The Middle–late Neolithic Transition at Kouphovouno

Abstract

The site of Kouphovouno, just south of Sparta, is one of the main Neolithic sites in Laconia. It was first settled in the Middle Neolithic period and developed into a large village with remains occupying some - hectares. A joint team from the British School at Athens and the Ecole française d'Athènes carried out excavations at the site in -. There is evidence for occupation during the Bronze Age, and for an extensive Late Roman villa, but this article concentrates on the chronology of the site during the Middle and Late Neolithic phases. The evidence from stratigraphic sequences, pottery typology, seriation and Bayesian analysis of the radiocarbon dates is brought together to present a detailed chronological sequence covering the period c.- BC. In particular the analysis relies on the results from two deep soundings, one excavated in Area C carried down to the natural sediments underlying the site and exposing the earliest period of occupation, and the second in Area G covering the later Middle Neolithic and much of the Late Neolithic phase. The findings from Kouphovouno are placed more generally in the context of finds from other sites in the Peloponnese and in particular in relation to the important sequence from Franchthi Cave. On the basis of the evidence it is argued that the transition from Middle Neolithic to Late Neolithic in southern Greece was not abrupt, as had previously been thought, but showed a gradual evolution. This finding has implications for our understanding of the process of transformation that southern Greece underwent in the course of the later sixth millennium BC.

The Cave of Pan, Marathon, Greece—AMS Dating of the Neolithic Phase and Calculation of the Regional Marine Reservoir Effect

“…At a lower layer 0.50 m below present surface (supplemental Figure S9a), was discovered sample Lyon-12524(GrA) [5707–5641 BC] as well as a fragment from a thin walled Middle Neolithic monochrome Urfirnis bowl or basin, with a reddish-yellow to yellowish-red paint on the exterior walls and on the interior rim and four mending holes (supplemental Figure S9b), which seems to match with the results of the AMS date of Lyon-12524(GrA) [cf. Mee et al (2014: 19, table 7) with 14 C dates from Franchthi cave covering Franchthi Ceramic Phase 2 (Vitelli 1993)].…”

Pottery Firing Structures in the Early Mediterranean: Micromorphological Evidence and Archaeological Data from Middle Neolithic Kouphovouno (Southern Greece)

“…The pottery repertoire includes a variety of jars, bowls, and pedestalled bowls, normally painted and generally large in size (over half with a capacity greater than 1 litre); a number of specialized cooking pots were also produced (Mee, 2007: 201–10). The great majority of MN pottery in the Peloponnese is called ‘Urfirnis’ (from the German meaning primitive varnish) and in our MN levels (summarized in Mee et al, 2014: fig. 12, contexts C0837–G2009) between 92 per cent and 100 per cent of all the recorded pottery consisted of Urfirnis.…”

“…It extends over some 4–5 ha and the MN deposits have been excavated to a depth of 3 m. First excavated by Otto Wilhelm von Vacano in 1941 (Renard, 1989), it was reopened in 2001, after a survey and study in 1999–2000 (Cavanagh et al, 2004). Kouphovouno was first occupied in the MN (Figure 2), in the phase equivalent to Franchthi FCP 2.3 (Mee et al, 2014). Occupation continued through the Late Neolithic and during the Early Bronze Age and, more sporadically, thereafter.…”

“…The site of Kouphovouno lies on the outskirts of Sparta in southern Greece (Cavanagh et al, 2004; 2007; Mee et al, 2014) (Figure 1). It extends over some 4–5 ha and the MN deposits have been excavated to a depth of 3 m. First excavated by Otto Wilhelm von Vacano in 1941 (Renard, 1989), it was reopened in 2001, after a survey and study in 1999–2000 (Cavanagh et al, 2004).…”

“…The contexts of interest here come from Area C and date to the last MN phase. Based on AMS radiocarbon dating of seeds from contemporary stratigraphic units, the contexts belonging to the latest period of the firing structure—the focus of this article—range in date between c. 5640 and 5500 cal bc (Mee et al, 2014).…”