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Open Journal of Archaeometry 2014; volume 2:5262 New 14C evidence for the Late BC, whereas the earliest EBA layer dates begin at around 3300 BC. A date in the last 1/3rd of the Correspondence: Yannis Maniatis, Laboratory of Neolithic-Early Bronze Age 4th millennium BC is also the date suggested Archaeometry, Institute of Materials Science, transition in Southeast Europe for the one-layer transitional settlement on the National Center for Scientific Research neighbouring island of Thasos (Aghios “Demokritos”, 153 10, Aghia Paraskevi, Attiki, Greece. Yannis Maniatis,1 Zoï Tsirtsoni,2 Ioannis). The fact that the gap affects settle- E-mail: [email protected] Christine Oberlin,3 Pascal Darcque,2 ments of different types and locations, Key words: North Greece, Southeast Europe, LN- 4 although there are no signs of major environ- Chaido Koukouli-Chryssanthaki, EBA, radiocarbon dating. 4 4 mental changes, suggests that the reasons of Dimitra Malamidou, Tasos Siros, Acknowledgments: thanks are due to the organiz- 4 5 their possible total or partial abandonment are Miltos Miteletsis, Stratis Papadopoulos, ers of ISA 2010; the technicians of the labs Eirini Bernd Kromer6 more likely to be social than strictly environ- Kellidou, Marigo-Eirini Kyriazi, Marie-Thérèse mental. Cuzange, Sabine Kühr, Eva Gier; the personnel 1Laboratory of Archaeometry, Institute of and director of the laboratory at Saclay, where the Materials Science, National Center for AMS measures were made. Scientific Research “Demokritos”, Aghia Citation: Maniatis Y, Tsirtsoni Z, Oberlin C, Paraskevi, Greece; 2UMR 7041 - Introduction Darcque P, Koukouli-Chryssanthaki C, Archéologies et Sciences de l'Antiquité, Malamidou D, Siros T, Miteletsis M, Maison R. Ginouvès, Centre National de The general picture of the Late Neolithic- Papadopoulos S, Kromer B, 2014. New 14C evi- dence for the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age la Recherche Scientifique, Universités Early Bronze Age transition in the Balkans is transition in Southeast Europe. In: RH Tykot 3 Paris 1 et Paris Ouest, Nanterre; UMR rather controversial. Although a certain conti- (ed.), Proceedings of the 38th International 5138 - Archéométrie et Archéologie, nuity in land occupation is recognized [i.e. Symposium on Archaeometry – May 10th-14th Centre National de la Recherche many Early Bronze Age (EBA) settlements dis- 2010, Tampa, Florida. Open Journal of Scientifique et Centre de Datation par le play also layers of Late Neolithic (LN) date], in Archaeometry 2:5262. Radiocarbone, Universités Lyon 1 et 2, terms of material culture there is a clear con- Presented at the 38th International Symposium on th th France; 4Greek Ministry of Culture and trast between the two periods. This is mostly Archaeometry – May 10 -14 2010, Tampa, onlyFlorida. Sports, Ephorate of Speleology and evident in the Northern part of the territory (Northern Greece, Bulgaria), where the mate- This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Paleoanthropology of Northern Greece, rial expression at the later stages of the Attribution 3.0 License (by-nc 3.0). Thessaloniki; 5Greek Ministry of Culture Neolithic period, also called Final Neolithic or ©Copyright Y. Maniatis et al., 2014 th and Sports, 18 Ephorate of Prehistoric Chalcolithic, is richer: richly decorateduse and Licensee PAGEPress, Italy and Classical Antiquities, Kavala, Greece; sometimes extremely fine pottery, such as Open Journal of Archaeometry 2014; 2:5262 6 Heidelberger Akademie der black-on-red and graphite-painted, or vessels doi:10.4081/arc.2014.5262 Wissenschaften, University with incised and crusted decoration, elaborate of Heidelberg, Germany anthropomorphic and zoomorphic figurines, clay models, ornaments such as spondylus en era and the dull next EBA period is so bru- bracelets, beads, etc. (Papathanassopoulos, tal, that some archaeologists assume that a 1996; Anthony and Chi, 2009; Papadimitriou major catastrophe occurred between the two, Abstract and Tsirtsoni, 2010). All these features are due either to climatic changes or foreign inva- completely out of use at the beginning of the sions. The long duration of the chronological The transition from the Late Neolithic (LN) next EBA period, which includes indeed only gap separating the two periods, pinpointed period (locally also called Final Neolithic or dark-coloured monochrome pottery, usually since the late 1980s, has reinforced the idea of Chalcolithic) to the Early Bronze Age (EBA) in medium-grained, and no figurative or conspic- a collapse that societies would have put sever- Greece and the Southeast Balkans is an uous artifacts. Incised pottery with white infill al centuries to overcome. During the obscure period in human history. Previous appears a little later, during the EBA II phase Transitional period, people would have moved radiocarbon evidence showed that in settle- (2700-2300 BC), as do also the EBA Urfirnis to new, more secure locations, attested by ments with stratigraphical sequences stretch- and matt-painted wares found in the South scarce finds, and even scarcer radiocarbon ing out on both periods, the absoluteNon-commercial dates fea- (Treuil, 1983; Treuil et al., 2008). In Southern dates (Todorova, 1978, 1995; Boyadziev, 1995). tured a gap ranging from 700 to 1000 years Greece, the contrast between the LN and the It is only recently that archaeologists work- (roughly between 4000 and 3300/3000 cal. BC). first EBA material culture is less obvious, for ing in Greece started asking questions about On the other hand, there is only scarce evi- the Late (Final) Neolithic material culture is the real nature of the LN/FN-EBA transition. dence about settlements that would have been not that impressive: pottery is more usually Absolute chronology has helped a lot in this founded during the missing period, thus aris- monochrome and figurines are rare, although debate. The first signs of a possible hiatus in ing questions of paramount importance about there exist elements which connect these occupation have been registered at the site of the human occupational strategies in this peri- regions to the rich Balkan Neolithic koine, Mandalo, in Greek Western Macedonia, with C- od. Investigation tackling this particular prob- such as characteristic stone and metal orna- 14 dates suggesting that ca. 1000 years sepa- lem is carried out within the framework of a ments. Under these conditions, it is not rated the layers of phases II (Final Neolithic) broader research project (Balkans-4000) fund- strange that the possibility of a break in the and III (EBA), in spite of the fact that they ed by the French National Research Agency occupation has been first pointed down were stratigraphically continuous (Maniatis (ANR). Here we discuss the latest radiocarbon archaeologically by the Bulgarians. Indeed, and Kromer, 1990). In the following years, it results from three recently excavated multi- this is where the Chalcolithic period appears became more and more obvious that the miss- layer settlements on the continental Greek the richest, with several well-organized and ing interval, i.e. the years between roughly Eastern Macedonia: Dikili Tash, Kryoneri and eventually fortified settlements, and especially 4000 and 3000 cal. BC, and especially the first Sidirokastro. In all cases, the existing LN with extremely wealthy cemeteries, like that of half of the 4th millennium, was altogether very radiocarbon dates do not go beyond about 4000 Varna. The contrast between this literally gold- poor in radiocarbon dates (Manning, 1995; [Open Journal of Archaeometry 2014; volume 2:5262] [page 43] Dating Methods Alram-Stern, 1996; Andreou et al., 1996; Treuil provided ten or more. The number of samples Dating), and Acceleration Mass Spectrometry et al., 2008). More recently, evidence came up depended not only on the length of occupation (at CEA Saclay, under the responsibility of the suggesting the existence of an independent, or use of the site, but also on the availability Lyon lab). Details of sample treatment and truly transitional phase also in Greece and quality of samples (burned-unburned lay- measuring procedures can be found in (Adrymi-Sismani, 2007; Johnson, 1999). ers, eroded or washed out deposits, etc.), and Maniatis and Papadopoulos (2011), Foucher et However, the large deviations in the majority also on extending the local sequence to undat- al. (2011), and Cottereau et al. (2007) for each of the available radiocarbon dates, together ed portions. Thus, in sites with already well- laboratory respectively. with the widespread suspicion among the established long chronological sequences, we archaeologists, although not always clearly just proceeded to a few targeted samplings, The sites stated, that this gap could be simply (or partly) whereas others, with shorter sequences but The full results of this project will be pre- due to problems in the radiocarbon technique with no prior information, necessitated a more sented elsewhere (Tsirtsoni, in press). Here itself, somehow masked the problem. Thus, in abundant sampling. Three dating methods we discuss in some detail evidence from three many recent chronological tables the last have been used concurrently: Gas Proportional settlements in Northern Greece: Dikili Tash, phase of the Neolithic is shown to last uninter- Counting (at the Laboratory of Archaeometry, Kryoneri and Sidirokastro. The new dates were ruptedly until the beginning of the EBA (i.e. NCSR Demokritos), Liquid Scintillation combined with a series of older radiocarbon from 4800 to 3300 BC), in spite of the fact that Counting (at the Lyon Centre for Radiocarbon dates produced by the Laboratory of the absolute dates collected so far cluster sys- tematically in years before 4000 cal. BC. The start of the EBA itself is not very well fixed. A general consensus exists for the date of 3300 cal. BC, but a possible earlier start in some regions is not excluded although cannot be verified due the very large error bars of the particular samples [e.g. Sitagroi IV in Greek Eastern Macedonia (Johnson, 1999)]. In order to help clarify these issues, we only recently undertook research in several parts of Greece and Bulgaria, thanks to a generous funding from the French National Research Agency(ANR research project BALKANS 4000).