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"Neolithic period Greece."
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A social archaeology of households in neolithic Greece : an anthropological approach
This volume examines how the household is defined socially, culturally and historically in Neolithic Greece.
Book
The Early Neolithic in Greece
Farmers made a sudden and dramatic appearance in Greece around 7000 BC, bringing with them new ceramics and crafts, and establishing settled villages. They were Europe's first farmers, and their settlements provide the link between the first agricultural communities in the Near East and the subsequent spread of the new technologies to the Balkans and on to Western Europe. In this 2001 book, Catherine Perlès argues that the stimulus for the spread of agriculture to Europe was a colonisation movement involving small groups of maritime peoples. Drawing evidence from a wide range of archaeological sources, including often neglected 'small finds', and introducing daring new perspectives on funerary rituals and the distribution of figurines, she constructs a complex and subtle picture of early Neolithic societies, overturning the traditional view that these societies were simple and self-sufficient.
eBook
Plant Foods of Greece
A synthesis of culinary practices of prehistoric Greece based on plant food ingredients
In Plant Foods of Greece , Greek archaeologist Soultana Maria Valamoti takes readers on a culinary journey, reconstructing the plant foods and culinary practices of Neolithic and Bronze Age Greece. For more than thirty years, she has been analyzing a large body of archaeobotanical data that was retrieved from nearly twenty sites in mainland Greece and the Greek islands, with an additional analysis of other sites as referenced by published colleagues. Plant foods were the main ingredients of daily meals in prehistoric Greece and most likely of special dishes prepared for feasts and rituals.
Valamoti’s approach allows an exploration of culinary variability through time. The thousands of charred seeds identified from occupation debris correspond to minuscule time capsules. She is able to document changes from the cooking of the first farmers to the sophisticated cuisines of the elites who inhabited palaces in the first cities of Europe in the south of Greece during the Late Bronze Age. Along the way, she explains the complex processes for the addition of new ingredients (such as millet and olives), condiments, sweet tastes, and complex recipes. Valamoti also addresses regional variability and diversity as well as detailing experimentation and research using occasional input from ancient written sources.
Comprehensive and synthetic coverage encompasses bread/cereals, pulses, oils, fruit and nuts, fermented brews, healing foods, cooking, and identity. In addition, Valamoti offers insight into engaging in public archaeology and provides recipes that incorporate ancient plant ingredients and connect prehistory to the present in a critical way. A definitive source for a range of food scientists and scholars, it will also appeal to foodies.
eBook
Communities, Landscapes, and Interaction in Neolithic Greece
The last three decades have witnessed a period of growing archaeological activity in Greece that have enhanced our awareness of the diversity and variability of ancient communities. New sites offer rich datasets from many aspects of material culture that challenge traditional perceptions and suggest complex interpretations of the past. This volume provides a synthetic overview of recent developments in the study of Neolithic Greece and reconsiders the dynamics of human-environment interactions while recording the growing diversity in layers of social organization. It fills an essential lacuna in contemporary literature and enhances our understanding of the Neolithic communities in the Greek Peninsula.
eBook
Salt or fish (or salted fish)? The Bronze Age specialised sites along the Tyrrhenian coast of Central Italy: New insights from Caprolace settlement
In 2017, an excavation led by the Groningen Institute of Archaeology and in collaboration with the Tor Vergata University of Rome, took place on two small islands in the Caprolace lagoon (Sabaudia, Italy), where Middle Bronze Age layers had previously been reported. Combining the results of an environmental reconstruction of the surroundings and a detailed study of the pottery assemblages, we were able to trace a specialised area on the southern island, in all probability devoted to salt production by means of the briquetage technique. The latter basically consists of boiling a brine through which a salt cake is obtained. The technique was widespread all over Europe, from Neolithic to Roman Times. Since the evidence points to an elite-driven workshop, this result has deep implications for the development of the Bronze Age socio-economic framework of Central Italy. Pottery evidence also suggests that in the Bronze Age sites along the Tyrrhenian coast of Central Italy where briquetage has already been hypothesised, more complex processes may have taken place. On the northern island, we collected a large number of so-called pedestals, which are characteristic features of briquetage, while chemical analyses point to salt or fish sauce production, like the roman liquamen, in a Middle Bronze Age domestic context.
Journal Article
Radiocarbon Dating of the Neolithic Settlement at Makriyalos, Pieria, North Greece
Radiocarbon ( 14 C) dating was performed on samples from the prehistoric settlement at Makriyalos, northern Greece, a “flat extended” (rather than tell) site. Two separate occupation phases, Makriyalos I and II, were clearly distinguished on different sides of a low hill and belonged to the Late Neolithic I and II periods, respectively. Individual phases related to the use of circuit ditches and borrow pits were also recognized and dated. Phase modeling was applied in order to establish the sequence and duration of use of different features. The earliest activity seems to be around 5450 BC, among the earliest dates in northern Greece for the beginning of the LN and perhaps reflecting some earlier activity. The transition from LNI to LNII occurred at around 4950 BC without discontinuity earlier than other sites in Macedonia but perhaps same time as Thessaly. Intermediate ditch cutting phases occurred at 5300 and 5050 BC. A cemetery in the area of the settlement, initially thought to relate to the LNII phase of the settlement, was shown to date in the EBA period (beginning of 3rd millennium BC).
Journal Article
Settling waterscapes in Europe : the archaeology of Neolithic & Bronze Age pile-dwellings
Pile dwellings have been explored over a vast region for a number of decades now. This has led to the development of different ways, methods, and even schools of under-water and peat-bog excavation practices and data analysis techniques under the influence of different research traditions in individual countries. On the one hand, these and other factors can limit our understanding of the past, whilst on the other hand they can also open up further avenues of interpretation. By collecting the papers presented at the 2016 session of the EAA in Vilnius, this book aims to take this diversity as an opportunity. The geographical scope extends from the Baltic to Russia, Belarus, Albania, North Macedonia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Croatia, Greece, Germany, Austria and Switzerland to France. The volume thus provides a current insight into international research into life in and around a vast array of prehistoric waterscapes. Extensive multidisciplinary research carried out in recent years has provided new data with regard to the anthropogenic influence on the landscapes around Neolithic and Bronze Age pile dwellings, which allows us to characterise in more detail the lifestyles of the settlements’ inhabitants, the peculiarities of the ecological niche and the interaction between humans and their environment. The volume also contains various case studies that demonstrate the importance of scientific analyses for the study of settlements between land and water. Overall, the volume presents an important new body of data and international perspectives on the settlement of European waterscapes.
eBook
Genetics of the peloponnesean populations and the theory of extinction of the medieval peloponnesean Greeks
Peloponnese has been one of the cradles of the Classical European civilization and an important contributor to the ancient European history. It has also been the subject of a controversy about the ancestry of its population. In a theory hotly debated by scholars for over 170 years, the German historian Jacob Philipp Fallmerayer proposed that the medieval Peloponneseans were totally extinguished by Slavic and Avar invaders and replaced by Slavic settlers during the 6th century CE. Here we use 2.5 million single-nucleotide polymorphisms to investigate the genetic structure of Peloponnesean populations in a sample of 241 individuals originating from all districts of the peninsula and to examine predictions of the theory of replacement of the medieval Peloponneseans by Slavs. We find considerable heterogeneity of Peloponnesean populations exemplified by genetically distinct subpopulations and by gene flow gradients within Peloponnese. By principal component analysis (PCA) and ADMIXTURE analysis the Peloponneseans are clearly distinguishable from the populations of the Slavic homeland and are very similar to Sicilians and Italians. Using a novel method of quantitative analysis of ADMIXTURE output we find that the Slavic ancestry of Peloponnesean subpopulations ranges from 0.2 to 14.4%. Subpopulations considered by Fallmerayer to be Slavic tribes or to have Near Eastern origin, have no significant ancestry of either. This study rejects the theory of extinction of medieval Peloponneseans and illustrates how genetics can clarify important aspects of the history of a human population.
Journal Article
Stature estimation in Ancient Greece: population-specific equations and secular trends from 9000 BC to 900 AD
Stature is critical for our understanding of human morphology and evolution. This necessitates the development of accurate stature estimation methods. The aim of the present study is to generate population-specific equations for ancient Greece and to explore the diachronic stature trends over the last 10,000 years. In parallel, it introduces the Logarithmic Human Stature Index (LHSI) as a new tool for inter-population comparisons. We collected anthropometric data and reconstructed stature using the anatomical method from 77 males and 59 females from Greece (3rd c. BC–9th c. AD). We utilized this dataset to generate population-specific equations. We then applied the new formula to 775 individuals (10th millennium BC–9th c. AD) from Greece exploring stature secular trends. We tested the new equations to different populations of European origin (662 males and 498 females). Ordinary least square sets based on lower limbs provided the best estimations with the smaller errors. Male and female stature in ancient Greece in the last 10,000 years ranged from 159.7 to 170.6 cm and from 153.1 to 160.4 cm, respectively. We observed a decrease from the Mesolithic to the Neolithic period, a gradual increase from the Bronze Age to the Archaic/Classical periods, and a steady increase from the Roman period onwards. Stature secular trends in Greece are in accordance with historic, archaeological, and genomic data and similar to European patterns. LHSI is a valuable tool for anthropometric comparisons between reference series and thus can contribute to the choice of the optimal stature estimation formula.
Journal Article