The Early Neolithic in Greece: The First Farming Communities in Europe

ISBN-13: 9780521000277 / Angielski / Miękka / 2001 / 372 str.

Catherine Perles

Opis

Farmers made a sudden and dramatic appearance in Greece around 7000 BC, bringing with them new ceramics and crafts, and establishing settled villages. Their settlements provide the link between the first agricultural Near Eastern communities and the subsequent spread of the new technologies to the Balkans and Western Europe. Drawing on evidence from a wide range of archaeological sources, including often neglected "small finds," the author introduces daring new perspectives on funerary rituals and the distribution of figurines, and constructs a complex and subtle picture of early Neolithic societies.

Recenzje

'It is refreshing to read an excellent archaeological study written in clear language, rather than someone's second-rate storytelling.' Antiquity

Spis treści

1. The land and its resources: the geographic context; 2. The Mesolithic background; 3. The introduction of farming: local processes, diffusion or colonization?; 4. Foreign colonists: where from?; 5. The earliest Neolithic deposits: 'aceramic', 'pre-pottery' or 'ceramic'?; 6. The spread of the Early Neolithic in Greece: chronological and geographical aspects; 7. A case study in Early Neolithic settlement patterns: Eastern Thessaly; 8. Early Neolithic subsistence economy: the domestic and the wild; 9. The Early Neolithic village; 10. Craft specialization: the contrasting cases of chipped stone tools, pottery and ornaments; 11. A variety of daily crafts; 12. Ritual interaction? The miniature world of 'dolls or deities'; 13. Interacting with the dead: from the disposal of the body to funerary rituals; 14. Interactions among the living.