Ornaments and Other Ambiguous Artifacts from Franchthi

Volume 2, The Neolithic

Catherine Perlès, Sandrine Bonnardin, Benoît Mille, Patrick Pion

• Publisher: Indiana University Press
• Year: 2023
• Print ISBN:
  9780253067753
• eBook ISBN:
  9780253067777
• Topic: Social Sciences
• Subtopic: Greek Ancient History
• Index: Social Sciences

The famous Franchthi Cave excavations in Greece brought to light an exceptionally long sequence of ornaments, spanning from the earliest Upper Paleolithic to the end of the Neolithic. This volume focuses on the Neolithic, whose assemblages are far more diversified than those of earlier times. The introduction during the Neolithic of entirely artificial shapes, geometric and anthropomorphic, creates a marked departure from earlier periods and shows new directions in creativity by the bead makers. It also denotes a conceptual break in the treatment of shell, no longer solely a natural element barely modified by perforation, but now also a raw material rendered anonymous by workmanship. Due to the systematic sieving of the sediments and its location by the sea, the Franchthi cave and its outdoor settlement, the Paralia, yielded one of the richest collection of ornaments for Neolithic Greece.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Title Page
• Copyright
• Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter One: A Compulsory Detour Through Discussions of Procedures
• The Initial Neolithic
• The Early Neolithic
• The Middle Neolithic
• The Late Neolithic
• The Final Neolithic
• Appendix 1: Distribution of the Material by Unit in the Main Sequences Studied
• Appendix 2: Mission archéométrique de caractérisation des matériaux lithiques de parure du site de Franchthi (Grèce), juillet 2010 by B. Mille
• Appendix 3: List of Catalogued Pieces Considered Unworked or Reattributed and Not Mentioned in the Text
• Appendix 4: List of Shells Considered as Naturally or Accidentally Perforated
• Appendix 5: Shell Tools
• Appendix 6: Spondylus Valves
• Appendix 7: Polished Steatite Artifacts
• References
• Index