¹⁴C Dating of a Final Neolithic-Early Bronze Age Transition Period Settlement at Aghios Ioannis on Thassos (North Aegean)

Abstract

ABSTRACT. The transitional period known as the Final Neolithic-Early Bronze Age in Greece, falling in terms of absolute dates within the 4th millennium BC, is an obscure and enigmatic period. Few sites in northern Greece or the southern Balkans have produced evidence of 4th millennium BC occupation, and the sites that do are mainly concentrated in the last third of the 4th millennium toward the beginning of the EBA. This paper presents archaeological evidence and radiocarbon dates from a site that covers part of the gap, Aghios Ioannis on Thassos, the northernmost Aegean island. It is a coastal site of seasonal occupation and most probably depended on organized animal husbandry plus hunting and fishing activitie s. From the first excavations in 1996, there was evidence that the site was occupied during the Final Neolithic to the beginning of the Early Bronze Age. The 14 C dates obtained fall towards the end of the 4th millennium if not closer to the middle. The presence of human activity in this last part of the 4th millennium "gap" on Thassos is by itself an interesting discovery that enlarges our knowledge for this obscure period and is of environmental and cultural significance.

New 14C evidence for the Late Neolithic-Early Bronze Age transition in Southeast Europe

“…This leads to an artificial spreading of the calibrated dates reducing precision and prohibiting discrimination between events that could be dating close to 3300 and events close to 3000 BC, since they all give 2σ calibrated dates generally in the range 3300-3000 cal. BC (Boyadziev, 1995;Johnson, 1999;Maniatis and Papadopoulos, 2011). In order to improve the discrimination within this range, we apply statistical modeling on the eleven dates of the sole phase B using OxCal v 4.1.5 (Bronk Ramsey, 2009, 2010.…”

“…Comparison is made with the results obtained in previous years from a fourth settlement, Aghios Ioannis on Thasos (Maniatis and Papadopoulos, 2011). These sites are selected for they represent four geographically close settlements (Figure 1), but with completely different profiles, in terms of location, topography, type of settlement, and eventually duration of occupation.…”

“…Probably this is not a permanent settlement, but rather a seasonal location of herders and/or fishermen (Papadopoulos et al, 2001;Lespez and Papadopoulos, 2004;Papadopoulos and Bechtsi, 2003). Evidence from the pottery collected suggests a chronology in the transition from the LN to the EBA; however the radiocarbon dates suggest a chronology in the last part of the 4 th millennium BC, with only one outlier reaching the middle of the 4 th millennium (Maniatis and Papadopoulos, 2011).…”

“…Three dating methods have been used concurrently: Gas Proportional Counting (at the Laboratory of Archaeometry, NCSR Demokritos), Liquid Scintillation Counting (at the Lyon Centre for Radiocarbon Dating), and Acceleration Mass Spectrometry (at CEA Saclay, under the responsibility of the Lyon lab). Details of sample treatment and measuring procedures can be found in Maniatis and Papadopoulos (2011), Foucher et al (2011), and Cottereau et al (2007 for each laboratory respectively.…”

Sea Surface Radiocarbon Reservoir Age Changes in the Aegean Sea from about 11,200 BP to Present

“…The new charcoal and marine mollusk shell samples were 14 C dated in the laboratory of Archaeometry of NCSR "Demokritos" in Athens using the conventional gas counting technique, as described elsewhere (de Vries and Barendsen 1953;Münnich 1957;Kromer and Münnich 1992;Facorellis 1996;Facorellis et al 1997;Maniatis and Papadopoulos 2011). 14 C Reservoir Age in the Aegean Sea,11,200 BP to Present The two charcoal samples from Palamari (DEM-1036 and DEM-1038) were thoroughly examined and manually cleaned under a stereoscope.…”