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New AMS dates from Upper Palaeolithic Kastritsa

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 February 2014

N. Galanidou  and
P.C. Tzedakis
N. Galanidou
Affiliation:
Department of History & Archaeology, University of Crete, Rethymno, 74 100, Greecengalanidou@phl.uoc.gr
P.C. Tzedakis
Affiliation:
School of Geography, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, UK
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Extract

Thirty-four years ago there appeared in the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society the third and final paper in a series reporting the research of Eric Higgs and his colleagues into the climate, environment, and Stone Age record of north-west Greece (Higgs et al. 1967). This paper discussed two limestone rockshelters, Kastritsa and Asprochaliko, comparatively in what is now a classic example of site catchment analysis. Kastritsa, in the Pamvotis lake basin, and Asprochaliko, some 35 km away in the Louros river valley (Fig. 1), were destined to become famous, not only for being amongst the first sites in Greece to yield stratified Palaeolithic deposits, but also for the methodological and interpretative issues raised by their archaeological records. The ideas presented in the 1967 paper aroused considerable debate and controversy regarding when and during which seasons the sites were used and whether they were complementary parts of the region's Upper Palaeolithic settlement system (Higgs et al. 1967; Bailey et al. 1983; Bailey 1997a; Green 1997). The essential assumption underlying Higgs' original hypothesis was that some of the strata recovered from these sites were contemporaneous. In recent years the upper part of Kastritsa (strata 1 & 3) has also been considered to be partly coeval with two of the rockshelters in the Voidomatis river valley, namely Klithi and Megalakkos (Fig. 1).

Résumé

Cette étude examine les implications des dates au radiocarbone AMS obtenues récemment à Kastritsa et qui repoussent d'environ 2000 ans en arrière les premières et dernières occupations par rapport aux déterminations antérieures. Selon ces nouvelles dates, l'utilisation humaine du site de Kastritsa ne s'est pas prolongée pendant la dernière glaciation (vers 15 000–10 000) comme on l'avait pensé jusqu'à présent. Cette découverte a eu pour résultat la révision de notre conception de l'occupation du site d'Epire au Paléolithique supérieur.

Zusammenfassung

Dieser Artikel diskutiert die Auswirkungen von AMS Radiocarbon Daten, die man jetzt für Kastritsa erhalten hat, und die die früheste Belegung ca. 2000 Jahre vor die bisherigen Feststellungen datieren. Nach den neuen Daten erstreckte sich die menschliche Benutzung von Kastritsa nicht, wie bisher angenommen, in das Spätglazial hinein (c. 15,000–10,000). Als ein Ergebnis daraus werden die Vorstellungen von der jungpaläolithischen Siedlung von Epirus korrigiert.

Resúmen

Este trabajo analiza las implicaciones de dataciones al carbono-14 tipo AMS recientemente obtenidas del yacimiento de Kastritsa que atrasan el comienzo y fin de la ocupación más de 2000 años de lo previamente establecido. De acuerdo con estas nuevas fechas, la ocupación humana de Kastritsa no continuó en el periodo tardo glacial (ca. 15,000–10,000) como se había supuesto previamente. Esto ha resultado en una revisión de nuestras ideas sobre el asentamiento en la zona del Epirus en el Paleolítico Superior.

Type
Shorter Contributions
Information
Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society , Volume 67 , 2001 , pp. 271 - 278
Copyright
Copyright © The Prehistoric Society 2001

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