A Methodological Approach for Intra – Site Analysis of Prehistoric Settlements

Abstract

During the IGEAN (Innovative Geophysical Approaches for the Study of Early Agricultural Villages of Neolithic) project, more than 20 Neolithic-Early Bronze Age (EBA) settlements in the area of Thessaly, Central Greece, were investigated through various geophysical approaches. The prehistoric settlements of Almyros2, Almyriotiki, Perdika1 and Rizomilos2 have been selected to be studied in-depth about their intra-site spatial organization. Here, for sake of conciseness, only the results about Almyros2 and Perdika1 will be presented, assuming these settlements belong both to the Middle Neolithic period. This study aims to propose a combined methodological approach in order to examine if such settlements were conceived following a determined spatial organization. Four different technologies have been implemented, including geophysical prospection, space syntax, 3D modelling and 3D visibility analysis. The promising results obtained from the combination of such technologies, hopefully, will encourage specialists to adopt, compare and develop integrated methodologies more often, especially when excavations are limited.

Geophysical and Geochemical Proxies of Neolithic Sites from Thessaly: A Comparative Study on the Potential of Soil Magnetic Susceptibility and Phosphate Analyses for Minimally Invasive Location and Interpretation of Buried Features

“…An alternative interpretation of this depletion in magnetic susceptibility may be also indicative of a non-built area at the center of the nucleus of the settlement defining an open space or central courtyard. This is a feature that has been seen in the few excavated sites in Thessaly [34] or other surveyed sites though the course of the IGEAN project, such as Visviki and Almyros II [20,35]. Along Rizomilos' Lines 1 and 2, the expected positive correlation between χlf and phosphate concentrations was not observed (Figure 5A).…”