Neolithic Alepotrypa Cave in the Mani, Greece

Alepotrypa Cave at Diros Bay, Lakonia, Greece, is a massive karstic formation of consecutive chambers ending at a lake. The cave was excavated by G. Papathanassopoulos from 1970 to 2006. In conjunction with the surrounding area, it was used as a complementary habitation area, burial site, and place for ceremonial activity during the Neolithic c 6000 to 3200 BC. As a sealed, single-component, archaeological site, the Neolithic settlement complex of Alepotrypa Cave is one of the richest sites in Greece and Europe in terms of number of artifacts, preservation of biological materials, volume of undisturbed deposits, and horizontal exposure of archaeological surfaces of past human activity and this publication is an important contribution to ongoing archaeological research of the Neolithic Age in Greece in particular, but also in Anatolia, the Balkans and Europe in general. This edited volume offers a full scholarly interdisciplinary study and interpretation of the results of approximately 40 years of excavation and analysis. It includes numerous chemical analyses and a much needed long series of radiocarbon dates, the corresponding microstratigraphic, stratigraphic and ceramic sequence, the human burials, stone and bone tools, faunal and floral remains, isotopic analyses, specific locations of human activities and ceremonies inside the cave, as well as a site description and the history of the excavation conducted by G. Papathanasopoulos.

About the Author

William A. Parkinson is Associate Curator of Eurasian Anthropology at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago, IL. His research interests focus on the evolution of agricultural villages in the European Neolithic and Bronze Age. He conducts collaborative archaeological research in Hungary on the Körös Regional Archaeological Project, and in Greece on The Diros Project. Daniel J. Pullen is Professor of Classics at Florida State University. Michael L. Galaty is Professor of Anthropology at Mississippi State University, where he is Head of the Department of Anthropology and Middle Eastern Cultures, and Interim Director of the Cobb Institute of Archaeology. He conducts field research in Albania and Greece, with a focus on the origins of complexity. Panagiotis (Takis) Karkanas is presently the Director of the Malcolm H. Wiener Laboratory for Archaeological Science in the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. His research interests encompass all aspects of geoarchaeology including site-formation processes and palaeoenvironmental reconstructions.