During the Upper Paleolithic (roughly 36,000-9,600 BCE), Franchthi Cave was a seasonal camp for highly mobile hunter-gatherers. Game shifted from 70% wild ass to mostly red deer, pig, and wild cattle as forests spread. Remarkably, Melian obsidian appears by 12,900 BCE, implying boats and open-sea sailing 150 km across deep waters! 🏹🌊
Upper Paleolithic seasonal camp with obsidian from Melos
GreeceGeneral
Site mentioned
Key facts
- In the Upper Paleolithic, roughly 36,000 to 9,600 BCE, the cave was a seasonal camp for highly mobile hunter-gatherers
- Earliest levels: 70% wild ass with red deer, then shifting to mostly red deer, pig, and large wild cattle as forest spread
- Tools were tiny sharp bladelets of flint and chert, and end scrapers for working hides
- No pottery, no architecture, no burials during this phase
- Obsidian appears remarkably early, with a chemical fingerprint matching sources on the island of Milos, 150 km away across open sea
- A few pieces of Melian obsidian appear as early as 12,900 years BCE, implying these people had boats and sailed long distances over deep waters
Sources
Franchthi Caveen.wikipedia.org
During the Upper Paleolithic Franchthi Cave was seasonally occupied by a small group (or groups), probably in the range of 25–30 people, who mainly hunted ...
On the evolution of diet and landscape during the Upper ...sciencedirect.com
by MC Stiner · 2011 · Cited by 164 — Franchthi Cave on the Argolid Peninsula of the Peloponnese was visited by humans over a span of more than 30,000 years. The massive archaeological sequence in ...
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 ...
Plan of Franchthi Cave and locations of various excavation ...researchgate.net
The Upper Paleolithic and most of the Mesolithic are best represented in H1B and somewhat less so in H1A. Late Mesolithic to initial Neolithic horizons are ...
Lesson 1: Narrative – Aegean Prehistoric Archaeologysites.dartmouth.edu
Franchthi Cave is unique in Greece in having an essentially unbroken series of ... Upper Paleolithic period at Franchthi Cave. Lesson Materials. Images ...
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