Eurasian Pre history, 8 (1–2): 67–87.

LITHIC IN DUS TRY FROM THE ACERAMIC LEVELS AT KNOSSOS (CRETE, GREECE): AN ALTER NA TIVE AP PROACH

Ma³gorzata Kaczanowska and Janusz K. Koz³owski

In sti tute of Ar chae ol ogy, Jagiellonian Uni ver sity, Go³êbia 11, 31-007 Kraków, Po land; [email protected]

Ab stract The pa per deals with lithic artefacts from aceramic levels exca vated by J.Ev ans at Knossos (layer X) and offers an al- terna tive inter pre ta tion to that proposed by J. Conolly (2008). A se ries of 376 artefacts from the collec tion of the British School in Athens (Stratigraphic Museum in Knossos) has been an alyzed in terms of raw mate ri als, technol ogy (no tably: reduc tion sequences and their stages carried out on-site and off-site), also morpho logi cal structure of retouched tools. The as semblage from layer X at Knossos is com pared with Mesolithic in dustries and the Initial Neolithi c in the Peloponese (espe cially phase X in Franchthi Cave), with the Mesolithic of the Aegean is lands and with the Pre-Neo lithic flake indus tries from Cyprus. Moreover, the rela tion of the Aceramic assem blage (Initial Neolithi c) to the chipped stone indus try from Early Neo lithic I from Knossos has been ex amined and a number of common features of tech nology and tool mor phology are pointed out.

Key words: Aceramic Neolithi c, Initial Neolithi c, Early Neo lithic, East ern Medi ter ra nean, Aegean Mesolithic.

Evans thought that the site from the Aceramic IN TRO DUC TION Phase was the re mains of a short-term camp. Sub - The inves ti gati ons by J. Evans at Knossos re- sequentl y, however, rem ains were discov ered of a vealed that below the Ce ramic Neolithic layers struc ture from clay, stones and sundried bricks, there were Aceramic layers which yielded a se ries which com pelled J. Evans to revise his opinion. of lithic artefacts. In the works of J. Evans (1964, The aceramic settle m ent is situ ated on the cul mi- 1968, 1971) these artefacts were curso ril y men- nati on of the hill, and in subse quent ceram ic pha- tioned, whereas J. Conolly (2008) publi shed a ses are spread to the northern slope of the hill. monographic study of chipped stone artefacts from the Aceramic (Ini tial Neo lithic) lay ers. In the present work we would like to re-apprai se RAW MA TE RI ALS STRUC TURE these mate ri als kindly placed at our disposal by J. In the inven tory from layer X – 376 artefacts Evans and the Brit ish School of Athens, however have been exam ined. The most im portant raw ma- our meth od olog i cal pre mises are some what dif- teria l is Melian obsid ian (262 – 69.7%), sili ceous ferent than those of J. Conolly. rocks are next (114 – 30.3%) (Fig. 1). Anal ysis of The chipped stone artefacts in the ce ramic trace ele m ents shows that obsid ian from the island layers come from the trenches in the Cen tral of Melos in the collec tion from J. Evans’s inves ti - Court of the Pal ace namely: trenches AC, X and ga tions co mes from de posit ar eas near Adamas ZE. The thick ness of the aceramic level is differ - (Cann and Renfrew, 1965). Recent anal ysis of the ent in the var iou s trenches: in trench AC it is very few artefacts from the aceramic layer at Knossos, thin, while in trench X it is very thick. At first, J. from the inves ti gati ons by N. Efstratiou et al. 68 M. Kaczanowska & J. K. Koz³owski

sed im ents; to the east and west there are Meso zoic limestone s where one might expect to find radio- larites or other si liceou s rocks.

THE STRUC TURE OF MA JOR TECH NO LOG I CAL GROUPS The struc ture of ma jor tech no log i cal groups is given in Fig. 2. The small frequency of cores is char ac ter is tic. To gether with the rel a tively low in - Fig. 1. Knossos. Raw mate rial structure in aceramic dex of flakes 29.0% (calcu lat ed without chips; layer X and Early Neolithic I flakes and splinter s taken togethe r – 46.8%) it in - di cates limited on-site pro duc tion. It is un cer tain whether splinter s were inten ti onal blanks or merely waste from utiliz ing splintered pieces as tools. Splint ered pieces (19.1%) are more num er- ous than cores. The frequency of blades, both ob - sidian (8.0%) and from sili ceous rocks (7.9%), is rel atively low. If we con sider the pres ence of fairly large blade tools, we can as sume that blades were produced off-site or that blade tools were brought to the site from elsewhere. The struc ture of ma jor tech no log i cal groups depart s from standard of on-site produc ti on. This im plies that ei ther ac cess to raw mate ri als was dif - ficult (the acqui si ti on of obsid ian from Melos was unsys tem atic, while the knowl edge of local sources of si li ceous rocks was poor) or – fi nally – that spe cific ac tiv ities at the site re quired the use of small splintered pieces and splinter s. One may presum e that the group of settl ers ar rived at the site with completed tools and a small store of obsid ian; only a small num ber of Fig. 2. Knossos. Ma jor tech no log i cal group struc ture non-standard ize d tools was produced at the site, in aceramic layer X and splint ered pieces functioned as tools. It should be em phasiz ed that there are no ma- jor dif fer ences in the scatter pat tern in rela tion to (2004) has indi cat ed that some obsid ians may also the fre quency of the types of artefacts in the dif - come from the depos its near Demenegaki. fer ent zones of the Aceramic settle m ent. Only ob - Among the sili ceous rocks there are vari ous sidian in trench X and sili ceous rocks in trench types of radiolarite (red, yellow, greenish, grey), AC, show a slightly higher propor ti on. weakly trans par ent, blu ish chal ce dony, black menilithic shales, quartz and quartz ite, and single Cor ing tech niques items of flints: brownish and yel low-brownish. In the Aceramic layers at Knossos a small The obsid ian is obvi ously extralocal, but we were num ber of cores was regis ter ed: in trench X – 4 unable to identi fy the loca ti on of deposit areas of spec im ens and one modi fie d into a splint ered piece sili ceous rocks. Some rocks such as quartzes and (all of obsid ian) , in trench ZE – 2 speci m ens (from radiolarites come from al lu vial de pos its, most radiolarite), and in trench AC – 2 spec im ens (one proba bly in the vicin it y of the site. It should be from chal cedony and one from obsidian). We can stressed, that the site it self is sit u ated on Eocene assum e that most blanks were produced off-site, Lithic indus try from the aceramic levels at Knossos 69 whereas debitage prod ucts made on-site were the niques. In order to produce blanks on-site splint - result of the splintered technique which was ered technique was the prevail ing method. Cores broadly appli ed in the Aceramic Neoli thic. on flakes and the use of splint ered technique in The pres ence of macroblade tech nique has the fi nal phase of re duc tion are char ac ter is tic. been confirm ed by, in fact, only one fragm ent of an obsid ian core transform ed into a one-sided bi - Splint ered pieces polar splintered piece. On the oppo sit e side of the The Aceramic Phase lay ers con tained 72 spec im en there are the prox im al parts of two large splintered pieces which is 19.2% of the inven tory . blade scars (2.0–2.2 cm broad) with the axis per- Most splint ered pieces are ob sid ian spec im ens pendic u lar to the axis of the splintered piece (Pl. (56). The propor ti on of obsid ian in this inven tory I.1). In his study J. Conolly (2008: fig. 5.3a) inter - group is somewhat higher (77.7%) than the aver - preted this spec im en as a simple splint ered piece age for the whole as sem blage (70%). Splint ered miss ing the core stage of its re ducti on. pieces were pro duced from blades (6 spec im ens – A chunk of grey chal cedony with two long Pl. I.9), flakes (15 speci m ens – Pl. II.1), from core scars with blade propor ti ons is an ini tial form of a fragm ents or cores in the fi nal phase of re ducti on core whose fur ther re duc tion was prac tically im - (two speci m ens); however, becaus e most splint- possi ble. The blade propor ti ons of its scars are ered pieces are en tirely cov ered with scars the ini- due to the shape of the chalce dony chunk (Pl. I.2). tial products could not be rec ognize d. Mediolithic blade-flake technique (2.5–4.5 Both among splintered pieces from sili ceous cm) is repre sent ed by an ini tial double- plat form rocks and those from obsid ian the most fre quent core on a thick flake from red radiolarite; one of types are bipo lar, two-sided items (Pl. II.1); the platform s is single- blow and could have ini ti - one-sided splint ered pieces are sporadi c (Pl. II.2). ated lateral prep a ra tion (Pl. I.3). This is the only Unipo lar spec im ens, usuall y made on blades, are spec imen that in J. Conolly’s study is cor rectly less frequent. Only one quadripolar spec im en was identi fied as a core (Conolly, 2008: fig. 5.1b). reg is tered (Pl. II.3). Core reduc ti on using flakes is repre sent ed by The splintered pieces are from 14 to 36 mm a small obsid ian blade-flake single- plat form core long, and from 6 to 23 mm broad. Obsid ian speci - reduced perpen dic u lar ly to the flake axis (Pl. I.4). mens are smaller; they are usu ally from 14 to 16 An ob sid ian splint ered piece, bi po lar, with mm long and from 12 to 15 mm broad. These di - par al lel scars was misin ter preted by J. Conolly mensions are consis tent with the di mensions of (2008: fig. 5.1a) as a core. obsid ian splinter s. The dia gram of length of ob- Mediolithic flake technique is repre sent ed by sidian splintered pieces and splinter s shows a ten- only one change-of-ori enta ti on (90 degree) core dency towards standard iza tion (Fig. 3). However, in an advance d phase of reduc ti on. It is fairly flat, the questi on as to the functi on of the splintered with a Clacton ian notch on one lateral side (Pl. pieces still re mains an open one. Were they tools I.5); made from red radiolarite. or were they uti lized to obtai n blanks? Only few Three obsid ian, resid ual cores (all found in splinter s were modi fie d into retouche d tools spit 24, trench X) were reduced by means of (three spec i mens). Re sid ual splint ered pieces are microlithic flake tech nique: often prism atic. From the sides of such splintered – a flat core on a flake, with an unpre pared pieces – at the final stage – splin ters were de - plat form (Pl. I.6), tached that re sem ble a kind of “pseudo-burin – a simi lar, flat core in the re sid ual phase ex - spalls” (Pl. II.4). ploited as a splintered piece (Pl. I.7), – a flake detached from a flat, single-plat form Flakes core re moving the enti re flaking surface ; the plat- Flakes (togethe r with splinter s) ac count for form was only partia lly prepared (Pl. I.8). 46.8% of all artefacts. Such a propor ti on and the A small fragm ent of a core from grey ra dio- very small num ber of cores rule out inten sive larite also be longs to the Aceramic Phase. on-site produc ti on. In all likeli hood some flakes Thus, core reduc ti on in layer X com bined the were brought to the site in a com pleted form. In char acter istic features of blade and of flake tech - the case of obsid ian the high propor ti on of splin - 70 M. Kaczanowska & J. K. Koz³owski

Fig. 3. Knossos. Length (in mm) of splintered pieces and splinters in aceramic layer X Fig. 4. Knossos. Length (in mm) of obsid ian and non-obsid ian flakes from aceramic layer X

ters points to a major role of splintered technique blanks sensu stricto) or waste from uti liz ing them appli ed on-site – more often on obsid ian than on as tools cannot be estab li shed with certai nty. sili ceous rocks. A num ber of authors suggest that The length of obsid ian flakes is from 13 to 42 the use of this technique does not express a mm, but about 60% of intac t flakes are small from knapping tra di tion but re sults from dif fi cul ties in 14 to 19 mm long (Fig. 4). The dim ensions of ob- raw mate ri als pro cure ment and the need for their sidian splinter s are sim ilar . In the group of splin - thrifty ex ploita tion. To what ex tent splin ters in the ters there are nu mer ous speci m ens with slen der ana ly zed serie s were the goal of produc ti on (i.e. propor ti ons (as much as 70% show the width/

Fig. 5. Knossos. Length: width ra tios of flakes and splin ters from layer X Lithic indus try from the aceramic levels at Knossos 71

Fig. 7. Knossos. Butt types of ob sidian flakes from aceramic layer X: 1 – un pre pared, 2 – pre pared by sin- Fig. 6. Knossos. Dorsal pat tern of the flakes from gle blow, 3 – fac eted, 4 – punctiform, 5 – di hed ral aceramic layer X: 1 – unidi rec tional scars, 2 – conver - gent scars, 3 – cen trip e tal scars, 4 – op posed di rec tion scars, 5 – per pen dic u lar scars tion. Quartz pebbles that were proba bly found near the site, were also worked. Some radiolarite con cre tions were ex ploited with out pre lim i nary length index: 50–100); in the case of flakes only prepa ra ti on which is doc um ented by the pres ence 47% of speci m ens (Fig. 5) Obsid ian splinter s of- of a corti cal flake and a high propor ti on of flakes ten have blade propor ti ons, es pecia lly when they with unpre pared butts. The pres ence of flakes were detached from the lateral side of a splint ered with lat eral cor tex in di cates that in sub se quent piece with a poly go nal cross-secti on; they are phases of reduc ti on the flaking surface was ex - long, fairly thick (pseudo-burin spalls). tended onto the sides of a concre ti on. Single ex - Among artefacts from the vari ous si li ceous am ples of flakes with distal and proxi m al cortex rocks flakes are slightly larger – nearly 40% of the also occurred. The presence of flakes with an ob- spec im ens are betwee n 20 to 30 mm long. Splin- tuse angle be tween the butt and the ventra l side of ters from sili ceous rocks are smaller than flakes. a flake suggest s that in the initi al phases of reduc - Ob sid ian flakes were de tached from sin- tion of such cores hard ham mer technique was gle-plat form cores. Flakes from early phases of used. When re ducti on was advance d a soft ham - core shaping do not occur (only one corti cal flake mer was proba bly used. Retrimming, doc um ented was re corded), whereas flakes with scars per pen - by spec i mens with scars per pen dic u lar to the dic u lar to the flake axis are fairly fre quent (25% – flake axis, or change of the ori enta ti on of cores Fig. 6). They evi dence change of orien ta ti on of into oppo sit e were also used. It seems, that in the cores in advance d phases of reduc ti on. In the final case of si li ceous rocks the functi on of resid ual phase of reduc ti on obsid ian cores were modi fie d cores as splint ered pieces was less comm on than into splintered pieces. of ob sid ian spec i mens. Betwee n plat forms most fre quent are single blow platform s. Less num erous are punctiform Blades plat forms; very rare are un pre pared (par tic u larly Blades (31 spec im ens) are only 8.1% of the be tween ob sid ian spec i mens) and fac eted plat - Aceramic Neoli thic se ries. The propor ti on of forms (Fig. 7). blades in the group of obsid ian artefacts and in the Cores made from sili ceous rocks were group from sili ceous rocks is the same. Most ob- brought to the site in the early phase of exploi ta- sidian blades are irreg u lar , and small. Their length 72 M. Kaczanowska & J. K. Koz³owski

is from 15 to 24 mm, width from 3 to 7 mm. The direc ti onal, obverse (Pl. II.5, 6), and in one it is spec im ens are fairly robust, the edges and the ob verse/in verse (Pl. II.7). In the last case the interscar ridges are ir reg u lar. Ma jor ity of the bla- retouch cuts the blade up to its maxi m um thick- des have unidi rec ti onal dorsal pattern. ness. Blade butts are single- blow or punctiform. – the mesial part of a weakly con vex backed The pres ence of tools made from rela tively reg u - piece on a macroblade; steep, marginal re touch. lar blades, more than 24 mm long, allows to as- The blade was inten ti onall y short ened by two sume that they were produced off-site and were frac tures from the dor sal side. Par tial inverse re - brought to the site as com pleted items. Be cause touch on the lateral side (Pl. II.8), the serie s of blades from sili ceous rocks is small – an arched backed piece on a mediolithic, (9) we cannot draw overall conclu sions as to the fairly broad blade; in verse lat eral and distal re- method of their produc ti on. Some of these blades touch (Pl. II.9), must have been larger; unfor tu nate ly only frag- – a backed piece with an angulated blunted ments have been pre served such as, for ex am ple, a back (dos anguleux) shaped by proxi m al, steep radiolarite speci m en (trench X spit 24) longer inverse retouch and fine, distal , semi-steep ob- than 34 mm. A blade with a prepared butt indi - verse retouch (Pl. III.1). This spec im en could also cates the ex istence of cores whose preparation be inter preted as an oblique proxi m al truncation, was more advanced. – an asymm etri cal backed piece ´ dos anguleux with steep lat eral in verse retouch and Tools in verse/ob verse prox i mal re touch (Pl. III.2). Tools are, as a rule, mostly made from flakes, tools from blades, splint ered pieces and splinter s Trun ca tions/micro liths are next in num ber. The blanks used for the pro- They are rep re sented by only two speci m ens: ducti on of both blade and flake tools are larger – a microlithic double trunca ti on from obsid - than blanks com monly found. Blade tools length ian that can be as cribed to asym metri cal trapezes. are be tween 21 and 45 mm long; major it y are lon- The trunca ti on is oblique, proxi m al, and dis tal on ger than 21 mm. Dim ensions like this suggest that a transversal break (Pl. III.3). the tools were brought to the site as com pleted – a double trunca ti on on a blade from products . Only some flake tools, tools on splinter s radiolarite. The trun cations were shaped by steep and splint ered pieces could have been made at the denticulated retouch. It could be inter preted as a site. The propor ti on of obsid ian in the tool group kind of an asym metri cal trapeze (?) (Pl. III.4). is higher than in the enti re inventory (76.1%). Retouche d tools (47 speci m ens) are repre - sented by the fol low ing techno-mor pho log i cal A backed piece + end-scraper groups: backed pieces (7), trunca ti ons/microli ths A unique tool is an arched backed piece on an (2), a backed piece+end-scraper (1), end-scrap ers obsid ian blade with a kind of end-scraper shaped (2), retouche d blades and fragm ents (6), flakes in the dis tal part. Possi bly , this had been an arched and retouche d splinter s (21 – includ ing speci m ens backed piece whose tip had been dam aged and with notches), retouche d splintered pieces (6), which was transform ed into an end-scraper (Pl. and sickle inserts (2). III.5).

Backed pieces End-scrap ers In trench X there were 4 backed pieces, in The only two end-scrap ers are atyp ical: trench ZE – 2, and in AC – 1. Four spec im ens are – a dam aged end-scraper on a large obsid ian made from obsid ian, three from radiolarite. The flake detac hed from a double- plat form core. The backed pieces were made on blades; in respect of front was broken off: only its lateral fragm ent re- the shape of the blunted back we can disti nguish: mained (Pl. III.6), – mediolithic arched backed pieces, with a – a frag ment of a small end-scraper on a core slightly con vex blunted back shaped by steep, or on an obsid ian splintered piece. The front is marginal retouch. In two cases the retouch is uni- low and nosed (Pl. III.7). Lithic indus try from the aceramic levels at Knossos 73

Re touched blades Re touched splint ered pieces All the re touched blades (6) were made from The three retouched splint ered pieces were ob sid ian: made from obsid ian: – a blade detac hed from a double- plat form – three bipo lar two-sided speci m ens with fine core with par tial lat eral, mainly in verse, but also uni lat eral re touch (Pl. V.7,8), obverse , retouch (Pl. III.9), – a small bipo lar , two-sided splintered piece – a dis tal fragm ent of a blade with fine, semi- with bifacial re touch of one lat eral side (Pl. V.9), steep obverse retouch on one edge (Pl. III.8), – a re sid ual splint ered piece with denticulated – four small, mesial fragm ents of blades with retouch (Pl. V.10), and a fragm ent of a sim ilar lat eral obverse retouch of one edge: one speci m en splintered piece, also with denticulated re touch has two fracture s (Pl. IV.1), and the three others a (Pl. V.11). fracture and a break (Pl. IV.2,3). One of them (on a macroblade) has parti al retouch extend ing onto Sickle in serts the distal break (pos sibly an end-scraper?). Two speci m ens could have been used as sickle in serts. A small bladelet from radiolarite Flakes and re touched splinter s had denticulated uti li zati on retouch and oblique The ma jor ity are ob sid ian spec i mens (14), sil ica gloss (Pl. V.12). This is proba bly the only three from radiolarite, and others from black bladelet in the col lec tion produced by pressure menilithic shale, chal cedon y and quartz one each: technique and could be an intru sion from younger – 6 speci m ens are with lateral re touch: fine- lay ers. This bladelet was found in spit 26 trench con tin u ous (pos si bly pseudo-re touch) (Pl. IV.4), AC. An obsid ian blade could have been utili zed in fine, lightly notched, discon ti nu ous (Pl. IV.5), a simi lar way; it has flat dor sal re touch and semi- prox i mal semi-steep (Pl. IV.6,7), con tin u ous in- flat ventra l re touch (Pl. V.14). The type of retouch verse (Pl. IV.8), or dis con tin u ous, bi lat eral ob - al lows as to as sume that this spec imen is an in tru - verse/inverse (Pl. IV.9), sion from the younger, Ceram ic Neoli thic layers; – a flake with concave proxi m al retouch and a although it was found in spit 22 trench X. thinned base (Pl. IV.10), – a small flake with fine dis tal re touch (Pl.V.1), DIS CUS SION – a dis tal part of a flake with fine, bilat eral ob verse re touch (Pl.V.2), The econ omy of the aceramic Neo lithic at – a flake with denticulated lat eral-transversal Knossos retouch; from black menilithic shale, The Aceramic Neo lithic settle m ent settled at – three splin ters with par tial lat eral re touch : about 7000–6700 cal BC (Evans, 1994; Efstra- fine inverse (Pl.V.3), parti al obverse (Pl.V.4), and tiou, 2005) com manded a fully-fledged Neoli thic with two flat inverse scars (Pl.V.5), econ omy and ar chi tecture of clay and stone i.e. a – three retouche d flakes: two flakes with ven- full Neo lithic pack age – ex cept for ceram ics. This tral re touch of which one is from radiolarite and has been confirm ed by detai led analy ses of the the other from obsid ian; a fragm ent with dorsal lowest levels (spit 39,38), at a depth of up to 8.5 m, retouch also from obsid ian, from a trial trench dug by N. Efstratiou in the Cen- – four flakes with re touched notches: two tral Court of the Pal ace (Efstratiou et al., 2004; with single notches (one is from chal cedony, the Efstratiou, 2005). The subsis tence econom y of the other from radiolarite), and two with double first in hab it ants at Knossos re lied on do mes ti cated notches: a radiolarite flake and an obsid ian flake (elsewhere – not on Crete) livestoc k (ovicaprids, which has not been found in the collec tion but pigs, cows, dogs) im ported from the Near East and which was publi shed by J. Conolly (2006: fig. on the cul ti va tion of ce re als (Triticum sp., also 17a), Triticum aestivum, in ves ti ga tions by J. Ev ans) and – to this group was also ascri bed a flake de - of le gumes (Pisium sp.) that, too, had no local ante - tached from a quartz pebble with a proxi m al notch ced ents. Al monds (Amygdalus communis) and figs (Pl. V.6). (Ficus carica) were also col lected. 74 M. Kaczanowska & J. K. Koz³owski

The study of the botan i cal rem ains recov ered the PPNA, con firm the pres ence (simi larly to the from the sub se quent ex ca va tions di rected by N. Aegean Mesolithic at Maroulas) of the wild boar Efstratiou shows that the be ginnings of oc cupa - on a path way to wards its even tual do mes ti ca tion tion in the Kairatos val ley – where Knossos is lo- (Vigne et al., 2011), cated – took place in the context of an ever green forest with pine, cypress , juni per trees and oak. It The aceramic Neo lithic at Knossos and the also include d some al mond and strawberry trees, question of Mesolithic occu pa tion on Crete as well as some bushes. In the 1960s and 1970s when the lower levels In Greece, the pres ence of the Neo lithic eco - at Knossos on Crete were discov ered and inves ti - nomic pack age in an aceramic con text is quite gated no evi dence for preneolithic sites on Crete rare: else where is only well doc u mented in lithic had been rec og nized. It was only the re cent field phase X at Franchthi (PerlÀs, 1987). Here one has sur vey car ried out in the area near Plakias on the to keep in mind that sites going back to the Early inlands south coast that brought the dis covery of Neo lithic in Thessaly where claims have been the first sites at trib uted to the Mesolithic (Strasser made for aceramics actu ally turn out to con tain et al., 2010). Re gret fully, the sites of Dammoni 1 some ceramic (PerlÀs, 1989, 2001). It will be re- and 3, Ammoudi 3 and Schinaria 1 yielded alm ost called that the Aceramic Neo lithic layers at Fran- only quartz artefacts, and the pieces, fur ther more, chthi are dated to ca. 6780–6580 cal BC and the were only sur face-collected ones. Preveli 2 was spe cies of culti vated ce re als found there (emmer the sole site where artefacts were strat ified in clay wheat and two row barley ) and lenti l (Lens nigri- sed im ent that was taken to be as a soil of Early cans ssp.) – as in the case of do mes ticated an im als Ho lo cene age. Thus, there were a shortage of were not the conse quence of dom esti cati on of lo- chro no log i cal in di ca tors that would make it pos si - cal wild plants (Hansen, 1991). ble to date these finds and to allow them to be in - It should be added that in the Aegean Islands ter preted as ho mo ge neous as sem blages. For ex- (Maroulas on Kythnos, Gioura in the Northern am ple in the inven tory from Schinaria 1 only one Sporades) a few com ponents of the Neoli thic regu lar blade made from chert was found (Stras- package are found in connec ti on with what ap- ser et al., 2010: fig. 16g), which co-occurred with pears to be a sed en tary way of life namely: stone a lau rel leaf shaped ar row head made from quartz habi ta ti on struc tures on a round plan, pave ments, with a flat re touch, a hall mark of a more re cent grinding equipm ent connect ed with the increa s- time; it cannot be in ter preted as a “geo metric ing im portanc e of plant proces sing, and semi-do- microlith”. Simi larly, most of the quartz artefacts mesti cated pigs, as well as possi bly sheep/goat that are claimed to be “geo metric micro liths” (if the stratigraphi c context of these bones is cor- (Strasser et al., 2010: fig. 16 a–j) do not match the rectly observe d) (Sampson et al., 2010; Tran- author’s defi ni ti on of a microlith – even if the spe - talidou, 2008, 2010). Thus one of the harbin gers cific and limit ing prop er ties of quartz are taken of the Neo lithic pack age had already made its ap- into ac count. At the same time the artefacts from pearance on Kythnos as early as 8800–8600 cal Ammoudi 3: flake side-scrapers, end-scraper- BC. becs from quartz (Strasser et al., 2010: fig. 17) The oc cur rence of po ten tial or in cip i ent el e - may not be di agnos ti c of the Mesolithic, al though ments of the Neo lithic subsistance already in the their at tri bu tion to the flake Mesolithic is pos si - Mesolithic of the Aegean Islands , the full Neo- ble. Sim ilar flake tools occur at Damoni 1 in asso - lithic package on Crete and at Franchthi on the ci a tion with the al leged “geo met ric mi crolith” Greek mainland (with no evi dence for local do - (Strasser et al., 2010: fig. 22a–e). In real it y, only mes ti ca tion in ei ther case), doc u ment early con - two artefacts can, possi bly , be as signed to backed tacts with the Near East and Cy prus. These con - pieces with an arched blunted back (Strasser et tacts can be placed even befor e the pe riod when in al., 2010: fig. 22b) or with an angulated blunted these ter ri to ries the clas si cal model of Neo lithic back (Strasser et al., 2010: fig. 22e) and could be econ omy in the Pre-ce ramic Phase (PPNB) was of pre-Neoli thic age. functi oning. The new exca va ti ons in Cyprus of The inter preta ti on of some sites on Crete as the sites Klimonas and Agia Varvara, at trib uted to Mesolithic is based on the as sump tion that sites Lithic indus try from the aceramic levels at Knossos 75

Fig. 8. Map of the sites men tioned in the text

with flake tools with denticulated-notched re- The aceramic in dus try from Knossos touch are di agnos ti c of the Mesolithic. The high in com par ison with the Mesolithic/Initia l propor ti on of quartz at sites on Crete calls for par- Neo lithic of the Peloponese ticu lar cau tion when the artefacts from these sites The as semblage of lithic phase X at Franch- are interpreted. thi, dated to ca. 6500 cal BC, is char acter ized by In any case, the tech no log ical and raw mate ri - predom inance of flints and local radiolarites and als differ ence s do no al low us to support the claim an in creased pro por tion of ob sid ian in com par i - that the “Mesolithic” from southern Crete should son with preced ing Mesolithic assem blages (up to be a pos sible pre de ces sor of the Aceramic Neo - 9%; PerlÀs, 1990). The use of blade technique, lithic from Knosos. too, increa ses in phase X to 10% of the debitage products (and among tools up to 30%). Another The aceramic Neo lithic from Knossos – in ter - dis tinc tive fea ture of this as semblag e is its reg u lar re gional re la tions blades made by means of pressure technique The presence of Melian obsid ian at Knossos (PerlÀs, 1990: fig. 24.1–9). Blades like this are ab- bears witness to con tacts with the Aegean Sea Ba - sent in layer X at Knossos (with one excep ti on). sin (Fig. 8, Table 1), also seen in technol ogy and On the other hand, in the Ini tial Neo lithic at Fran- morphol ogy of lithics. Sea-borne contac ts and chthi, splintered pieces are more num erous than cultura l transm ission could have exist ed with the they are in the Mesolithic lay ers, and, as in the Peloponese where the Neo lithic Aceramic Phase case of Knossos, they are made ex clu sively from is recorded in the Franchthi Cave, and with the ob sid ian. Aegean Islands of Kythnos, Ikaria, Chalkis, Among the tool types at Franchthi, the most Naxos and Giura with the Pre-Neoli thic indus tri es frequent ones are denticulated-notched tools fol- of the “Aegean Mesolithic” (Kaczanowska et al., lowed by per fo rators/ becs, trun ca tions and micro - 2008; Koz³owski and Kaczanowska, 2009). liths. Some of micro liths in clude symmet ri cal 76 M. Kaczanowska & J. K. Koz³owski

Ta ble 1 Interegional context of the Aceramic Neoli thic in Knossos

spec im ens (i.e. these are dif fer ent from the micro - sem blage seem unli kely to be the product of cul- liths at Knossos; PerlÀs 1990;fig. 15) as well as tural conti nuit y with mainland Aegean indige- flÀches tranchantes (or ar ma tures ´ tranchant neous hunter-gather ers” (Conolly, 2008: 85). transversal, accord ing to PerlÀs, 1990: 104) that are typ ical of the Mesolithic in the western part of The Aceramic In dus try at Knossos the Med i ter ra nean Ba sin. The as sem blage at Fran- in Compar ison with the Lithic Assem blages of chthi combin es the tra di tions of the lo cal Mesoli- the “Aegean Mesolithic” thic and of the influ ence with some el em ents of In terms of their raw mate ri als, the Mesolithic Late Mesolithic tra di tion in the western part of the as semblages occur ring at sites on the Aegean Is - Med i ter ra nean Ba sin. We must, there fore, dis - lands vary widely from one to the next, they com - agree with J. Conolly (2008) who claims that “the monly have a fairly large ex tra-lo cal compo nent IN assem blage from Knossos has much in com - (that is, not com ing from a given island itsel f). For mon with the IN Franchthi Cave assem blages.” exam ple, at Maroulas on Kythnos, Melian obsid - The comm on el em ents in the two as semblages are ian accounts for 31.1%, im ported white flint sim ply rather banal forms (splint ered pieces and (from the Peloponese?) for 10.6% and local denticulated/notched tools), whereas there are quartz for the rest (56.0%). At Kerame on Ikaria, marked dif fer ences be tween the more di ag nos tic Melian obsid ian com prises 30.0% of the as sem - tool classes. On the other hand, we can concur blage, and this is com plem ented by obsid ian from with Conolly’s posi ti on that Franchthi and Kno- Ghiali (15.0%) and white patinated flints (48.8%) ssos do not belong to “the same Mesolithic tradi - of un known or i gin. The avail abil ity of dif fer ent tion” and that “any Mesolithic el e ments in the as - raw mate ri als on dif fer ent is lands called for tech - Lithic indus try from the aceramic levels at Knossos 77 niques – nota bly , of chaînes operatoires – that also dif fer ences be tween them, which stem, in were adapted to working the vari ous rocks. In part, from the broader vari ety of raw mate ri als in turn, this enhance d the variabil ity among the is- the Aegean Mesolithic. At the same time, some of lands’ Mesolithic as sem blages. It should be added the variabil ity may be due to differ ent functi onal that all of the raw mate ri als were ac tu ally worked tool types that were called for in doing spe cific on-site, and the fi nal products of the full produc - tasks and ac tiv i ties as so ci ated re spec tively with tion cy cle were tools that were used at the site. As coastal forag ing (the Aegean Mesolithic) and first in the case of Knossos, one of the disti ncti ve fea - farming (the Aceramic Neolithic at Knossos) tures of the Maroulas as semblage is the fair num- ber of tools produced by means of the splintered The Aceramic Neo lithic at Knossos tech nique. While this is an in di ca tor of thrifty raw in com par ison with the Aceramic Neo lithic ma te rial ex ploi ta tion, it may rep re sent a cul tural on Cy prus or sty lis tic trait as well. The com mon ele m ents of the subsis tence The major tool groups in the Aegean Mesoli- econ omy at Aceramic Neo lithic settle m ent on Cy - thic in cluded end-scrap ers, per fo rators/ becs, trun- prus and the “Neoli thic package” at Knossos pro- cati ons, backed im plem ents and denticulated and vide a prem ise for com paring of lithic assem - notched tools. Their fre quencie s exhibi t only mi- blages in the two places. On Cyprus up unti l quite nor vari ati ons. At Maroulas, for exam ple, denti- recent ly, there was a gap of about two thousand culated-notched tools com prise the most fre quent years be tween the Epipalaeolithic as seen at Aeto- ones (25.9%), but the propor ti on of end-scrapers, kremnos (Simmons, 1999) with 14C dates in the per fo ra tors/becs, and retouched flakes are all elev enth millen nium cal BC and the Aceramic fairly high ranging betwee n 15 and 18%. At Ke- Neo lithic (PPNB). To day this gap is smaller with rame, re touched flakes (22.2%) and denticulated/ the PPNA at Klimonas and Agia Varvara (Knapp, notched tools (19.5%) predom inate , while trunca - 2010; Vigne et al., 2011). The classi cal PPNB tions, backed pieces, perfo ra tors/ becs have values feature s, as seen at Shillourokambos, goes back to again between 5 and 18%. ca 8400–8000 cal BC – Guilaine and Briois, 2008). In terms of morphol ogy, the com mon ele - The PPNB tradi ti on than conti nued to evolve on ments of the Aegean Mesolithic and the Ini tial Cy prus, as docu m ented by multi-phase settl em ents Neoli thic at Knossos are, of course, denticulated- such as Shillourocambos (phase ancienne B et notched tools and re touched flakes as well some moyenne/récente), Miloukhtia (pit 133) and Kala- specif ic types or vari ants of tools (see Pl. III.7) vassos-Tenta (phases 4–2), ascri bed to the time in- such as nosed end-scrapers (com pare Sampson et ter val of 8000–7000 cal BC. The fi nal phase of this al., 2010: pl. XIV.1–6), small arched backed evo lu tion is the Late Aceramic Phase as seen for pieces from Maroulas (Sampson et al., 2010: pl. exam ple at Khirokhitia which is dated to 7000– XVIII.1–6) and from Kerame (Sampson et al., 6200 cal BC (Guilaine and Le Brun, 2003). 2008: fig. 2.2–6). However, they are thicker at The evolu ti on of the PPN on Cyprus was Maroulas than at Knossos. Moreover, some tra- marked by strong links with the Syro-Pal esti nian pezes/double trunca ti ons from Maroulas (Samp- and East ern-Ana to lian coast. They can be traced son et al., 2010: pl. XVII.12–14) re sem ble what is in econ omy and ar chi tecture, as well as in lithic found at Knossos (Pl. III.4). At the Aegean sites, tech nol ogy (the dom i nant macroblade tech nique the frequency of blades is low (only 1.9% at em ployed ini tially on a double- plat form naviform Maroulas and 3.2% at Kerame) but some later ally cores) and tool morphol ogy (e.g. pedunculated/ retouche d blades and bladelets do occur at these tanged points of Byblos and Amuq type). The two sites (Sampson et al., 2010: pl. XX.17–23). links betwee n the mainland and Cy prus appear to Thus, some of the techno-morpho log i cal fea- have per sisted as late as the Late Aceramic Phase. tures of the as semblage re cov ered from layer X at Before and paral lel to the evolu ti on of the Knossos share much in com mon with assem - PPN, in the lit to ral zone of Cy prus lithic in dus - blages of the Aegean Mesolithic. In short, it is fair tries appear with flake technol ogy and tools dom i- to say that, in broad terms, they belong to the nated by re touched flakes and side-scrapers. same cul tural tra di tion. Nev er the less, there are Backed pieces, per fo ra tors and end-scrap ers also 78 M. Kaczanowska & J. K. Koz³owski

occur. The dating of the flake lithic tradi ti on on Neoli thic package and the blade technol ogy. Sea- Cy prus is based on its stratigraphi c posi ti on in re - far ing practiced since the Pre-Neo lithic time, al - la tion to the Late Phase of the PPNB in dus tries at lowed for the diffu sion of this tradi ti ons and cul- the site of Nissi Beach (Ammerman et al., 2006, tural in flu ences that is ev iden ced by lithic raw 2007, 2008; Ammerman, 2011). But the strati gra - ma te ri als cir cu la tion, no ta bly the ob sid ian, across phy at Nissi Beach is likely to have been re versed the east ern part of the Mediterraean Sea Basin. In by tsu nami (Ammerman et al., 2007). If such is the pres ent state of in ves ti ga tions a par al lel evo lu - the case the flake indus try distri buted on the sur- tion cannot be ruled out wherein coastal forag ing face of this site would be older than the dates ob- and early agro-pastoralism would have constitu- tained on the “blade as sem blage” from the Holo - ted “alternative and complementary ways of life” cene soil (dated on shells at of 7750–7100 cal BP; – as A. Ammerman (2010) proposes. Ammerman et al., 2008). This “blade assem - blage” testi fy the occu pa ti on on a seasonal basis . The Aceramic ver sus the Early Neo lithic I at The flake indus try on the surface exhib it s a num - Knossos ber of simi lar ities with the “Aegean Mesolithic” The blank reduc ti on technol ogy, the com po - both of technol ogy and tool morphol ogy. Conse - siti on of the raw mate ri als and the morphol ogy of quently, sim i lar i ties can also be es tab lished with re touched tools all doc u ment con ti nu ity be tween the assem blage from layer X from Knossos, par- the Aceramic Neo lithic and the Early Neo lithic I ticu larly of arched backed pieces and re touched at Knossos. The same raw mate ri als were ex - splintered pieces. It should be em phasiz ed, how- ploited, although the frequency of obsid ian incre- ever, that arched backed pieces oc cur also in the ases in Early Neo lithic I, whereas that of si liceou s younger as sem blages of the PPNB (McCartney, rocks, which now becom e less var ied, decli nes. 2003: fig. 8, 9) or even in the Ce ramic Neoli thic Pro duc tion of ar ti facts in si li ceous rocks of Cy prus (Flourentzos et al., 2008: fig. 2.2). (mainly radiolarite) – done on-site – was even The chronol ogy of layer X at Knossos corre - smaller than in the Aceramic Phase (Fig. 1); it is sponds to the transi ti on of the 8th/7th and first shown by the absenc e of cores and smaller pro- quarter of the 7th millenium cal BC, thus, in com- porti on of debitage products (flakes and chips). pari son with Cy prus, this indus try could be syn- Off-site produc ti on in the case of sili ceous rocks chronous with the Late Phase of the Aceramic was concerne d mainly with tool produc ti on. On “Blade as semblage” and, at the same time (as sum- the other hand, obsid ian was still worked on-site ing the re ver sal of stra tig ra phy at the site), later at Knossos, although the frequency of obsid ian than the flake indus try from the Nissi Beach. cores is lower. However, in order to produce ob- There fore we sug gest that Crete owes its full Neo - sidian blanks, the splint ered technique could have lithic pack age in clud ing econ omy and el e ments of been used – just as in the Aceramic Neolithic. blade technique (note the splint ered piece on a How ever, chaînes operatoires of obsid ian pro - blade core; Pl. I.1) to con tacts with the Near East cess ing were more ad vanced than in the Aceramic via Cyprus. The blade technique can be seen first Phase as in di cated by the pres ence of tab lets of all on blanks for the produc ti on of most arched showing the inten ti onal adjust m ent of core angle backed pieces (Pls II.5–9, III.1). While layer X at during the course of reduc ti on. In the Early Neo - Knossos is younger than the sites of the Aegean lithic I as semblage, lon ger blades make their ap - Mesolithic dated at 9th millenium BC (Maroulas, pear ance, which may in di cate a more reg u lar or Ikaria – Sampson et al., 2010), yet the tradi ti on of better sup ply of raw mate rial as well as a more ad - flake technol ogy as co-oc curring with the splint - vanced chaînes operatoires. From the Early Neo- ered technique, is appar ent at Knossos and in the lithic I, there are only two blades that proba bly flake indus try from Nissi Beach on Cy prus. On reached the site by means of ex change and that these grounds we suggest the presence of a com - show unques ti onably the use of the pres sure tech- mon lit to ral tra di tion of the East ern Med i ter ra - nique. Thus, longer blades are the result of the nean forag ing peoples . El em ents of the Neoli thic off-site use of pressure technique. package were super im posed on the basis of this Although the same major tool groups were com mon substra tum by the el em ents of the full used in both times, their frequen cie s change mar- Lithic indus try from the aceramic levels at Knossos 79 kedly. In the Aceramic Neoli thic, one finds that solithic embraced the en tire Aegean Sea Ba sin to - flakes, splintered pieces and denticulated-notched gether with Cy prus. This was a region where sev - tools predom inate d (Pl. VI.1,2); in the Early Neo- eral dif fer ent cultur al tra di tions met and in ter - lithic I blades with lat eral re touch (Pl. VI.13–17), acted with one another: which was usu ally dis con tin u ous, be came more im - – the tradi ti on known as the “Aegean Meso- portant , and re touched flakes came next (Pl. VI.4,5). lithic,” which derived from the eastern Med iter ra - In addi ti on, the frequency of arched backed pieces nean Epigravettian and de vel oped si mul ta neously changes; they are less comm on in the Early Neo - with the first post-glacia l fre quenting and even- lithic I (Pl. VI.6,7). Other tool groups – end-scrapers tual settling of the Aegean Is lands (Cyclades, (Pl. VI.8,9), trunca ti ons (Pl. VI.10) and perfo ra tors Dodecanese, Sporades). The form ati on of this tra - (Pl. VI.11) – now fall off. di tion co in cided with in ten si fi ca tion over time in The most sig nif i cant dif fer ence be tween the the exploi tati on of obsidian on Melos and Ghiali; Aceramic Neo lithic and the Early Neo lithic I is – We can put forward the hy pothe sis that the the appear ance of tools with surface retouch: for form ati on of the “Aegean Mesolithic” brought as ex am ple, a small tri an gu lar ar row head with a con - a result mari ti me expan sion to the east – proba bly vex base (Pl. VI.19), a splintered piece with sur- along the coasts of Anatolia – as far as Cy prus face retouch shaping a segmentoidal tool (used where a spe cific vari a tion of this cultur al tra di tion possi bly as an insert ; Pl. VI.20) and a sickle insert evolved, repre sent ed by the flake indus try from on a blade with bi lat eral retouch of the edge and Nissi Beach (Ammerman, 2008). The contac ts be - the tip (Pl. VI.21). These artefacts were made tween the Aegean Is lands and the east ern basin of from radiolarite. the Medi ter ranean Sea – where food produc ing In the Early Neo lithic I, there is now the pres - econom y appeare d at the very begin ning of the ence of a double trunca ti on (or a robust trapeze ) Holo cene – had born fruit in the form of prem ises on an obsid ian macroblade, and a sickle insert of Neolithization in the Aegean Sea Ba sin: among with a thick, concave distal trunca ti on, also from oth ers sta bil ity of set tle ment, first semi-do mes ti- radiolarite. In the Aceramic Neo lithic, such tools cated an i mals, stone ar chi tec ture. None the less, are absent , al though double trunca ti ons – both fine these phenom ena took place in the condi ti ons of (Pl. III.3) and ro bust (Pl. III.4) – are observed. pre vail ing coastal for ag ing econ omy. There is now also the PPNA on Cyprus (first half of the 9th millenium cal BC and co eval with Maroulas) but CON CLU SIONS there is no evidence for it in the Aegean so far. On Crete so far, no lo cal Aceramic Neolithic – the arriva l of the PPNB on Cy prus with its prede ces sor to Knossos has been discov ered on very close par allels (over a full range of dif fer ent the is land. Nor is there at the pres ent time a well cultura l and then econom ic dom ains and not just a docu m ented site that is contem porary with the few se lected ones) to the PPNB in the Near East Aceramic Neoli thic at Knossos. In our view, the and its long and steady evolu ti on over time questi on of Mesolithic sites rem ains an open one. (8500–6200 cal BC). This devel op m ent was fa cil - In any case, the ar tifacts col lected from the sur - itat ed by the on-going “growth” of early seafar ing face of sites near Plakias are alm ost all in quartz as re flected by circu la ti on of obsid ian now seen and they involve differ ent lithic reduc ti on tech - on Cy prus (for the first time) and by the new ani - nology, so they cannot be inter preted as giving mals now reaching the is land, as now doc um ented rise to what is found in the Aceramic Neo lithic at by Vigne et al. (2011). This econom ic package Knossos. The sequence of occu pa ti ons com pris- was adapted by the local forag ers. The above ing layer X at Knossos is, in all like liho od, the menti oned cul tural tradi ti ons that emerged from sum of rel ati vely brief sojourns by groups with the mul ti di rec tional sea-born con tacts con trib uted farm ing-stock breeding econom y, who visit ed to the emergence of a unique Aceramic Neo lithic Crete as part of “causal sea-move ments in the culture units represented in layer X at Knossos. Aegean” (Efstratiou, 2005: 83). In this proces s, the dom inant role was played These groups belonged to a system atic net - the crossing tradi ti ons of the Aegean and Cy prus. work of sea-goers who since the time of the Me- On the other hand, the rather unique Aceramic 80 M. Kaczanowska & J. K. Koz³owski

Neoli thic at Franchthi in the Peloponese arose CANN J., RENFREW C. 1964. The source of the ob- from the tra di tions of the Epigravettian Mesolithic sidian from the Neo lithic lev els at Knossos. In: J. and the sty lis tic in flu ence of the Late West ern Ev ans (ed.) Ex ca va tions in the Neo lithic set tle ment Med i ter ra nean Mesolithic (that is, el e ments of the of Knossos I. Brit ish School at Ath ens, Ath ens, 29. Castelnovian tech nol ogy and flÀches tranchantes; CONOLLY J. 2008. The knapped stone tech nol ogy of the first oc cu pants at Knossos. In: V. Isaakidou, P. PerlÀs, 1987: fig. 24.1–8, 26.7,8) upon which the Tomkins (eds) Es cap ing the Lab y rinth: The Cretan Near East Neo lithic pack age was su per im posed. Neo lithic in Context . Shef field Stud ies in Aegean Whether Crete played a role in the transm ission of Ar chae ol ogy, Shef field. this package re mains an open questi on. EFSTRATIOU N., KARESTOU A., NANOU E., The hy pothe sis put forward here finds sup - MORGOMENOU D. 2004. The Neo lithic set tle - port in the result s of geneti c resea rch – nota bly on ment of Knossos: new light on an old pic ture. In: G. chrom osom e Y. On Crete, the haplogroup J2b- Codogan, E. Hatzaki, A. Vasiliakis (eds) Knossos, palace, city, state. Pro ceed ings of the Con fer ence in M410 is dom inant, com mon with Anatolia, rd whereas, in the Peloponese, just as in the Balkans, Heraklion and the 23 Ephoreia of Pre historic and Clas si cal An tiq ui ties of Heraklion, No vem ber 2000. the dom inant group is J2a-M12. However, the The Brit ish School at Ath ens Supple ments 12, Lon - possi bil ity cannot be exclude d that some earli er don, 39–49. rela ti ons exist ed betwee n Crete and the Argolide, EFSTRATIOU N. 2005. Trac ing the story of the first where haplogroup E3ba-VI 13 dom inate s (King farmers in Greece – a long and widen ing road. In: C. et al., 2008). Lichter, R. Meric (eds) How did farming reach Eu - rope. Ana to lian-Eu ro pean re la tions from the sec ond th th Ac knowl edg ments half of the 7 through the first half of the 6 millenium cal BC. Pro ceed ings of the In ter na tional The au thors wish to thank Prof. Al bert Ammerman Work shop Istan bul, 20-22 May 2004. BYZAS 2, and Prof. Ofer Bar-Yosef for com ments on early drafts Veröfentlichung des Deutschen Archäologischen of this pa per. Instituts Is tan bul, Is tan bul, 143–155. EVANS J. 1964. Ex ca vations in the Neolithic settle - ment of Knossos 1957–1960, Part I. Brit ish School REF ER ENCES at Athens 59, 132–230. AMMERMAN A. 2010. The frst Argo nauts: to wards EV ANS J. 1968. Knossos Neo lithic, Part II: Summary the study of he earli est seafar ing in the Medi ter ra - and Con clu sions. Brit ish School at Ath ens 63, 239– nean. In: A. Ander son, J. Barrett, K. Boyle (eds) 276. Global or i gins and de vel op ment of sea far ing. The EV ANS J. 1971. Neolithic Knossos: the growth of a Mc Don ald In sti tute for Ar chae o log i cal Re search, set tle ment. Pro ceed ings of the Pre his toric So ci ety Cam bridge, 81–92. 37, 95–117. AMMERMAN A. 2011. The par a dox of early voy ag - EVANS J. 1994. The early millenia: conti nu ity and ing in the Med i ter ra nean and the slowness of the change in a farming set tle ment. In: D. Evely, H. Neo lithic tran si tion be tween Cy prus and It aly. In: Hughes-Brock, N. Momigliano (eds) Knossos. A G. Vavouranaki (ed.) The sea scape in Aegean Pre - Lab y rinth of His tory, Brit ish School at Ath ens, Lon - his tory. Monographs of the Dan ish Insti tute at Ath - don, 1–20. ens 14, Ath ens, 31–50. FLOURENTZOS P., McCARTNEY C., CROFT P.W., AMMERMAN A., FLOURENTZOS P., McCART- REESE D.S. 2008. The Neo lithic set tle ment of NEY C., NOLLER J., SORABJI D. 2006. Two new Paralimni. De part ment of An tiq ui ties, Lefkosia. sites on Cy prus. Re port of the Depart ment of Anti- GUILAINE J., Le BRUN F. 2003. Le Néolithique en quities, Cy prus, 1–22. Chypre. Actes du Colloque In ter na tional Organisé AMMERMAN A., FLOURENTZOS P., GABRIELLI par le Départment des Antiquités de Chypre et R., McCARTNEY C., NOLLER J., PELOSO D., l´École Française d´AthÀnes, Nicosie 17-19 Mai SORABJI D. 2007. More on the new early sites on 2003. École Française d´AthÀne, Ath ens. Cy prus. Re port of the Depart ment of Antiq ui ties, GUILAINE J., BRIOIS F. 2008. Shillourokambos and Cy prus, 1–26. the Neolithization of Cy prus: some reflec tions. Eur- AMMERMAN A., FLOURENTZOS P., GABRIELLI asian Pre his tory 4(1-2), 159–175. R., HIGHAM T., McCARTNEY C., TURNBULL HANSEN J.M. 1991. The Palaeoethnobotany of Fran- T. 2008. Third re port on early sites on Cy prus. Re - chthi Cave. Ex ca va tions in Franchthi Cave, Greece, port of the De partment of An tiq ui ties, Cy prus, 1–32. Fas ci cle 7. In di ana Uni ver sity Press, Indianopolis. Lithic indus try from the aceramic levels at Knossos 81

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Pl. I. Knossos, Initial Neo lithic: 1–8 – cores, 9 – splint ered piece Lithic indus try from the aceramic levels at Knossos 83

Pl. II. Knossos, Initial Neo lithic: 1–4 splint ered pieces, 5–9 – tools 84 M. Kaczanowska & J. K. Koz³owski

Pl. III Knossos, Initial Neo lithic: 1–9 – tools Lithic indus try from the aceramic levels at Knossos 85

Pl. IV. Knossos. Initial Neo lithic. 1–10 – tools 86 M. Kaczanowska & J. K. Koz³owski

Pl. V. Knossos. Initial Neo lithic. 1–13 – tools Lithic indus try from the aceramic levels at Knossos 87

Pl. VI. Knossos, Early Neo lithic I: 1–21 – tools