A possible Late Pleistocene forager site from the Karaburun Peninsula, western Turkey

The surveys carried out along the coasts of the island of Lemnos (Greece) have led to the discovery of new Late Epipalaeolithic sites at Agia Marina and Peristereònas. Peristereònas yielded a knapped stone assemblage that is strictly comparable with that from Ouriakos, a site located along the south-eastern coast of the same island, while the artefacts from Agia Marina are more problematic to interpret because they are probably to be attributed to a slightly different period. However, the most characteristic artefacts recovered from the sites are represented by microlithic geometrics obtained by abrupt, bipolar, or direct retouch, end scrapers, and different types of exhausted cores and technical pieces, which help us reconstruct the operational sequence employed for the manufacture of the armatures. The aim of the paper is to contribute to the interpretation of the characteristics of the Late Epipalaeolithic assemblages discovered on the island and to frame them into the general picture of the end of the Pleistocene in this part of the Aegean. The artefacts from the sites show unique characteristics, without parallels to the knapped stone assemblages of the same period so far recovered along the coasts of the Aegean Sea, the eastern Mediterranean, the Levant, and the Black Sea.

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Between Anatolia and the Aegean: Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic Foragers of the Karaburun Peninsula

Çilingiroğlu

Kaczanowska

Kozłowski

et al. 2020

Journal of Field Archaeology

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The Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic periods of Turkey are poorly understood. The discovery of two sites (Kocaman and Kayadibi) in the Karaburun Peninsula in coastal western Turkey opens a whole new window into our understanding of these periods in Turkey and beyond by providing the first solid evidence for pre-Neolithic foragers. This article presents typological and technological properties of the lithics from these two open-air sites in terms of raw material selection, tool types, and technological preferences and discusses the results in relation to contemporary Anatolian, Aegean, southwest Asian, and southeast European industries. Typological and technological analyses suggest that Kocaman lithics were part of the eastern Mediterranean and northern Aegean Epipalaeolithic traditions; the Kayadibi lithics, on the other hand, correspond well with the Aegean Mesolithic assemblages. The lack of any affinity between the Kayadibi and Initial Neolithic lithic assemblages from western Turkey has important implications about the Neolithization process of western Turkey and the Aegean.

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A possible Late Pleistocene forager site from the Karaburun Peninsula, western Turkey

Cited by 3 publications

References 1 publication

Two Possible Upper Paleolithic Sites on the Karaburun Peninsula, Turkey

Two Possible Upper Paleolithic Sites on the Karaburun Peninsula, Turkey

Agia Marina and Peristereònas: Two New Epipalaeolithic Sites on the Island of Lemnos (Greece)

Between Anatolia and the Aegean: Epipalaeolithic and Mesolithic Foragers of the Karaburun Peninsula

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