and C.J. Overweel (Institute of Prehistory, Leiden). I owe to F.E. Tjon Sie Fat (Institute of Anthropology, Leiden) that sta-tistics did not remain a world of complete darkness.

In the preparation of the manuscript 1 was assisted by J.P. Boogerd (Institute of Prehistory, Leiden), who prepared the drawings and by Glynis Jones and Paul Halstead (both University of Cambridge) who undertook the task of removing the many errors from the English text; in earlier stages they had always been willing to discuss the many problems involved while enjoying some tsipouro me mezedes or a dinner at the "Skala of Milano".

Without all these people (and the many I forgot to mention) and without the always encouraging sup-port of my parents this thesis would never have been finished.