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V61111 PREHISTORY FROM THE BRONZE AGE TO THE IRON AGE
Lecture 2: Later Neolithic Greece
The Neolithic on mainland Greece is divided into the following sub-phases:
Aceramic (c. 6800-6500 BC);
Early Neolithic (c. 6500-5800 BC);
Middle Neolithic (MN) (c. 5800-5300 BC);
Late Neolithic (LN) (I: c. 5300-4800 BC, II: c. 4800-4500 BC);
Final Neolithic (FN) (c. 4500-3200 BC)

By the end of the Mesolithic in Greece:
People settled down into a sedentary lifestyle, as opposed to earlier hunter-gatherer
cultures (we begin to see the development of communities with permanent
settlements);
Domestication of plants and animals;
First pottery (previous periods were aceramic);
Early Neolithic (c. 6500-5800 BC)
General characteristics: This is a phase of long duration (subdivided into three sub-phases:
EN1, EN2, EN3) witnessing:
The stabilisation of climate;
The expansion of farming over Greece (Renfrews Simple Village Faming system);
The multiplication of large sedentary villages with well-built houses and elaborate
house equipment;
The first widespread presence of pottery;
Production for the first time of high quality ceramics;
Long-distance circulation of goods;
Evidence of symbolic representation in the form of figurines;
Funerary rites: secondary (i.e. an exhumation and reburial) and primary burials
within or near settlements; inhumations in a contracted position (with the back
curved forwards and the limbs folded in front of the body) and cremations.
Middle Neolithic (c. 5800-5300 BC)
Development of settled communities
o Majority of sites found in Northern Greece
o Sesklo is most important site Sesklo Culture
o The majority are tell sites (magoula)
Developments in architecture
o Major changes in houses stone foundations and mudbrick walls
o Rectangular houses with 1 room
o The Sesklo megaron-type building
The University of Nottingham- V61111

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o Egalitarian?
Regionalism in pottery
o Diversity in decoration indicates differing regional styles
o Sesklo Culture
o South Greece: urfirnis
Funerary rites: Few examples Some evidence for inhumations in a contracted
position & cremations
Late and Final Neolithic (c. 5300-3200 BC)
Developments in settlements
o Development of land demarcation: enclosures
o Examples at Sesklo and Dimini
Developments in architecture
o Large central buildings in the community
o Examples at Sesklo and Dimini
o Evidence for social differentiation?
New tendencies in pottery
o Dimini Culture
o Northern Greek graphite-painted pottery
Metals
o Gold and silver jewellery
o Copper tools and daggers
o Prestige goods?
Funerary rites:
o Secondary & primary burials
o Development of cremation cemeteries
o Grave goods
Development of exchange networks
o Croatian-style rhyta found in Greece
o Jewellery made of spondylus shell found as far north as the Balkans

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