Klissoura cave 1, Argolid, Greece. Introduction: History of the excavations

Margarita Koumouzelis Eurasian Prehistory 7:2 (2010): 5-14.

Abstract (from the introduction)

The excavation at Klissoura was planned in 1992, as a joint-project between the Ephoreia of Palaeoanthropology and Speleology of the Ministry of Culture of Greece and the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagiellonian University of Krakow, Poland. Our primary goal was to investigate the circumstances under which the neolithisation of NW Peloponnese came about. For this we needed to locate a cave site with successive layers of Upper Palaeolithic-Mesolithic-Early Neolithic, so that their systematic exploration could clarify the mechanisms by which the change towards food producing societies took place, and the degree to which this modification was rooted in the previous traditions and practices of the Mesolithic and earlier forager societies. For establishing the significance of the role that the pre-Neolithic background played in the formation of Neolithic, the Argive Plain seemed to be a promising area, since the most ancient Early Neolithic elements had been brought to light at the settlements of Dendra and Lerna.