Lakonis I (ca. 100,000-40,000 BP) is a collapsed Middle Palaeolithic cave on the coast of the Mani Peninsula of southern Greece. The site contains three distinctive components: a hearth context, upper bone breccia, and lower bone breccia. The bone breccias contain concreted deposits and large numbers of lithic and faunal materials, though the upper bone breccia preserves more evidence of dumping from hearth features. The hearth context is comprised of hearth lenses interspersed with mixed ashy sediments, which we interpret as the remnants of raked out and trampled combustion features. Bones and lithics in the hearth context have higher rates of burning, and the lithics are smaller and more broken. The large numbers of burned bones are probably not the result of accidental burning or the use of bone as a fuel source, rather they seem to relate to site maintenance. The incorporation of multiple lines of evidence points to two different site maintenance strategies at Lakonis: (1) the intentional burning of food refuse and (2) the cleaning of hearths, and dumping remnant deposits elsewhere at the site. We therefore consider Lakonis I to be amongst the growing list of sites that contain evidence for Neandertal behavioral complexity.

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HUNTER-GATHERER SPECIALISED SUBSISTENCE STRATEGIES IN GREECE DURINGTTiIilJT]PI3BlI]/LL/\IiC)LITrF[BC FROA4THE PERSfECZTlTVTElZXF LnTHBC T1E(:HNCHL()(]\' by Paraskevi Elefanti Human occupation of Europe during the late Upper Palaeolithic was facilitated by the adoption of a range of subsistence strategies, honed depending on the extent to which each region was affected by the severity of the last glaciation. One of the ways in which Upper Palaeolithic populations chose to cope with deteriorating conditions and ecological hardship was to intensify their subsistence strategies. This involved the exploitation of new resources and novel locations including inhospitable regions which although visited during earlier periods, were apparently not systematically exploited. This is generally referred to as specialisation, and is considered an important part of both the Upper Palaeolithic as well as modern human behaviour.The question that this research sets out to investigate is whether these changes in subsistence behaviour were accompanied by similar shifts in technology. In the past, this question has been addressed by focusing on single artefact types. Contrary to this, this research takes a holistic approach to the question of technological specialisation, by considering all aspects of lithic technology, from raw material collection to artefact manufacture. The study is based on three broadly contemporary Upper Palaeolithic sites in Greece, Klithi rockshelter, and Franchthi and Kastritsa caves. By comparing lithic characteristics identified at each of the three sites against a series of theoretical expectations, conclusions are drawn as to the presence of specialised technology, and the validity of the specialised versus generalised site dichotomy in Greece. L INTRODUCTION 1 2. HUNTER-GATHERER THEORY AND THECONCEPT OF SPECIALISATION 8 3. METHODOLOGY 20 4. KLITHI ROCKSHELTER 29 5. FRANCHTHI CAVE 77 6. KASTRITSA CAVE 7. INTER-SITE COMPARISON OF THE LITHIC ASSEMBLAGES 8. DISCUSSION OF THE RESULTS 9. CONCLUSIONS APPENDICES 240 REFERENCES 245 enthusiasm and belief in my work have always provided the impetus to carry on especially during dull days. I would also like to thank him for the number of research opportunities that he has given me throughout the years, and in particular my appointment as research assistant in the AHRB Lower Palaeolithic project between the years 1999-2000, a unique experience in every respect.