The paper aims to define the natural distribution of Olea europaea L. var. sylvestris (Miller) Lehr. in the North Mediterranean basin during the Pleniglacial and the Early-Middle Holocene by means of the identification of its wood-charcoal and/or wood at prehistoric sites.For this purpose we have reviewed the previously available information and we have combined it with new wood-charcoal analyses data. We have taken under consideration the presence and frequency of Olea europaea L. in the available wood-charcoal sequences, the characteristics of the accompanying flora, the associated chrono-cultural contexts, the broader biogeographical context and the AMS dates provided by Olea wood-charcoal or endocarps.According to the available evidence, during the Middle and Late Pleniglacial (c. 59-11,5 ka cal. BP), Olea would have persisted in thermophilous refugia located in the southern areas of the North Mediterranean basin, the southern Levant and the north of Africa. The Last Glacial Maximum (c. 22-18 ka cal. BP) probably reduced the distribution area of Olea. During the Preboreal and the Boreal (c. 11 500-8800 cal. BP) the species started to expand in the thermomediterranean bioclimatic level. In the western Mediterranean, during the Atlantic period (c. 8800-5600 cal. BP), the species became very abundant or dominant in the thermophilous plant formations and expanded to favorable enclaves outside the limits of the thermomediterranean level.

Dispilio is a lakeside settlement by the Orestias Lake, Kastoria, northern Greece. The site was inhabited from the Middle Neolithic to the Chalcolithic, with some surface evidence of Bronze Age occupation. Microfacies analysis of the sediments, supported by a suite of environmental indices, has provided detailed paleoenvironmental data and elucidated the main processes involved in the formation of the site and its history of occupation. The settlement was established on the lakeshore, on a shallow sand ridge and a shore marsh. Initially, houses were built on raised platforms above the water. After a major conflagration, a range of depositional microenvironments were established that caused local changes in the sedimentation rate. Therefore, some areas quickly emerged and became dry land, while some others continued to be flooded as part of the transitional supra-littoral environment. On the dry land, houses were built directly on the ground, whereas in the transitional areas houses continued to be built on raised platforms. Thus, gradually, a mound was formed and further shaped by subsequent lake-level fluctuations. One of the lake-level rises is tentatively related to the abandonment of the mound in the Chalcolithic and the development of a hardpan on its surface. There is also evidence of later occupation during the Bronze Age in the form of a few, mostly surface, archaeological remains.

The multi-period (~38,000–6000 cal BP) site of Franchthi Cave, located in the Argolid peninsula of southern mainland Greece, is unique in the Eastern Mediterranean for preserving a long archaeological sequence extending from the Upper Palaeolithic through to the end of the Neolithic period. In this paper, we present new anthracological (carbonized fuel wood waste) evidence from Franchthi Cave with which we reconstruct the changing ecology of woodland vegetation in its environs during the late Pleistocene and the early-mid Holocene. The integrated archaeobotanical record (charred wood and non-wood macro-remains) demonstrates that in the Lateglacial the now-submerged coastal shelf of the southern Argolid peninsula was covered by steppe grassland vegetation dominated by junipers, almonds, cereals and legumes. The rapid climatic amelioration that marked the start of the Holocene brought about the disappearance of juniper and the expansion of deciduous woodland, cereals and lentils. This woodland-grassland biome bears no analogues in the modern and historical vegetation ecology of the Aegean basin. Instead, it is directly comparable to the steppe woodland biomes exploited by late Pleistocene and early Holocene hunter-gatherers in Southwest Asia, and points to the convergent evolution of late Pleistocene and early Holocene plant exploitation strategies between the two regions. Continuous sea-level rise during the early Holocene led to the gradual extinction of this unique palaeohabitat, which acted as the catalyst for the selective introduction of domesticated cereal crops at Franchthi Cave in the early 9th millennium cal BP. Our meta-analysis of the non-wood archaeobotanical data puts into question the concept of the wholesale introduction of a crop “package” by pioneer settler groups arriving from the East. It is proposed instead that selective cereal crop introduction formed part of a complex pattern of sociocultural interactions that brought together indigenous and immigrant groups into new communities.

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Using a new approach that combines high-quality coring with AMS dating, the authors are mapping the start of the Neolithic in Aegean Thrace – a missing link in the arrival of agriculture in Europe. The method also revealed the edge of the marine transgression dating to some 2900 years ago, implying that sites located near the coast in early Neolithic times have in all likelihood been lost to the sea.

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