Ch5 Paul Halstead
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Paul Halstead38
5. Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence forseasons of consumption and residence at Neolithic
sites in Greece
Paul Halstead
Introduction
Had Eric Higgs lived to see the new millennium, it seems
unlikely that the works of Julian Thomas or Alasdair
Whittle would have been preferred reading at his Panton
Street lair in Cambridge. And yet, on one issue, the
palaeoeconomists of the 1970s and early 1980s could
happily have made common cause with those who have
sought to rethink the Neolithic in the 1990s; both groups
emphasised the need to dismantle the traditional package
of Neolithic material culture, farming and sedentism (e.g.
Barker 1975; Dennell 1983; Jarman et al. 1982; Thomas
1996; Whittle 1996a). Moreover, despite radical diff-
erences of agenda, both groups stressed the heterogeneity
of the European Neolithic and the desirability of
exploring this variability in its local and regional context.
Nonetheless, both groups have at times perhaps been
over-zealous in their enthusiasm for discarding the
traditional model without due attention to the local and
regional archaeological record. At worst, the traditional
model of a Neolithic package has been supplanted by a
more fashionable, but equally unfounded, pan-European
orthodoxy of gradual and piecemeal adoption ofdomesticates, sedentary life and Neolithic material
culture.
This chapter focuses on one particular aspect of the
Neolithic package sedentism which is explored in
the context of the archaeological record from what is
today Greece. Though a rather arbitrary geographical
unit for the Neolithic, Greece is large enough to
encompass a range of site types of diverse date and in a
variety of ecological settings; yet it is small enough for a
short paper to do reasonable justice to the available
evidence. True to the critical spirit and contextual
sensitivities of both the palaeoeconomists and more recent
writers on the Neolithic, it is not claimed that the results
of this study can be extrapolated to the rest of Europe; on
the contrary, similar empirical studies are needed for
other areas.
The basic argument advanced here is that the Neolithic
of Greece is in need of resettling rather than unsettling.
As Whittle has noted, recent discussion of Neolithic
(im)mobility has embraced a range of temporal and
spatial scales, ranging from seasonal to generational and
from local to regional (Whittle 1997). Arguably, much
recent discussion of Neolithic mobility has been muddied
by the conflation of very different analytical scales. Beforeproceeding to argue for a largely sedentary Greek
Neolithic, therefore, some clarification is offered as to
the terms in which sedentism is understood here.
Sedentism
The primary focus of this study is on whether individual
sites were occupied year-round or only seasonally.
Sedentism or mobility on this time scale is a central issue
for any attempt to explore the economic, demographic,
social or ideological strategies of Neolithic populations.
It is clear from ethnographic counter-examples that
neither agriculture nor the storage of agricultural productsnecessarily ties farmers to a fixed residence. On the other
hand, the duration and timing, as well as scale, of
habitation in a given locality plainly constrain the range
of viable subsistence strategies. The distinction between
year-round and seasonal habitation may be crucial,
therefore, in modelling Neolithic subsistence activity,
even at the fundamental level of relative dependence on
cultivation, animal husbandry and foraging (e.g. for the
Neolithic of Greece: Halstead 1989). The degree of
permanence of residence exercises an equally powerful
influence on the nature of social interaction. While
seasonal mobility offers a valuable safety valve for conflict
resolution within local residential groups, year-round co-
residence demands more active measures to maintain
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Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence from Neolithic sites in Greece 39
harmony. And, while seasonal mobility may present
embedded opportunities for socialisation on a regional
scale, year-round sedentism may require strategies for
maintaining the inter-group relationships essential for
biological and social reproduction. Likewise, sedentary
and mobile populations are likely to have perceived thecultural landscapes that they inhabited in quite different
terms, with far-reaching implications for resource use
and ownership, for the nature of social relationships
within and between local groups, and for cosmology (e.g.
Barrett 1994; Chapman 1997; Edmonds 1999; Kotsakis
1999; Whittle 1996b).
It must be emphasised, however, that sedentism, in
the sense of year-round residence, does not preclude a
significant degree of mobility. For any Neolithic habit-
ation site, it is assumed here that, at minimum:
on a more or less daily basis, most inhabitants will
have ranged off-site (within a site catchment of up to,say, one hours walk) to work fields or gardens, gather
food and fuel, collect water, graze livestock, and so
on;
on a seasonal basis, at least some inhabitants will
have ranged several hours from the site, possibly
involving overnight absence, in pursuit of game, fruits,
raw materials, information, and so on;
on a seasonal or inter-annual basis, some inhabitants
will have visited neighbouring or more distant sites,
variously to escape conflict at home, to acquire
resources not available locally or to socialise with kin,
friends and exchange partners;
on an inter-annual or generational time scale,individuals or groups of inhabitants will have taken
up long-term residence at different sites as a result of
exogamy, conflict and fission, or subsistence failure;
on a generational or longer time scale, some sites
will have been abandoned, temporarily or permanently,
as a consequence of conflict, disease, subsistence
failure, environmental degradation, ritual contamina-
tion, and so on.
It is worth noting that mobility on these temporal and
spatial scales is probably characteristic of all modern
Greek villages (e.g. du Boulay 1974; Karakasidou 1997;
Sutton 2000), the majority of which would be classifiedby most Neolithic specialists as unambiguously sedentary.
Methodological considerations
The extent to which habitation at Neolithic sites in Greece
was seasonal or year-round is explored here primarily
through faunal evidence for season of death of domestic
animals. In practice, the analysis concentrates on
domestic animals dying in their first year or so of life, as
only such young remains can be aged with sufficient
accuracy to shed much light on season of death. Because
of the relative scarcity of young cattle remains (and, even
more so, of wild animals), the following analysis focuses
on sheep, goats and pigs.
In assessing age at death, neonatal postcranial
remains, recognisable by their distinctive surface texture
and internal structure as well as size and gross mor-
phology (e.g. Prummel 1987), are assumed to represent
animals dying within one month or so of birth. Otherwise,
assessment of age at death is based solely on eruption andwear of mandibular cheek teeth, information on which is
available in varying detail for different sites. Both timing
of eruption and speed of wear are subject to some
variability. For goats and sheep, ages are assigned to
successive stages of dental eruption and wear following
the studies of a range of herds/flocks by Deniz and Payne
(1982) and Jones (in press) respectively, in each case
adopting age ranges which encompass 95% of cases. In
the case of pigs, for which such precise information is
not available, ages are assigned to successive stages of
dental development following Higham (1967).
Interpretation of these age data in terms of season(s)of death entails assumptions about the timing of lambing/
kidding and farrowing. The peak lambing/kidding period
in recent, unimproved sheep and goats fell during
January-February in lowland northern Greece and a
month or so earlier in lowland southern Greece (Halstead
field notes). In the last few decades, herders have
increasingly manipulated the timing of births, usually to
take advantage of seasonal market conditions, by
improving feeding and housing (so that females come
into oestrus earlier) and by restricting the movements of
breeding males. Despite archaeobotanical evidence that
fodder was provided for livestock at Neolithic sites in
northern Greece (Valamoti 2004), the decreasing statureof domestic animals through the course of the Neolithic,
in Greece (e.g. von den Driesch 1987) as elsewhere,
argues against intensive feeding on a scale sufficient to
neutralise natural seasonal influences on the timing of
births. Farrowing dates seem to have been rather variable
in recent, unimproved pigs, not least because sows
sometimes produced two litters per year (or five litters in
three years), but there is evidence for a single farrowing
season in one of the faunal assemblages discussed below.
Among extensively herded pigs in woodland in northern
Greece, the main farrowing season falls rather later than
the peak lambing and kidding period (Halstead fieldnotes) and, given the role of the autumn glut of acorns in
bringing pigs to peak nutritional condition and the nearly
four-month duration of gestation, this may plausibly be
taken as the norm for Neolithic Greece. Thus farrowing
is assumed here to have taken place in March-April, in
northern Greece, and in February-March, in the south. It
must be acknowledged that such normative birth seasons
only represent the central tendency in lambing, kidding
and farrowing times; for a variety of reasons, some earlier
and later births are inevitable. For the sake of simplicity,
however, it is provisionally assumed that the faunal
evidence reviewed is largely derived from births during
the peak season. For the same reason, although slightly
earlier birth dates have been assumed here for southern
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Paul Halstead40
than for northern Greece, a common definition is used
for the four seasons: winter December to February,
spring March to May, summer June to August, and
autumn September to November.
Interpretation of evidence for the timing of animal
deaths in terms of season(s) of human habitation assumesthat the remains of young domesticates represent animals
killed on-site, or introduced soon after death, rather than
the delayed transport of preserved body parts between
sites. This assumption seems secure, not least because
analysis here focuses on the mandible, which is of modest
meat utility (Binford 1978) and so unlikely to have been
curated and transported between sites on a significant
scale. Whether or not faunal evidence of human activity
in all seasons of the year indicates year-round occupation
(rather than complementary seasonal activities in
different years) is discussed towards the end of this
chapter. Two factors should be noted, however, thatmilitate against demonstrating activity at a given site in
every season.
First, the combination of a two-month birth period
and of variability in dental development ensures that
much of the mandibular evidence, that forms the core of
the following analysis, could potentially be assigned to a
range of seasons (cf. OConnor 1998). To reduce the risk
of imprecisely aged specimens creating a spurious picture
of occupation in all seasons, an assessment is initially
made below of the minimum season(s) represented by the
evidence from each site. For example, if neonatal remains
of sheep/goats clearly indicate late winter deaths, first-
year sheep mandibles aged more broadly to late winter-early summer and to autumn-winter may both be
attributed to late winter. This procedure thus entails the
rather unrealistically cautious assumption that the late
winter-early summer specimens were fast developers,
while the autumn-winter jaws were slow developers.
Because the evidence for different seasons also tends to
be of variable precision (see below), the effect of this
procedure may well be to obscure indications of occu-
pation in some seasons of the year.
Secondly, it should be emphasised that the slaughter
of young domesticates in recent, sedentary rural
communities in Europe is often markedly seasonal, for acombination of ecological and cultural reasons (e.g.
Cobbett 1979; cf. Halstead 1998 for some Greek
examples). It is perfectly plausible that the slaughter of
young livestock in the Neolithic may similarly have
displayed some seasonality for reasons unconnected to
temporal patterns of residence. Ironically, for this reason,
year-round residence may be easier to demonstrate for
Mesolithic sites in Denmark, with a diversity of wild
animals including migratory species of restricted seasonal
availability, than for Neolithic sites in Greece, with sparse
evidence for hunting, fishing or fowling.
Any archaeobotanical evidence for cereal and pulse
grain crops is also noted for each site. It is assumed that
such grain crops were mainly sown in mid- to late autumn
or early winter (October-December; not spring see
Hillman 1981, 1478) and harvested around early
summer (June [pulses] and July [cereals] in northern
Greece, one month earlier in southern Greece). Whether
or not grain crops were grown in the vicinity of each site
is discussed below. The sparse archaeobotanical evidencefor gathering of seasonally available fruits and nuts is not
considered, because the quantities involved are too small
to preclude the possibility of exchange between sites
rather than collection in the vicinity of each archaeo-
logical site.
Seasons of consumption and residence at
Neolithic tell sites in Thessaly, northern
Greece
The depth of occupation debris at Neolithic tell sites in
Thessaly provides striking evidence for habitation ofconsiderable duration and was regarded by Childe (1957,
60) as indicative of sedentism and an advanced farming
regime (cf. Kotsakis this volume). Strictly speaking,
however, tell formation indicates recurrent building
activity on a generational or longer time scale, rather
than year-round residence. Moreover, tell formation is a
cumulative process and so impressive mounds might well
conceal the remains of very transient early occupation, as
Whittle has argued with reference to thin early levels at
Thessalian tells such as Sesklo and Akhillion (Whittle
1996a). Until recently, groups of transhumant or nomadic
shepherds from the surrounding mountains over-wintered
in the immediate vicinity of many lowland Thessalian
tell sites and a similar pattern of regular seasonal
movements has been suggested for the Neolithic (Jarman
et al. 1982, 1501). A third possibility should also be
considered that the Neolithic inhabitants of Thessaly
moved on a more irregular basis, occupying individual
sites at different seasons in different years.
Middle Neolithic late Neolithic Plateia Magoula
Zarkou
The idea of seasonally mobile Neolithic settlement
received apparent support from geoarchaeological
investigations around the tell site at Plateia MagoulaZarkou, on the northern edge of the flat, west Thessalian
basin (Fig. 5.1) and close to the Pinios, one of the largest
rivers in Greece. Coring suggested that early occupation
was located in an active floodplain, subject to annual
inundation in winter-spring until river incision, perhaps
from the later middle Neolithic onwards, reduced the
risk of flooding; as a result, it has been argued, early
Neolithic and middle Neolithic human occupation at
Plateia Magoula Zarkou would necessarily have been
seasonal (van Andel et al. 1995; van Andel and Runnels
1995; Whittle 1996b, 17). As van Andel et al. (1995,
138) make clear, however, they were unable to determine
the frequency of flooding, leaving open the possibility
that the early Neolithic-middle Neolithic settlement was
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Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence from Neolithic sites in Greece 41
flooded no more frequently than such major and long-
established European cities as Athens and Prague.
Modest assemblages of faunal remains (overwhelm-
ingly of domestic mammals) are reported from both
middle Neolithic (Becker 1999) and late Neolithic
(Becker 1991) levels at Plateia Magoula Zarkou. Neonatalsheep/goat are reported from both levels (Becker 1999,
12 table 4; 1991, 20 table 5), implying a human presence
around or up to a month after the suggested lambing/
kidding season of January-February, thus in mid-winter
to early spring. Dental data for age at death of sheep and
goats are not published in a format compatible with that
used below for other sites, but young pig mandibles (Table
5.1) imply deaths in early spring to early summer and in
mid-autumn to mid-winter during the middle Neolithic;
and in late spring to late summer, in mid-autumn to mid-
winter and in early winter to mid-spring during the late
Neolithic. The neonatal sheep/goats thus indicate human
habitation at middle Neolithic and late Neolithic Plateia
Magoula Zarkou firmly in the middle of the winter-spring
period, when flooding supposedly drove people away from
the site. Most of the young pig deaths are potentiallycompatible with this same period, but additional late
Neolithic activity is implied at some less precisely
identifiable stage(s) of the remaining mid-spring to early
winter period. Information on the timing of deaths of
first-year lambs and kids might further fill in the seasonal
cycle, while middle Neolithic caches of bitter vetch, Vicia
ervilia (Kroll cited in Becker 1991, 77 table 14; Jones
and Halstead 1993), if cultivated locally, would confirm
a human presence in mid-autumn to early winter (for
sowing) and in early summer (for harvesting).
Figure 5.1 Map of Greece, showing the location of sites discussed in the text.
Key: 1. Plateia Magoula Zarkou, 2. Prodromos 12 and 3, 3. Akhillion, 4. Ag. Sofia, 5. Dimini, 6. Doliana, 7. Cave
of Zas, 8. Makriyalos.
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Paul Halstead42
Table5
.1AgesandsuggestedseasonsofdeathofpigsatENProdromos1-2and3,MNandLNPlateiaMagoulaZa
rkou,LNAg.Sofia,LNDimini,LNM
akriyalos(Pit
212),F
NCaveofZasandFNDoliana.
SuggestedagesfordentalstagesafterHigh
am(1967).Assumingbirthseasons
ofMarch-April(NGreece)andFeb
ruary-March
(SGreece).MortalitydataforProdromos1-2and3fromHalsteadandJones(1980,99fig.3;andunpublishedre
cords),forPlateia
MagoulaZarkoufromBecker(1991,24table8),forAgiaSofiafromvondenDrieschandEnderle(1976,44table
11),forDimini,
Makriyalos,CaveofZasandDolianafrom
authorsunpublishedrecords.
Key:d4fourthdeciduouspremolar,M1firstmolar,M2secondmolar,U
unerupted,E-erupting,Winw
ear
Prodromos
1-2
3
PlateiaMago
ula
Zarkou
Agia
Sofia
Dimini
Makri-
yalos
Caveof
Zas
Doliana
Age
stage
Agein
months
EN
EN
MN
LN
LN
LN
LNPit
212
FN
FN
Neo-
natal
0-1
-
-
-
-
March-
May
-
March-
May
Feb-
April
March-
May
d4E
0-2
-
-
March-
June
-
-
-
-
-
-
d4W
M1U
2-4
May-
Aug
-
-
M
ay-
Aug
May-
Aug
May-
Aug
May-
Aug
-
-
M1E
4-7
July-N
ov
-
-
-
-
July-Nov
July-Nov
-
July-Nov
M1W
M2U
7-9
Oct-Jan
Oct-Jan
Oct-Jan
Oct-Jan
Oct-Jan
Oct-Jan
Oct-Jan
Sept-Dec
Oct-Jan
M2E
9-12
-
Dec-
April
-
D
ec-
A
pril
Dec-
April
-
Dec-
April
Nov-
March
Dec-
April
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Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence from Neolithic sites in Greece 43
Early Neolithic Prodromos 13
A cluster of Neolithic sites at Prodromos in the southern
part of the west Thessalian basin lies close to the margin
of recent marsh. Prodromos 3 forms an impressively tall
tell, topped by Bronze Age and historical deposits.
Prodromos 1 and 2 may represent two closely spaced low
mounds, but with the benefit of hindsight might be
interpreted as parts of a disturbed flat-extended site (see
below). The deposits of Prodomos 12 and the lower
levels of Prodromos 3 were assigned to early Neolithic
and the transition to middle Neolithic.
First-year pig mandibles from Prodromos 12 are
assignable to deaths in late spring to late summer, in
mid-summer to late autumn and in mid-autumn to mid-
winter; specimens from Prodromos 3 are assignable to
deaths in mid-autumn to mid-winter and in early winter
to mid-spring (Table 5.1). This evidence could be
accommodated to short periods of human presence inlate summer to mid-autumn at Prodromos 12 and in
early or mid-winter at Prodromos 3, but is more likely to
represent activity extending earlier and later at both sites.
First-year mandibles of sheep/goats, assigned broadly to
the periods between mid- or late summer and mid-winter
(both sites) and between mid-autumn and mid-spring
(Prodromos 12 only), are compatible with the evidence
from young pig deaths (Table 5.2). Samples of cereal and
pulse grains (Halstead and Jones 1980, 115 table 8), if
derived from local cultivation, would favour an extended
human presence at Prodromos 12, from harvest time in
early and mid-summer until sowing time in mid-autumn
to early winter. The apparent late winter to mid-spring
gap at Prodromos 12, reflecting the lack of records of
neonatal remains or of very young mandibles, should be
treated with particular caution for two reasons. First, this
site was excavated under rescue conditions, so that
retrieval of small specimens may be worse than at the
other tells discussed here. Secondly, neonatal bones were
not distinguished as a separate category during recording
of the Prodomos assemblages, but might be included
among the lamb/kid specimens represented by unfused
scapula, pelvis, distal humerus and proximal radius
recorded at both sites (Halstead and Jones 1980, 112
table 4c).
Early Neolithic-middle Neolithic Akhillion
The tell site of Akhillion is located in the rolling hills on
the southern edge of the Thessalian lowlands and is thus
safe from the risk of flooding. Published mortality data
do not distinguish between early Neolithic and middle
Neolithic material (Bknyi 1989, 323 table 13.8), but
newborn specimens of sheep/goat and pig suggest deaths
of livestock and a human presence in mid-winter to early
spring and in spring, respectively. The use of very coarse
age categories (juvenile, subadult) precludes dis-
cussion of faunal evidence for the rest of the annual cycle.Sparse finds of cereal and pulse grains from both early
Neolithic and middle Neolithic levels (Renfrew 1989),
however, if derived from crops grown locally, would again
entail a human presence in mid-autumn to early winter
(sowing) and early to mid-summer (harvesting). Despite
the paucity of relevant data, therefore, there is some
evidence for occupation in all seasons of the year.
Late Neolithic Agia Sofia
The Agia Sofia mound is located in the slightly elevated
north-eastern part of the Thessalian plain. The man-
dibular evidence for age at death of young un-
differentiated sheep/goats (probably mostly sheep) and
young pigs is published in reasonable detail for the late
Neolithic Agia Sofia assemblage (von den Driesch and
Enderle 1976). First-year pigs died in spring, in late
spring to late summer, in mid-autumn to mid-winter,
and in early winter to mid-spring (Table 5.1), implying
activity at the site during spring and also later in the year
at minimum in early or mid-winter. First-year sheep(/goat) deaths in late winter to late spring, in early spring
to mid-summer, between mid-spring and mid-winter, and
between mid-autumn and mid-spring (Table 5.2) are
consistent with the evidence of young pigs, suggesting
activity at the site at least during (and probably extending
beyond) spring.
Late Neolithic Dimini
Dimini occupies a slight rise on the edge of the coastal
plain of Volos and the modest sample of young sheep and
goat mandibles (Halstead 1992 and original records)
documents deaths in late winter to mid-spring, in mid- tolate spring, in early spring to mid-summer, in mid-
summer to early winter, in late summer or early autumn
to mid-winter, and in mid-autumn to early or mid-spring
(Table 5.2). The few jaws from first-year pigs suggest
deaths at least during late spring to late summer, during
mid-summer to late autumn, and during mid-autumn to
mid-winter (Table 5.1). Young sheep/goat and pig deaths
thus concur in indicating occupation at least during late
winter or spring and also, less precisely, during summer
to mid-winter (minimally mid- to late autumn, but
probably longer). Caches of both cereals and pulses (Kroll
1979), if grown locally, would indicate a human presence
during mid-autumn to early winter (sowing) and early to
mid-summer (harvesting) and so strengthen the evidence
for activity in all seasons.
Discussion: going nowhere in Neolithic Thessaly?
For none of these Thessalian tells can occupation be
demonstrated for all seasons of the year, but this may
well be an artefact of the nature of the available evidence.
Activity can be firmly documented at some sites in late
winter-early spring and/or spring because neonatal and
infant remains are very distinctive and can be aged very
precisely, but such remains are subject to acute preser-
vation and retrieval biases and so their absence may shed
no light on season(s) of human activity. As animals
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Paul Halstead44
Prodromos
1-2
3
Agia
Sofia
Dimini
Makriyalos
CaveofZas
Doli-
ana
Ageinmonths
EN
EN
LN
LN
LNPit212
LN
FN
FN
A
ge
stage
Sheep
Goat
Sh/G
t
Sh/Gt
Sh/Gt
Sheep
Goat
Sheep
Goat
Sheep
Goat
Sheep
Goat
Sheep
N
eo-
natal
0-1
0-1
-
-
-
-
Jan-March
Dec-Feb
Dec-Feb
Jan-
March
d4W
M
1U
1-2
1-3
-
-
Feb-
May
Feb-
April
-
Feb-
April
-
-
-
Jan-
March
-
-
M
1E
3
2-5
-
-
March-
July
April-
May
March-
July
April-
May
March-
July
-
Feb-
June
March-
April
-
-
M
1W
M
2U
(C1-2)
3-6
4-6
-
-
-
-
April-
Aug
May-
Aug
-
April-
July
-
April-
July
April-
Aug
M
1W
M
2U
(C3-4)
5-9
5-8
-
-
-
-
June-
Nov
-
-
May-
Sept
May-
Oct
May-
Sept
-
M
1W
M
2U
(C5)
6-10
6-11
July
-
Jan
-
July-
Dec
-
July-
Dec
July-
Jan
-
-
-
June-
Dec
July-
Dec
M
1W
M
2U
(C6+)
8-11
7-11
Aug
-
Jan
Aug-
Jan
April
-Jan
Sept-
Jan
Aug-
Jan
Sept-
Jan
Aug-
Jan
Aug-
Dec
-
Aug-
Dec
July-
Dec
Sept-
Jan
M
2E
9-13
9-14
Oct-
Apr
il
-
Oct-
April
Oct-
March
Oct-
April
Oct-
March
Oct-
April
-
-
-
Sept-
March
-
Table5
.2Agesandsuggestedseason(s)ofd
eathofsheepandgoatsatENProdromos1-2and3,LNAgiaSofia,LN
Dimini,LNMakriyalos(Pit212),LN
andFNCave
ofZas,
andFNDoliana.
SuggestedagesfordentalstagesafterJones(inpress),forsheep,andDeniza
ndPayne(1982),forgoat;Jonessub-stageC6+modifiedtoexcludespecimenswith
eruptingM2.AssumingbirthseasonsofJa
nuary-February(NGreece)andDe
cember-January(SGreece).MortalitydataforAgiaSofiafromvonde
nDrieschand
Enderle(1976,39table8),forDiminifrom
Halstead(1992,46fig.7;andunpu
blishedrecords),forProdromos1-2
and3,Makriyalos,CaveofZasandDolianafrom
author
sunpublishedrecords.
Key:se
eTable7.1.
Paul Halstead
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Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence from Neolithic sites in Greece 45
progress through the first year, their mandibles become
increasingly robust (e.g. Munson and Garniewicz 2003)
and also larger, greatly enhancing the likelihood of both
survival and retrieval; at the same time, because of
variability in the timing of tooth eruption and, especially,
in the speed of tooth wear, the precision of agedetermination declines (cf. OConnor 1998). As a result,
although later first-year animals are well represented in
at least some of these assemblages, human activity tends
to be identified for rather broad periods (summer-autumn,
autumn-winter) rather than for single seasons. The
clearest seasonal gaps in the evidence for human presence
can plausibly be attributed to coarse analytical methods
(e.g. late winter to mid-spring at Prodromos 12, summer
to early winter at Akhillion), insufficient detail in
published records (e.g. mid-spring to early winter at
middle Neolithic Plateia Magoula Zarkou), or small
sample size (e.g. late winter to early autumn at Prodomos3).
Figure 5.2 offers a simplified overview of the evidence
for seasons of occupation discussed in detail above.
Faunal evidence is distinguished as very strong, strong
or moderate (i.e. deaths assigned to a period of two-three
months, four months or five months, respectively); weak
evidence (deaths assigned to a period of six or more
months) is treated in Figure 5.2 in the same way as an
absence of evidence. In addition, the times of year are
highlighted at which reported crop remains would if
grown locally require a human presence for sowing and
harvesting.
With due allowance for variation in sample size,retrieval standards, and the precision of recording or
reporting relevant data, the faunal evidence consistently
indicates a human presence in winter and/or spring,
probably extending into more or less of the summer-
autumn period. Other than the very unreliable absence of
evidence for late winter-spring activity at Prodromos 1
2, there is no hint that different sites occupied com-
plementary positions in a system of regular seasonal
movements. Nor is there any support for the claim that
the inhabitants of Plateia Magoula Zarkou were driven
away from the site in winter-spring by flooding. If
Neolithic tells were abandoned, therefore, in the contextof regular seasonal movements, it seems that their
inhabitants must have moved to un-recognized sites of a
different type and/or located outside the Thessalian
lowlands. Seasonal movement with livestock to summer
pastures at high altitude, as practised by recent specialised
pastoralists, is compatible with the faunal evidence, but
as yet there is no evidence in favour of this practice nor
would it necessarily have involved movement of the entire
human population of a tell settlement. Moreover, the
window for such an absence is narrowed if cereals and
pulses were grown in the vicinity of these sites, implying
habitation at least during the June-July harvest season,
and perhaps later if crops required processing for storage
on a large scale. Local cultivation cannot be demon-
strated, but cereal and pulse grains seem to be encountered
in all tell excavations (Kroll 1981), despite the lack of
systematic sampling. Crops must have been grown round
at least some of these sites, therefore, unless we posit the
importing of cereals and pulses from sites that, again,
remain to be discovered.Consideration of the extent and probable number of
inhabitants of known sites leaves little room for doubt
that cereals and pulses were grown in significant
quantities around all Neolithic tells in Thessaly (Halstead
1989). When the practical implications of local crop
husbandry are also taken into account (Fig. 5.2), the case
is further strengthened for occupation of these sites in all
seasons of the year. Given the longevity and coarse
chronological resolution of these tell sites, it must be
acknowledged that the faunal and archaeobotanical
assemblages are compatible with a pattern of irregular
seasonal mobility, in which individual sites were occupiedat different seasons in different years. Such opportunistic
residential mobility, however, seems far less likely than
year-round habitation to have led to the accumulation (or
even purposive creation cf. Chapman 1997; Kotsakis
1999) of monumental tell sites. Arguably the most
parsimonious interpretation of the available evidence
(from early Neolithic, middle Neolithic and late Neolithic
levels alike) is that these Thessalian tell sites were
occupied year-round by at least some of their in-
habitants.
Seasonality of consumption and residence atnon-tell Neolithic sites in Greece
In addition to the impressive tells, known in largest
numbers in lowland central and northern Greece, at least
three other types of Neolithic site are now well docu-
mented in Greece: small and short-lived open sites,
located in large numbers by survey projects in southern
Greece, but also found in northern Greece; caves,
frequently used in the later Neolithic, especially in
southern Greece; and flat-extended open sites, recently
recognized in northern Greece. The small open sites and,
for obvious geological reasons, the caves are often located
in agriculturally marginal locations, and inter alia havebeen interpreted as seasonal herding camps. The flat-
extended sites are, like the tells, found in the fertile
lowlands, but represent a radically different form of
spatial organization, with habitation traces drifting
laterally through time rather than building up vertically
on the same spot (Kotsakis 1999). Ditches encircling the
flat-extended site of Makriyalos (Pappa and Besios 1999)
are somewhat reminiscent of Neolithic enclosures in
north-west Europe and perhaps invite speculation that
these sites represent seasonal gathering places, rather
than an alternative form of long-term residential site.
The bioarchaeological evidence for seasonality of human
activity is reviewed here for one site in each of these
three non-tell categories (Fig. 5.3).
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Paul Halstead46
Figure 5.2 Evidence for season(s) of Neolithic human activity at tell sites in Thessaly.
Key: Dark fill very strong faunal evidence (deaths within period of 23 months);
Medium fill strong faunal evidence (deaths within period of 4 months);
Light fill moderate faunal evidence (deaths within period of 5 months);
Unfilled weak (deaths within period of 6+ months) or no faunal evidence;
Bold outline probable harvest and sowing periods for cereal and pulse crops;SG3 etc type of faunal evidence for activity in any month (e.g., S2, SG3, P4, G5 = sheep, sheep/goat, pig and goat deaths
attributed to periods of 2, 3, 4 and 5 months, respectively).
EN-MN Akhillion
July
August
September
October
November
December
May
P3
April
P3
March
SG3, P3
February
SG3
January
SG3
June
Autumn
(Sept-Nov)
Summer
(June-Aug)
Spring
(March-May)
Winter
(Dec - Feb)
EN Prodromos 1-2
February
March
April
December
P4
January
P4
May
P4June
P4
July
P4, P5
August
P4, P5
September
P5
October
P4, P5
November
P4, P5
EN Prodromos 3
May
JuneJuly
August
September
November
P4
October
P4
April
P5
March
P5
February
P5
January
P4, P5December
P4, P5
MN Plateia Magoula Zarkou
August
September
December
P4
November
P4
October
P4
July June
P4
May
P4
April
P4
March
SG3, P4
February
SG3
January
SG3, P4
LN Plateia Magoula Zarkou
March SG3,
P5
April P5
May P4
September
June
P4
July
P4
August
P4
October
P4
November
P4
December
P4, P5
January
SG3, P4, P5February
SG3, P5
LN Ag Sofia
September
December
P4, P5
November
P4
October
P4
August
P4
July
P4, SG5June
P4, SG5
May
SG4, P3, P4,
SG5
April
SG4, P3, P5,
SG5
March
SG4, P3, P5,
SG5
February
P4, P5
January
P4, P5
LN Dimini
October
P4, S5, P5
September
S5, P5
August
P4, P5
July
P4, G5, P5June
P4, G5
May
S2, P4, G5
April
S2, S3, G5
March
S3, G5
February
S3
January
P4, S5
November
P4, S5, P5
December
P4, S5
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Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence from Neolithic sites in Greece 47
Final Neolithic Doliana, Ipiros
Rescue work uncovered a small, short-lived open site of
final Neolithic date in the Doliana basin, at 400m altitude
on the western flank of the Pindos Mountains of north-
west Greece. The brevity of occupation and lack of
building remains other than two successive hut floors
favoured interpretation as a seasonal herding camp
(Dousougli 1996); a nearby pollen core has also been
interpreted in terms of seasonal herding (Willis 1997). A
modest faunal assemblage (Halstead et al. in preparation)
included neonatal remains of sheep/goats and pigs,
suggesting activity in mid-winter to early spring and in
spring, respectively. Young mandibles indicate first-year
deaths of sheep in mid-spring to late summer, in mid-
summer to early winter, and in early autumn to mid-
winter (Table 5.2), and first-year deaths of pigs in mid-
summer to late autumn, in mid-autumn to mid-winter,
and in early winter to mid-spring (Table 5.1). Themandibular evidence thus implies further human activity
at some stage(s) between early summer and early winter
at minimum, during mid- to late summer (sheep) and
during mid- to late autumn (pigs). Although seasonal
abandonment of the site cannot be ruled out, inter-
pretation in terms of year-round activity would perhaps
require less special pleading.
Late Neolithic-final Neolithic cave of Zas,
Cyclades
The cave of Zas is located at 600m altitude on the
limestone mountain that dominates the island of Naxos.
The cave is small and dark enough to cast doubt on its
use as a habitation site, while an abundance of metal
finds perhaps suggests a ceremonial or symbolic function
(Broodbank 2000, 165). Either way, an agriculturally
marginal location perhaps invites suggestions of use by
seasonally mobile herders (Zachos 1999). The late
Neolithic and final Neolithic faunal assemblage from this
cave has benefited from strikingly better preservation
(carnivore attrition was negligible) and retrieval (deposits
were systematically and intensively sieved) than all other
sites discussed in this chapter. In addition, the present
author (with collaborators) recorded this assemblage (and
those from Doliana and Makriyalos) recently, and thushas access to records far more detailed than would be
tolerated by most publishers.
Remains of newborn sheep/goats (both late Neolithic
and final Neolithic) and newborn pigs (final Neolithic)
imply activity at the cave in winter and in late winter to
mid-spring, respectively, that is at the time of year when
seasonally mobile herders might have been expected to
be absent from the vicinity. At this site, sheep and goats
are almost equally represented, but the latter exhibit more
first-year deaths. In the larger final Neolithic assemblage,
mandibles of lambs and kids suggest deaths in mid-winter
to early spring, in early to mid-spring, in mid-spring tomid-summer, in late spring to early or mid-autumn, in
early or mid- or late summer to early winter, and in early
autumn to early spring (Table 5.2); pigs are rare, but late
first-year mandibles imply deaths at least in early autumn
to early winter and in late autumn to early spring (Table
5.1). The smaller late Neolithic sample provides a less
continuous, but broadly similar, record of deaths of first-
year lambs and kids. Although only securely demon-strable for winter-spring, human activity in all seasons is
the most parsimonious reading of the faunal data,
especially for the larger final Neolithic assemblage.
Cereal and pulse grains were found in considerable
numbers in both the late Neolithic and final Neolithic
levels (Zachos 1999, 1567) and, if grown locally, would
strengthen the case for a human presence nearby in late
spring-early summer (harvest) and mid-autumn to early
winter (sowing). Whatever the function of the cave,
therefore, it seems more likely to have been used by people
from a nearby and relatively sedentary settlement than as
a shelter for mobile herders taking advantage of summerpasture on Mt. Zas.
Late Neolithic Makriyalos, Central Macedonia
The flat-extended site of Makriyalos is located on gentle
slopes close to the sea. Extensive excavation of enclosure
ditches, borrow pits and huts of early late Neolithic and
late late Neolithic date yielded one of the largest faunal
assemblages from prehistoric Greece. Unlike Zas, the
assemblage did not avoid carnivore attrition, nor did
rescue excavation permit the same high standards of
retrieval, but again recent and detailed dental records are
available. Analysis is restricted here to a single short-
lived context, in order to reduce the risk that apparent
evidence for year-round activity might in fact represent
the conflation of numerous seasonal visits, the timing of
which varied from year to year or even from century to
century. The early late Neolithic Pit 212, with a diameter
of 30m, produced the remains of at least several hundred
domestic animals and a wealth of pottery, both apparently
deposited rapidly over a period of months or just a handful
of years and interpreted as the remains of large-scale
collective feasting (Pappa et al. 2004, 1644). It should
be noted that the evidence for seasonality from Pit 212
seems to be very similar to that for the rest of the early
late Neolithic assemblage.Remains of newborn sheep/goats and pigs indicate
deaths in mid-winter to early spring and in spring,
respectively. Young mandibles of sheep and goats suggest
deaths in late winter to mid-spring, in mid- to late spring,
in early spring to mid-summer, in mid- or late spring to
late summer, in early summer to late autumn, in mid-
summer to early or mid-winter, in late summer or early
autumn to mid-winter, and in mid-autumn to early or
mid-spring. Young mandibles of pigs suggest deaths in
late spring to late summer, in mid-summer to late autumn,
in mid-autumn to mid-winter, and in early winter to mid-
spring. Pit 212 provides the strongest faunal evidence yetconsidered for human activity in all seasons and this is
strengthened by two further considerations. First, pre-
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Paul Halstead48
liminary results from a study of enamel hypoplasia in the
pig mandibles (cf. Dobney et al. 2002) provide empirical
support for a single farrowing season (U. Albarella and
K. Dobney pers. comm .); this makes it unlikely that the
observed range of ages at death of young pigs represents
seasonal slaughter of animals born at different times ofyear. Secondly, in the case of sheep, every stage of first-
year dental development is represented - and the same is
almost true of pigs and largely so of goats; thus the
argument for slaughter in every season of the year is
independent of the assumptions made here as to the
timing (absolute or relative) of lambing, kidding and
farrowing. In addition, Pit 212 yielded archaeobotanical
samples rich in cereal chaff and these crop remains, if
grown locally, provide supporting evidence for human
activity at Makriyalos in mid-autumn to early winter
(sowing) and in mid-summer (harvesting). Finally, as
noted above, Pit 212 represents a relatively shortdepositional episode, probably spanning at most a
handful of years; the record of deaths in all seasons,
therefore, is highly unlikely to be an artefact of com-
plementary seasonal episodes of slaughter in different
years. Pit 212 surely results from year-round slaughter
and consumption at late Neolithic Makriyalos.
Discussion: going nowhere in Neolithic Greece?
If tell sites have long been equated with sedentary
occupation, the reverse has often been assumed for
Neolithic caves and small open sites and, more
tentatively, for flat-extended sites. Contrary to these
expectations, bioarchaeological evidence from the small
open site of Doliana, from the Cave of Zas and from the
flat-extended site of Makriyalos, is, in each case, more or
less strongly suggestive of year-round human activity
(Fig. 5.3). These three sites cannot be treated as typical
of all such sites, but nor is there any reason to imagine
that they are unusual other than in the quantity and/or
quality of available bioarchaeological data.
Conclusions
While bioarchaeological evidence for year-round activity
at Neolithic sites in Greece is of variable strength, it mustbe underlined that several of the assemblages discussed
are small and that most are of coarse chronological
resolution, while most publications of data sets from tells
address different research questions and so provide
insufficient detail for assessment of seasonality. More-
over, almost any set of dental data could be accommodated
Figure 5.3 Evidence for season(s) of Neolithic human activity at non-tell sites in Greece. Key: see Figure 5.2.
LN M akriyalos Pit 2 12
December
P4, P5, S5
November
P4, P5, S5
October
P4, P5, S5
September
P5, S5
August
G4, P4, P5,
G5 July
P4, P5, G4,
G5, G5
June
G4, P4, G5,
G5
May
S2, P4, G4,
G5, G5
Apr il
S2, P3, S3,
P5, G5, G5
March
P3, SG3,
S3, P5, G5
February
SG3, S3, P5
January
SG3, P4, P5,
S5
FN Doliana
January
S3, P4, P5,
S5
February
S3, P5
March
S3, P3, P5
April
P3, P5, S5
May
P3, S5June
S5
July
P5, S5
August
P5, S5
September
P5, S5
October
P4, P5, S5
November
P4, P5, S5
December
P4, P5, S5
LN Zas
November
S5
October
S5
September
G5, S5
August
G5, S5
July
G4, G5
June
G4, G5, G5
May
G4, G5, G5
April
G4, G5
March
G5
February
SG3, G5
January
SG3
December
SG3, S5
FN Zas
November
P4, S5, P5
October
P4, S5
September
P4, G5, S5
August
G5, S5July
G4, G5
June
G4, G5
May
G4, G5
April
S2, P3, G4,
March
S2, S3, P3,
P5
February
SG3, S3, P3,
P5
January
SG3, S3, P5
December
SG3, P4, S5,
P5
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Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence from Neolithic sites in Greece 49
to seasonal slaughter by assuming the appropriate
combination of early or late birth, precocious or tardy
tooth eruption, and fast or slow tooth wear. On the other
hand, it is striking that the strength of the evidence for
year-round activity is related not to the type, location or
date of each site, but to sample size and preservation,retrieval standards, the level of detail of available dental
records, and the chronological resolution of each
excavation. The most parsimonious interpretation of the
evidence is that all of these sites were used more or less
year-round.
As has already been stressed, human activity in the
Neolithic of Greece must have taken place off-site (i.e.
away from archaeologically recognizable sites). It is also
highly likely that known archaeological sites include loci
(e.g. some of the ephemeral scatters of Neolithic material
located by several survey projects in southern Greece)
used on only a seasonal or shorter-term basis. It seems,however, that most excavated Neolithic sites, including
tells, flat-extended sites and at least some caves and small
open-air sites, were used more or less year-round by at
least some of their occupants. Although uncomfortably
close to traditional assumptions of a sedentary Neolithic,
this conclusion poses some interesting questions:
how did local aggregations maintain communal
solidarity in the face of the tensions inevitably arising
from long-term co-residence and despite the divisive
tendencies implied on most open sites by domestic
architecture?
how did neighbouring sites (often close enough for
regular contact in herding, gathering, hunting, etc)interact and how did they avoid (or win) conflicts?
how did communities, or individuals, maintain the
distant social relationships needed to find marriage
partners and implied by exotic objects and long-
distance stylistic similarities?
Answers to these questions are beyond the scope of
this chapter, but the wealth of fine, often decorated
tablewares in Neolithic ceramic assemblages from Greece
suggests that the consumption of food and drink (and,
perhaps, other stimulants) was of fundamental social, as
well as nutritional, significance (Halstead 1995; Kotsakis
1983; Sherratt 1991; Vitelli 1989). Faunal evidence most dramatically, the massive assemblage from Pit 212
at Makriyalos suggests that consumption of the meat of
domestic animals played a major role in such commensal
politics (Pappa et al. 2004, 1644).
While the recurring desire to question the link between
farming and sedentism is undoubtedly healthy, the
available evidence for the Neolithic of Greece favours a
largely sedentary pattern of settlement, which in turn
poses some important and interesting questions con-
cerning social reproduction in the early farming pop-
ulations of this region. Faunal remains both provide
evidence for sedentary habitation and offer some hints as
to how the attendant stresses on social life may have been
resolved.
Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Doug Bailey and Alasdair Whittle, for
encouraging dissent, and to Amy Bogaard and Valasia
Isaakidou, for comments on drafts of this paper. For
access to faunal material discussed here, I am indebted toGiorgos Hourmouziadis (Prodromos and Dimini),
Angelika Dousougli (Doliana), Kostas Zachos (Zas), and
Maria Pappa and Manthos Besios (Makriyalos). I also
thank Pat Collins and Valasia Isaakidou, for helping to
record the Doliana, Zas and Makriyalos assemblages;
Umberto Albarella and Keith Dobney, for preliminary
results of their analysis of enamel hypoplasia in the
Makriyalos pigs; and Gill Jones, for access in advance of
publication to her study of sheep tooth eruption and wear.
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