Eura sian 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 Ar chae 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 Uni ver 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 im portance 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 lo cal 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 im ported 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, Ko pais has been the subject of exten sive rocky bound aries 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 de tailed recorded, and mapped a large num ber of caves pollen diagrams and Al len (1997) offered in for- and rock shelters in the basin. The larger concen - mation on the vegeta tion from the Late Upper Pa - tra tion of caves is ob served in the limestone laeo lithic onwards from two new cores. boundaries of the eastern part of Kopais (Fig. 2). During the Late Up per Pa laeo lithic, Kopais In the area between Akraifnion and Aliartos we featured a vege tation pattern typical of an open have ex plored and mapped 23 caves, most of steppe and a dry and cold cli mate (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 tran sition is re corded 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 set tle - Pis ta cia, Ephe dra), while layers that cor re 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 analy sis 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 dur ing the Late Pleis to cene and EX CA VA TION AND STRA TIG RA PHY Early Holo cene. There are also in di ca tions that The most suitable cave for ex ca va 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 for mer lake of Kopais at the The paly no logi cal ma te rial that has been al ti tude of 180m. It is the larg est karstic for mation studied from the Sarake nos Cave sediments in the area, found to day 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 cham ber sae dur ing the tran si tion from Late Neo lithic I to and gives an ex cel 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 logi - 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 ca va tion of the site was part end of the Mid dle Hella dic pe riod, was the reason of the Kopais Project that started in 1994 in or der 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 fica 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 pe riod of ex cava 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 Palaeo lithic 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 cor re - (Sampson 2000). Proba bly, the drain age of the sponds to the spits C5–C8. The thin Early Hella - lake, which was carried out proba bly towards the dic stra tum 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 ab solute 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 dat ing (DEM-672, Late Neolithic Ib. A sam ple 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 stra tum 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 dat ing 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.