Abstract:This paper presents the first study that combines the use of ancient crop and animal stable isotopes (carbon and nitrogen) and Zooarchaeology Mass Spectrometry species identification (ZooMS) for reconstructing early farming practices at Kouphovouno, a Middle-Late Neolithic village in southern Greece (c. 5950-4500 cal. BC). Debate surrounding the nature of early farming predominantly revolves around the intensity of crop cultivation: did early farmers move around the landscape while practicing temporary farming methods such as slash and burn agriculture or did they create more permanent fields by investing high labor inputs into smaller pieces of land that produced higher crop yields? The need to address these questions using a direct assessment of the intensity and scale of cultivation is apparent, and an integrated stable isotope approach provides such an opportunity. The results of this study support the model of small-scale mixed farming, where crop cultivation and animal husbandry are closely integrated. The farmers directed their intensive management towards crops grown for human consumption (free-threshing wheat), while growing fodder crop (hulled barley) more extensively. Pulses were cultivated under a high-manuring/high-watering regime, likely in garden plots in rotation with free-threshing wheat. The diets of the livestock enable us to investigate which parts of the landscape were used for browsing and grazing and indicate that animal management changed in the Late Neolithic. The sheep and goats were now kept in smaller numbers and grazed together and new pasture grasses were sought for the grazing of cattle. This study demonstrates that beyond its applicability for palaeodietary reconstruction, analysis of stable isotopes of archaeological crop and animal remains has important implications for understanding the relationship between humans, plants and animals in an archaeological context.
The site of Kouphovouno, just south of Sparta, is one of the main Neolithic sites in Laconia. It was first settled in the Middle Neolithic period and developed into a large village with remains occupying some - hectares. A joint team from the British School at Athens and the Ecole française d'Athènes carried out excavations at the site in -. There is evidence for occupation during the Bronze Age, and for an extensive Late Roman villa, but this article concentrates on the chronology of the site during the Middle and Late Neolithic phases. The evidence from stratigraphic sequences, pottery typology, seriation and Bayesian analysis of the radiocarbon dates is brought together to present a detailed chronological sequence covering the period c.- BC. In particular the analysis relies on the results from two deep soundings, one excavated in Area C carried down to the natural sediments underlying the site and exposing the earliest period of occupation, and the second in Area G covering the later Middle Neolithic and much of the Late Neolithic phase. The findings from Kouphovouno are placed more generally in the context of finds from other sites in the Peloponnese and in particular in relation to the important sequence from Franchthi Cave. On the basis of the evidence it is argued that the transition from Middle Neolithic to Late Neolithic in southern Greece was not abrupt, as had previously been thought, but showed a gradual evolution. This finding has implications for our understanding of the process of transformation that southern Greece underwent in the course of the later sixth millennium BC.
This is the final report on the intensive survey at Kouphovouno, the prehistoric settlement just south of Sparta, in 1999–2000. As well as a total collection of the artefacts on the surface, there was a magnetometer survey of the site and a programme of environmental studies, for which a series of cores was taken. The site was first occupied in the 6th millennium and covered 4–5 ha in the Middle, Late/Final Neolithic and Early Helladic periods. Occupation continued in the Middle and Late Helladic periods and there is also evidence of Classical-Hellenistic and Roman activity. As well as pottery, the artefacts included chipped and polished stone tools. An analytical programme has investigated the source of the raw materials used for the latter.
A chronological and spatial analysis of Mycenaean tomb types is presented in the belief that burial practices reflect the social and political changes which occurred during the Late Helladic period. Interpretation of the evidence is complicated by the degree of regional diversity. However, it is suggested that the practices of the Middle Helladic period were not as simple as has been supposed and foreshadow the innovations of the early Mycenaean period which were inspired by political motives. The increasing standardisation in tomb types in LHIIl was conditioned by the emergence of the Mycenaean palace system, the collapse of which engendered the changes seen in ~ L HIIIC. -
The evidence of Minoan and Mycenaean trade with and settlement in Anatolia has never been comprehensively studied. Bittel (1967:5–23), Buchholz (1974:365–8), Cook and Blackman (1959–60:39–50, 1964–5:44–55, 1970–1:39–53), D. French (1969:73–4), Hiller (1975:406–11), Hope Simpson and Lazenby (1973:174–9), Lloyd and Mellaart (1955:81–3), Mellaart (1968:187–90) and Stubbings (1951:22–4 and 88–9) have discussed some of the sites involved but not in depth. Obviously it is only by considering the evidence as a whole that a definitive assessment is possible, so that a further study is not superfluous.Problems arising from the decipherment of the Boğazköy/Hattusas archives are not considered but I would hope that this study might nevertheless assist those concerned with the political geography of Anatolia in the second millennium.
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