PLAKIAS MESOLITHIC SURVEY - 2010

Informations Générales

Numéro de la notice

1837

Année de l'opération

2010

Chronologie

Paléolithique - Paléolithique moyen - Paléolithique supérieur

Mésolithique

Mots-clés

Maison - Outillage/armement - Pierre - Grotte - Habitat - Production/extraction

Nature de l'opération

Prospection

Institution(s)

Εφορεία Παλαιοανθρωπολογίας - Σπηλαιολογίας Νότιας Ελλάδος (Éphorie de paléoanthropologie et de spéléologie de Grèce du Sud)

American School of Classical Studies at Athens (ASCSA) (École américaine d'études classiques à Athènes)

Localisation

Toponyme
Plakias Bay

Notices et opérations liées

20082010

Description

Plakias Mesolithic Survey. T. Strasser (ASCSA/Providence), P. Murray (ASCSA/Boston), E. Panagopoulou (EPSNE), C. Runnels (ASCSA/Boston) and N. Thompson (EPSNE) report on the findings of two seasons of survey, noting also numerous reports both in the Greek press and in foreign periodicals. Twenty eight sites associated with caves or rock-shelters have been investigated in the area from Plakias to the Preveli gorge and around Ag. Pavlos. Of 2,139 lithic artefacts, microliths of Mesolithic type come from 20 sites, with Palaeolithic from nine locations. At Preveli 2, 3 and 8, finds from both groups were made, but such overlaps do not usually occur. The targeted methodology, the site distributions and the basic definitions of the industries have been discussed in AR 55 [2008-2009], 98-99. Most scatters yielded 80-100 artefacts, some (e.g. Schinaria 1) number in the thousands. Locally available cobbles of quartzite and chert as well as massive quartz were exploited: all can be knapped. Chert occurs only in the Mesolithic assemblages and in small quantities: it is arguably brought in from elsewhere. The Mesolithic artefact clusters are found in front of small caves or rock-shelters, and are limited in size and yield. The full range of assemblages (cores, debitage and retouched tools) suggest residence for long enough to acquire the raw materials and reduce them to tools. The largest collection was made at Schinaria 1; 564 artefacts were selected from several thousand pieces visible on the surface (Fig. 1). The assemblage consists almost entirely of quartz artefacts, and is rich in cores and retouched tools. The latter include notches and denticulates, pieces with retouch, geometric microliths, spines (piercers and borers of various types), truncations and small end scrapers. The Plakias industry has affinities with both the Lower Mesolithic (Lithique Phase VII) and the Upper Mesolithic (Lithique Phase VIII) at Franchthi Cave, but it would be hazardous to attribute any sites to one or other of these specific phases. The Palaeolithic material is found downslope from rock-shelters, eroding out of associated conglomerates or trapped beneath them in pockets of sediment amongst limestone outcrops. Terrarossa earths, both in situ and more extensive in distribution, or even redeposited, may contain lithic artefacts (e.g. Preveli 3 to a depth of 1m or more). A typical example might be seen in Timeos Stavros 4: here a debris flow appears to be preserved in a field below a limestone fault scarp. In an area of approximately 40m x 90m, a large concentration of stone tools was found mingled with angular pieces of limestone and travertine, suggesting a derivation from the caves and rock-shelters upslope. The lithic artefacts may belong to more than one Palaeolithic industry, including, in traditional terms, the Lower and Middle Palaeolithic (Fig. 2). These industries employed a reduction strategy using direct hard percussion to remove large flakes and, rarely, thick blades from minimally-prepared cores that were often worked bifacially. Considerable variability in the morphological tool types suggests opportunism in the selection of flake blanks and edges for retouch. Many blanks have only one edge retouched, often partially and discontinuously, frequently bifacially. Raw material was plentiful and there was much expediency in the use of blanks and a tendency to discard tools after only short periods of use. The Palaeolithic materials resemble the Acheulean sensu lato: this may be defined as consisting of large flakes used to configure big tools, with a diversity of morphotypes of small retouched tools and standardized knapping methods, among which the bifacial centripetal technique of core reduction stands out. The Acheulean may have a high frequency of large-sized flakes as blanks for the production of bifaces, the use of side-struck or corner struck flakes, the presence of techniques involving predetermination (‘approximate Levallois patterns’), attempts to thin the bifaces in the area of the bulb of percussion and a minimal investment in bifacial retouch. These descriptions would serve for the artefacts from Plakias. Some cores and bifacial scrapers, however, resemble Middle Palaeolithic artefacts and it cannot be ruled out that we are dealing with more than one Palaeolithic industry or facies in Crete.

Auteur de la notice

Don EVELY

Références bibliographiques

Unpublished field report, American School of Classical Studies at Athens. See also Kathimerini (17/02/10); Ethnos (20/01/10); Eleftheros Typos (12/01/10); Archaeology (May/June 2010, 9).