Communities in Transition. The Circum-Aegean Area During the 5th and 4th Millennia BC

Edited by Søren Dietz, Fanis Mavridis, Žarko Tankosić & Turan Takaoǧlu

City: Oxford

Year: 2018

Publisher: Oxbow books

Series: Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens 20

Description: Hardback, 633 p., numerous b/w and colour tables and figures, 22.3×28.7 cm

Abstract

Communities in Transition brings together scholars from different countries and backgrounds united by a common interest in the transition between the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age in the lands around the Aegean. Neolithic community was transformed, in some places incrementally and in others rapidly, during the 5th and 4th millennia BC into one that we would commonly associate with the Bronze Age. Many different names have been assigned to this period: Final Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Eneolithic, Late Neolithic [I]-II, Copper Age which, to some extent, reflects the diversity of archaeological evidence from varied geographical regions.

During this long heterogeneous period developments occurred that led to significant changes in material culture, the use of space, the adoption of metallurgical practices, establishment of far-reaching interaction and exchange networks, and increased social complexity. The 5th to 4th millennium BC transition is one of inclusions, entanglements, connectivity, and exchange of ideas, raw materials, finished products and, quite possibly, worldviews and belief systems.

Most of the papers presented here are multifaceted and complex in that they do not deal with only one topic or narrowly focus on a single line of reasoning or dataset. Arranged geographically they explore a series of key themes: Chronology, cultural affinities, and synchronization in material culture; changing social structure and economy; inter- and intra-site space use and settlement patterns, caves and include both site reports and regional studies.

Contents

Preface

Acknowledgements

List of contributors

Introduction [xiv-xxi]
Søren Dietz, Fanis Mavridis, Žarko Tankosić & Turan Takaoǧlu

I. INTRODUCTORY AND OVERARCHING STUDIES

Inventing the Final Neolithic [3-11]
Colin Renfrew

Transformation and changes at the end of the Neolithic [12-16]
Kostas Kotsakis

Village nucleation and centralization in the Later Neolithic of South-Eastern Europe: A long-term, comparative approach [17-26]
William A. Parkinson, William P. Ridge & Attila Gyucha

Greece in the 5th and 4th millennia B.C.: Researching the “missing” 4th millennium [27-32]
Ioannis Aslanis

The shadowy “Proto-Early Bronze Age” in the Aegean [33-66]
John E. Coleman & Yorgos Facorellis

Casting doubts on metallurgy and the transition to social complexity: The evidence from the Aegean [67-74]
Maria Mina

II. THE BALKANS

Settlement pattern changes during the Central Balkan Copper Age [77-88]
Aleksandar Kapuran, Aleksandar Bulatović & Dragan Milanov
Read the article

Modeling the black box. Bulgaria in the 4th millennium BC [89-94]
Inga Merkyte

Possible approaches to tracing the fate of the population of the Varna, Kodjadermen-Gumelniţa-Karanovo VI and Krivodol-Sălcuţa Cultures [95-106]
Petya Georgieva

Kozareva Mogila: A settlement and necropolis in the West Black Sea region [107-119]
Petya Georgieva, Margarita Popova & Veselin Danov

The Chalcolithic settlement at Varhari: A production and trade centre in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains [120-127]
Kamen Boyadzhiev & Yavor Boyadzhiev

The latest Late Chalcolithic settlement at Tell Yunatsite: Plan and architectural remains [128-139]
Velichka Matsanova and Tatyana Mishina

Late Chalcolithic cult tables from Tell Yunatsite, Bulgaria [140-147]
Stoilka Terzijska-Ignatova

Rethinking the absolute chronology of the South-Eastern Balkans in the latter half of the 5th and in the 4th millennium BC [148-154]
Mariusz Kufel & Łukasz Pospieszny

Graphite and carbon: Relative and absolute chronology between the Aegean and the Black Sea in the 5th millennium BC [155-177]
Agathe Reingruber

Lithic technology in the region between the Lower Danube and Marmara in the 6th and 5th millennia BC [178-184]
Ivan Gatsov and Petranka Nedelcheva

Synchronisation of the Albanian and North Aegean Late Neolithic periods: New data from the lakeside dwelling of Kallamas (Albania) [185-194]
Cécile Oberweiler, Gilles Touchais & Petrika Lera

III. NORTH GREECE AND THESSALY

The chronological and social dimensions of the Late Neolithic I–II and the Late Neolithic–Early Bronze Age transitions in a long-lived settlement in Northern Greece (Dikili Tash, Kavala district) [197-210]
Zoï Tsirtsoni, Pascal Darcque, Haido Koukouli-Chryssanthaki, Dimitra Malamidou & René Treuil

Transformations of space in the Late Neolithic settlements of Northern Greece: Review of the evidence from Makriyalos and Thermi [211-216]
Maria Pappa

Visviki Magoula, Thessaly: Reconsidering cultural change from the Arapi to the Dimini phase [220-226]
Eva Alram-Stern

The role of the Theopetra cave in Thessaly, Greece, at the end of the Neolithic: Habitual or symbolic use? [227-233]
Nina Kyparissi-Apostolika

Beyond transition: Tracing eventfulness behind the Middle Neolithic–Late Neolithic ceramic divide [234-241]
Stella Katsarou

The beast with many heads: Assembling bodies and changing history in the 5th millennium BC [242-246]
Stratos Nanoglou

IV. WEST, CENTRAL AND SOUTH GREECE

Demographic transitions from the Earlier Neolithic stages until the first Early Bronze Age settlements in the plains and hill-country of Boeotia, Greece [249-259]
John Bintliff & Kalliope Sarri

Late Neolithic traditions: Evidence from Sarakenos Cave [260-268]
Adamantios Sampson & Vagia Mastrogiannopoulou

Lion’s Cave, Hymettus Mountain, Attica: Figurines, structures and material culture associations [269-282]
Lilian Karali, Fanis Mavridis & Dimitris Lambropoulos

The Later Neolithic use of the cave Oinoe IV, at Marathon (Attica, Greece): Preliminary report [283-288]
Alexandra Mari

The end of the Neolithic in East Attica: New data from Kontra Gliate (Kiapha Thiti) and Thorikos Mine 3 [289-295]
Margarita Nazou

The Kastria/Pangali group and the beginning of the Chalcolithic in Southern Greece [296-304]
Søren Dietz & Pernille Bangsgaard

Tracing social changes in the Late Neolithic/Final Neolithic transition at Drakaina Cave, Kephalonia, Western Greece [305-313]
Georgia Stratouli & Odysseas Metaxas

Caves and the landscape of Late Neolithic to Early Helladic I Greece: Comparing excavation and survey data from the Peloponnese [314-322]
Daniel J. Pullen

New evidence for the beginning of habitation at Aigeira, Achaia (Greece) [323-330]
Walter Gauss

Stones, pots … and now ornaments: Revisiting the Middle–Late Neolithic and the Late–Final Neolithic transitions at Franchthi [331-340]
Catherine Perlès

The Early Helladic I cemetery at Kalyvia in Ancient Elis [341-349]
Jörg Rambach

Long-distance exchange of obsidian: Diachronic changes at the cave site of Alepotrypa, Greece [350-354]
Danielle J. Riebe
Read the article

V. AEGEAN ISLANDS, CRETE AND CYPRUS

Ayios Ioannis, Thasos: The economy of a small coastal site dated to the second half of the 4th millennium BC [357-366]
Stratis Papadopoulos, Ourania Palli, Sophia Vakirtzi & Eleni Psathi

The Neolithic to Chalcolithic transition on the island of Gökçeada (Imbros) [366-372]
Burçin Erdoğu

Land management in the Final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age Aegean? Some tantalising indications from Southern Euboea [373-380]
Žarko Tankosić

The Later Neolithic cultures of the Aegean archipelago with special reference to the Cyclades: Connecting strategies of space use [381-388]
Fanis Mavridis

Strofilas, Andros: New perspectives on the Neolithic Aegean [389-396]
Christina A. Televantou

The Late Neolithic and Final Neolithic phases on Kos and the Alasarna settlement pattern [397-404]
Mercourios Georgiadis

Settlement patterns and social organisation in Crete during the Final Neolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Age (ca. 3700–3000 BC) [405-414]
Krzysztof Nowicki

The introduction of pressure blade technologies into Crete in the late 4th millennium BC: Where, how, and to what end? [415-419]
Tristan Carter

The earliest phase of the Final Neolithic at Phaistos in a wider Cretan context: New perspectives [420-425]
Serena Di Tonto

The Final Neolithic–Early Minoan I transition in South-Central Crete: New data from Phaistos [427-440]
Simona Todaro

Gavdos, or living on the southernmost Aegean island in the Neolithic cultural horizon [441-455]
Katerina Kopaka & Efthimis Theou

The entry of Cyprus into the circum-Aegean world and the growth of regionalism on the island [456-465]
Edgar Peltenburg

Rethinking the “Cypriot paradox”: Socio-economic change in Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cyprus [466-475]
Ioannis Voskos

VI. WEST ANATOLIA

The Middle Chalcolithic period in the Troad: A new look from Gülpınar [479-490]
Turan Takaoğlu & Abdulkadir Özdemir

On marble, conical rhyta: New evidence from Yeşiltepe in the West Anatolian hinterland [491-498]
Turan Takaoğlu & Onur Bamyacı

The Chalcolithic period at Yeşilova Höyük [499-505]
Zafer Derin & Tayfun Caymaz

What follows the Late Neolithic occupation in Central-Western Anatolia? A view from Ulucak [506-512]
Özlem Çevik

The Chalcolithic of Coastal Western Anatolia: A view from Liman Tepe, İzmir [513-529] Rıza Tuncel & Vasıf Şahoğlu

Interaction as a stimulus? Çukuriçi Höyük and the transition from the Late Chalcolithic period to the Early Bronze Age in Western Anatolia [530-537]
Barbara Horejs & Christoph Schwall

Prehistoric culture at Çine-Tepecik and its contribution to the archaeology of the region [538-547]
Sevinç Günel

Cave habitations in Chalcolithic Lycia: The case of Tavabaşı near Tlos [548-555]
Taner Korkut, Gül Işın & Turan Takaoğlu

At the crossroads: Changing Chalcolithic settlement patterns in Phrygia [556-566]
Ali Umut Turkcan

BIBLIOGRAPHY [567-633