‘Sparta before Sparta’: report on the intensive survey at Kouphovouno 1999–2000

Abstract

This is the final report on the intensive survey at Kouphovouno, the prehistoric settlement just south of Sparta, in 1999–2000. As well as a total collection of the artefacts on the surface, there was a magnetometer survey of the site and a programme of environmental studies, for which a series of cores was taken. The site was first occupied in the 6th millennium and covered 4–5 ha in the Middle, Late/Final Neolithic and Early Helladic periods. Occupation continued in the Middle and Late Helladic periods and there is also evidence of Classical-Hellenistic and Roman activity. As well as pottery, the artefacts included chipped and polished stone tools. An analytical programme has investigated the source of the raw materials used for the latter.

An integrated stable isotope study of plants and animals from Kouphovouno, southern Greece: a new look at Neolithic farming

“…of the site did not vary significantly between the Middle and the Late Neolithic (Cavanagh et al 2004(Cavanagh et al , 2007Mee et al in press. ).…”

“…The plant assemblage mostly consists of domestic species of cereals and pulses including free-threshing wheat, hulled barley, (one-seeded) einkorn, emmer, lentil, common pea, grass pea, and bitter vetch; along with figs and flax. The faunal assemblage is dominated by domestic animals such as cattle, sheep, goats, pigs and dogs, but wild animals such as red deer, roe deer, wild boar, aurochs, wild goat, hare, wolf, fox, cat and weasel were also found in smaller quantities (Cantuel et al 2008;Cavanagh et al 2004;Gardeisen 2007).…”

“…The early farmers may have sown their crops in the floodplain on which the tell sits, on alluvial fans located 300m to the west of the site and/or on unoccupied parts of the tell itself. The environment also offered land suitable for animal grazing/browsing and plentiful drainage from nearby rivers (Fouache et al 2007; section by James and Kousoulakou in Cavanagh et al 2004). …”

The Middle–late Neolithic Transition at Kouphovouno

“…In the first phase of the project, in 1999–2000, a grid of 5 m by 5 m squares was laid out across the whole of the site (Cavanagh, Mee and Renard 2004). All of the surface artefacts were collected, mainly pottery, tile and chipped stone tools, but also stone axes, querns and fragments of figurines.…”

“…The distribution of the pottery suggests that the site remained much the same size in the Late Neolithic period and there were also some Final Neolithic sherds. In the Early Bronze Age the settlement may have expanded and was occupied in the Middle and Late Bronze Age, as well as the Roman period (Cavanagh, Mee and Renard 2004, 126–8).…”