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Eur asian Pre his tory, 7 (2): 287–308. SHELL OR NA MENTS FROM THE UP PER PALEOLITHIC THROUGH MESOLITHIC LAY ERS OF KLISSOURA CAVE 1 BY PROSYMNA (PELOPONESE, GREECE) Mary C. Stiner School of An thro pol ogy, P.O. Box 210030, Uni ver sity of Ar i zona, Tuc son, Ar i zona 85721-0030, USA; [email protected] i zona.edu Ab stract More than 1500 shell orna ments were recov ered during the exca va tions of the early Upper Paleolithic through Meso- lithic layers of Klissoura Cave 1. The or na ment assem blages from the middle and lower Aurigna cian and the earli est Up- per Paleolithic (Uluzzian) layers asso ci ate with well preserved hearths and other intact cultural features. The older orna - ment assem blages are excep tion ally rich in mollusk species, whose shells humans collected from marine shorelines, fresh- wa ter habi tats and Plio cene fossil sources. A partic u larly dense concen tration of orna mental shells occurs within the area of a small structure in the lower Aurigna cian (layer IV). Taxo nomic diver sity in the orna ment assem blages declines pre- cipi tously after the for mation of layer IIIe–g (upper Aurigna cian), and this condi tion of low di versity persists through the end of the cultural sequence. The changes in orna ment diver sity seem to reflect natu ral changes in coast line habi tat struc - tures of the re gion. All of the Upper Paleolithic orna ment assem blages are “high-graded” or selec tively winnowed for har- mony in color, form and qual ity. There are few if any hints of manu factur ing errors and debris typi cal of shell orna ment as- semblages in coastal sites. Rather, the orna ments display high frequen cies of use wear (pol ish), usually in a pre ferred ori - en tation, indi cat ing that most of them ar rived on site while affixed to human bodies or organic arti facts. There are no re- mains of edible marine mol lusks in Klissoura Cave 1, consis tent with its inland loca tion. The taxo nomic compo sition of the early Upper Paleolithic shell assem blages is simi lar to those docu mented in Italy, whereas the very limited taxo nomic compo sition of the later orna ment assem blages is most consis tent with those found at Franchthi Cave on the south ern Argolid. Key words: Paleolithic shell orna ments, Aurigna cian, Uluzzian, taphonomy, site forma tion processes, site structure. di nary and with out in ter est. The be hav ioral im - IN TRO DUC TION portanc e of the emergence of bead-making tradi - Compar a tively lit tle is known about Paleo- tions in the early Up per Paleolithic is un der- lithic orna m ents from Greece. The num ber of ex- scored, however, by the dearth of them in ar chae - ca vated Paleolithic sites has climbed slowly over o logi cal sites prior to this pe riod in much of the last five de cades, and only a few of these sites Eurasia (but see d’Errico et al., 1998; Bar-Yosef – Franchthi Cave and now Klissoura Cave 1 – Mayer et al., 2009) in con trast to some Afri can pro vide much in for ma tion about early dec o ra tive Mid dle Stone Age sites (Bouzouggar et al., 2007; tra diti ons and the context s of their use. Paleolithic Henshilwood et al., 2004). art, includ ing beads, is consid ered an im portant Orna m ents made from mollusk shell, ostri ch cri terion for the emergence of mod ern hum an be- eggshel l, mam mal teeth and ivory, and soft stone havior during the Late Pleisto cene (e.g., Klein, are con sidered to be a unique evolu ti on ary devel - 1989; Mellars, 1989; White, 2003). op ment on account of their visu all y striking qual i- Dec o ra tive tra di tions ex ist in vir tu ally ev ery ties, trans fer abil ity among per sons (sensu du ra ble re cent hu man cul ture, so much so that early Pale- items of trade, gifts or burial par apher na li a) (Kuhn olithic beads and other orna m ents might seem or - and Stiner, 2007), and the stylistic formalizations 288 M. C. Stiner ap par ent from con sis ten cies in size and ap pear - of Italy (Palma di Cesnola, 1966, 1993; Benini et ance (Hahn, 1972; Bar-Yosef, 1989; White, 1989, al., 1997; Gambassini, 1997) have been found in 1993; Tab orin, 1993; Stiner, 1999, 2003; d’Errico Klissoura Cave 1 (Koumouzelis et al., 2001; et al., 2001; Kuhn et al., 2001; Bouzouggar et al., Kaczanowska et al., this is sue). Several Up per 2007). Min eral ox ides, on the other hand, were Paleolithic sites in Greece con tain or na ments widely used as early as the Mid dle Paleolithic pe - made from shells (e.g., Shackle ton, 1988; Kou- riod in Eurasi a, per haps to color hides, hum an mouzelis et al., 2001). Re cent ex ca va tions at skin, or tools. While dec o rati on is only one of Klissoura Cave 1 have yielded excep ti on ally rich sev eral pos si ble ex pla na tions for the pres ence of or na ment tra di tions in the early Up per Paleolithic pig ments in Mid dle Paleolithic toolkits, the pos si - of Klissoura Cave 1, includ ing the Uluzzian layer. bil ity of such prac tices in the Mid dle Paleolithic cannot be refute d with current evi dence . Even if ochre and other miner als were used as pigm ents in BACKGROUND TO KLISSOURA the ear lier pe ri ods, ar chae ol o gists’ ef forts to link CAVE 1 their oc cur rence in sites to pre his toric dec o ra tive More than 1500 shell or nam ents were re cov- tra di tions re mains con tro ver sial (but see Henshil- ered during the exca va ti ons of the early Upper wood et al., 2009). The infor m ati on that painted Paleolithic through Mesolithic lay ers of Klissoura body de signs may carry is transie nt and non- Cave 1. The orna m ents from the early Upper transfer ra ble (Kuhn and Stiner, 2007), in con trast Paleolithic lay ers (V–IIIc) occur within and to the dura ble prop erti es of some orna m ents. Evi - among a dense ar ray of well pre served sed im en - dence for design rep eti tion is neces sary to any ar- tary fea tures, mainly hearths. Shell or na ments are gu ment for shared sym bolic sig nifi canc e in pre- most abun dant in the middle to lower Aurigna cia n his toric dec o ra tive ob jects (Kuhn and Stiner, lay ers, par tic u larly layer IV. 2007). It is likely that orna m ent pro ducti on and Sev eral gen eral ob ser va tions about Klissoura use was great est where in ter ac tion among so cial Cave 1 are im portant to this pre senta ti on of the groups was high, pos sibly in connec ti on with re- shell orna m ents. This shal low cave is sit u ated on gion ally high hu man pop u la tion den si ties (Kuhn the Berbatias River and comm ands a wide view of et al., 2001). The sudden appear ance of dura ble the Argos plain, roughly 12 km inland of the orna m ental ob jects in hum an cul tures of the Late Argolikos Gulf (Fig. 1). Most of the orna m ental Plei- stocene may even sug gest the emergence of shells none the less were collected from ma rine a ba sic vi sual gram mar in so cial in ter ac tions (e.g., shores. The great va ri ety of fea tures, ar tifacts and Gam ble, 1986; d’Errico et al., 2003; Kuhn and ver tebrate fau nal re mains in the Up per Paleolithic Stiner, 2007). layers in di cates that the site served mainly at a The tim ing of the first ap pearance and subse - res iden tial base, par ticu larly in the early phases of quent pro lif er a tion of or na ment tra di tions var ies occu pa ti on. An area of 13–15 square meter s was across world regions. An im portant questi on for ex ca vated (Karkanas et al., 2004; Koumouzelis et this study is the chronol ogy and evolu ti on of or- al., 2001), and the units cut through the heart of nam ent tradi ti ons in southern Greece. Few paleo- sev eral oc cu pa tional layers in this small cave. anthro pol o gists would be surprise d to learn that The cul tural stra tig ra phy in Klissoura Cave 1 or na ments ap pear sud denly in the ar chae o log i cal is more than 5 m deep and include s a long Mid dle record of Greece with begin ning of the Upper Paleolithic se quence (Sitlivy et al., 2007) capped Paleolithic cul ture pe riod. Most early Up per by Upper Paleolithic and Mesolithic hori zons Paleolithic in dus tries in Greece are at trib uted to (Karkanas, this issue).

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