KERATSINI - 2009

Keratsini, Aigaleo. F. Mavridis (EPSNE) and L. Kormazopoulou report the discovery of traces of the very earliest inhabitants of Attica, dated by C14 to the 11th millennium, in a cave in Keratsini on the Southwest of Mt Aigaleo in the course of excavations begun in 2006. Evidence has been discovered for hunter-gathers at the cave site from the upper Paleolithic through to the Mesolithic. A 2nd phase of occupation between the Middle Neolithic and Early Bronze Age has produced tools manufactured from radiolarite and various forms of flint. Animals found included hare, deer and a species of now-extinct horse. Plant remains included wild cereals and pulses. Terracotta figurines from the Late Archaic − Hellenistic periods indicate later religious use.