Hostname: page-component-7dd5485656-kp629 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-10-31T13:06:42.713Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Dating Knossos and the arrival of the earliest Neolithic in the southern Aegean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2017

Katerina Douka ,
Nikos Efstratiou ,
Mette Marie Hald ,
Peter Steen Henriksen  and
Alexandra Karetsou
Katerina Douka*
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX2 0AG, UK
Nikos Efstratiou
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 540 06, Greece
Mette Marie Hald
Affiliation:
Environmental Archaeology and Materials Science, National Museum of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Peter Steen Henriksen
Affiliation:
Environmental Archaeology and Materials Science, National Museum of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Alexandra Karetsou
Affiliation:
Ephorate of Antiquities, Ministry of Culture, 2 J. Hadjidaki Street, 71202, Herakleion, Greece
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: katerina.douka@rlaha.ox.ac.uk)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Knossos, on Crete, has long been famous both for its Minoan period remains and for the presence, at the base of the stratigraphy, of an early Neolithic settlement. The chronology and development of the Neolithic settlement, however, have hitherto been unclear. New light is now thrown on this formative period by combining new and older radiocarbon dates with contextual information in a Bayesian modelling framework. The results from Crete and western Anatolia suggest that an earlier, small-scale Aceramic colonisation preceded the later Neolithic reoccupation of Knossos.

Keywords

AegeanKnossosNeolithicearly farmerssea-faringradiocarbon dating

Information

Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 356 , April 2017 , pp. 304 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Article purchase

Temporarily unavailable

References

Barker, H. & Mackey, J.. 1963. British Museum natural radiocarbon measurements IV. Radiocarbon 5: 104–108. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200036821 Google Scholar
Barker, H., Burleigh, R. & Meeks, N.. 1969. British Museum natural radiocarbon measurements VI. Radiocarbon 11: 278–94. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200011231 Google Scholar
Bloedow, E. 1992–1993. The date of the earliest phase at Argissa Magoula in Thessaly and other Neolithic sites in Greece. Mediterranean Archaeology 5/6: 49–57.Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009a. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51: 337–60. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200033865 Google Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009b. Dealing with outliers and offsets in radiocarbon dating. Radiocarbon 51: 1023–45. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200034093 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broodbank, C. 2008. Long after hippos, well before palaces: a commentary on the cultures and contexts of Neolithic Crete, in Isaakidou, V. & Tomkins, P. (ed.) Escaping the labyrinth: new perspectives on the Neolithic of Crete (Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology 8): 273–90. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Broodbank, C. & Strasser, T.. 1991. Migrant farmers and the Neolithic colonization of Crete. Antiquity 65: 233–45. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00079680 Google Scholar
Carter, T. 2016. Obsidian consumption in the Late Pleistocene–Early Holocene Aegean: contextualising new data from Mesolithic Crete. The Annual of the British School at Athens 111: 13–34. https://doi.org/10.1017/S006824541600006X CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Cherry, J.F. 1981. Pattern and process in the earliest colonization of the Mediterranean islands. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 47: 41–68. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X00008859 Google Scholar
Cherry, J.F. 1990. The first colonisation of the Mediterranean islands: a review of recent research. Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 3: 145–221.Google Scholar
Çilingiroğlu, A., Çevik, Ö. & Çilingiroğlu, Ç.. 2012. Ulucak Höyük. Towards understanding the early farming communities of middle west Anatolia, in Özdoğan, M., Başgelen, N. & Kuniholm, P. (ed.) The Neolithic in Turkey. New excavations and new research. Volume 4. Western Turkey: 139–75. Istanbul: Archaeology & Arts Publications.Google Scholar
Colledge, S. & Conolly, J.. 2007. A review and synthesis of the evidence for the origins of farming on Cyprus and Crete, in Colledge, S. & Conolly, J. (ed.) The origins and spread of domestic plants in Southwest Asia and Europe: 53–74. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast.Google Scholar
Colledge, S., Conolly, J. & Shennan, S.. 2004. Archaeobotanical evidence for the spread of farming in the eastern Mediterranean. Current Anthropology 45 (supplement): S35–58. https://doi.org/10.1086/422086 Google Scholar
Efstratiou, N., Karetsou, A., Banou, E. & Margomenou, D.. 2004. The Neolithic settlement of Knossos: new light on an old picture, in Cadogan, G., Hatzaki, E. & Vasilakis, E. (ed.) Knossos: palace, city, state (British School at Athens Studies 12): 43–49. London: British School at Athens.Google Scholar
Efstratiou, N., Karetsou, A. & Ntinou, M. (ed.). 2013. The Neolithic settlement of Knossos in Crete. New evidence for the early occupation of Crete and the Aegean Islands. Philadelphia (PA): INSTAP Academic.Google Scholar
Evans, A.J. 1928. Chapter 33: discovery of Late Neolithic houses beneath Central Court: traditional affinities with mainland east, in Evans, A.J., The palace of Minos (volume II:I): 1–21. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Evans, J.D. 1964. Excavations in the Neolithic settlement of Knossos, 1957–60. Part I. The Annual of the British School at Athens 59: 132–240.Google Scholar
Evans, J.D. 1971. Neolithic Knossos: the growth of a settlement. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 37: 95–117. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0079497X00012573 Google Scholar
Evans, J.D. 1994. The early millennia: continuity and change in a farming settlement, in Evely, D., Hughes-Brock, H. & Momogliano, N. (ed.) Knossos: a labyrinth of history (papers presented in honour of Sinclair Hood): 1–20. London: British School at Athens.Google Scholar
Facorellis, Y. & Maniatis, Y.. 2013. Radiocarbon dates from the Neolithic settlement of Knossos: an overview, in Efstratiou, N., Karetsou, A. & Ntinou, M. (ed.) The Neolithic settlement of Knossos in Crete. New evidence for the early occupation of Crete and the Aegean Islands: 193–200. Philadelphia (PA): INSTAP Academic.Google Scholar
Furness, A. 1953. The Neolithic pottery of Knossos. The Annual of the British School at Athens 48: 94–134.Google Scholar
Gerritsen, F.A., Özbal, R. & Thissen, L.. 2013. The earliest Neolithic levels at Barcın Höyük, northwestern Turkey. Anatolica 39: 53–92.Google Scholar
Guilaine, J., Briois, F., Vigne, J.-D. & Carrère, I.. 2000. Découverte d'un Néolithique précéramique ancien chypriote (fin 9e, début 8e millénaires cal. BC) apparenté au PPNB ancien/moyen du Levant Nord. Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris-Earth and Planetary Science 300: 75–82.Google Scholar
Hofmanová, Z., Kreutzer, S., Hellenthal, G., Sell, C., Diekmann, Y., Díez del-Molino, D., van Dorp, L., López, S., Kousathanas, A., Link, V., Kirsanow, K., Cassidy, L.M., Martiniano, R., Strobel, M., Scheu, A., Kotsakis, K., Halstead, P., Triantaphyllou, S., Kyparissi-Apostolika, N., Urem-Kotsou, D.-C., Ziota, C., Adaktylou, F., Gopalan, S., Bobo, D.M., Winkelbach, L., Blöcher, J., Unterländer, M., Leuenberger, C., Çilingiroğlu, Ç., Horejs, B., Gerritsen, F., Shennan, S., Bradley, D.G., Currat, M., Veeramah, K., Wegmann, D., Thomas, M.G., Papageorgopoulou, C. & Burger, J.. 2015. Early farmers from across Europe directly descended from Neolithic Aegeans. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 113: 6886–91. https://doi/10.1073/pnas.1523951113 Google Scholar
Horejs, B. 2012. Çukuriçi Höyük, in Özdoğan, M., Başgelen, N. & Kuniholm, P. (ed.) The Neolithic in Turkey. New excavations and new research. Volume 4. Western Turkey: 117–31. Istanbul: Archaeology & Arts Publications.Google Scholar
Horejs, B., Milić, B., Ostmann, F., Thanheiser, U., Weninger, B. & Galik, A.. 2015. The Aegean in the early 7th millennium BC: maritime networks and colonization. Journal of World Prehistory 28: 289–330.Google Scholar
Horwitz, L.K. 2013. The earliest settlement on Crete: an archaeozoological perspective, in Efstratiou, N., Karetsou, A. & Ntinou, M. (ed.) The Neolithic settlement of Knossos in Crete. New evidence for the early occupation of Crete and the Aegean Islands: 171–92. Philadelphia (PA): INSTAP Academic.Google Scholar
Hughey, J.R., Paschou, P., Drineas, P., Mastropaolo, D., Lotakis, D.M., Navas, P.A., Michalodimitrakis, M., Stamatoyannopoulos, J.A. & Stamatoyannopoulos, G.. 2013. A European population in Minoan Bronze Age Crete. Nature Communications 4: 1861. https://doi.org/10.1038/ncomms2871 Google Scholar
Kaczanowska, M. & Kozłowski, J.K.. 2014. Reconstruction of lithic assemblages from Nissi Beach (Cyprus), in Contributions to the archaeology of early Cyprus: 67–107. Kraków: Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.Google Scholar
Karamitrou-Mentessidi, G., Efstratiou, N., Kaczanowska, M. & Kozłowski, J.K.. 2016. Early Neolithic settlement of Mavropigi in western Greek Macedonia. Eurasian Prehistory 12 (1–2): 47–116.Google Scholar
Katsianis, M. 2004. Stratigraphic reconstruction of multi-period sites using GIS: the case of Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Knossos, in Stadtarchäologie, Wien (ed.) Enter the past: the E-way into the four dimensions of cultural heritage (British Archaeological Reports international series 1227): 304–307. Oxford: Archaeopress.Google Scholar
King, R.J., Ozcan, S.S., Carter, T., Kalfoğlu, E., Atasoy, S., Triantaphyllidis, C., Kouvatsi, A., Lin, A.A., Chow, C.E., Zhivotovsky, L.A., Michalodimitrakis, M. & Underhill, P.A.. 2008. Differential Y-chromosome Anatolian influences on the Greek and Cretan Neolithic. Annals in Human Genetics 72: 205–14. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1469-1809.2007.00414.x CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Mackenzie, D. 1903. The pottery of Knossos. Journal of Hellenic Studies 23: 158–64. https://doi.org/10.2307/623763 Google Scholar
Manning, S.W. 2014. Temporal placement and context of Cyro-PPNA activity on Cyprus. Eurasian Prehistory 11 (1–2): 9–28.Google Scholar
Özdoğan, E. 2015. Current research and new evidence for the Neolithization process in western Turkey. European Journal of Archaeology 18: 33–59. http://doi.org/10.1179/1461957114Y.0000000079 Google Scholar
Özdoğan, M. 2011. Archaeological evidence on the westward expansion of farming communities from eastern Anatolia to the Aegean and the Balkans. Current Anthropology 52 (S4): S415–30. https://doi.org/ 10.1179/1461957114Y.0000000079 Google Scholar
Peltenburg, E., Colledge, S., Croft, P., Jackson, A., McCartney, C. & Murray, M.A.. 2000. Agro-pastoralist colonization of Cyprus in the 10th millennium BP: initial assessments. Antiquity 74: 844–53. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X0006049X CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Perlès, C. 2001. The Early Neolithic in Greece. The first farming communities in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511612855 Google Scholar
Perlès, C. 2003. The Mesolithic at Franchthi: an overview of the data and problems, in Galanidou, N. & Perlès, C. (ed.) The Greek Mesolithic: problems and perspectives (British School at Athens Studies 9): 79–89. London: British School at Athens.Google Scholar
Perlès, C. 2005. From the Near East to Greece: let's reverse the focus—cultural elements that did not transfer, in Lichter, C. (ed.) How did farming reach Europe? (Byzas 2): 275–90. Istanbul: Deutsches archäologisches Institut Abteilung Istanbul.Google Scholar
Perlès, C. 2010. Grèce et Balkans: deux voies de pénétrationdistinctes du Néolithique en Europe? in Demoule, J.-P. (ed.) La révolution Néolithique dans le monde: 263–81. Paris: CNRS.Google Scholar
Perlès, C., Quiles, A. & Valladas, H.. 2013. Early seventh-millennium AMS dates from domestic seeds in the Initial Neolithic at Franchthi Cave (Argolid, Greece). Antiquity 87: 1001–15. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0003598X00049826 Google Scholar
Protsch, R. & Berger, R.. 1973. Earliest radiocarbon dates for domesticated animals. Science 179: 235–39. https://doi.org/10.1126/science.179.4070.235 Google Scholar
Reimer, P.J., Bard, E., Bayliss, E., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P.G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C.E., Cheng, H., Edwards, R.L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P.M., Guilderson, T.P., Haflidason, H., Hajdas, I., Hatté, C., Heaton, T.J., Hoffmann, D.L., Hogg, A.G., Hughen, K.A., Kaiser, K.F., Kromer, B., Manning, S.W., Niu, M., Reimer, R.W., Richards, D.A., Scott, E.M., Southon, J.R., Staff, R.A., Turney, C.S.M. & van der Plicht, J.. 2013. IntCal13 and Marine13 radiocarbon age calibration curves 0–50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 55: 1869–87. https://doi.org/10.2458/azu_js_rc.55.16947 Google Scholar
Reingruber, A. 2008. Die Argissa-Magula. Das frühe und das beginnende mittlere Neolithikum im Lichte transägäischer Beziehungen (Beiträge zur ur- und frühgeschichtlichen Archäologie des Mittelmeer-Kulturraumes 35). Bonn: Habelt.Google Scholar
Reingruber, A. & Thissen, L.. 2009. Depending on 14C data: chronological frameworks in the Neolithic and Chalcolithic of southeastern Europe. Radiocarbon 51: 751–70. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200056071 Google Scholar
Sampson, A. 2008. Τhe Cyclops Cave on the island of Youra, Greece. Mesolithic and Neolithic networks in the northern Aegean Basin. Intra-site analysis, local industries, and regional site distribution, volume 1. Philadelphia (PA): INSTAP Academic Press.Google Scholar
Sampson, A., Kaczanowska, M. & Kozłowski, J.K.. 2010. The prehistory of the island of Kythnos (Cyclades, Greece) and the Mesolithic settlement at Maroulas. Kraków: Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.Google Scholar
Sampson, A., Kaczanowska, M. & Kozłowski, J.K.. 2012. Mesolithic occupations and environments on the island of Ikaria, Aegean, Greece (Monograph in Folia Quaternaria 80). Kraków: Polish Academy of Arts and Sciences.Google Scholar
Simmons, H.A. 2014. Stone Age sailors. Palaeolithic seafaring in the Mediterranean. Walnut Creek (CA): Left Coast.Google Scholar
Strasser, T., Panagopoulou, E., Runnels, C., Murray, P.M., Thompson, N., Karkanas, P., McCoy, F.W. & Wegmann, K.W.. 2010. Stone Age seafaring in the Mediterranean: evidence from the Plakias region for Lower Palaeolithic and Mesolithic habitation of Crete. Hesperia 79: 145–90.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Thissen, L. 2005. Coming to grips with the Aegean in prehistory: an outline of the temporal framework, 10,000–5500 cal BC, in Lichter, C. (ed.) How did farming reach Europe? (Byzas 2): 29–40. Istanbul: Deutsches archäologisches Institut Abteilung Istanbul.Google Scholar
Tomkins, P. 2004. Filling in the ‘Neolithic background’: social life and social transformation in the Aegean before the Bronze Age, in Barrett, J.C. & Halstead, P. (ed.) The emergence of civilisation revisited (SSAA 6): 38–63. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Tomkins, P. 2007. Neolithic: Strata IX–VIII, VII–VIB, VIA–V, IV, IIIB, IIIA, IIB, IIA and IC Groups, in Momigliano, N. (ed.) Knossos pottery handbook: Neolithic and Bronze Age (Minoan): 9–48. London: British School at Athens.Google Scholar
Tomkins, P. 2008. Time, space and the reinvention of the Cretan Neolithic, in Isaakidou, V. & Tomkins, P. (ed.) Escaping the labyrinth: new perspectives on the Neolithic of Crete (Sheffield Studies in Aegean Archaeology 8): 22–51. Oxford: Oxbow.Google Scholar
Vigne, J.-D., Carrère, I., Briois, F. & Guilaine, J.. 2011a. The early process of the mammal domestication in the Near East: new Cypriot Pre-Neolithic and Prepottery Neolithic evidence. Current Anthropology 52 (S4): 255–71. https://doi.org/10.1086/659306 Google Scholar
Vigne, J.-D., Briois, F., Zazzo, A., Carrère, I., Daujat, J. & Guilaine, J.. 2011b. A new early Pre-Pottery Neolithic site in Cyprus: Ayios Tychonas-Klimonas (ca. 8700 cal BC). Neo-Lithics 1 (11): 3–18.Google Scholar
Vigne, J.-D., Briois, F., Zazzo, A., Willcox, G., Cucchi, T., Thiébault, S., Carrère, I., Franel, Y., Touquet, R., Martin, C., Moreau, C., Comby, C. & Guilaine, J.. 2012. First wave of cultivators spread to Cyprus at least 10,600 y ago. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 109: 8445–49. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1201693109 Google Scholar
Warren, P., Jarman, M.R., Jarman, H.N., Shackleton, N.J. & Evans, J.D.. 1968. Knossos Neolithic, part II. The Annual of the British School at Athens 63: 239–76. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068245400014374 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weninger, B., Alram-Stern, E., Bauer, E., Clare, L., Danzeglocke, U., Jöris, O., Kubatski, C., Rollefson, G., Todorova, H. & Van Andel, T.. 2006. Climate forcing due to the 8200 cal yr BP event observed at Early Neolithic sites in the eastern Mediterranean. Quaternary Research 66: 401–20. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.yqres.2006.06.009 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Weninger, B., Clare, L., Rohling, E.J., Bar-Yosef, O., Böhner, U., Budja, M., Bundschuh, M., Feurdean, A., Gebe, H.-G., Jöris, O., Linstädter, J., Mayewski, P., Mühlenbruch, T., Reingruber, A., Rollefson, G., Schyle, D., Thissen, L., Todorova, H. & Zielhofer, C.. 2009. The impact of rapid climate change on prehistoric societies during the Holocene in the eastern Mediterranean. Documenta Praehistorica 36: 7–59. https://doi.org/10.4312/dp.36.2 CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Winder, N.P. 1991. Interpreting a site: the case for a reassessment of the Knossos Neolithic. Archaeological Review from Cambridge 10 (1): 37–52.Google Scholar
Supplementary material: PDF

Douka supplementary material

Douka supplementary material

Download Douka supplementary material(PDF)
PDF 158.4 KB