Neolithic transition and continuity vs colonization debate

September 19, 2026GreeceGeneralShare

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Key facts

• Farmers arrived around 7,000 to 6,800 BCE, marked by three simultaneous changes defining the Neolithic at Franchthi
• Domesticated sheep and goat appear, with shed milk teeth of young sheep indicating the cave was at least partially used as a sheepfold
• Domesticated wheat (including einkorn), barley, and lentil appear with a sharp increase in grinding stones and sickle elements
• Polished stone tools (celts) for felling trees and clearing land appear
• A brief aceramic Neolithic (farming without pottery) was followed by handmade pottery, later fired in rudimentary kilns by the middle Neolithic (5,800 to 5,400 BCE)
• 24 small clay and stone figurines (anthropomorphic and zoomorphic) were found
• An extensive open-air Neolithic village was uncovered on the Paralia terrace, now largely submerged beneath the bay due to sea level rise after 8,600 BCE
• Hunting, fishing, and snails continued alongside farming through to the final Neolithic abandonment after a major rockfall
• Tuna fishing declined while Melian obsidian use intensified from about 10% to 40% of chipped stone, arriving as finished blades likely made by specialist knappers
• Later zooarchaeological work, with abrupt replacement of wild fauna by domesticates around 7000 BCE, and broader aDNA studies lean toward colonization by incomers from Anatolia, rather than the continuity model favored by Jacobson

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