In the Mesolithic (about 9,600-6,800 BCE), Franchthi shifted from seasonal visits to year-round habitation. Plant remains include lentils, vetch, wild barley, oats, pistachios, and almonds, with cereals and legumes becoming regular after 7,900 BCE. A huge jump in fish bone and marine shells appears, plus the earliest secure cemetery evidence in Greece! 🐚🌿
Mesolithic shift to habitation and earliest cemetery in Greece
GreeceGeneral
Site mentioned
Key facts
- By the Mesolithic, about 9,600 to 6,800 BCE, the cave was inhabited rather than seasonally visited
- Plant remains shifted to lentils, vetch, wild barley, oats, pistachios, almonds, wild pears and peas
- After about 7,900 BCE, cereals and legumes became a regular part of the assemblage
- A huge jump in fish bone, including sea bream, bass, mullet, and large pelagic fish (probably tuna), plus masses of marine shells
- Near the cave mouth was found a cemetery with the earliest secure evidence for mortuary ritual in Greece
- The two main turnarounds in the Mesolithic were evidence for long-distance sea travel and evidence of people staying in one place
Sources
(PDF) Mesolithic mortuary ritual at Franchthi Cave, Greeceacademia.edu
The Mesolithic human remains from Franchthi Cave, that remarkable, deeply stratified site in southern Greece, offer a rare glimpse into the burial practices of ...
Franchthi Caveancient-greece.org
The cave is the best known of a very small collection of Stone Age sites in Greece. Excavations have revealed a rich unbroken record of human ...
Franchthi Caveen.wikipedia.org
The Franchthi Cave has a rich history of early human occupation, beginning in the Upper Paleolithic, and continuing throughout the Mesolithic and Neolithic ...
Scientists Analyze Bones From Greece's Franchthi Cavearchaeology.org
The cave was occupied over a period of about 40,000 years. The remains in the study have been dated to the Mesolithic period, between 8700 and ...
Lesson 1: Narrative – Aegean Prehistoric Archaeologysites.dartmouth.edu
The earliest burial found at Franchthi is of Lower Mesolithic date: a 25-year-old male buried in a contracted position in a shallow pit near the mouth of the ...
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