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Island Archaeology and the Origins of Seafaring in the Eastern Mediterranean

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Island Archaeology and the Origins of Seafaring in the Eastern Mediterranean An offprint from ISLAND ARCHAEOLOGY AND THE ORIGINS OF SEAFARING IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN Proceedings of the Wenner Gren Workshop held at Reggio Calabria on October 19-21, 2012 In memory of John D. Evans Eurasian Prehistory Guest Editors: Albert J. Ammerman and Thomas Davis PART ONE (Eurasian Prehistory 10/2013) Introduction 1. Introduction Albert J. Ammerman 2. Chronological framework Thomas W. Davis Placing island archaeology and early voyaging in context 3. The origins of mammals on the Mediterranean islands as an indicator of early voyaging Jean-Denis Vigne 4. Cosmic impact, the Younger Dryas, Abu Hureyra, and the inception of agriculture in Western Asia Andrew M. T. Moore and Douglas J. Kennett 5. The homelands of the Cyprus colonizers: selected comments Ofer Bar-Yosef 6. Marine resources in the Early Neolithic of the Levant: their relevance to early seafaring Daniella E. Bar-Yosef Mayer 7. Early seafaring and the archaeology of submerged landscapes Geoff N. Bailey Case studies A. Cyprus 8. Tracing the steps in the fieldwork at the sites of Aspros and Nissi Beach on Cyprus Albert J. Ammerman 9. Akrotiri-Aetokremnos (Cyprus) 20 years later: an assessment of its significance Alan H. Simmons 10. The transportation of mammals to Cyprus sheds light on early voyaging and boats in the Mediterranean Sea Jean-Denis Vigne, Antoine Zazzo, Isabella Carrère, François Briois and Jean Guilaine 11. On the chipped stone assemblages at Klimonas and Shillourokambos and their links with the mainland François Briois and Jean Guilaine PART TWO (Eurasian Prehistory 11/2014) 12. Temporal placement and context of Cyro-PPNA activity on Cyprus Sturt W. Manning B. The Aegean 13. The Aegean Mesolithic: material culture, chronology, and networks of contact Małgorzata Kaczanowska and Janusz K. Kozłowski 14. The Aegean Mesolithic: environment, economy, and voyaging Adamantios Sampson 15. The late forager camp of Ouriakos on the island of Lemnos: Human groups on the move at the turn of the Holocene in the Northern Aegean Nikos Efstratiou 16. Initial occupation of the Gelibolu Peninsula and the Gökçeada (Imbroz) island in the pre-Neolithic and Early Neolithic Onur Özbek and Burçin Erdogu 17. Lower Palaeolithic artifacts from Plakias, Crete: Implications for hominin dispersals Curtis Runnels, Chad DiGregorio, Karl W. Wegmann, Sean F. Gallen, Thomas F. Strasser, Eleni Panagopoulou C. Central and Western Mediterranean 18. The spread of farming to the Adriatic: New insights from Dalmatia Andrew M. T. Moore 19. The question of voyaging foragers in the Central Mediterranean Marcello A. Mannino 20. Early prehistoric voyaging in the Western Mediterranean: Implications for the Neolithic transition in Iberia and the Maghreb João Zilhão Looking forward 21. Setting our sights on the distant horizon Albert J. Ammerman Eurasian Prehistory, 10 (1–2): 177–186 ON THE CHIPPED STONE ASSEMBLAGES AT KLIMONAS AND SHILLOUROKAMBOS AND THEIR LINKS WITH THE MAINLAND François Briois1, Jean Guilaine1 1 Laboratoire TRACES, Centre de Recherches sur la Préhistoire et la Protohistoire de la Méditerranée, Ecole des Hautes Etudes en Sciences Sociales, Maison de la Recherche, Université de Toulouse II, 5 allée Antonio- Machado, F-31058 Toulouse cedex 9, France; [email protected], [email protected] Abstract Research conducted on Cyprus over the last twenty years had led to renewed interest in the first populations living on the island, and it has created a new framework for thinking about this and other related questions. The survey conducted at Amathus in the years between 1988 and 1991 by the mission of the French School of Athens was highly productive and led to the recovery of a large number of Neolithic sites. The high density of sites of the age is connected with the excellent flint sources that occur in the area. In particular, two sites of major importance were discovered by the survey: Shillourokambos and Klimonas. Both of them were subsequently excavated. This chapter gives a concise review of the character of the chipped stone assemblages recovered at the two settlements, which date respectively to the periods now known as the PPNB and the PPNA on Cyprus. During both times, almost all of the chipped stone tools were made from local sources of flint and chert but there is also evidence for obsidian, which reached the island from sources in Anatolia. What is still lacking on the island at the present time is the phase of transition between these two period. Key words: PPNA, PPNB, blade technology, obsidian INTRODUCTION groups were already living on Cyprus as early as 8,400 and 8,300 cal. BC. Their flint industries are Research conducted on Cyprus over the last characterized by a bipolar blade technology, which twenty years had led to renewed interest in the is essentially the same as the one found at PPNB first populations living on the island, and it has sites on the mainland. Such Neolithic societies, created a new framework for thinking about this living in villages, then continued to develop on and other related questions such as early seafaring the island throughout the 8th millennium with in the eastern Mediterranean. The excavations at their material culture evolving in the end towards several new archaeological sites have now pushed the Khirokitian. back the earliest Neolithic habitation on Cyprus In addition, survey work on Cyprus under- from the 7th millennium BC to the first half of taken by the French mission at Amathus and by the 9th millennium BC. Radiocarbon dates from the EENC project had brought to light chipped the earliest phone of occupation at the settlement stone assemblages with a unidirectional blade of Parekklisha-Shillourokambos, (Guilaine et technology and arrowheads (that is, closer to the al., 2000, 2011; Guilaine, 2003; Guilaine and PPNA on the mainland, suggesting that the island Briois, 2007) and from well 116 at Mylouthkia might have been frequented at an even earlier (Peltenburg et al., 2000, 2001) indicate that human time (Briois et al., 2005; Guilaine and Briois, 178 F. Briois & J. Guilaine 2007, McCartney, 1998; McCartney et al., 2006). AYIOS TYCHONAS – KLIMONAS Of course, some caution was called for, since the lithic material came from the land surface and not The site of Klimonas is located just to the east from well-dated archaeological contexts. In turn, of the village of Ayios Tychonas in the southern when excavations were carried out respectively part of Cyprus (Fig. 1). The relief where the site at the sites of Klimonas and Asprokremnos, they stands slopes down gradually toward a depression would show in both cases that the survey results on its south side. The extensive excavations con- were actually correct. ducted in 2011 and 2012 brought to light several In short, the recent excavations at Asprokrem- buildings, including a subterranean circular one nos began to fill a gap in the island’s prehistory. that is 10 m in diameter (Vigne et al., 2012). This There Carole McCartney and her co-workers building is similar in size and organization to the (McCartney et al., 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010; Mc- sunken rooms of late PPNA age in the northern Cartney, 2010, 2011) found domestic features Levant, which were sometimes decorated and belonging to a context of PPNA age with a uni- often contained caches of precious objects sug- directional blade technology and numerous loz- gesting ceremonial use. Such buildings are inter- enge points. They interpreted Asprokremnos to preted as multi-functional communal structures be a settlement where late foragers lived by hunt- that were used for collective storage, meetings ing wild pigs and birds. The radiocarbon dates and ritual purposes. All the carbon dates cluster produced by the site fall in the interval between tightly, and they provide a secure absolute age 8,800 and 8,630 cal. BC, which corresponds with from the end of the 10th to the middle of the 9th the end of the PPNA on the mainland (Manning millennia BC. More precisely the determinations et al., 2010). span the time between 9,155 and 8,615 cal. BC (2σ). These dates are contemporary with those from Asprokremnos (that is, 8,800-8,630 cal. BC, as mentioned above; Manning et al., 2010). Fig. 1. Map of Cyprus, sites discussed in the text (drawn P. Gerard) On the chipped stone assemblages at Klimonas and Shillourokambos 179 Klimonas and Asprokremnos are the only PPNA a given core unusable. Much rarer examples sites known on Cyprus at the present time; they show evidence of reshaping of the active surface, are coeval with late PPNA sites in the Levant starting from the opposite striking platform. A and also the transitional sites there that date be- second type of production involves a bidirectional tween the end of the PPNA and the Early PPNB mode of working a core but cases of this are rare. (Stordeur and Abbès, 2002; Goring-Morris and Of quadrangular morphology, such a core has Belfer-Cohen, 2011). two opposite striking platforms, and it presents a nearly flat debitage-surface upon which negatives of small blades (with sharp terminations) are The lithics visible but no predetermined or central blade is observed in such as case (Fig. 2:10). The vast majority of the chert worked at Klimonas The tools themselves comprise a rich and derives from a single geological formation. The varied corpus that includes recurrent typological vitreous cherts include a high-quality translucent markers. The tool set is clearly dominated by chert, which dominate the site’s assemblages, burins – most of them being angle burins on a along with less common cherts that are moderately break. There are also dihedral burins and angle opaque (known as Lefkara-basal). The source of burins on truncations. Scrapers represent the both of them is Athiaki, a place located a few next most important class of tools in the chipped hundred meters to the northwest of the site.
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