Studying La Dehesilla tools (Cádiz, Andalusia)

For several weeks we have been working in the Neolithic settlement of La Dehesilla (Cádiz, Andalusia). This is one of the most well-known sites in the South of Spain. Is was excavated at the end of the 20th century by Manuel Pellicer and Pilar Acosta, and recently taken up by Daniel Garcia Rivero (University of Seville).

The results will help us to know the tooling of the first Neolithic communities of the SW of the Iberian Peninsula, of which we had very little information.

More information in:http://institucional.us.es/evocultura/dehesilla/index.php?page=historiografia

Professor Pellicer has recently died. From this blog we thank you for your excellent work

Thanks also to Daniel Garcia for being able to work with him in the study of the materials found in the last excavations

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

The Neolithic Sickles in the Republic of Macedonia

These days we had the opportunity to study the sickles of several Neolithic sites in the Republic of Macedonia.

The results are enormously interesting because of the links with other Neolithic manifestations of neighbouring areas.

This work is only a first step for new jobs that will start soon.

All this has been thanks to the collaboration of Goce Neumov, Fidanoski Ljubo, Aleksandar Mitkoski and other colleagues from City Museum of Skopje, Archaological Museum of Prilep and Archaeological Museum of Stip. 

From this post we thank you. It has been fantastic to share with great professionals and now friends this unforgettable experience.

Sickles f Govrlevo site 

 Niccolo Mazzucco and Juan Gibaja

Niccolo Mazzucco presenting our project at the Museum of Skopje 

 Fidanoski Ljubo presenting Niccolo Mazzuco

Goce Neumov presenting our project and collaboration

Archaeological Museum of Stip

Niccolo Mazzucco working in the Museum of Skopje

Museum of Macedonia

Goce Naumov and Niccolo Mazzucco in the Archaeological Museum of Prilep

Niccolo Mazzucco working in he Archaeological Museum of Prilep 

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.

Neolithic Sickles from Portugal

A few days ago we travelled to Lisbon for studying a series of Ancient Neolithic sites in Portugal. The results have been great, as we were able to obtain relevant results from three different sites, some of which have nor been ever published (then, the data about them is still unpublished).

We want to say thanks to Antonio Faustino Carvalho and Joao Cardoso because it was due to their good dispositions that we were able to study the sites of Pedreira de Amoreiras, Gafanheira and Carrascal.

The results will complete the ongoing image about the first Neolithic sickles in the westernmost area of the Mediterranean basin.

We want to say thanks, also, to Antonio, Joao and all our friends at Centro de Estudos Arqueológicos sited on Fábrica da Pólvora.

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...