Studying sickles in Thessaloniki

At the beginning of April, we travelled to Thessaloniki for a collaboration with Foteini Adaktylou and Maria Pappa to analyze the Neolithic tools of the settlements of Revenia and Makriyalos.

We have been able to study a small number of pieces from both sites since the archaeological record is enormously rich. The data obtained is excellent and helps us understand the Neolithic sickles of Northern Greece.

It has been great to be able to collaborate with Foteini and María, as well as with the curators and technicians of the Makriyelos Museum and Angeliki Kita, to whom we thank for their help.

In June we will return to Thessaloniki to continue working on new deposits. This will allow us to complete our knowledge about these Neolithic lithic tools.

Museum of Makriyalos. Wonderful to work! 

In front of Mount Olympus

Back in Greece! Neo-Innova project studying early farmers in Crete and Boeotia

Within the frame of the Neo-Innova project we have been back in Greece, working on the flaked stone tool assemblages from Knossos in Crete and Sarakenos cave in Boeotia. Results have been exciting and new data on harvesting technology diffusion and evolution have been gathered. The picture is getting clearer!

We would like to thank all the people that made this study possible, for their kindness and support: Valasia Isaakidou, Amy Boogard, Paul Halstead, Maria Ntinou, James Conolly, Paul Halstad, Christina Tsorakis, Adamantios Sampson, Tonia Tsourouni, ... and many others.

In Knossos.

At work... analising Sarakenos Cave tools.

View of the Gla village, an important fortified site of the Mycenaean civilization.

Analysis of Lithic Tools from Cova d'en Pardo and Cova Randero. Alicante's Archaeological Museum

Recently we went to Alicante's Archaeological Museum, in order to study the lithic tools from Cova d'en Pardo and Cova Randero. It was awesome to share the tasks with Ignacio Martín and the archaeologists managing the archaeological fieldworks: Gabriel García Atienzar, Laura Sirvent and Jorge Soler.

It was a great experience with excellent results. With these two archaeological sites, we are further completing the studies of Neolithic sites in Valencia region. The results from these recent works will be soon published in a monographic book about Cova d'en Pardo.

Thanks to Gabriel, Laura and Jorge for the friendship and their collaboration; and also thanks to the curators and technicians from the museum for their professionalism and kindness.

Early Farming Communities in Thessaly: work in progress

Within the framework of our project, we are now in Thessaly at the Diachronic Museum of Larissa for analyzing the materials from various Early, Middle and Late Neolithic sites in order to explore the evolution of the harvesting technologies of the first farming communities of the Thessalian plain.

The entrance of the Diachronic Museum of Larissa

Thessalian plane shows an incredible density of this type of sites, over 300 sites have been surveyed, even if only a small percentage have been excavated. Few areas in Europe has such a density of Neolithic settlements.

One of the labels of the museum with the distribution of the surveyed (yellow dots) and excavated (red dots) Neolithic mounds.

Materials conserved in the Museum are of exceptional relevance for the understanding of the Neolithic diffusion process, with some beautiful examples of clay human figurines.

Some of the materials exposed in the Museum.

The city of Larissa also conserves some relevant monuments from Greek, Byzantine and Ottoman periods, mainly concentrated in the acropolis of the city.

The ancient theater of the city (first half of the 3rd century BC- early 4th century).

We would like to thanks G. Toufeix and C. Mpatzelas for their kindness and their support, C. Perlés for introducing us to Greek Neolithic, E. Alram-Stern for allowing participating in the study of Platia Magoula and L. Papagiannaki and C. Moser for their joyful company and help.

Work in progress...

  

The Sickles of Nerja Cave (Málaga, Spain)

This week we visited the "Cueva de Nerja" to study the first Neolithic sickles found in the "Mina" sector. Recent excavations are delivering superb results and an excellent contextualization of evidence.

The results obtained complete the information we currently have from the south of the Iberian Peninsula.

This work is inserted in the studies that are being carried out in the cave under the direction of José Luis Sanchidrián and Luis Efrén Fernández.

We thank them for their kindness and collaboration. As well as to Mari Angeles Medina, Cristina, Yolanda, Juan Bautista Salado and all the friends who work in the cave and the museum of Nerja.

Working in Pamplona (Navarra): neolithic site of Cascajos

These days we went to Pamplona (Navarra) for studying the Neolithic materials of the Cascajos settlement. The results have been enormously interesting in relation to two different sickle types, which correspond to two differentiated chronological moments.

A previous work by Juan José Ibáñez and Jesus Emilio González, on a sample of these deposits, arrived at the same conclusions. Now we have reviewed all the material.

In order to get this study done, the collaboration of Juan José Ibáñez, Jesus Emilio González, Jesus Sesma, Jesus García Gazólaz, Cristina López and Manuel Rojo has been indispensable.
Millions of thanks to all the people involved.