Leaf-Points from Petrota (Greek Thrace) and the Paleolithic chronology of the Vrahos Chert Quarry

Michael Fotiadis Annual of the British School at Athens 111 (2016): 1-11

The Petrota chert source, in Greek Thrace, was exploited in the Middle Palaeolithic and again in the Neolithic and the beginning of the Early Bronze Age. An extensive scatter of products of that exploitation today surrounds the source. The site was systematically surveyed between 1998 and 2010. The present paper is devoted exclusively to the issue of the chronology of the Middle Palaeolithic component. The best, though still imperfect, indicator of chronology is the presence in the scatter of bifacially flaked leaf-points. A review of the literature on the chronostratigraphy of such artefacts in Europe, from Thuringia to Crimea, shows that they had a long career. They first appeared about 200,000 years ago and were still manufactured about 45,000 years ago. On the basis of various considerations, it is suggested that the leaf-points of Petrota and, accordingly, the Palaeolithic component at the site, belong to an advanced stage of that long period, probably dating between roughly 100,000 and 45/40,000 years ago.