Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia, from Palaeo Lithic to The

Home , Aliartos, Chios (regional unit), Elateia, Karystos, Kastoria (regional unit), Lerna (municipal unit)

Eurasian Pre history, 6 (1–2): 199–231.

SARAKENOS CAVE IN BOEOTIA, FROM PALAEOLITHIC TO THE EARLY BRONZE AGE

Adamantios Sampson1, Janusz K. Koz³owski2, Ma³gorzata Kaczanowska3, Anna Budek4, Adam Nadachowski5, 6, Teresa Tomek6 and Barbara Miêkina6

1 Aegean Uni ver sity Rhodes, De part ment of Med i ter ra nean Ar chae ol ogy, Demokratios Ave, Rhodes, Greece 2 In sti tute of Ar chae ol ogy, Jagiellonian Uni ver sity, ul. Go³êbia 11, 31-007 Kraków, Po land, [email protected] 3 Archae o log i cal Mu seum, ul. Senacka 3, Kraków, Po land 4 In sti tute of Geography and Spa tial Organization, Pol ish Acad emy of Sci ence, ul. Œw. Jana 22, 31-016 Kraków, Po land 5 Departament of Palaeozoology, Zoo log i cal In sti tute, Wroc³aw Univer sity, Sienkiewicza 21, 50-355 Wroc³aw, Po land 6 In sti tute of System at ics and Evo lu tion of An i mals, Pol ish Acad emy of Sci ences, ul. S³awkowska 17, 31-016 Kraków, Po land

Ab stract Sarakenos Cave, oc cupied since the Late Palaeolithic, is of crucial impor tance for the study of the Mesolithic/Neo- lithic inter face. There is a striking contrast between the isolated Mesolithic, partic u larly Late Mesolithic occu pa tions with flake technol ogy adapted to the local bad quality raw mate ri als, and with subsis tence economy based on fowling and plant gather ing, also adapted to the lo cal envi ron men tal condi tions, and the Early Neolithic groups arriv ing some 120–140 ra- diocar bon years later, with imported raw mate ri als, macroblade technol ogy and ani mal breeding. The Middle and Late Neo lithic oc cu pa tions are rep re sented by nu mer ous sym bolic ob jects such as fig u rines in di cat ing the im por tant role of the cave in rit ual ac tiv i ties.

IN TRO DUC TION ments have been lo cated in the east ern part of the In 1993 in the Kopais area in Boeotia (Fig. 1) val ley. we started up a pro ject with the aim to sys temat i - Because of its im por tance as a natu ral kar stic cally survey the karstic forma tions all around the basin, Kopais has been the subject of exten sive rocky boundaries of the basin (Sampson, 2000, pa laeoen vi ron men tal stud ies since the 1970s. 2004, 2006). During this project we have located, Greig and Turner (1974, 1975) published detailed recorded, and mapped a large number of caves pollen diagrams and Allen (1997) offered infor - and rock shelters in the basin. The larger concen - mation on the vegeta tion from the Late Upper Pa - tra tion of caves is observed in the limestone laeolithic onwards from two new cores. boundaries of the eastern part of Kopais (Fig. 2). During the Late Up per Pa laeolithic, Kopais In the area between Akraifnion and Aliartos we featured a vege tation pattern typical of an open have explored and mapped 23 caves, most of steppe and a dry and cold climate (Ar tem isia, which are of a low ele va tion at the level of what Graminae and Che no pods). The Pleisto cene – once was the lake coast. In some rock shel ters a Holocene transi tion is recorded in the diagrams in few surface chipped flints have been found proba - the form of forest expan sion (Quer cus, Ju ni pe rus, bly of Palaeo lithic age and five Neo lithic settle - Pis ta cia, Ephe dra), while layers that corre spond 200 A. Sampson et al.

Fig. 1. Map of the Kopais area

to 4000–3000 BC Quer cus drop, possi bly due to pollen diagrams show the clear im pact of humans defor es ta tion. The analysis of the grain of the cor- on the Ko pais ba sin en vi ron ment. ing sam ples suggests that there was fluc tuation in the lake lev els during the Late Pleis to cene and EX CA VA TION AND STRA TIG RA PHY Early Holo cene. There are also indi cations that The most suitable cave for ex cava tion was the the lake level dropped after 4000 and until 2500 cave of Sarakenos (Fig. 3), which was lo cated in BC. the east ern part of the former lake of Kopais at the The paly no logi cal ma te rial that has been al titude of 180m. It is the largest karstic for mation studied from the Sarakenos Cave sediments in the area, found today much higher than the (Sampson and Ioakeim 2002) shows presence of level of the plain. The cave has a large en trance, Pine and Quer cus and an in crease of Le gu mi no - 25 m. wide (Fig. 4), which lightens the chamber sae dur ing the tran si tion from Late Neo lithic I to and gives an excel lent view to what was once the LN II (sec ond half of the 5th mill. BC). The same lake. Ar chae o log i cal re search in Sarakenos Cave spe cies are pres ent with small fluc tua tions dur ing begun in the early 1970’s by Spyropoulos (1970), the Late Neo lithic II and the EH II. Gen er ally, and had featured finds from differ ent chrono log i - from the second half of the 5th mill. and un til the cal pe ri ods; the pub li ca tion of this ma te rial, how - 2nd mill. BC the plant spe cies re corded in the cave ever, was never to be real ised. Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 201

Fig. 2. Caves in the east ern part of Kopais 202 A. Sampson et al.

Fig. 3. Ground plan of the Sarakenos Cave

The sys tem atic ex cava tion of the site was part end of the Middle Hella dic pe riod, was the reason of the Kopais Project that started in 1994 in order for the abandonment of the cave. to es tab lish a chro no log i cal se quence for the de- velop ment of the cave and the identi fi ca tion of economical models in di verse peri ods. The re- Trench A search was contin ued since 2000, while since Trench A was opened along the side of the 2004 a new period of exca va tions started in the cave’s area that was in ves tigated in the past and cave that is continues till now. next to the southern wall of the cave. Trench A Ex cep tional strati graphi cal data in side the pres ents a strati graphic se quence close to that cave has led to the suc ces sion of distinct cultural from nearby Trench C (Fig. 5). The spits 3 and 4 phases, dated from the Middle/Up per Palaeolithic be long to a clear MH stra tum, excep tion ally clear to the Mid dle Hel la dic (2nd mill B.C.), when the due to the partic u larly thick layers of burning. The cave was abandoned for reasons yet unknown Mid dle Hel la dic stra tum in Lay ers A3–A5 corre - (Sampson 2000). Proba bly, the drainage of the sponds to the spits C5–C8. The thin Early Hella - lake, which was carried out proba bly towards the dic stratum in Layer A5 corre sponds to Layer C9, Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 203

Fig. 4. The entrance of the Sarakenos Cave which gave an abso lute date (DEM-1139, 3859± 2008). Two abso lute ages (DEM-1140, 5671±20 26 BP or 2400–2210 BC). BP or 4520–4460 BC and DEM-815, 5874±22 At spit 6 the last stage of the Late Neo lithic BP or 4776–4714 BC) from Trench A and C are (ca. 3800–3300 BC) started, while the succes sive in side the or di nary chro no log i cal lim its of the spit 7 offered an abso lute dating (DEM-672, Late Neolithic Ib. A sample from spit C13 gave an 4895±31 BP or 3697–3650 BC). Though rel a- abso lute dat ing (DEM-1141, 5931±25 BP or tively thin, the stratum of this phase con tained 4840–4730 BC) at the limit between the Late abun dant pot tery spec i mens, char ac ter is tic of this Neo lithic Ia and Late Neolithic Ib phases. period. The fi nal Neolithic phase in Trench A Spits 10 and 11 in Trench A belong to the (LNIIb) corre sponds to spit 10 of the adjacent Late Neolithic Ia phase (ca. 5300–4800 BC). An Trench C. abso lute dating of fine preci sion came from spit From spit 8, which belongs to the Late Neo- A10 (DEM-1064, 6096±24 BP or 5040–4960 lithic IIa phase (ca. 4300–3800 BC), came an ab- BC). Spit A11 also dates from the late stage of the solute dat ing (DEM-1065, 5407±22 BP or 4330– Late Neo lithic Ia and lead to three dates that co in - 4250 BC) that is char ac ter is tic of this phase’s cided with the late stage of the Late Neo lithic Ia start. Spit 9 cor responded to spit 12 of Trench C phase (DEM-1061, 6117±55 BP or 5210–4860 and dates from the Late Neo lithic Ib (ca. BC, DEM-1062, 6081±33 BP or 5040–4860 BC, 4800–4300 BC), a phase noted in most caves in and DEM-1063, 6062±29 BP or 5000–4860 BC). Greece with a long dura tion (Tharrounia – A floor was unearthed at a depth of 2.25 m Sampson, 1993; Cy clops Cave – Sampson 1998; (Spits A12, A13) that extended into Trench C and 204 A. Sampson et al.

Fig. 5. Trench A. A floor of the early Late Neolithic

dated from the begin ning of the Late Neolithic Ia 5660–5570 BC. Spit 18 also featured an abso lute phase. It consisted of hard earth, beaten soil, and dating (DEM-1136, 6618±22 BP or 5610–5520 ashes and terra rossa, while it pre served five BC. In spit 19 MN finds were very scarce and the open ings from postholes prob a bly, pos si bly re- ab so lute dat ing showed con sid er able chro no log i- lated to some sort of par tition at this point of the cal dif fer ence from the pre vi ous layer (DEM- cave. The exten sive floor with the postholes ap- 1118, 6794±21 BP or 5710–5650 BC.) Spit A21 pears to have been in use for a long period of time featured a simi lar dating (DEM-1117, 6779±42 due to the signif i cant thickness. BP or 5710–5640 BC). Sparse MN finds around Spits 14, 15 and 16 feature pottery types of the hearth contin ued to occur up to spit 23 (330 the Mid dle Neo lithic pe riod, while a small num- cm) in clayish layer with limestone éboulis. This ber of LNIa matt-painted and black burnished layer corre sponds to the MN/EN boundary. wares contin ued to appear. A sample from spit 14 led to an age fixed as DEM-1138, 6125±42 BP or 5200–4960 BC. Trench A – Ex ten sion Pure MN strata ap peared from the level of Trench A was extended in order to study in spit 17 onward, which fea tured a charcoal sam ple more de tail the layers of Mesolithic and Early of an age fixed as DEM-1137, 6722±20 BP or Neolithic, as well as the transi tion from the for - Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 205

Fig. 6. Profil W of Trench A, sq. 5–6, with pro jec tion of AMS dates on the lithostratigraphic se quence. Note: sed i ments are slop ing to the East and South; in con se quence of this the depths in sq. 14, 15 are not ex actly cor re - sponding to the rel a tive po sition of samples on pro file W mer to the lat ter. Squares 5, 6, and 9 were ex ca - at a depth of 418 cm. A series of AMS radio car - vated. The sequence of layers be low spit 23 (330 bon dates was obtained: the middle por tion (380– cm) consisted of the follow ing lithostratigraphic 390 cm) gave the date of 7460±50 BP(6430–6220 units (Fig. 6). BC) (Poz-9842); the lower portion (400–410 cm) Unit 1 – a layer of dark brown clay with – the date (square 11) of 7 560±50 BP (6470– eboulis con tain ing sta lac tite frag ments, car bon ate 6330/6320–6250 BC)(Poz-9843) and, at the bor- cemented. Up to the depth of 360 cm the layer der of units 2 and 3 the date 7 680±40 BP (6600– contained rare fragments of painted pot tery 6450 BC) (Poz-22182). Unit 2 yielded bones of (white-on-red, red-on-grey, black) and unpainted do mes ti cated an i mals, namely sheep/goat (Ovis/ sherds with smooth red or black surface. Single Capra sp.). 55 bone fragments match the size of charcoals of decid u ous trees and rodent remains sheep and goat and proba bly belong to these spe - also oc curred. cies. The skele tal remains were: 5 teeth, 1 ver te- Unit 2 – a layer of light brown clays with a bra, 5 rib fragments, 1 carpal bone (lunatum), 2 small quantity of angu lar eboulis was seen from a ulnae, 2 radius, 1 pelvis fragment, 1 femur, 1 cal- depth of 360 to 410–430 cm. The unit contained caneus, 1 talus, 3 metatar sals and 1 phalanx. A cut (Fig. 7) thin-and thick-walled monochrome ce - mark can be seen on a fragment of a limb bone ramics (hemispher ical and necked vases) and (proba bly radius); small bone fragment (1 cm stone arti facts (among others, a sickle insert on a length) shows traces of burning and another of blade from yel low flint (silex blond) and some ob- gnaw marks of small carni vore (fox or small dog). sidian blades) which suggest the Early Neolithic Remains of other faunal species in unit 2 are very age of this unit. A singu lar hearth was identi fied rare, and belong to birds (rock partridge – 206 A. Sampson et al.

Fig. 7. Finds from EN Monochrome phase lay ers (unit 2): 1 – sickle blade from the yel low flint, 2, 3 – in ten tion - ally trun cated ob sidian blades, 4–8 – monochrome pot tery

Alectoris graeca, rock pi geon – Columba livia block at the boundary of squares 2 and 3. The cul - and jackdaw – Corvus monedula). These birds are ture mate ri als from the upper portion of unit 3 known also from the pre-Neolithic layers of the (ex ca va tions in 2008 in clud ing) con sisted only of cave, and rep re sent rocky en vi ron ments. about 10 stone artefacts namely: 2 initial macro- In between unit 2 and 4 there is a weakly de- blade cores from dolomitized limestone pebbles, veloped clayey sedi ment, reddish in colour, with single platform flake core from sandstone (lateral rare eboulis, defined as unit 3. In the West profile prepa ra tion of the back), a trapeze on an obsid ian unit 3 is several cm thick, whereas in the North macroblade, and flakes from limestone and brown and the East profiles its thickness is up to 30 cm. radiolarite. Moreover, two sherd were found: a The exca va tion of squares 2 and 3 in the northern fragment of the rim of an everted bowl from part of trench A in the year 2008 allowed to deter - brown clay with min eral tem per, well smoothed mine the contents and structure of unit 3: on one and fragment of the belly of a spheri cal thin- level in the cen tre of a red dish layer 3 flat hearts walled ves sel with cream colored sur face and up to 50 cm in di am eter were discov ered. One of with mineral tem per. The level with the hearths in the hearth is lo cated next to a large limestone unit 3 pro vided the fol low ing ra dio car bon AMS Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 207

Fig. 8. Micromorphological fea tures of unit 4, sam ple MS 1 (see Fig. 6) dates: 7780±50 BP (6690–6500 BC) (Poz- Unit 4 is composed of dark brown almost 22647); 7740±50 BP (6650–6470 BC) (Poz- black clays with a highest content of loamy frac- 27941) and 7810±50 BP (6780–6500 BC) (Poz- tion and organic matter. Towards the floor this 27242). This dates are older from the earli est layer passes into brown and reddish clays, sand- dates for unit 2 (7680 BP) and – at the same time – ier, with a small compo nent of organic fraction. later than the final dates for unit 4 (7950–7960 This unit was regis tered at a depth of 410/430 cm BP). The pres ence of monochrome ceram ics, the and 500 cm. Micromorphological exam ina tions macroblade tchnique and Melean obsid ian indi - (Bull ock et al., 1986, Stoops, 2003) showed that cate that unit 3 (at least its middle and upper por- the top portion of this dark brown clays (sam ples tion) cor re spond to the ear liest Neo lithic settle - MS1 and MS2 on the profile – Figs 8, 9) con- ment on the Sarakenos Cave. The fauna from unit tained a large amount of unsorted plant remains: 3 (faunal remains from the exca va tions in 2007 roots, stalks and leaves, within silty mate rial with only were identi fied) is repre sented by only a few quartz grains. The pres ence of the plant re mains is bird bones (com mon quail – Coturnix coturnix, of anthropogenic ori gin and the groundmass is rock pigeon – Columba livia, corn bunting – anthropogenically re worked. In groundmass frag- Emberiza calandra and starling – Sturnus sp. cf. mented shells with sec ond ary calcium carbon ates vulgaris and red-billed chough – Pyrrhocorax are rec og niz able. The grains of miner als are pyrrhocorax). unweathered. In sep a rated ag gre gates typ i cal iron 208 A. Sampson et al.

Fig. 9. Micromorphological fea tures of unit 4, sam ple MS 2 (see Fig. 6)

nodules occur. Illuviation processes are weakly and one par tially corti cal small flake from black marked as ini tial clay coatings; frag mented clay hornstone (Fig. 10: 4) were found in the upper - coat ings occur also in cracks form ing structures most part of unit 4. sim ilar to papules (Kemp, 1991) arising in freez - Unit 4 featured rela tively abundant remains ing condi tions. Strong anthropization of this unit from small mam mals and birds (Ta ble 1). Bird re- con trasts with the pres ence of rare ar tifacts: only mains (63 identi fied fragments) mainly repre sent one obsid ian bladelet has been found in it. On the species connected with open and dry envi ron - other hand, the upper portion of unit 4 contained ments and/or rocky areas. It is highly proba ble limestone pebbles with scars shaping flake cores, that most of these species nested on the cliffs, in mainly discoidal, and limestone flakes (Fig. 10). rock crevices or on ledges around the entrance of Ini tially these ar tifacts may have been over looked the cave. Only 3 spe cies required other breeding in the mass of limestone rubble in the cave. Thus, en vi ron ments: the Pochards (Aythyini) – open wa- the presence of scars on the limestone pebbles that ter bodies, the Corn Bunting (Emberiza calandra) were brought from the exte rior of the cave, from and the Hawfinch (Coccothraustases coccothrau- the allu vial at the foot of the slope, is an argu ment stases) – woods and shrubs, Some of these species in support of the inten tional na ture of these speci - appeared in units 2 and 3. The most abundant is mens. Only one radiolarite bladelet (Fig. 10: 5) the pigeon (60% of remains) proba ble dweller of Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 209

Fig. 10. Lime stone and sand stone ar ti facts from the top of unit 4

rocks in the vi cinity of the cave, repre sented by Unit 4 featured small mam mals, namely ro- young and very young speci mens. This species dents and insecti vores (36 identi fied fragments). must have been par ticu larly attrac tive to the hu - Ro dents are rep re sented al most ex clu sively by man inhab it ants of the cave during the sedi men ta - grass land and open country dwellers. The Guen- tion of unit 4, because some burnt bones with ash ther’s vole (Microtus guentheri) is an endemic were recorded inside the cave. spe cies re stricted to Anatolia and the south-east- 210 A. Sampson et al.

Ta ble 1 An imal re mains from Sarakenos Cave

Ar chae o log i cal pe riod No Taxon Habitat preferences Total Unit 4 Unit 3 Unit 2/3 Unit 2 1 Pochards – (Aythyini) open wa ter 5/1 5/1 2 Rock Partridge – Alectoris graeca dry, open rocky country 2/1 1/1 3/2 3 Common Quail – Coturnix coturnix open fields and meadows 1/1 1/1 4 Rock Pigeon – Columba livia rocks, cliffs, prec i pices 26/3 1/1 1 2/1 30/5 rocks, de cid u ous or 5 Pi geon – Columba sp. 13/2 1 1/1 15/3 mixed forests Swal lows Hirundinidae (Crag Mar - 6 craggy rocks 1/1 1/1 tin Ptyonoprogne cf. rupestris) open en vi ron ments, 7 Corn Bunting – Emberiza calandra 1/1 1/1 2/2 scrub Hawfinch – Coccothraustes de cid u ous or mixed 8 1/1 1/1 coccothraustes wood land open en vi ron ments, open 9 Star ling – Sturnus sp. (cf. vulgaris) 11/3 1/1 12/4 wood lands, rocks Red-billed Chough – Pyrrhocorax high mountains, rocky 10 1/1 1/1 2/2 pyrrhocorax ar eas 11 Jack daw – Corvus monedula cliffs, woodland 1/1 1/1 2/2 Corvids Corvidae indet. (Jack daw or 12 cliffs, woodland 1 1 Chough) 13 Hedge hog – Erinaceus sp. open wood, scrub 1/1 1/1 14 Mole – Talpa sp. grass land, wood land 1/1 1/1 Guenther's vole – Microtus 15 dry mead ows, grass land 6/4 6/4 guentheri mead ows, rocky hab i tats, 16 Pine Vole – Microtus (Terricola) sp. 2/2 2/2 wood land 17 Vole – Microtus sp. var i ous hab i tats 21/18 21/18 18 Field Mouse – Apodemus sp. var i ous hab i tats 1/1 1/1 19 Mouse – Mus sp. grass land, bushes 4/3 4/3 20 Hare – Lepus sp. open hab i tats 1/1 1/1 21 Sheep/Goat – Ovis sp./Capra sp. var i ous hab i tats 1/1 24/1 25/2 cf. Sheep/Goat – cf. Ovis sp./Capra 22 var i ous habitats 31 31 sp. The first number in the column refers to NISP (the number of identi fied speci mens) the second to MNI (the mini mum number of indi vid u als). Birds (Aves): 1-12; insec tiv o rous mammals (Insectivora): 13-14; rodents (Rodentia): 15-19; lagomorphs (Lagomorpha): 20; even-toed ungulates (Artiodactyla): 21-22

ern Balkans. It is found in dry areas, meadows, imen ta tion of unit 4 took place in decid u ous wood pastures with sparse vege ta tion on well-drained environment. soils. Rem nants of mouse (Mus sp.) are uniden ti - Dating of unit 4 is based on AMS dates from fiable on the species level, but proba bly repre sent the top of this unit – the humic sublayer rich in sout-east ern Bal kan or Med i ter ra nean spe cies. eboulis [(depth of 410 cm; square 7/11) – 7950± Charcoals from the top of unit 4 contain pre- 50 BP (7050–6690 BC) (Poz-22649); (depth of dom i nantly oak (Quercus robus and Quercus 429 cm; square 7/11 – 7960±50 BP (7050–6690 pubescens) and Pru nus (iden ti fi ca tion by B.de BC) (Poz-22648); (depth of 395 cm, square 5) – Larebeyrette). All these data confirm that the sed - 7960±40 BP (7050–6690 BC) (Poz-22666); Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 211

Fig. 11. Micromorphological fea tures of unit 5, sam ple MS 3 (see Fig. 6)

(depth 420 cm, square 14 – 7980± 50 BP grains of quartz have cracked sur faces and sharp (7050–6690 BC) (Poz-22183)]. The oak charcoal edges. The reddish brown mate rial is anthropoge- from the lower portion of unit 4 (depth 460–465 netically changed. The groundmass consists of cm, square 14) has been dated to 8590± 50 BP loamy silty mate rial mixed with frag mented or - (7730–7530 BC) (Poz-21360). The time span of ganic remains and destroyed clay coatings. This unit 4 corre sponds to the Upper Mesolithic sedi ment fills the cracks; on edges of thin sec tion (7950–8590 BP). There is only one date from this the de com posed or ganic re mains are ver ti cally ar - portion of sedi ments which was not included in ranged. These cracks could be the result of desic - this time span: 9990±50 BP (Poz-22184), from cation of loamy and clayey mate rial in the cave. the depth of 450 cm in square 14. This unit is strati fied at a depth of 500 to 570 cm. The lower unit 5 of black-brown clay sedi - Micromorphological analy ses were per- ments, strongly plastic, that contained hearths in formed also for the hearth in square 14 (sam ple situ and numer ous charcoals. Micromorphology MS 4 – Fig. 12). The profile of the hearth shows (sam ple MS 3 on the profile – Fig. 11) shows the that the hearth was made in a basin-shaped de - vughy-channel microstructure in a larger part of pression subse quently buried by loamy clay, thin sec tions. Coarse mate rial con sists mainly of which was then burnt in oxi diz ing condi tions, quartz, sparse feldspars and rocky fragments. The thus the reddish color (Fig. 13). The crumb and 212 A. Sampson et al.

Fig. 12. Micromorphological fea tures of the hearth in unit 5, sample MS 4 (see Fig. 6)

vughy microstructure in thin sections occur. The lime stone peb bles. The chro no log i cal po si tion of groundmass is more massive. Pore and cracks in this unit is based on radio car bon AMS date on a the hearth were due to high temper a ture. In miner - decid u ous charcoal fragment from the top portion al og i cal com po si tion dom i nates small quartz (depth 500 cm, square 14): 9940±60 BP (9680– grains, spo rad i cally feld spars, bi o tite and rocky 9270 BC) (Poz-21418), and also on the date of fragments, while the or ganic matter is represented 10050±50 BP (9870–9360 BC) (Poz-21359). It is by charcoals (Fig. 12). highly proba ble that the entire unit 5 repre sents Despite strong anthropization this unit con- the very be ginning of the Holo cene, and the tained only a few stone ar tifacts in the level of lithics are of Early Mesolithic age. The pres ence 550–570 cm. Several bladelets (Fig. 14: 1) and of bones of bats – Vespertilionidae family (iden ti - one flake were made from radiolarite, black flint fi ca tion by B. Woloszyn) in di cates that the cli - and chalce dony. Only one tool was found in this mate was somewhat cooler than the pres ent Med i- unit: a distal notch on a blade-flake from fine ter ranean cli mate, closer to the conditions of the grain brown sandstone (Fig. 14: 2). Moreover, Pannonian Plain. there were blade-flake sin gle plat form cores and Unit 6 – the low er most sed i ment ex ca vated in discoidal cores for flakes made on chunks and trench A – is a light brown clay without eboulis Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 213 and without anthropogenic traces, except a backed bladelet from radiolarite (Fig. 14: 3). This unit was uncov ered to a depth of 590 cm (Fig. 15). The Fi nal Pleisto cene age of this unit is confirmed by the AMS date on a de cidu ous charcoal from the top portion (depth of 510 cm, square 11) – 11910±60 BP (11980–11620 BC) (Poz-21361). De spite the rare artifactual ev idence the ar - chae olog i cal finds from the base of strati graphic unit 2 and from the upper/mid dle part of unit 3 can be attrib uted to the Monochrome phase of the EN, which preceded the painted phase of this pe - riod. Chro no log i cally this Mono chrome phase of the EN in Sarakenos, dated between 7860 and 7560 BP (6500–6400 BC) is com para ble with the ear liest ra dio car bon dates from the Greek Neo - lithic [e.g. 7611±83 BP (6591-6222 BC) (P-169) from Sesklo;8180+-150 BP (7503-6625 BC) (Q-655) and 7557±91 BP (6537-6180 BC) (P- 1202) from Nea Nikomedea – Pyke and Yiouni, Fig. 13. Sec tion of the hearth in the lower part of unit 1996; 7550±60 BP (6461-6215 BC) (LJ-3180) 5 (square 14) from Achilleion – Gimbutas et al., 1989), includ - ing the dates from earli est EN strata at Elateia – Weinberg, 1962 (7480±70 BP = 6450-6171 BC (Grn-2973) – from trench 1, NE part) which is ter - Trench B ritori ally closest (about 40–50 km west) to the Trench B measures 2.80 × 2.50 m. and starts Sarakenos Cave. from the level of Mid dle Neo lithic where the soil The lower part of the sequence in Trench A was undis turbed (Fig. 16). The MN spits 16–22 of shows two im por tant hi a tuses: Trench A corre spond to the spits 1–6 of Trench B 1. between units 2, 3 and 4 i.e. be tween the and this was also confirmed by the abso lute dat ing monochrome phase of the Early Neolithic and the in spit 3 (DEM-1164, 6891±25 BP or 5790–5730 Late Mesolithic, a hi atus of only 120–140 ra dio- BC). A thin layer of the Early Neo lithic dates car bon years, from the end of 7th mill. BC (DEM-1211, 7261± 2. between units 5 and 6, i.e. be tween the 20 BP or 6200–6035 BC). Early Mesolithic and the Final Palaeo lithic, a hi a - The Mesolithic stratum comprised many tus of about 2000 radiocarbon years. hearths remains, mainly in the NE corner of the

Fig. 14. Trench A. Bladelet and notched im ple ment from unit 5 (1, 2) and backed bladelet from unit 6 (3) 214 A. Sampson et al.

Fig. 15. Trench A extension. The Mesolithic and Palaeolithic lay ers

trench, but featur ing hardly any finds. The occur - filling the channels cut in the bedrock, lined with rence in this stratum of stone debris from the roof car bon ate pre cip i ta tions (Fig. 17). The dark at tested to cold cli ma tic phases cor re spond ing to brownish clay furnished some Final/Late Palaeo- the Lower Mesolithic period. Three abso lute lithic (Epigravettian?) artefacts, among them a dates from this stratum (DEM-1206, 9233±30 BP concave retouched trunca tion on an obsid ian or 8530–8340 BC, DEM-1209, 9177±31BP or blade. Small charcoals from these sed iments have 8450–8290 BC, and DEM-1210, 9230±30 BP or been dated by Ra dio car bon Ac cel er a tor Unit at 8530–8340 BC) dated this layer to the begin ning the Labo ra tory in Oxford to 12345±70 BP of the Mesolithic. The same thick layer of hearths (13100–12150 BC). occurred also in Trench A led to older dates about The undated lowest brown clay featured sev- 600–700 years BP. Other parts of the trench eral flint and radiolarite artefacts that can be at - (DEM-1207, 8057±36 BP or 7080–6840 BC and tributed to the Mid dle/Up per Palaeolithic tran si - DEM-1208, 8073±30 BP or 7105–7040 BC) were tion or to the Initial Up per Palaeo lithic. The Leva- dated to the Up per Mesolithic, con tem po ra ne ous lloisian points and flakes from centrip e tal cores to those of Trench A. occur parallely to the blades de tached from bipo - The lowest part of the sequence consists of lar cores, re sem bling the “tran si tional” in dus try dark brownish clay without limestone rubble and from layer VI (trench TD-II) in Temnata Cave brown clay with weath ered limestone frag ments (Bulgaria) (Drobniewicz et al., 2000). Among oc- Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 215

Ta ble 2 Micromorphological features of sedi ments from Sarakenos Cave, Trench A extension

Groundmass Pedofeature Sam - Depth Or ganic mat ter Microstructure Chan nel In fill ings and ple cm Coarse ma te rial Fine ma te rial Nod ules other bi o log i cal coat ings actiwity yel low ish Subangular Quartz grains, Typic and brown silty Calciun carbon - De com posed blocky, aggre - feldspares, digitated 1 300-310 Vughs loam, b-fabric - ate coat ing and plants, shells gates strongly small rock frag - iron cristalitic, infilling frag ment sep a rated ment nod ules micromass - De com posed Clay coat ing plants and or ange brown and Subangular Quartz grains, charcoals silty loam, hypocoaring, blocky, aggre - Vughs, spo rad i cally Typic iron mixed with 2 310-320 b-fab ric – weak de vel - gates strongly crumb feldspare rock nod ules groundmass, grano and oped and sep a rated frag ment shells frag ment, mosaicstriated de stroyed clay frag mented coat ings bones Clay coat ing and De com posed Or ange brown hypocoaring, Vughs, plants in verti - silty loam, Typic iron weak de vel - 3 500-505 Crumbs, vughs chan nels, Quartz grains, cal ar range ment b-fab ric – nod ules oped and de- crumb as fill ing of mosaicstriated stroyed clay cracks coat ings, clay in fill ings Zone of reddish orange and Clay coat ing Quartz grains, dark brown and Vughs, spo rad i cally Typic iron De com posed 4 510 Crumb silty loam with hypocoaring, crumb feldspare, rock nod ules plants ash in channels, and destroyed frag ment, b-fab ric - clay coat ings specled casional re touched tools there are some side- The LN pottery was plenty and of excep tional scrapers, denticulated-notched imple ments and a quality, whereas in the Middle and Early Neo - blade with distal thinning by Kostenki technique. lithic pot tery samples were dramatically reduced. In Trenches A and D it has been observed that, while an abundance of pottery and other ob - Trench D jects is noted within the higher strata, the number Paral lel to trench A, from 2004 the exca va - of finds falls from the LNIa level downwards, al - tion concen trated on a new trench (Trench D) in though strata were gener ally thicker. In some lay- the centre of the cave (Figs 18, 19). Ini tially it ers with yel lowish clay de pos its pottery was con - measured 4 x 4m but later it moved towards the sid er ably scanty. How ever, the use of the cave in south and east and doubled in size (36 sq.m). The the Late Neolithic Ia was partic u larly long, since trench was opened at the level of Late Neo lithic it occu pies a consid er able number of layers. Ia, and it revealed floors at vari ous depths, a In the south side in 2005 unusu ally large figu - plethora of pottery, ani mal bones, and stone tools. rines of the Late Neo lithic were found, whereas at Fur ther more, hearths of spe cial inter est were re - a lim ited space of the eastern exten sion in 2006 corded. From the start of the exca va tion exten sive fragments of figu rines were traced together in floors and hearths appeared, while finds were tens, and many more, almost intact. Totally, 160 more abundant in the east ern part of the trench. parts or intact figu rines were found around and 216 A. Sampson et al.

Fig. 16. Stratigraphi cal section of Trench B

below a horn of deer (Fig. 20). In 2007 the east part of the trench, layers of LN II were dug which gave coarse pottery, mostly rounded. Up to 60 cm depth, figu rines’ fragments were spotted which resem ble the ones found in 2006. It seems that the layer that contained the figu rines extends east- wards, but further depos its, and more recent organic resi dues, 3 m thick, need to be removed in the future. Of ex treme im por tance was the rev e la tion of two clay-made pits at the eastern side of trench D (Fig. 21). Around them, at a depth of 1.00 m,

Fig. 17. Trench B. The Mesolithic and Palaeolithic lay ers Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 217 D hcnerT fo noi fo hcnerT D tces dna nalp dnuorG dnuorG nalp dna tces .81 .giF .81 218 A. Sampson et al.

Fig. 19. Sarakenos Cave. Sea son of 2008

spans a Late Neo lithic Ia floor of thick clay layer trench A, and at its upper side there is a thin layer mixed with ashes upon which four post hole were of eboulis that was also spotted in trench A. found. The pits were stuffed with stones and soil, and in them coarse Late Neo lithic II sherds were THE POTTERY SE QUENCE found along with ani mal bones and figu rine fragments. These were due to the LN II cutting in Early and Mid dle Neo lithic deep and inter sect ing the LN I floor. Starting from the be ginning of the Neolithic In 2007 trench D in its north side reached a (except for the monochrome phase) the overall Mesolithic level (depth of 1.10–1.40 m). with quantity of EN and MN painted ware inside the dark red soil, contained small pebbles, exter nally Sarakenos Cave is not large due to the limited use de cayed, and fea tured a few flints and more mi- of the cave during these peri ods. It has been ob- crofauna (Fig. 22). In squares 13, 14 the layer of served that small, thin-walled vases pre vailed in Upper Palaeolithic was unearthed, which has a this phase, while large coarse vases and pithoids fair col or ation. Un for tu nately, this level has were ab sent. An anal o gous case was the Cy clops turned into stone in var ious places due to intense Cave on Youra (Sampson, 1998, 2008). It has dripping and was hard to de tach. This layer was been also noted that closed shapes occur more exam ined at a depth of 2.60 m and gave a mar- com monly than open ones. ginal number of flints. The typ i cal red dec o ra tion on white-cream The study of stra tigra phy showed that the EN coloured ground prevailed on the painted pottery layer in trench D is far thinner that the one in during this phase. In most cases, deco ra tive mo - Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 219

Fig. 20. Figu rines around a horn of deer

Fig. 21. Trench D. Clay-made pits of Late Neolithic II 220 A. Sampson et al.

Fig. 22. Trench D. Neo lithic and Mesolithic layers

tifs were painted upon a layer of slip. Deco ra tion Efstratiou (1985) had believed that the painted reper toire mainly con sists of linear and sim ple ware from Ayios Petros are to be placed within a motifs that, in compar ison with the matt-painted wide range of influ ence from the Chaeronea dec o ra tion mo tifs, ap pear sig nif i cantly lim ited in group and not from Thessaly, where deco ra tion inspi ra tion. Among the early painted ware occur mo tifs are geometric but are rendered in free cer tain mo tifs re lated to the cre ation of a re served style. zone in either a lozenge or trian gu lar arrange - ment; this zone is filled with par al lel lines or net Late Neo lithic I pattern (hatched or cross-hatched patterns). The In Late Neolithic I except for the plain mono - border ing band often occurs in a rhomboid chrome and coarse ware (Fig. 23), an im portant (lozenge) shape. abun dance of dec o rated, matt-painted ware oc - The painted ware from Central Greece con sti- curs, as well as the distin guished advanced pot- tutes a sepa rate grouping in pottery than the corre - tery wares, such as the grey, black burnished (Fig. spondent one from Thessaly. Theocharis (1973, 24), and the urfirnis. 77) stresses this dif fer en ti a tion in de scrib ing the pottery from Chaeronea as more conser va tive than the Thessalian ware; he re gards dec o ra tion Black burnished ware mo tifs from Cen tral Greece as more simple and The black colour is typi cal of this period and se vere in arrange ment than the Thessalian ones, sim ilar with the corre spond ing one from Thessaly with a prevail ing tendency for geom e try in style. (Tsangli, the Larissa Culture), Euboea (Varka, Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 221

Fig. 23. Types of vases of LN Ia 222 A. Sampson et al.

has been lo cated at Lerna (Caskey, 1958), Asea (Holmberg, 1944, 41, 48) and Ayiorgitika in Ar- ca dia (AJA, 1928, 533). In Cen tral Greece, black burnished have been found at Chaeronea and Orchomenos (Kunze, 1931), Ayia Marina, Souvala, and Kalami in Boeotia (French, 1972), Elateia (Weinberg 1962, pl. 60a,d), Eutresis (Caskey 1960), the Corycian Cave (Touchais, 1980, 132, figs. 21–23), Nea Makri (Theocharis, 1956, 18), Palaia Kokkinia Fig. 24. Black bur nished carinated bowl of LN Ia (Theocharis, 1951, Fig. 7), the Eurip i des Cave on Salamina, Pousi Kalogeri in Markopoulo, the Kitsos Cave (Lam bert 1981, pls. X–XXI), and Tharrounia), and Boeotia. Apart from the vases’ Astakos in Akarnania (Benton, 1947, fig. 11: 71). surface, this black colour also pene trates in the in- te rior due to pro longed re duc ing fir ing con di tions Gray ware (Childe, 1936/37, 27). In contrast to what was be - Al though it was ini tially be lieved that grey lieved un til re cently, pet ro log i cal anal y ses has ware was the pottery technique indi cat ing the be- shown that these vases were fired in rela tively low ginning of the Late Neolithic period, both earlier tem per a tures. Ana lysed sam ples from Tharrounia and more recent digs have proven that both grey and Varka in Psachna (Sampson, 1977) proved and black burnished wares simul ta neously ap pear that this pottery ware was fired in reduc ing condi - in the begin ning of this era. tions and tem pera tures lower than 750°. An ex- In Cen tral Greece such vases have been re - per i men tal re pro duc tion of this pot tery that has cov ered at Orchomenos, Chaeronea, Elateia, Nea de fined their spe cific pro duc tion pro ce dure was Makri (Theocharis, 1956, figs. 33–36), the Athe- conducted in the labs of the Insti tute of Nuclear nian Acrop o lis (south ern slopes), the Eu rip i des Physics, NCSR Demokritos (Kylicoglou and Cave on Salamina (Phelps, 1975, 236), the Cory- Maniatis, 1993). The technol ogy of these vases is cian Cave (Phelps, 1975, fig. 32: 22; Touchais ar gu ably of par tic u larly high stan dards, fea tur ing 1980), and Astakos in Akarnania (Benton, 1947, excep tional quality of slip and burnish ing. In 179; Phelps, 1975, Fig. 11: 66–68). In the Kitsos many cases, their vit ri fied, most lustrous slip is Cave (Lambert, 1981, pl. XXXIII), grey sherds evo cative of the Clas sical black-glazed vases. Ex - are limited in number. cept for the par tic u larly thin walls, what is also In Thessaly, grey ware was mainly found in evi dent of the special care taken in their produc - the Otzaki and Tsangli Phases, together with tion is their relief deco ra tion, which appears to black and matt-painted wares. They have also ap - have been exe cuted with the use of a mould. Bur- peared in Tsani (AJA, 1947, 174), and Magoula nished dec o ra tion is a tech nique gen er ally found Arapi (AA, 1955, 188). on many sam ples. It is produced with the use of a bur nish ing im ple ment, while es pe cially lus trous or na ments ap pear af ter firing. Urfirnis ware At Otzaki and Arapi Magoula black bur- In the Sarakenos Cave, this cate gory is rep re - nished make their appear ance towards the end of sented by few sherds located within LNIa and the Sesklo phase (Grundmann, 1932, 102, 109). MN strata, at the tran si tional pe riod be tween the In the Peloponnese, black burnished seem to ap- Mid dle Neo lithic and Late Neo lithic Ia pe ri ods. pear at Franchthi ear lier than matt-painted ware Clay is com monly red dish, ex cep tion ally pure, (Jaco- bsen 1973); the same is true for Corinth without any inclu sions, but is sometimes grey- (Lavezzi, 1978, 430). Accord ing to Holmberg ish-tile in colour, possi bly due to differ ent firing (1964, 35) the centre of their produc tion was lo - conditions. cated in Boeotia and Pthiotis, from where they The urfirnis pot tery is consid ered as a Pelo- spread throughout Greece. More over, this ware ponnesian in no va tion that gen er ally dif fused in Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 223

Cen tral Greece, and to the pres ent it has been re - dles under the mouth 28 open and 14 closed types covered in Attica, Boeotia, and Euboea. It is still of vases have been found in Sarakenos Cave. not known why though at Franchthi (Theocharis, Matt-painted ware dec o ra tion is in fi nite in 1973) and in other sites in the Peloponnese, such vari ety (Fig. 25, 26). In fact, it can be said that as Corinth (Walker-Kosmopoulos, 1957; fig. 30), throughout the Neolithic Age it is the Late Neo- and Lerna (Caskey, 1960, 161), the exqui site lithic I painted ware that pre vails in style, origi - urfirnis vases date from the Mid dle Neo lithic pe - nal ity, and qual ity of dec o ra tion. A lim it less va ri - riod, in Central Greece they are found in delay ety of dec o ra tive mo tifs oc curs, while cer tain within the early phases of the Late Neo lithic Ia. types are also rep licated. A char acter istic of the However, it could be said that a dat ing in the tran- pot ters’ un lim ited in spi ra tion in this pe riod is the si tional pe riod from the Mid dle to the Late Neo - fact that one can hardly find any simi lar ities be - lithic is safer in ref er ence to Cen tral Greece. At tween the deco ra tive mo tifs of dif fer ent sites, de - Varka in Psachna, Urfirnis ware was found within spite the vi cin ity, as in the case of Chaeronea, the ear liest stra tum of the set tle ment, along with Sarakenos, Varka of Psachna, and Tharrounia. the limited in number MN painted ware, and In the last years, new the o ries in archaeology Theocharis (1959, 287) had already dated this cat- insist on the study of seman tics of all deco ra tive egory to the early Late Neolithic period. motifs found on pottery, which certainly cannot be ac ciden tal, and in most cases are in dic ative of the crafts man-pot ter’s dis po si tion and tem per a- Mattpainted ware ment. The ideo log i cal mean ing of the dec o ra tive The matt-painted cate gory belongs to the pot - pat terns is un ques tion able, and con sid er ing that tery ware most widely diffused during the Late this ma te rial is to day avail able to us only through Neolithic period throughout Greece. Matt-painted painted pottery, the value of its signif i cance ware ap peared in the LNIa phase, soon af ter the should be ap pre ciated. Is it merely a coin cidence appear ance of the black burnished and grey that in the early Late Neo lithic pe riod man ex - wares, but, unlike these, it features a long dura - presses him self through so many deco ra tive mo - tion. It pre vailed during the longest part of the tifs in the entire Greek terri tory, from Northern succes sive LNIb phase, as proven by the exca va - Thessaly to the southern end of the Peloponnese? tions of the Sarakenos Cave and the Skoteini And what could the absence of expres sion in un - Cave at Tharrounia (Sampson, 1993). Vases of painted and monochrome pottery that prevails in the late matt-painted ware may exhibit a greater later Neolithic phases mean? vari ety in re spect of the ground and deco ra tive Matt-painted ware is widely spread but par - motifs colours, whereas bichrome vases with ticu larly abundant in sites of the Peloponnese, black and red deco ra tion also begin to appear such as Franchthi (Jacobsen, 1969, 369), Alepo- during this phase. trypa (Papathanassopoulos, 1996), Lerna Matt-painted vases in all re gions are com- (Caskey, 1959, 204), and Corinth (Weinberg, monly man u fac tured from cal car e ous clay and 1937). In Cen tral Greece, this ware oc curs at fired at low temper a tures. Typ ically in matt- Elateia (Wace – Thompson, 1912, 112, 204), painted ware, the colour of deco ra tion motifs is Chaeronea, Orchomenos, Ayia Ma rina (PAE, matt and the black paint is made of manga nese 1910, 163–167), Eutresis (Caskey, 1960, 130), clays (Kylikoglou and Maniatis, 1993). However, the Kitsos Cave (BCH, 1971, 714), Pousi cases where the col our of the motifs is not matt do Kaloyeri, Nea Makri (Theocharis, 1956), and the also occur. Thus, varia tions in the appear ance of Cave of Pan (Ergon, 1958). In Euboea, a major these vases have been observed in Euboea, e.g. at centre of produc tion should be marked in the val- Varka of Psachna (Sampson, 1977) and at Tharro- ley of Psachna – Triadha, Skoteini Cave at Thar- unia, where five dif ferent groups were spec ified. rounia (Sampson, 1993). In Western Greece, this A sim ilar vari ation was also observed in the pottery occurs at Astakos (Benton, 1947), and Sarakenos Cave and Chaeronea (H. Tzavella un - Leukas. In Thessaly, it is widely dif fused, with der publi ca tion). The shapes were open carinated major sites of re covery those of Otzaki, Tsangli bowls or closed vessels with high neck and han- and Arapi Magoula (Milojcic, 1955, 173, Fig. 6). 224 A. Sampson et al.

Fig. 25. Frag ments of mattpainted pot tery

Fig. 26. Frag ments of mattpainted pot tery Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 225

Late Neo lithic II dec o ra tive bands/zones con sti tute an other main The LNII pottery is under study as a whole char acter istic of the Gonia-type ware (Fig. 27). here, despite the inno va tions in pottery technol - The stratum within which the greatest amount ogy noted in the second half of this period that in - of Gonia-type vases were found is attrib uted to troduced new pottery types, such as the numer ous the early LN II period or the transi tion between red bowls, the rolled rim type, and the last gener a - LN Ib and LN IIa phases. There fore, it is the latest tion of scoops. The abundance of pottery found painted ware to have been re covered and the only within the Sarakenos LNII strata is mainly course one of the LN II pe riod. However, its diffu sion in and monochrome, while deco rated samples are Main land Greece seems to be par ticu larly limited, lim ited. Clay oc curs in var i ous to nal i ties of col our while the found sam ples apart from the ones from and it is al ways well fired. The type of slip pre - the Sarakenos Cave are rep re sented by a lim ited vail ing is fairly thick and com monly red, while a number of sherds from the Cave of Pan and the black slip is not absent. Southern Slopes of the Acropo lis at Athens (for the diffu sion of this ware, see Phelps, 1975). Of crit ical impor tance is the ques tion whether Gonia ware these polychrome vases from the Sarakenos Cave As a rule, this cate gory of pottery is mainly and the other above-mentioned sites in Attica are featured by painted deco ra tion in red and black. either lo cal products or vases that were trans - Deco ra tion in red prevails overall, while the use ported and dif fused from the Northern Pelopo- of black is lim ited in the outlin ing the basic deco - nnese. The pos si bil ity to as so ci ate their oc cur- ra tive mo tifs in red. Red paint is in this case com- rence with the movement of transhumants, who monly lustrous, in contrast to that occa sion ally to var i ous schol ars have de scribed as trans port ers of be found among matt-painted ware. On the con- this pottery, seems to be rather a conve nient and trary, black paint is dull, obvi ously due to the ma- ro man tic ex pla na tion. Al ready by the Late Neo - teri als in use, rich in manga nese inclu sions. Broad lithic, the ex istence of large an imal herds can be

Fig. 27. Pottery of Gonia type 226 A. Sampson et al.

accepted, to judge from the huge quantity of ani - within an earlier stratum and do not co-exist with mal bones in the cave, while, in order to support red burnished bowls. them, these would need to be transported season - In Attica, pattern burnished ware have been ally. Stock-breed ers trans fer ence from the Pelo- recov ered at Asketario in Raphina (PAE, 1953/ ponnese to the mountains of Boeotia during the 54, 66), in the Kitsos Cave (Lam bert, 1971, 711), sum mer season has already been mentioned since at the Athenian Agora (Immerwahr, 1971, pl. 69: ancient times and is known to have lasted until re - 35), Thorikos (Thorikos, 1967, 24–27), Velatouri cently. Sophocle’s passage refer ring to shepherds (BCH, 1965, Fig. 24), and on Aegina (Renfrew, from Argolid on Elikon Mountain (Oedipus Rex) 1972, Fig. 2; Wal ter and Felten, 1937, 20–23). In is sur pris ingly elu ci dat ing and, al though it was Cen tral Greece such vases occur at Orchomenos writ ten in the 5th cen tury BC, it re fers to sig nif i - (Kunze, 1934, pl. XI, fig. 18) and Astakos cantly ear lier pe ri ods of time. How ever, it is dif fi - (Benton, 1947). In Thessaly this partic u lar ware is cult to believe that stock-breeders could have rare but has been noted at Tsangli (Wace–Thomp - used sim i lar lux u ri ous ves sels dur ing their mov - son, 1912), Kouphovouno (Theocharis, 1958), ing, unless some sort of exchange com merce was and Mylopotamos (French, 1972). In Euboea, it prac tised at the same time. Nev er the less, sys tem - has been found at Plakari in Karystos, Votsika in atic analy sis of this ware from the Sarakenos Cave Psachna, and Tharrounia (Sampson, 1981). and the related sites in the Peloponnese could In the Peloponnese, pattern burnished ware possibly contribute more to this problem of have been recov ered at Lerna (Caskey, 1958, pl. provenance. 37a,b), Prosymna (Blegen, 1937, 357), Franchthi (Jacobsen, 1969, 1973), Corinth (Weinberg, Pat tern bur nished ware 1937, 511; Phelps, 1975), in the Klenia and Gonia It is a cate gory of dec o rated pottery that has Caves (Phelps, 1975), at Asea (Holmberg, 1944), puz zled scholars until recently in ref er ence to its Ayios Demetrios in Leprea (Zachos, 1987), and man u fac ture tech nique and or i gins. This is usu- Voidokoilia (PAE, 1977, 250, Fig. 4). ally a fine qual ity ware, de spite the fact that the In the Aegean, pattern burnished ware were clay is commonly featured by many inclu sions found at Ayio Gala and Emborio on Chios (Hood, and a grey core. A thin layer of slip, com monly 1981), on Samos (Furness, 1956; Felsch, 1988), unbur nished, covers the outside, and in the case of at Kephala on Keos (Coleman, 1977, pl. 41C), open shapes, also the inside surface of the vases. while samples were un earthed in the Zas Cave on In suc ces sion, dec o ra tive or na ments are per - Naxos and Paros (French, 1961, 114). It is inter - formed with the use of a burnish ing tool. After fir- est ing to note that this spe cific pot tery ware was ing, these patterns ac quire a lus trous quality and hardly diffused in the Dodecanese. stand out strikingly on the unbur nished ground. Mi cro scopic ob ser va tion (Kylicoglou and Ma nia- tis, 1993) proved that intense burnish ing makes THE FIG U RINES clay mol ecules be come more con densed, which The figu rines from Sarakenos Cave, dated in re sults in the char ac ter is tic gloss of or na ments. the Late Neo lithic II phase of the cave, add up to The vases of the pattern burnished ware would be an im portant set, both in quantity and in quality. fired at a tem pera ture of 750–800°C, while exper - They mostly repre sent human figures and less fre- imen tal produc tion of such vases has shown that quently ani mals, with the excep tion of two minia - best results follow the application of a coarse- ture marble figu rines and a marble beak-shaped grained slip. acrolith. They are sim ple rep re sen ta tions, how - In the Sarakenos Cave, pattern burnished ever, in some cases, and a ten dency to wards more ware date from the be ginning of the Late Neo - naturalism can be observed. lithic II period, and they co-exist with red bur- The big-sized heads, legs or feet, make us be- nished ware and bowls of the rolled rim type. This lieve that many of these fig u rines where ac tu ally also holds for Euboea and the Peloponnese statu ettes, with a height about 0.40 m, perhaps (Phelps, 1975, 309). At Kum Tepe, on the other even larger. Sim ilar big-sized figu rines were hand, pattern burnished ware have occurred found in Thessaly. Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 227

The plas tic mate rial of the cave fea tures a consid er able number of heads. These are mostly made from a flat (oval or trian gu lar) clay flank stuck on the upper part of a cy lindri cal neck. The trian gu lar face is common for figu rines of this period. It is found throughout the south and north Balkans, the Aegean and Cyprus during the Late Neolithic period. Amongst the better preserved figu rines, we can distin guish a type with joined legs. They are fe male nat u ral is tic fig ures, whose lower part has been pre served. Their post is not com mon, but it can be found in figu rines from the mainland. Contrary to the female, male figu rines did not consti tute a widely spread choice for Neolithic figu rine sculptors. The male ithyphal lic torso, in- deed, de picts in de tail the creases of the body in the stomach area, simi lar to the torso of ORF33/ Sar 33. Both exam ples can be – roughly – com - pared with a male torso from Thessaly. In Sarakenos Cave the male types abound, whereas, gener ally, during this period they were rarer in the Helladic area. Finally, we should stress the presence of a new type in the plas tic mate rial of Sarakenos, Fig. 28. Trench D. Male fig urine which has had no paral lels so far. They are male sitting on the ground figu rines, with legs widely spread, so that the plas tic ally de picted phal lus is roughly attrib uted. The forms share paral lels to a empha sized (Fig. 28). We could even maintain series of figu rines recently found at a Neolithic that this type is the male coun ter part of fe male fig - set tle ment near to Thebes. It is noted that all fig u - urines in child-birth posi tion. Of the three exam - rines date back to the later phase of the Neo lithic ples unearthed, only one allows us to compre hend (4500–4000 BC), when the figu rine manu fac ture their position better. in other ar eas of Greece had dwin dled. The ab - It is the first time such a numer ous concen tra - sence of fig u rines from the lower lay ers, except tion of figu rine plas tic mate rial was found in a for one in Trench A which was dated in Middle mainland cave, while both its nature and posi tion Neolithic, is also characteristic. are still problem atic re gard ing its use. It is pos si - ble, in other words, that, among other, one use of the cave re lated to cult ac tiv ities, in which antler EVO LU TION OF LITHIC IN DUS TRIES usage was involved. In any case, the overall big IN THE NEOLITHIC LAYERS size of the figu rines found in the cave, distin - In the EN and MN lay ers there are only very guishes it from other known caves of the LN pe- few lithic arti facts; this con firms the view that the riod. On the other hand, the se mantics of these ac- use of the Cave during several short oc cupa tion tivi ties and practices perhaps included both male epi sodes was lim ited. In the EN and MN pe riods figu rines of the type with widely spread legs and Melian obsid ian was regu larly used (in MN phase fe male with joined legs as well. We hope that new 88% of arti facts are made of obsid ian); only a few data will be avail able in the course of the continu- flint and radiolarite ar tifacts oc cur. Of partic u lar ation of the excavation. sig nif i cance is the oc cur rence of yel low flint The figu rine types suggest a local ‘work- (silex blond), the raw mate rial typi cal for EN and shop’, with a style intensely nat u ral is tic and forms MN macroblade in dus tries in East ern Greece 228 A. Sampson et al.

(PerlÀs, 1990a; Kozlowski et al., 1996). All the There is a striking contrast between the high de- raw ma te ri als, in clud ing ob sid ian, were worked gree of anthropization of the Lower Mesolithic off-site. Cores and debitage products from ini tial lay ers and the small number of lithics, par tic u larly core re duction are almost absent; only splint ered in the Late Mesolithic. This is the ef fect of strong pieces oc cur, rep re sent ing on-site pro duc tion. isola tion of the Mesolithic groups in the Kopais End-scrapers and retouched blades repre sent the ba sin; iso la tion and dif fi cult ac cess to si li ceous group of retouched tools. Starting from the MN rocks re sulted to Late Mesolithic groups us ing lo - tanged arrow heads on blades begin to appear. cal limestone and sandstone pebbles and produc - The lithic groupings from LN layers are much ing atyp ical cores and flake artefacts. Another as - larger, but also made on obsid ian, whose ra tio is pect of ad ap ta tion to the lo cal en vi ron men tal con- be tween 93 and 97%; other raw mate ri als are ditions was the replace ment of big game hunting scarce (flint, radiolarite, opal). Blades, mostly by fowl ing and increas ing role of plant food. The produced off-site, are frequent (lam inar index up Mesolithic of the Sarakenos Cave is one of the ex- to 55%). It is note worthy that the waste from re- treme exam ples of the changes in subsis tence duction sequences appears more frequently in the economy and techniques of tool produc tion be- case of flint and radiolarite than in the group of fore the mani fes ta tion of the first, Early Neo lithic, ob sid ian ar ti facts. The fre quency of re touched food pro duc tion econ omy. tools is rela tively high (22%). Tools are repre - Un like the Mesolithic, the EN econ omy was sented by end-scrapers, re touched blades, denti- based mostly on ani mal (sheep/goat) breeding. culated and notched imple ments, arrow heads (in- The EN, and also MN groups, used the Cave as a cluding bifacial points). It is inter est ing that sickle shel ter for sea sonal pas to ral ac tiv i ties. inserts are very rare: this function could be attrib - Within Late Neo lithic strata (end of 5th mil- uted to some retouched trunca tions, but only two lennium BC) large quanti ties of carbonised seeds blades (from the latest LN phase) show high found on a floor testify cereal and le gume cul ti va- gloss. This in di cates mi nor im por tance of tion in the Kopais region (Sampson and Mega- harvesting activities in the vicinity of the Cave. loudi, 2006; Megaloudi, 2008). This indi cates that The LN as semblages from the Sarakenos the spe cies was stored in that place. Cave are sim ilar to other LN lithics from the caves The main spe cies re cov ered was einkorn. of central and southern Greece (Skotini – PerlÀs Triticum monococcum is a very re sis tant wheat 1993, Kitsos, Alepotrypa – kind infor ma tion of G. type and can grow on deprived soils without ma- Philippakis). This simi lar ity can be seen in the nure, but the ba sin of Kopais Lake cannot be con - high ratio of obsid ian (91–98%), off-site produc - sidered as a re gion of such soils. One could say tion of blade blanks, high index of blades, low in - that this “special iza tion” in einkorn could repre - dex of debitage waste, rela tively high index of re- sent a sort of cul tural tra di tional ism as it was pro - touched tools repre sented mostly by end-scrapers, posed by Sarpaki (1995) in the case of Balo- retouched blades, and the arrow-heads. menos Toumba at Chaeronea, where consid er able num bers of Triticum monococcum were also re - vealed. The wild ances tor of the species would be ECON OMY OF THE SITE Triticum boeoticum, a na tive element of the Greek The scarcity of finds does not allow for the landscape. re con struc tion of the sub sis tence econ omy of the A huge group of ani mal bones from the Neo- Late/Final Palaeo lithic oc cu pants when the cave lithic lay ers of the cave is cur rently be ing stud ied functioned as a short-term camp. Moreover, we by Dr Trantalidou. Among the domes ti cated spe - can suppose that these groups were not isolated, cies oc cur bones of wild an imals, es pe cially circu lat ing not only on the mainland but also cervids. main tain ing contacts with the Cyclades (pres ence of obsid ian from Melos, si multa neously with the first oc cur rence of this raw mate rial in the CONCLU SIONS Franchthi Cave – PerlÀs, 1984). More can be said The Sarakenos Cave is there fore cen tral to the about the Mesolithic behav iour and economy. research of the Neolithic not only because it is one Sarakenos Cave in Boeotia 229 more case of cave set tlement, but also be cause the open air sites of this period. This is proba bly due nature of its findings initi ates a discus sion on the to palaeo geo graphi cal or palaeoclimatic reasons. impor tance of the symbolic items for caves, and, Unlike the Palaeo lithic, dur ing the Neo lithic gen er ally, the no tional or sym bolic char ac ter of period and the Bronze Age the human occu pa tion the cul tural mate rial of caves. The par ex cellence in the Kopais basin appears to be present both in symbolic items in Sarakenos Cave, such as figu - open air and cave sites. In this period, the Sara- rines, also pose the ques tion whether certain sym - kenos Cave dig gave am ple ar chae o log i cal ev i - bolic ac tiv ities took place in side the cave, even dence for regu lar exploi tation of the aquatic re- ritual or sacral. sources (fish, shells). It is rather proba ble that in Sarakenos Cave is of crucial impor tance for some places around the lake existed lake set tle- the study of the Mesolithic/EN in ter face. There is ments as in Kastoria (Chourmouziades, 2002) and a strik ing con trast be tween the iso lated Meso- Xynias Lake (Sampson, 1980). lithic, no ta bly Late Mesolithic, oc cu pa tions with “primi tive” tech nol ogy adapted to lo cal raw mate - Ac knowl edg ments rials and with subsis tence economy based on The Sarakenos Pro ject is supported by the Univer- fowling and plant gather ing, also adapted to the sity of the Aegean and INSTAP. The Pol ish par tic i pa - lo cal en vi ron men tal con di tions and the EN tion in Sarakenos project has been sup ported by Spe - groups, arriv ing to the cave some 120–140 radio - cific Tar geted Eu ro pean Un ion Re search Pro ject car bon years later, with imported raw mate ri als, FEPRE (The For ma tion of Eu rope: Pre his toric Pop u la - macroblade technology and animal breeding. tion Dynam ics and the Roots of Socio-Cul tural Di ver - It is also of great impor tance that inside the sity). cave a very early phase of the Mesolithic was es - th tablished, dating from the 10 mill. BC, even REF ER ENCES though the finds were scarce. Further more, a th th ALLEN H. 1997. The en vi ron mental con di tions of the chro no log i cal se quence in the 9 and 8 mill. was Kopais ba sin, Boeotia dur ing the post gla cial with also estab lished. So far, the Lower Mesolithic had special refer ence to the mycenean pe riod, in J. th been dated to the middle of the 9 mill. BC in the Bintliff (ed.), Re cent de vel op ments in the His tory Cy clops Cave (Sampson, 1998; Sampson et al., and Ar chae ol ogy of Cen tral Greece, Ox ford, 39–58. 1998, 2003) and in the Franchthi Cave (PerlÀs, BENTON S. 1947. Hagios Nikolaos near Astakos in 1990b, while the Mesolithic settle ment of Kyth- Akarnania, British School of Athens 42, 156–183. nos (Sampson et al., 2002; Sampson, 2006b) BLEGEN C. W. 1931. Ex ca va tion at Gonia. Met ro pol i - dates from a very early phase of the Lower Meso- tan Mu seum Stud ies III, 55–80. lithic in the begin ning of the 9th mill. BC. It seems BLEGEN C., 1937. Prosymna. A Hel la dic set tle ment that the Mesolithic pe riod in the Hel la dic area pre ced ing the Argive Heraion. Cambridge. BULL OCK P., Fedorof N., Jongerius A. Stoops G., which has been studied exten sively recently, is Tursina T., 1986. Handbook for soil thin sec tion de - bound to surprise us in the future. scrip tion. Our re search in the area sug gests that the evi - CASKEY J. L. 1958. Ex ca va tions at Lerna 1957, dence for Palaeo lithic settle ment in the Kopais ba - Hesperia 27, 125–144. sin is rather ir reg u lar. The Sarakenos Cave saw CHILDE G. 1936/3. Neo lithic Black Ware in Greece sporadic vis its by Epigravettian groups and in the and on the Dan ube, British School of Athens 1936/7, Seidi Cave (Stampfuss, 1942; Schmidt, 1965) we 27. have ev i dence of Late Gra vet tian oc cu pa tion. In CASKEY J. L., Caskey G. 1960. The ear liest settle - some other caves and rock shel ters ex am ined in ments at Eutresis: Sup ple men tary ex ca va tions 1958, the basin and around it, Palaeolithic remains were Hesperia 29, 126–167. CHOURMOUZIADES G. 2002. Dispilio 7500 years found (Roland, 1980). The is sue will be clari fied later, Thessaloniki. through exca va tions in some of these sites. How- COLEMAN J. 1977. Keos I: Kephala. 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