Palaeoenvironments and site formation processes at the Neolithic lakeside settlement of Dispilio, Kastoria, Northern Greece

Abstract

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.

Neolithic woodland management and land-use in south-eastern Europe: The anthracological evidence from Northern Greece and Bulgaria

“…The anthracological data available from the same sites show that the oak woodlands remained the main source of firewood and timber through time, probably for more than 1000 years (for Dispilio Fig. 3C and also Karkanas et al, 2011;for Dikili Tash Psarroy, 2002;Malamidou et al, in press). In line with the above, most of the pollen studies in the southern Balkans and northern Greece suggest a late Holocene date (after ca.…”

“…BC (Hondrogianni-Metoki, 2009b); Kleitos 1, inhabited during the second half of the 6th and early 5th millennia BC (Ziota, 2011) while habitation continued in the Final Neolithic (4230-3995 cal BC; Hofmanova et al, 2016: 9e10, Table S1); the lake settlement of Dispilio on the shores of Lake Orestias, with successive habitation phases from the end of the Middle Neolithic to the Final Neolithic (5500e5200 and 5200-4300 cal. BC) (Karkanas et al, 2011); and the settlement of Avgi that preserves remains of three habitation phases (Avgi I, II, III) from 5300 to the first half of the 5th mill. cal.…”

“…In recent years the analysis of anthracological remains (wood charcoal macro remains) has been included in the study of several prehistoric sites in the Balkans (Filipovi c et al, 2010;Fletcher and Madella, 2006;Karkanas et al, 2011;Marinova and Thiebault, 2008;Marinova et al, 2012Marinova et al, , 2013Ntinou, 2002;Schroedter et al, 2012). Such analyses in most cases focus on the remains of domestic firewood used for heating, lighting and cooking.…”

Interpreting human behavior from depositional rates and combustion features through the study of sedimentary microfacies at site Pinnacle Point 5-6, South Africa

“…In the field facies typically are defined macroscopically but micromorphology can also define microscopic 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59 60 61 62 63 64 65 11 facies (microfacies). The microfacies approach is a recent analytical approach (Courty, 2001), but it has already been widely applied with successful results (Goldberg et al, 2009;Villagran et al, 2009;Karkanas, 2010;Karkanas et al, 2011;Miller et al, 2013). It is important to stress that all microfacies are stratigraphic entities that have the potential for both significant lateral extent and repetitive occurrence (Figure 4).…”

Newsround

“…The absence of further structural remains below this level suggests that the area was still under water during the Neolithic (see recently Karkanas et al 2011). Notable among a substantial material assemblage, is a group of 29 pierced canine teeth, perhaps from a single necklace.…”