Nea Makri - 2012

Nea Makri. Pelly Fotiadi (Ephorate of Antiquities of East Attica), Maria Syrigou (Independent scholar) report the following:

An assemblage of chipped stone from a Neolithic settlement at Mea Makri, alongside a small number of polished stone tools and food remains (animal bones and sea shells), was unearthed during a rescue excavation of limited extent undertaken on the modern coast in 2012. The salient points of this discovery include:

* The absence of natural obsidian nodules suggests a procurement of preformed cores.

* The low percentage of cores and technical by-products in the lithic material of the specific trench excludes the possibility of an in situ production. However, since these technical by-products belong to initial, as well as advanced chaîne opératoire  stages, it is assumed that obsidian knapping took place in some other part of the settlement.
* Regarding the manufacture of sensu stricto tools, the material clearly points that the knapping procedure was orientated towards the production of pressure blades.
* In the case of a group of more securely stratified chipped stone artefacts and co-finds, it is possible to distinguish a context of “recycled household material”; these were used in the construction of a MN stone “floor”. This recycling process was a very common building practice in Neolithic Nea Makri, as attested by the successive layers of massive stone-made foundations generally used in the layout of the extensive settlement.

The preliminary study of the pottery found in this part of the settlement supports occupation probably as early as the Early Neolithic and Middle Neolithic times. Discovered in the context of a poorly preserved, yet non-contaminated stratum, the majority of pottery sherds bears characteristics of a MN cultural horizon. However, the continuity of intensive occupation of the settlement’s eastern part as well, at least through the Late Neolithic I, is attested in finds of other near-by recent rescue excavations (Diamesis plot, 2009). Moreover, a few random sherds from the upper soil deposits on the coast indicate some scarce activity in much later times, namely the Classical and Roman periods.