Excavations at the Early Neolithic Site at Nea Nikomedeia, Greek Macedonia (1961 season)

Abstract

The site of the early prehistoric farming settlement at Nea Nikomedeia, Western Macedonia, was first noted in 1958 by Mr Photios Petsas, Ephore of Antiquities of the area for the Greek Archaeological Service: he investigated the reported discovery of archaeological finds exposed during the course of removing earth from an inconspicuous mound to make a road embankment, and forthwith stopped further destruction of the site. His willing advice and assistance, and the most generous cooperation of the Greek Archaeological Service under the direction of Dr John Papadimitriou, and of the Ministry of Agriculture, made possible the five-week excavation season in the summer of 1961. The excavations were carried out under the aegis of the British School at Athens. Thanks are due to the British Academy, the Crowther-Benyon Fund administered by the University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Cambridge, and the Wenner-Gren Foundation for Anthropological Research for providing the necessary funds. I wish to acknowledge help and guidance both in the field and in the preparation of this report from Professor Grahame Clark, under whose supervision I worked at Cambridge University during the academic years 1959–60 and 1960–61. Grateful acknowledgment is also made to Mr R. W. Hutchinson for his valuable help in the field, and to the undergraduates and research students from the University of Cambridge who willingly undertook most of the field and laboratory work. The ready assistance of the Curator of the University Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology and his staff in shipping matters and the loan of equipment is greatly appreciated.

Franchthi Cave and the Beginning of Settled Village Life in Greece

“…2.4 hectares according to published measurements (Rodden, 1962) and thus falls in the middle range of these sites. I would like to thank Murray McClellan and Kostas Zachos for their thoughtful help in this respect.…”

Cultural associations and mechanisms of change in anthropomorphic figurines during the Neolithic in the eastern Mediterranean basin

“…This spans a time period between 6500-3500 b.c. Such excavated sites as Sesklo (Tsountas 1908;Wace and Thompson 1912), Nea Nikomedia (Rodden 1962), Argissa (Milojcic, Boessneck and Hopf 1962), Lerna (Caskey and Elliot 1956), Corinth (Weinberg 1951), Franchthi Cave (e.g. Jacobsen 1973) and Achilleion (Gimbutas 1974b) were included.…”

The manipulation of death: a burial area at the Neolithic Settlement of Avgi, NW Greece

“…Individual and group burials often disposed in a primary or secondary way were located either within the settlements or in separate cemeteries. In particular, articulated inhumations, disarticulated scattered bones and a few cremations (Triantaphyllou 2008) have been found at Early Neolithic sites such as Nea Nikomedeia (Rodden 1962;1964;1965;Angel 1973) in Macedonia, Prodromos (Hourmouziadis 1971) and Soufli Magoula in Thessaly (Gallis 1975;1982), as well as at many Late Neolithic sites, such as Makri (Agelarakis and Efstratiou 1996) in Aegean Thrace, Makriyalos (Pappa and Bessios 1999;Triantaphyllou 1999), Paliambela (Kotsakis and Halstead 2004), Mandalo (Pilali-Papasteriou and PapaefthimiouPapanthimou 1989), Toumba Kremastis-Koiladas (Hondrogianni-Metoki 2001) and Dispilio in Central and Western Macedonia (Petroutsa 2009), andPlatia Magoula Zarkou (Gallis 1982), Ayia Sofia Magoula (Miloj≠i≤ 1976), Dimini (Hourmouziadis 1978) and Pefkakia Magoula (Weisshaar 1989) in Thessaly.…”