Lithic Industry from the Aceramic Levels at Knossos (Crete, Greece): an Alternative Approach

Malgorzata Kaczanowska & Janusz K. Kozlowski Eurasian Prehistory 8:1-2 (2011): 67-87.

Abstract

The paper deals with lithic artefacts from aceramic levels excavated by J. Evans at Knossos (layer X) and offers an alternative interpretation to that proposed by J. Conolly (2008). A series of 376 artefacts from the collection of the British School in Athens (Stratigraphic Museum in Knossos) has been analyzed in terms of raw materials, technology (notably: reduction sequences and their stages carried out on-site and off-site), also morphological structure of retouched tools. The assemblage from layer X at Knossos is compared with Mesolithic industries and the Initial Neolithic in Peloponnese (especially phase X in Franchthi Cave), with the Mesolithic of the Aegean islands and with the Pre-Neolithic flake industries of Cyprus. Moreover, the relation of the Aceramic assemblage (Initial Neolithic) to the chipped stone industry from Early Neolithic I from Knossos has been examined and a number of common features of technology and tool morphology are pointed out.