elefanti, panagopoulou, karkanas - the evidence from the lakonis cave, greece

Eura sian Pre his tory, 5 (2): 77–87.

THE TRAN SI TION FROM THE MID DLE TO THE UP PERPALEOLITHIC IN THE SOUTH ERN BAL KANS:

THE EV I DENCE FROM THE LAKONIS I CAVE, GREECE

Paraskevi Elefanti1, Eleni Panagopoulou2 and Panagiotis Karkanas3

1 Royal Hol lo way, Uni ver sity of Lon don, De part ment of Ge og ra phy, Egham, Sur rey, TW20 0EX, UK;[email protected]

2 Ephoreia of Palaeoanthropology and Spe le ol ogy, Ath ens, Greece; elenipanagopoulou@ya hoo.com3 Ephoreia of Palaeoanthropology and Spe le ol ogy, Ath ens, Greece; [email protected]

Ab stract

Cur rent mod els of in ter ac tion be tween Neandertals and mod ern hu mans, and the na ture and tim ing of the Mid dle toUp per Paleolithic tran si tion in west ern Eur asia sug gest a com plex, re gion ally-dif fer en ti ated pro cess. The lack of di ag nos -tic fos sil re mains and as so ci ated lithic in dus tries limit the ex tent to which the tran si tion can be mod eled, whether a re sult of over lap, ac cul tur a tion or in de pend ent in ven tion, or quite pos si bly a com bi na tion of all three. Fos sil re mains in south east -ern Eu rope tend to be frag men tary, iso lated, and poorly dated.

This pa per pres ents ev i dence from Greece where ex ca va tions at the re cently dis cov ered cave site of Lakonis have re -vealed a con tin u ous strati graphic se quence dated to be tween 120 ka and 43 ka BP. Dur ing the last gla cial the site wouldhave con sisted of a se ries of small caves over look ing a large open plain; how ever, with ero sion and sea level rise, its roofhas been lost and it is now at the wa ter’s edge. The ma jor ity of de pos its are dom i nated by Mid dle Paleolithic as sem blagesas so ci ated with a se ries of over lap ping hearth struc tures. Above this, how ever, the up per most unit pro duced a lithic as sem -blage with clear mixed Mid dle and Up per Paleolithic af fin i ties. On this ba sis it has been de fined as tran si tional with thepres ence of ei ther or both mod ern hu mans and Neandertals sug gested. Sup port for the lat ter was found dur ing the 2002field sea son when a well-pre served Neandertal mo lar was dis cov ered in the up per most unit. Both the lithics and the toothare rel e vant to the cur rent de bate con cern ing Neandertal and mod ern hu man in ter ac tion, and sug gest that in this area, themak ers of this tran si tional as sem blage were Neandertals.

IN TRO DUC TION

Hu man set tle ment his tory in Eu rope dur ingthe pe riod span ning the tran si tion from the Mid -dle to the Up per Paleolithic is one of the most de -bated top ics in Paleolithic ar chae ol ogy (Mellars,1996; Zilh±o and d’Errico, 2003; van Andel andDavies, 2003; Brantingham et al., 2004; Straus,2005; Conard, 2006). Is sues per ti nent to this de -bate in clude hominin as so ci a tions with late Mous -terian and early Up per Paleolithic cul tural man i -fes ta tions, the or i gin of the Ini tial Up per Paleo-lithic and the Aurig na cian, and the pos si bil i tiesfor con tact be tween Neandertals and an a tom i cally mod ern hu mans (Smith et al., 2005). As new ev i -

dence and re fine ments in dat ing meth ods ac cu mu -late, the com plex ity of this phase be comes in -creas ingly ap par ent, pri mar ily as a re sult of theim mense cul tural and de mo graphic di ver sitychar ac ter is ing the pe riod (Kuhn, 2004), as well asof the lack of suf fi cient re cords of an a tom i cal hu -man re mains (Smith et al., 2005), which al low usonly a frag men tary idea of the iden tity of the mak -ers of these cul tures.

It has been re peat edly ar gued that Ne an der -tals and mod ern hu mans did co ex ist in parts ofEurope (van An del et al., 2003; Con ard, 2006),and there fore a range of pos si ble cul tural re la tion -ships and con tacts are likely to have been de vel -oped be tween them (Straus, 2005). The ex tent of

these re la tion ships is likely to have been vari able.A re cent re view of the dat ing evi dence sug geststhat the du ra tion of co ex is tence was shorter andmore lim ited than pre vi ously thought, as “lit tle”as a cou ple of thou sand years in some places(Mel lars, 2006). This im plies that any cul tural orge netic in ter ac tion be tween the two groups would have been lim ited (Del son and Har vati, 2006).

It is within this con text of mod ern human- Neandertal in ter ac tion in Europe, that this pa perpres ents new evi dence from the Lakonis I cave insouth ern Greece. The site has yielded an un in ter -rupted stra tigraphic se quence span ning the Mid -dle to Early Up per Pa leo lithic. The up per mostpart of the site’s se quence, Unit Ia, has yieldeddates be tween ca. 48 ka cal BP (44 ka 14C BP) and 42 ka cal BP (38 ka 14C BP) and com prises a stra -tigraphi cally in tact, but in dus tri ally mixed ho ri -zon with ele ments remi nis cent of both pe ri ods.On these grounds, this layer has been in ter preted

as an Ini tial Up per Pa leo lithic cul tural mani fes ta -tion (Pa na gopou lou et al., 2004). The pres ence inthis stra tigraphic unit of a well- preserved Ne an -der tal tooth (Har vati et al., 2003), one of the veryfew in the hu man fos sil rec ord of south east ernEurope for this pe riod (Trinkaus et al., 2006),pro vides an in sight into the manu fac tur ers of thein dus try. Con tinua tion of the re search pro gram atLakonis I cave, in clud ing dat ing re fine ments andpost- excavation study will pro vide more data thatwill al low hy pothe ses and sce nar ios about theevo lu tion ary his tory of Ne an der tals and mod ernhu mans in this part of Europe to be fur ther as -sessed.

THE SITE

Lakonis I is lo cated on the east ern coast of the Mani pen in sula, in the south- east Pelo pon nese,which is the south ern most edge of the Greek

78 P. Ele fanti et al.

Fig. 1. View of Lakonis I cave from the sea

main land (Fig ure 1). It is in an in ten sively kar sticen vi ron ment that al lowed for the pres er va tion ofmany caves and rock shel ters, of ten with Pleis to -cene ar chaeo logi cal and fossil- bearing de pos its(Dar las and de Lum ley, 2004; Pit sios and Lieb ha -ber, 1995). Lakonis I is an east- facing col lapsedcave with a floor area of about 250 m², whichforms part of a larger kar stic com plex con sist ingof an other four caves, some of which have yielded evi dence of hu man pres ence dur ing the late Up per Pa leo lithic (Pa na gopou lou et al., 2004). Ex ca va -tions at the site have been con ducted since 1999un der the aus pices of the Greek Ephoreia of Pa -leo an thro pol ogy and Spele ol ogy, with the con tri -bu tion of lo cal and for eign re search in sti tu tions.

The cave is cur rently a lit to ral site, al thoughdur ing the time of its oc cu pa tion which co in cidedwith the sea level re gres sion of MIS 4 and 3, itwould have been well placed at the edge of acoastal plain ex tend ing out into what is to day thenorth ern part of the Lakonic Gulf. This coastal en -vi ron ment would have con sisted of a mo saic ofhabi tats in clud ing grass and parkland, densewood land, la goons and marshes, all pro vid ingplen ti ful food re sources for both prey and preda -tors. The fauna from the site con sists mainly ofcer vids, as well as Sus and Bos cf. primi gen ius,and tes ti fies to the pres ence of a di verse eco logi -cal set ting around the cave (Pa na gopou lou et al.,2004). The pres ence of a cur rently sub mergedfresh- water spring im me di ately be low the sitesug gests that drink ing wa ter would have been eas -ily avail able. This, in con junc tion with the prox -im ity of good qual ity lithic raw ma te ri als cur -rently found within a short dis tance of the site asboth pri mary and sec on dary de pos its high light the op ti mal set tle ment po si tion that Lakonis I onceoc cu pied in the lo cal land scape.

STRA TIG RA PHY OF THE SITE

Lakonis I pre serves a stra tigraphic se quenceof ap proxi mately 7 m in the form of a steeply in -clined wave- eroded rem nant, which is strongly- cemented as a re sult of post- depositional cal citepre cipi ta tion. The se quence con sists of five lay ers which have been des ig nated from the top down asUnits I to V. The low er most layer, Unit V, is abeach con glom er ate and archaeo logi cally ster ile.It is pre served in lim ited ar eas of the site at an av -

er age height of 2.5 m and is as so ci ated with acostal en vi ron ment very simi lar to the pres entone. It is di rectly over lain by trav er tine for ma -tions, sug gest ing that sedi men ta tion be gan soonaf ter the on set of MIS 5 re gres sion. Over ly ing this layer is Unit IV, a bone brec cia with lithic ar ti -facts and char coal frag ments in a red dish clayeyma trix ce mented by cal cite, which ex tends as acon tinu ous unit along the south ern and east ern ar -eas of the cave. The bone brec cia gives way in thecen tral part of the se quence to a crudely- stratifiedstony layer, Unit III, which con sists of an gu larroofspall ce mented in a red dish brown sandy clayma trix. It is sepa rated from the over ly ing Unit IIby large boul ders de rived from a roof col lapseepi sode. Unit II is char ac ter ised by a red dish-brown sandy clay ma trix rich in an gu lar mar blefrag ments. Fi nally, the up per most part of the se -quence is sealed by Unit I, which con sists of twosu per im posed hearth com plexes, called Ia and Ib.The thick ness of the lower com plex (Ib), which isas so ci ated with a ter mi nal Mid dle Pa leo lithic oc -cu pa tion, is about 50 cm, while the up per com plex (Ia), at trib uted on the ba sis of its tech no logi cal af -fini ties to the Ini tial Up per Pa leo lithic, has a pre -served thick ness of about 30 cm. The multi- sequence burnt lay ers con sist of heavily-cemen-ted su per im posed white, gray, black and gray ishbrown lay ers, each of which is a few cen ti me tersthick. The two hearth com plexes are sepa rated bya ca. 15 cm thick layer whose char ac ter is not asyet fully un der stood, but most proba bly rep re -sents the de tri tus from ac cu mu lated hearth clea -routs of the lower subunits (Pa na gopou lou et al.,2004).

CHRO NOL OGY OF THE SITE

The beach rock un der ly ing the cul tural se -quence (Unit V) has been pre lim i nar ily dated byOSL to the Last Inter gla cial (N. Mercier and H.Valladas, pers. comm.), al though fur ther treat -ment is re quired to re fine the chro nol ogy. In ad di -tion, the speleothems cap ping the beachrock weredated by U-Se ries/TIMS to the same time in ter val(M. Bar-Matthews, pers. comm.), con firm ing pre -vi ous age de ter mi na tions and sug gest ing thatsite’s ini tial oc cu pa tion started some time af ter130–120 ka BPTL & -se ries (Panagopoulou et al.,2004). Dat ing of the up per most part of the se -

Tran si tion from the Mid dle to the Up per Pa leo lithic 79

quence, Unit Ia and Ib, was based on char coal ma -te rial taken by the bot tom char coal lay ers ofwell-de fined com bus tion zones (Fig ures 2–3).The three dates from the up per com plex (Unit Ia),48,060 ± 2560 cal BP (44,500 ± 2330 14C BP,RTT 3846), 42,600 ± 720 cal BP (38,240 ± 116014C BP, RTT 3847) and 46,190 ± 1750 cal BP(42,800 ± 1700 14C BP, RTT 4601), are sta tis ti -cally not dif fer ent from those of the lower com -plex (Unit Ib), 43,490 ± 770 cal BP (39,640 ±1000 14C BP, RTT 3525), 46,740 ± 1920 cal BP(43,335 ± 1800 14C BP, RTT 3844) and 46,560 ±1890 cal BP (43,150 ± 1790 14C BP, RTT 3845)(Table1).

There is a grow ing con sen sus about the lim i -ta tions and er rors of ra dio car bon cal i bra tion be -tween 50 and 30 thou sand years ago, due to sig -

nif i cant 14C fluc tu a tions in the at mo sphere and the ef fects of this on our un der stand ing of the evo lu -tion ary and cul tural de vel op ment of homininsaround this time (Conard and Bolus, 2003; vanAndel et al., 2003; Giaccio et al., 2006; Weniger,2006; Mellars, 2006). Re fine ments in dat ing tech -niques are ex pected to im prove chro no log i cal res -o lu tion, while the use of com ple men tary dat ingmeth ods such as TL and tephrochronology willpro vide a more solid chro no log i cal frame work for the site. Greece is lo cated within the tephra fall out zone of the Campanian Ignimbrite erup tion datedto ap prox i mately 40,000 years ago (Giaccio et al., 2006); there fore, we are op ti mis tic that fu tureanal y sis of tephra sam ples from the site willprovide an additional temporal marker for theUnit I horizon.


Fig. 2. North ern pro file of Trench A (Unit Ia) show ing the lo ca tion of the tooth be low a gray ashy layer (whitecir cle) and the lo ca tion of the dated sam ple (LC 146)

Fig. 3. South ern pro file of Trench A (Unit Ia) show ing over lap ping gray and black burnt lay ers and the lo ca tionof the dated sam ples (LC 142 and LC 143)

INI TIAL UP PER PALAEO LITHICPRES ENCE AT LAKONIS I

On the ba sis of tech no log i cal cri te ria, Unit Ibhas been at trib uted to the Mid dle Paleolithic andUnit Ia to a more mixed tra di tion or com plex oftra di tions com bin ing el e ments of both the Mid dleand Up per Paleolithic. On this ba sis Unit Ia wasdes ig nated a tran si tional (sensu Kuhn, 2003) Ini -tial Up per Paleolithic (IUP) oc cu pa tional phase of the site (Panagopoulou et al., 2004), which placesthe site at the heart of dis cus sions re gard ing thebio-cul tural traits of the Mid dle to Upper Paleoli-thic transition.

In or der to es tab lish the strati graphic in teg rity of this Unit and to rule out the pos si bil ity of it be -ing a pa limp sest re sult ing from post-depositionalmix ing of both units, three dif fer ent lines of ev i -dence have been pur sued, in clud ing micromor-phological, taphonomic and con tex tual data. Thelat ter two in clude ev i dence in the form of fourcervid sesamoids (foot bones) which were foundin ar tic u la tion in the same strati graphic con text, as well as a num ber of re fits and con joins whichwere ex ca vated in close prox im ity within thesame 50 x 50 cm square by 5 cm thick spit. This is con sis tent with the re sults of the micromorpholo-gical anal y sis which sug gests that the unit is in -tact. The anal y sis has iden ti fied only very min i -mal post-depositional dis tur bance of Unit Ia, withcon sol i da tion prior to be ing cov ered by the over -ly ing lay ers. This con clu sion is fur ther sup portedby the in tact con di tion of the up per con tact of theashy lay ers, the fact that wood ashes re tain frag ilepseudo morphs of orig i nal plant struc tures, and the pres ence of only very min i mal root dis tur bance.Mod er ate micro fauna ac tiv ity is ob served, but not to the degree that would obliterate the originalmacrostructure of the sequence.

IUP LITHIC AS SEM BLAGE ATLAKONIS I

Un til finer chro no log i cal res o lu tion is avail -able from Lakonis I, our main method in es tab -lish ing cul tural dif fer ences be tween Unit Ia andthe un der ly ing de pos its re mains the study of thelithic col lec tion. In the fol low ing dis cus sion themain tech no log i cal and mor pho log i cal char ac ter -is tics of Unit Ia are pre sented, which sug gest thatal though it con tains el e ments char ac ter is tic ofboth the Mid dle and Up per Paleolithic, there is apre dom i nance of those as so ci ated with the Up perPaleolithic. On go ing com par a tive study of thelithic col lec tion from the com plete strati graphicse quence of the site should iso late more clearlyany evo lu tion ary changes in the lithic technologyof the two cultural phases.

The lithic as sem blage from Unit Ia was re -cov ered dur ing the 2000 to 2003 field sea sons and de rives from only six quar ter-me ter squares ex ca -vated to a depth of 30 cm. Anal y sis of the as sem -blage re cov ered dur ing sub se quent sea sons iswell un der way. In to tal the as sem blage amountsto 6,917 pieces (Ta ble 2), of which those larger


Ta ble 1Lakonis I cave ra dio car bon dates. Cal i brated dates were ob tained by us ing Cal Pal 2007 Hulu

Unit Sam ple Lab o ra tory code Tech nique Ma te rial 14C BP cal BP

Ib LC143 RT3525 Conv. Char coal 39,640±1000 43,490±770

Ib LC145 RTT 3844 AMS Char coal 43,335±1800 46,740±1920

Ib LC144 RTT 3845 AMS Char coal 43,150±1790 46,560±1890

Ia LC143 RTT3846 AMS Char coal 44,500±2330 48,060±2560

Ia LC142 RTT 3847 AMS Char coal 38,240±1160 42,600±720

Ia LC146 RTT4601 AMS Char coal 42,800±1700 46,190±1750

Ta ble 2IUP Lakonis I: Main lithic cat e go ries

N %

Un worked raw ma te ri als 2 0.03

Cores 28 0.5

Debitage >20mm 589 8.4

Debitage 20-10mm 872 12.6

Tools (any size) 147 2.1

Chips ?10mm 1,968 28.4

De bris (any size) 3,311 47.8

To tal 6,917 100

than 20 mm or with sec ond ary re touch (n = 766)were se lected for de tailed study. At trib utes stud -ied in cluded raw ma te rial, blank mor phol ogy, tool type, fragmentation and dimensions.

Lithic pro duc tion at the site was based predcontinuedominantly on the use of si lici fied vol ca -nic rock of vary ing qual ity (77%). Such ma te ri alsare cur rently found within a ra dius of up to 10 kmfrom the site, and oc cur as pri mary out crops;how ever col lec tion from de rived river gravel de -

pos its closer to the site is also a dis tinct pos si bil -ity. The sec ond most com mon rock type in use(13%) was white-to-pink ish-grey or yel low wa -ter-rolled quartz peb bles, fol lowed by fine-grai-ned black and grey flint (3.7%), and very rareschist and lime stone (1%). There ap pears to havebeen no sig nif i cant shift in the use of non-flintrock types be tween Unit Ia and what was in usedur ing the Mid dle Paleolithic. Con versely, the use of flint, al though in low quan ti ties over all, al most


Fig. 4. Lakonis I Ini tial Up per Paleolithic as sem blage. 1) Re fit: Pris matic core with core tab let; 2) Pris maticcore/tournant; 3) Change of ori en ta tion core; 4) Bladelet core on Levallois flake; 5) Core tab let; 6) Crested blade;7) “Elon gated” point; 8–9) Re touched bladelets; 10) Carinated scraper/core; 11) Nosed scraper; 12) Bifacial tool;13) Mous terian point; 14) Aurig na cian blade with trun ca tion. Draw ings by D. Pakogiannaki

dou bles in Unit Ia. This shift may sug gest an in -creased em pha sis on the use of finer-grainedrocks better suited to blade/bladelet pro duc tion.As op posed to the other rock types used, flintorig i nates from ar eas fur ther in land al though theac tual source re mains un known. The in crease inits frequency may suggest more extensive use ofthe landscape.

The va ri ety of core forms, tech ni cal piecesand blank char ac ter is tics in di cate that more thanone method of blank pro duc tion was em ployed inUnit Ia, with Levallois and pris matic (lam i narvol u met ric) be ing the most prom i nent. Traces ofdiscoidal core-work ing in the form of short, thickpseudo-Levallois and Kombewa flakes also oc cur in small per cent ages (Ta ble 3). The Levallois re -duc tion se quence (n = 29, 28% of tech ni calpieces; n = 112, 16% of debitage and tools) ap -pears to have been pri mar ily geared to wards thepro duc tion of flakes and blades from re cur rentuni- and bi-di rec tional cores, as sug gested by dor -sal scar pat terns and oc ca sional re fits. The ab -sence of ac tual Levallois cores is in com men su rate with the rest of the as sem blage, which points tocon tin u ing use of Levallois at the site. As sum ingthat this is not sim ply sam pling er ror, it may sug -gest that cores were un der go ing sev eral cy cles ofre duc tion with a con com i tant change of their mor -phol ogy. More over, the pos si bil ity of Levalloiscores be ing re moved from the site as curatedpieces has also to be con sid ered. Nev er the less, allthe el e ments typ i cally as so ci ated with Levalloiscore re duc tion in clud ing débordants, enlèvementsII blanks, etc. are present (Table 3).

The most strik ing fea ture of the lam i nar vol u -met ric core re duc tion se quence in Unit Ia is the


Ta ble 3IUP Lakonis I: Core re duc tion se quence

Cores (n = 28) n %

Core on blank (flake or blade) 12 42.8

Change of ori en ta tion 11 39.3

Two op posed plat form 3 10.7

Pris matic/subprismatic 2 7.1

Tech ni cal pieces D 20 mm (n = 105) n %

Core tab lets 28 27

Crested blanks 5 4.8

Re ju ve na tion and plung ing blanks 38 36.2

Débordant blanks 29 27.6

Pseudo-Levallois blanks 1 0.9

"Burin spall" like tech ni cal pieces 4 3.8

Blank cat e go ries in clud ing unretouched D20 mm and re touched pieces of any size*(n = 726)

n %

Flakes 557 77

Blades 62 8.5

Bladelets (W 30 mm in length) 52 7.2

Levallois points 6 0.8

In de ter mi nate blanks 49 6.7

Levallois vs. pris matic pro duc tion basedon re touched pieces D 20 mm and re -touched pieces of any size*(n = 726)

Ar ti facts re lated to Levallois pro duc tion 112 15.4

Ar ti facts re lated to pris matic pro duc tion 507 70

Bladelets 52 7.2

Other blanks i.e., Kombewa, PSL 6 0.8

Blank in de ter mi nate 49 7.2

Tool in dex (all sizes) (n = 147)

Sidescrapers 37 25.5

Bifacial tools (in clud ing scrap ers) 6 4.1

Endscrapers 5 3.4

Carinated scrap ers 3 2.1

Nosed scrap ers 1 0.7

Re touched flakes 43 29.6

Re touched blades 8 5.4

Re touched bladelets 10 6.8

Burins 13 8.8

Elon gated Levallois points 2 1.4

Mous terian points 2 1.4

Notches/Denticulates 3 2.1

Trun ca tions 3 2.1

Bor ers 1 0.7

Aurig na cian blades 1 0.7

Com pos ite tools (notch/scraper) 1 0.7

Resharpening pieces 6 4.1

Ta ble 3 continued

Tool frag ments 2 1.4

Tool per debitage cat e gory (n = 147)

Tools on flakes non-Levallois 75 51

Tools on blades non-Lavallois 16 10.9

Tools on Levallois flakes 28 19

Tools on Lavallois blades 4 2.7

Tools on bladelets 12 8.2

Cores 6 4.1

Chunk/in de ter mi nate blanks 6 4.1

* Tools made on cores and de bris/chunk ( n = 10) were ex -cluded

in creas ing em pha sis on bladelet man u fac turethrough two con cep tu ally dis tinct chaînes opéra-toires. The first en com passed the use of dif fer enttypes of cores, ex ploited vol u met ri cally aroundmost of their pe riph ery or flaked with the semi-ro -tat ing method re mov ing blanks from their thick -ness. Cores of this type could be clas si fied interms of their shape into ones with two op posedplat forms, “change of ori en ta tion cores” (i.e.,spec i mens with more than two plat forms, one ofwhich be ing at a right an gle to the main axis ofper cus sion), and small sized pris matic cores (Ta -ble 3, Fig ure 4). Their use life was main tainedthrough fre quent strik ing plat form and flak ingsur face re ju ve na tion, as in di cated by the range oftech ni cal pieces iden ti fied, in clud ing core tab lets,crested blades and re ju ve na tion/plung ing blanks.The lat ter of ten re tained dis tal rem nants of the op -posed strik ing plat form which they set out to re -move. The sec ond bladelet pro duc tion se quencewas based on the use of blanks, oc ca sion ally ofLevallois mor phol ogy, as cores for the de tach -ment of bladelets and small flakes. In this pro cess, as sug gested by sev eral re fits and con joins, thestrik ing plat form and dorsal ridges were used asguides for removals without further modificationof the blank’s geometry.

The small core sam ple at trib uted to the IUPdoes not al low us to de ter mine if the above – es -sen tially dif fer ent – vol u met ric con cepts were ap -plied si mul ta neously on nod ules of dif fer ent sizesand shapes de pend ing on the de sired end prod uct,or se quen tially as part of the same re duc tion con -tin uum. Judg ing by the pres ence of tech ni calpieces of vari able sizes, the va ri ety of core forms,the num ber of strik ing plat forms and the pres enceof oc ca sional core re fits, it seems likely that rawma te ri als un der went sev eral cy cles of ex ploi ta tion prior to dis card, sug gest ing that the two ba sic re -duc tion se quences were not strictly sep a rated.This is better ex em pli fied by the pres ence in theassemblage of bladelets produced on Levalloisblanks.

The mixed char ac ter of Unit Ia is fur ther em -pha sized by the range of tools pres ent (Ta ble 3,Fig ure 4). Mous terian and re touched Levalloispoints, of ten with thinned prox i mal ends, as wellas a range of side scrap ers (sin gle, dou ble, trans -verse, déjeté and Quina) and notches/denticulatesrep re sent a rel a tively small part (32%, n = 46 out

of 147) of the tool in ven tory, and are all con sid -ered dis tinc tive of the Mid dle Paleolithic. TheLevallois points re sem ble those from other tran si -tional sites in clud ing Üçaðýzlý in Tur key andUmm el Tlel in Syria (Kuhn, 2004). De spite theirsim i lar i ties to Mid dle Paleolithic tool morpholo-gies, it seems that these ar ti facts orig i nated in thecon text of pris matic core re duc tion, judg ing bytheir bi-di rec tional scar pat terns, plat form char ac -ter is tics and rec ti lin ear pro files. The bifacial com -po nent of the as sem blage bears af fin i ties to theBohunician of Cen tral Eu rope which is dated tobe tween 43–35 ka 14C BP (Svoboda, 2004).

The most nu mer ous cat e gory of ar ti facts withsec ond ary mod i fi ca tion is blanks with lin ear re -touch (flakes, blades bladelets), which to getherwith burins com prise 51% (n = 74) of the iden ti -fied tools. Endscrapers, trun ca tions and toolmark ers of the Aurig na cian, such as carinated and nosed scrap ers as well as Aurig na cian blades, arepres ent but rare. The few carinated scrap ers pres -ent in the as sem blage are not re lated to the pro -duc tion of bladelets since the lat ter do not ex hibitthe char ac ter is tic curved pro file. Dufour bladelets or tools made on or ganic ma te ri als are to tally ab -sent from the as sem blage. The ma jor ity of toolswere fash ioned on blanks from pris matic core re -duc tion (62%, n = 91), with Levallois blanks pres -ent at a rel a tively low fre quency (22%, n = 32).Lam i nar el e ments in the form of blades and bladelets constitute approximately 20% of tool blanks.

In all, anal y sis of the IUP tool sam ple ofLakonis I sug gests that Up per Paleolithic typetools con sti tute ap prox i mately two thirds of theas sem blage and that the re quired blanks in clud ing elon gated blanks, points, blades and bladeletscould be ob tained by us ing a num ber of strat e gies, but with a marked re li ance on those char ac ter is ticof the Upper Paleolithic.

CON CLUD ING RE MARKS

The cave of Lakonis I in south ern Greece hasyielded a long Mid dle Paleolithic se quence withits up per most unit con tain ing a tran si tional, Ini tial Up per Paleolithic as sem blage as so ci ated with aNeandertal tooth. Ev i dence for oc cu pa tion post-dat ing this pe riod has not been re cov ered at thesite, and there fore we are un able to es ti mate thedu ra tion of the tran si tional pe riod and whether it


evolved into a phase more char ac ter is tic of theUp per Paleolithic. Fur ther ex ca va tion at the sitecom bined with anal y sis of the lithic col lec tion atfiner strati graphic res o lu tion is planned, alongwith new dates in or der to im prove our un der -stand ing of the chro nol ogy of the up per Unit Ia inpar tic u lar. At the mo ment 14C dates for the Ini tialUp per Paleolithic oc cu pa tion fall within the samechro no log i cal range with those from the ter mi nalMid dle Paleolithic deposits at the site, and areclose to the limits of the method.

Part of the dif fi culty in draw ing con clu sionsabout the evo lu tion ary sta tus of Ini tial Up perPaleolithic as sem blages is re lated to ty po logi calclassi fi ca tory sys tems, which are poor an a lyt i caltools for in ves ti gat ing what are con tin u ous andgrad ual evo lu tion ary pro cesses (Kuhn, 2003). It is be com ing in creas ingly clear that in ad di tion tolithics, em pha sis should be placed on other formsof be hav ior, for in stance land use and food pro -cure ment strat e gies, which will pro vide a clearerpic ture of the char ac ter of the tran si tion. At Lako-nis, a multidisciplinary ap proach is be ing ap pliedthat aims to de velop an un der stand ing of the roleof the site within the south ern Bal kans re gion ingen eral. One el e ment of this has been stron tiumiso tope anal y sis which has been ap plied toNeandertal tooth enamel (Rich ards et al., 2008).The re sults in di cate that the enamel was formed in the vi cin ity of ra dio genic vol ca nic rocks, as op -posed to lo cal lime stone found around the cave.The clos est po ten tial lo ca tion of rocks of this typeis 20 km in land to the north, and probably reflectsthe minimum scale of Neandertal mobility in thearea.

A key ques tion in re gard to Ini tial Up perPaleolithic tech nol ogy of west ern Eur asia con -cerns their mak ers. Some sug gest that the as sem -blages re flect a de gree of ac cul tur a tion on the part of Neandertals un der the in flu ence of mod ern hu -mans (Hublin et al., 1996). Oth ers sug gest thatthey rep re sent an in cip i ent Aurig na cian (Otte andKozlowski, 2003; Bar-Yosef, 2006), while somehave sug gested that Neandertals in de pend entlyde vel oped cul tural traits sim i lar to those of mod -ern hu mans (Zilh±o and d’Errico, 2003). Eventhough our data can not at pres ent sup port any ofthe above hy poth e ses and should of course be cor -re lated with data from other sites, the pres ence atLakonis of an un in ter rupted cul tural se quence

span ning the tran si tion from the Mid dle to theUp per Paleolithic makes the site es pe cially rel e -vant to the un der stand ing of the in ter nal dy nam ics of the pe riod. Fur ther more, the pres ence of theNeandertal tooth (Harvati et al., 2003), in di rectas so ci a tion with an Ini tial Up per Paleolithic as -sem blage is sug ges tive of its man u fac tur ers.

Com pared to other parts of west ern Eur asia,Paleolithic sites in Greece are rare, let alone thosethat have been ex ca vated and dated. This lim itsthe ex tent to which the ev i dence from Lakonis Ican be placed within a re gional con text. How everat Klisoura cave in south ern Greece, we have both Mid dle and Early Up per Paleolithic oc cu pa tionalho ri zons pre served, the lat ter dated to ca. 40 ka14C BP (Koumouzelis et al., 2001). Fur ther more,a range of late Mid dle Paleolithic and early Up per Paleolithic open-air sites, es ti mated on the ba sisof lithic ma te rial to fall be tween 44 and 28 ka 14CBP, have been iden ti fied on the main land (Run -nels and van Andel, 1993), while open air siteswith Aurig na cian af fin i ties have also been re -ported from other parts of Greece (Darlas, 1999;Run nels et al., 2003). This ad mit tedly frag men -tary re cord points to hu man pres ence in Greecedur ing the Mid dle and early Up per Paleolithic.Fur ther ex ca va tions at Lakonis, along with newdates and com par a tive anal y sis will shed light onthe role of the site within the re gion in terms ofcul tural de vel op ments during the transition fromthe Middle to Upper Paleolithic.

Ac knowl edg ments

We are grate ful to Dan iel Adler, Olaf Jöris andWil liam Davies for their con struc tive com ments onear lier drafts of the pa per. Re search at Lakonis I Caveis made pos si ble through gen er ous grants from theGreek Min is try of Cul ture, the Wenner-Gren Foun da -tion for An thro po log i cal Re search, the In sti tute for theAegean Pre his tory (INSTAP), the L. S. B. LeakeyFoun da tion (EP) and the Dr. M. Aylin Cot ton Foun da -tion (PE).

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elefanti, panagopoulou, karkanas - the evidence from the lakonis cave, greece

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