Site Use and Maintenance in the Middle Palaeolithic at Lakonis I (Peloponnese, Greece)

Abstract

Lakonis I (ca. 100,000-40,000 BP) is a collapsed Middle Palaeolithic cave on the coast of the Mani Peninsula of southern Greece. The site contains three distinctive components: a hearth context, upper bone breccia, and lower bone breccia. The bone breccias contain concreted deposits and large numbers of lithic and faunal materials, though the upper bone breccia preserves more evidence of dumping from hearth features. The hearth context is comprised of hearth lenses interspersed with mixed ashy sediments, which we interpret as the remnants of raked out and trampled combustion features. Bones and lithics in the hearth context have higher rates of burning, and the lithics are smaller and more broken. The large numbers of burned bones are probably not the result of accidental burning or the use of bone as a fuel source, rather they seem to relate to site maintenance. The incorporation of multiple lines of evidence points to two different site maintenance strategies at Lakonis: (1) the intentional burning of food refuse and (2) the cleaning of hearths, and dumping remnant deposits elsewhere at the site. We therefore consider Lakonis I to be amongst the growing list of sites that contain evidence for Neandertal behavioral complexity.

Palaeolithic archaeology: a review of recent research

“…Another investigation of site use, at the cave of Lakonis I in Mani (ID2558; ca. 100 ka to 40 ka BP), examined the spatial distribution of cultural material in conjunction with micromorphological analysis as well as a zooarchaeological study of the faunal assemblages, focusing on the site's hearth complexes and bone breccias, and aiming to identify patterns of intra-site activities (Starkovich et al 2018a). Results indicate spatially distinct activity areas, including a 'dump' area where materials were discarded from elsewhere at the site, as well as two different strategies of site maintenance: (1) the burning of food refuse to remove organic waste; (2) the scooping out of hearths and dumping the materials elsewhere (Starkovich et al 2018a).…”

“…100 ka to 40 ka BP), examined the spatial distribution of cultural material in conjunction with micromorphological analysis as well as a zooarchaeological study of the faunal assemblages, focusing on the site's hearth complexes and bone breccias, and aiming to identify patterns of intra-site activities (Starkovich et al 2018a). Results indicate spatially distinct activity areas, including a 'dump' area where materials were discarded from elsewhere at the site, as well as two different strategies of site maintenance: (1) the burning of food refuse to remove organic waste; (2) the scooping out of hearths and dumping the materials elsewhere (Starkovich et al 2018a). At Lakonis, the selection and consumption of lithic raw materials remained largely unchanged throughout the Middle Palaeolithic, indicating that the site maintained part of the same local catchment area and there was little change in mobility patterns (Elefanti and Panagopoulou 2016).…”

Burned by the fire: Isotopic effects of experimental combustion of faunal tooth enamel

“…Burned bones and teeth are abundant in archaeological sites with burning even being a significant factor in whether a bone is identifiable or not due to increased friability and fragmentation (i.e., Stiner et al, 1995;Villa et al, 2004;Morin, 2012). At some sites, such as the Middle Paleolithic site of Lakonis I in Greece (Starkovich et al, 2020) and Sibudu (Clark, 2019) and Blombos Cave Fig. 1.…”

Connecting Middle Palaeolithic Datasets: the Interplay of Zooarchaeological and Lithic Data for Unravelling Neanderthal Behaviour

“…Two site-based contributions to this volume, the Abrigo de la Quebrada (Spain; Real et al 2020) and Lakonis I (Greece; Starkovich et al 2020), aptly demonstrate the potential of integrating lithic and faunal datasets to address site use and taphonomy issues. Real et al (2020) use lithic and faunal data concomitantly to address several aspects of Neanderthal occupation at the site: spatial analysis, the question of palimpsest, the length of occupation of the site, hunting activities and mobility patterns.…”

“…They further compare these patterns to other sites in the Iberian Mediterranean area stressing the difficulty of relating the density of material to occupation duration, frequency and site function. Starkovich et al (2020) address the intra-site activity patterns at Lakonis I to understand spatial aspects of Neanderthal behaviour. Using principally three lines of evidence, geoarcheology, faunal, and lithic analyses, they focus on the use of fire and the ways hearth-related features were used and maintained.…”