Keratsini - Schisto Cave - 2008

Keratsini - Schisto Cave. Antigoni Papadea (Εphorate of Antiquities of Lasithi), Fanis Mavridis (Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology), Despoina Minou-Minopoulou (Ephorate of Palaeoanthropology-Speleology), Daisuke Yamaguchi (University of Athens) and Orestis Apostolikas (Independent) report the following:

The Cave of Schistos in Keratsini, Attica is located at the southwestern foothills of Mount Egaleo at an altitude of 259m. A salvage excavation carried out by the Ephorate of Paleoanthropology - Speleology revealed the multi-period use of the Cave during the Prehistoric (Middle Neolithic, Late I and II and Early Bronze and Early Bronze Ages) and Classical periods . However, its earliest human use dates to the late Pleistocene-Early Holocene. Stone carvings were found at the excavations of the Upper Pleistocene-Early Holocene embankments. Based on their typological and technological characteristics, the stone carving are characteristic of the complex of Epigravet stone carvings of the Upper Palaeolithic period. There is, therefore, a continuation of the Epigrabetic tradition in the Early Mesolithic period. It is possible that the change in the environmental conditions that characterise the transition from the Pleistocene to the Early Holocene did not drastically affect the living conditions of the users of the cave. Therefore their stone tools did not need to be differentiated. The above phenomenon has been recorded in places of NW Greece.