Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-05T06:57:27.477Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mesolithic mortuary ritual at Franchthi Cave, Greece

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 January 2015

Tracey Cullen
Tracey Cullen*
Affiliation:
American Journal of Archaeology, 656 Beacon Street, Boston MA 02215-2010, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Mesolithic sites are rare in the Aegean, and Mesolithic burials are uncommon throughout Europe. The Mesolithic human remains from Franchthi Cave, that remarkable, deeply stratified site in southern Greece, offer a rare glimpse into the burial practices of early Holocene hunter-gatherers of the Mediterranean.

Type
Papers
Information
Antiquity , Volume 69 , Issue 263 , June 1995 , pp. 270 - 289
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd. 1995

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Angel, J.L. 1969. Human skeletal material from Franchthi Cave. Appendix II, in Jacobsen (1969): 380–81.Google Scholar
Angel, J.L. 1973. Neolithic human remains, in Jacobsen (1973b): 277–82.Google Scholar
Angel, J.L. & Bisel, S.C. 1986. The human skeletal material from Franchthi Cave. Unpublished manuscript.Google Scholar
Ariès, P. 1981. The hour of our death. New York (NY): Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Baby, R.S. 1954. Hopewell cremation practices, Ohio Historical Society, Papers in Archaeology 1: 1–7.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. 1987. Late Pleistocene adaptations in the Levant, in Soffer, O. (ed.), The Pleistocene Old World: regional perspectives: 219–36. New York (NY): Plenum.Google Scholar
Bar-Yosef, O. & Valla, F.R. (ed.). 1991. The Natufian culture in the Levant. Ann Arbor (MI): International Monographs in Prehistory. Archaeological series 1.Google Scholar
Belfer-Cohen, A. 1991. Art items from Layer B, Hayonim Cave: a case study of art in a Natufian context, in Bar-Yosef & Valla (1991): 569–88.Google Scholar
Bendann, E. 1930. Death customs: an analytical study of burial rites. New York (NY): Alfred A. Knopf.Google Scholar
Bietti, A. 1990. The late Upper Palaeolithic in Italy: an overview, Journal of World Prehistory 4: 95–155.Google Scholar
Binant, P. 1991. La préhistoire de la mort: les premières sépultures en Europe. Paris: Éditions Errance. Collection des Hesperides.Google Scholar
Binford, L.R. (ed.). 1972a. An archaeological perspective. New York (NY): Seminar Press.Google Scholar
Binford, L.R. (ed.). 1972b. An analysis of cremations from three Michigan sites, in Binford (1972a): 373–82.Google Scholar
Binford, L.R. (ed.). 1972c. Analysis of a cremated burial from the Riverside Cemetery, Menominee County, Michigan, in Binford (1972a): 383–9.Google Scholar
Borgognini Tarli, S.M. & Repetto, E. 1986. Skeletal indications of subsistence patterns and activity régime in the Mesolithic sample from Grotta dell’Uzzo (Trapani, Sicily): a case study, Human Evolution 1: 331–52.Google Scholar
Bostanci, E.Y. 1959. A new Palaeolithic site at Beldibi near Antalya, Anatolia 4: 129–78.Google Scholar
Brothwell, D.R. 1961. Cannibalism in early Britain, Antiquity 35: 304–7.Google Scholar
Chapman, R. 1981. The emergence of formal disposal areas and the ‘problem’ of megalithic tombs in prehistoric Europe, in Chapman et al. (1981): 71–81.Google Scholar
Chapman, R., Kinnes, I. & Randsborg, K. (ed.). 1981. The archaeology of death. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Cherry, J.F. 1979. Four problems in Cycladic prehistory, in Davis, J. & Cherry, J.F. (ed.), Papers in Cycladic prehistory: 22–47. Los Angeles (CA): Institute of Archaeology, University of California. Monograph 14.Google Scholar
Cherry, J.F. 1990. The first colonization of the Mediterranean islands: a review of recent research, Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 3: 145–221.Google Scholar
Clark, G.A. & Neeley, M. 1987. Social differentiation in European Mesolithic burial data, in Rowley-Conwy, P., Zvelebil, M. & Blankholm, H.P. (ed.), Mesolithic Northwest Europe: recent trends 2: 121–7. Sheffield: University of Sheffield, Department of Archaeology and Prehistory.Google Scholar
Clark, J.G.D. 1980. Mesolithic prelude: the Palaeolithic-Neolithic transition in Old World prehistory. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Coleman, J.E. 1992. Greece, the Aegean, and Cyprus, in Ehrich, R.W. (ed.), Chronologies in Old World archaeology 1: 247–88. 3rd edition. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Corrain, C., Graziati, G. & Leonardi, P. 1976. La sepoltura epipaleolitica nel riparo di Vatte di Zambana (Trento), Preistoria Alpina 12: 175–212.Google Scholar
Couraud, C. 1985. L’art azilien: origine-survivance. Paris: Éditions du CNRS. Gallia préhistoire, supplement 20.Google Scholar
Cullen, T. & Cook, D.C.. Forthcoming. Mortuary ritual and human biology at Franchthi Cave, Greece. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 12.Google Scholar
Deith, M.R. & Shackleton, N.J. 1988. Oxygen isotope analyses of marine molluscs from Franchthi Cave, in Shackleton (1988): 133–56.Google Scholar
Diamant, S.R. 1979. A short history of archaeological sieving at Franchthi Cave, Greece, Journal of Field Archaeology 6: 203–17.Google Scholar
Diamant, S.R. Forthcoming. The ground stone objects from Franchthi Cave, Greece. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 10.Google Scholar
Farrand, W.F. 1988. Integration of Late Quaternary climatic records from France and Greece: cave sediments, pollen, and marine events, in Dibble, H.L. & Montet-White, A. (ed.), Upper Pleistocene prehistory of western Eurasia: 305–19. Philadelphia (PA): University Museum, University of Pennsylvania. Monograph 54.Google Scholar
Farrand, W.F. 1993. Discontinuity in the stratigraphic record: snapshots from Franchthi Cave, in Goldberg, P., Nash, D.T., & Petraglia, M.D. (ed.), Formation processes in archaeological context: 85–96. Madison (WI): Prehistory Press. Monographs in World Archaeology 17.Google Scholar
Gallis, K.J. 1982. Kauseis nekron apo ti Neolithiki epochi stin Thessaliu. Athens: Tameio archaiologikon poron kai apallotrioseon.Google Scholar
Garrod, D.A.E. & Bate, D.M.A. 1937. The Stone Age of Mount Carmel: excavations at the Wady el-Mughara I. Oxford: Clarendon Press.Google Scholar
Gifford, J.A. 1983. Core sampling of a Holocene marine sedimentary sequence and underlying Neolithic cultural material off Franchthi Cave, Greece, in Masters, P.M. & Flemming, N.C. (ed.), Quaternary coastlines and marine archaeology: 269–81. New York (NY): Academic Press.Google Scholar
Gifford, J.A. 1990. Analysis of submarine sediments off Franchthi Cave, in Wilkinson & Duhon (1990): 85–116.Google Scholar
Goldstein, L. 1981. One-dimensional archaeology and multi-dimensional people: spatial organization and mortuary analysis, in Chapman et al. (1981): 53–69.Google Scholar
Haglund, W.D., Reay, D.T. & Swindler, D.R. 1989. Canid scavenging/disarticulation sequence of human remains in the Pacific Northwest, Journal of Forensic Sciences 34: 587–606.Google Scholar
Hansen, J.M. 1991. The palaeoethnohotany of Franchthi Cave. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 7.Google Scholar
Hoffmann, E. 1973. Zur Problematik der bandkeramischen Brandbostattungon in Mitteleuropa, Jahresschrift für Mitteldeutsche Vorgeschichte 57: 71–103.Google Scholar
Hogbin, I. 1970. The island of menstruating men: religion in Wogeo, New Guinea. London: Chandler.Google Scholar
Holck, P. 1986. Cremated bones: a medical-anthropological study of an archaeological material on cremation burials. Oslo: Anatomical Institute, University of Oslo. Antropologiske Skrifter 1.Google Scholar
Honea, K. 1975. Prehistoric remains on the island of Kythnos, American Journal of Archaeology 79: 277–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Humphreys, S.C. 1983. Comparative perspectives on death, in Humphreys, S.C. (ed.), The family, women and death: 165–76. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul.Google Scholar
Huntington, R. & Metcalf, P. 1979. Celebrations of death: the anthropology of mortuary ritual. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, T.W. 1969. Excavations at Porto Cheli and vicinity, preliminary report II: the Franchthi Cave, 1967-1968, Hesperia 38: 343–81.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, T.W. 1973a. Excavation in the Franchthi Cave, 1969-1971, part I, Hesperia 42: 45–88.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobsen, T.W. 1973b. Excavations in the Franchthi Cave, 1969-1971, part II, Hesperia 42: 253–83.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, T.W. 1976. 17,000 years of Greek prehistory, Scientific American 234 (6): 76–87.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, T.W. 1979. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, 1973-1974, Archaiologikon Deltion (Chronika) 29: 268–82.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, T.W. 1981. Franchthi Cave and the beginning of settled village life in Greece, Hesperia 50: 303–19.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Jacobsen, T.W. 1984. Investigations at Franchthi Cave, Archaiologikon Deltion (Chronika) 31: 75–8.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, T.W. & Cullen, T. 1981. A consideration of mortuary practices in Neolithic Greece: burials from Franchthi Cave, in Humphreys, S.C. & King, H. (ed.), Mortality and immortality: the anthropology and archaeology of death: 79–101. London: Academic Press.Google Scholar
Jacobsen, T.W., & Farrand, W.R. 1987. Franchthi Cave and Paralia: maps, plans, and sections. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 1.Google Scholar
Jameson, M.H., Runnels, C.N. & Van Andel, T.H. 1994. A Greek countryside: the southern Argolid from prehistory to the present day. Stanford (CA): Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Keeley, L.H. 1980. Experimental determination of stone tool uses. Chicago (IL): University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Landtman, G. 1927. The Kiwai Papuans of British New Guinea. London: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Letica, Z. 1969. Vlasac — nouvel habitat de la culture de Lepenski Vir à Djerdap, Archaeologia Iugoslavia 10: 7–11.Google Scholar
MacLeod, W.C. 1925. Certain mortuary aspects of Northwest Coast culture, American Anthropologist 27: 122–48.Google Scholar
Markovits, A. 1928. Peri ton mechri simeron ereunon epi tis lithikis periodou tis Ellados, Praktika tis Ellinikis Anthropologikis Etaireias 1928: 114–34.Google Scholar
Markovits, A. 1932–33. Die Zaїmis-Höhle (Kaki-Skala, Megaris, Griechenland), Speläologisches Jahrbuch 13–14: 133–6.Google Scholar
Meiklejohn, C. & Denston, B. 1987. The human skeletal material: inventory and initial interpretation, in Mellars, P. (ed.), Excavations on Oronsay: 290–300. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press.Google Scholar
Milner, G.R. & Smith, V.G. 1989. Carnivore alteration of human bone from a late prehistoric site in Illinois, American Journal of Physical Anthropology 79: 43–9.Google Scholar
Minellono, F., Pardini, E. & Fornaciari, G. 1980. Le sepolture epigravettiane di Vado all’ Arancio (Grosseto), Rivista di scienze preistoriche 35: 3–44.Google Scholar
Mussi, M. 1986. Italian Palaeolithic and Mesolithic burials, Human Evolution 1: 545–56.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Newell, R.R., et al. 1979. The skeletal remains of Mesolithic man in western Europe: an evaluative catalogue, Journal of Human Evolution 8 (1): 1–228.Google Scholar
O’Shea, J. & Zvelebil, M. 1984. Oleneostrovski mogilnik: reconstructing the social and economic organization of prehistoric foragers in northern Russia, Journal of Anthropological Archaeology 3: 1–40.Google Scholar
Özbek, M. 1988. Culte des crane humains à Çayönü Tepesi, Anatolica 15: 127–37.Google Scholar
Pasveer, J.M. & Uytterschaut, H.T. 1992. Two Late Neolithic human skeletons: a recent discovery in the Netherlands, International Journal of Osteoarchaeology 2: 1–14.Google Scholar
Péquart, M. et al. 1937. Téviec, station-nécropole mésolithique du Morbihan. Paris: Masson. Archives de l’Institut de paléontologie humaine. Mémoire 18.Google Scholar
Perlès, C. 1987. Les industries lithiques taillées de Franchthi (Argolide, Grèce) I: présentation générale et industries paléolithiques. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 3.Google Scholar
Perlès, C. 1990. Les industries lithiques taillées de Franchthi (Argolide, Grèce) II: les industries du mésolithique et du néolithique initial. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 5.Google Scholar
Perlès, C. 1993. Reflexions sobre l’origen del Neolític a Grècia, Cota Zero 9: 9–16.Google Scholar
Perrot, J. 1966. Le gisement Natoufien de Mallaha (Eynan), Israël, L’Anthropologie 70: 437–83.Google Scholar
Persson, O. & Persson, E. 1984. Anthropological report on the Mesolithic graves from Skateholm, southern Sweden I. Lund: University of Lund. Report 21.Google Scholar
Persson, O. & Persson, E. 1988. Anthropological report concerning the interred Mesolithic populations from Skateholm, southern Sweden: excavation seasons 1983–1984, in Larsson, L. (ed.), The Skateholm Project I: man and environment: 89–105. Stockholm: Almquist & Wiksell.Google Scholar
Piggott, S. 1962. The West Kennet Long Barrow: excavations 1955–56. London: Her Majesty’s Stationery Office.Google Scholar
Piperno, M. 1985. Some 14C dates for the palaeoeconomic evidence from the Holocene levels of Uzzo Cave, Sicily, in Malone, C. & Stoddart, S. (ed.), Papers in Italian archaeology IV: the Cambridge Conference 2: prehistory: 83–6. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. International series 244.Google Scholar
Piperno, M., Scali, S. & Taglicozzo, A. 1980. Mesolitico e neolitico alla Grotta dell’Uzzo (Trapani). Primi dati per un’interpretazione paleoeconomica, Quaternaria 22: 275–300.Google Scholar
Piperno, M. & Tusa, S. 1976. Relazione preliminare sulla seconda campagna di scavi alla Grotta dell’Uzzo (Trapani), Sicilia Archeologica 31: 39–42.Google Scholar
Radcliffe-Brown, A.R. 1922. The Andaman islanders. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Reese, D.S. 1990. Review of Shackleton 1988, American Journal of Archaeology 94: 682–3.Google Scholar
Reese, D.S. 1991. Marine shells in the Levant: Upper Palaeolithic, Epipaleolithic and Neolithic, in Bar-Yosef & Valla (1991): 613–28.Google Scholar
Rodden, R.J. 1962. Excavations at the Early Neolithic site at Nea Nikomedeia, Greek Macedonia (1961 season), Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 28 : 267–88.Google Scholar
Rollefson, G.O., Simmons, A.H. & Kafaki, Z. 1992. Neolithic cultures at ‘Ain Ghazal, Jordan, Journal of Field Archaeology 19: 443–70.Google Scholar
Rose, M. 1987. Prehistoric fishing in the Aegean. Unpublished paper, ICAZ Fish Remains Working Group Fourth Meeting, University of York.Google Scholar
Runnels, C.N. 1981. A diachronic study and economic analysis of millstones from the Argolid, Greece. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, Indiana University, Bloomington (IN).Google Scholar
Runnels, C.N. 1988. A prehistoric survey of Thessaly: new light on the Greek Middle Paleolithic, Journal of Field Archaeology 15: 277–90.Google Scholar
Runnels, C.N. 1994. Pleistocene and early Holocene archaeological sites in southern Epirus, Greece (abstract), American Journal of Archaeology 98: 315–16.Google Scholar
Saxe, A.A. 1970. Social dimensions of mortuary practices. Unpublished Ph.D dissertation, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (MI).Google Scholar
Saxe, A.A. 1971. Social dimensions of mortuary practices in a Mesolithic population from Wadi Halfa, Sudan, in Brown, J.A. (ed.), Approaches to the social dimensions of mortuary practices: 39–57. Washington (DC): Society for American Archaeology, Memoir 25.Google Scholar
Schaeffer, M.C. 1977. An attribute analysis and formal typology of the ornaments from Franchthi Cave, Greece. Unpublished MA thesis, Indiana University, Bloomington (IN).Google Scholar
Segre, E. & Piperno, M. 1975. Scavi alla Grotta dell’Uzzo. Relazione preliminare, Sicilia Archeologica 27: 11–16.Google Scholar
Shackleton, J.C. 1988. Marine molluscan remains from Franchthi Cave. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 4.Google Scholar
Shackleton, N.J. 1969. Preliminary observations on the marine shells. Appendix I, in Jacobsen (1969): 379–80.Google Scholar
Shanks, M. & Tilley, C. 1982. Ideology, symbolic power and ritual communication: a reinterpretation of Neolithic mortuary practices, in I. Hodder (ed.), Symbolic and structural archaeology. 129–54. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sordinas, A. 1970. Stone implements from northwestern Corfu, Greece. Memphis (TN): Memphis State University. Anthropological Research Center. Occasional papers 4.Google Scholar
SrejoviĆ, D. 1972. Europe’s first monumental sculpture: new discoveries at Lepenski Vir. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Srejović, D. & Letica, Z. 1978. Vlasac, a Mesolithic settlement in the Iron Gates I: Archaeology. Belgrade: Serbian Academy of Sciences and Arts. Monograph 512.Google Scholar
Straus, L.G. 1990. Underground archaeology: perspectives on caves and rock shelters, in Archaeological method and theory 2: 255–304.Google Scholar
Stravopodi, H., Manolis, S. & Kyparissi-Apostolika, N. 1994. Paleoanthropological findings from Theopetra Cave. Unpublished paper, First International Conference on the Palaeolithic of Greece and Adjacent Areas, Ioannina.Google Scholar
Strouhal, E. 1973. Five plastered skulls from Pre-pottery Neolithic B Jericho: anthropological study, Paléorient 1 (2): 231–47.Google Scholar
Talalay, L.E. 1993. Deities, dolls, and devices: Neolithic figurines from Franchthi Cave, Greece. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 9.Google Scholar
Ucko, P.J. 1969. Ethnography and archaeological interpretation of funerary remains, World Archaeology 1: 262–80.Google Scholar
Van Andel, T.H. & Hansen, J.M. 1987. Evolution of the Franchthi landscape, in van Andel & Sutton (1987): 55–62.Google Scholar
Van Andel, T.H., Jacobsen, T.W., Jolly, J.B. & Lianos, N.. 1980. Late Quaternary history of the coastal zone near Franchthi Cave, southern Argolid, Greece, Journal of Field Archaeology 7: 389–402.Google Scholar
Van Andel, T.H. & Shackleton, J.C. 1982. Late Paleolithic and Mesolithic coastlines of Greece and the Aegean, Journal of Field Archaeology 9: 445–54.Google Scholar
Van Andel, T.H. & Sutton, S.B. 1987. Landscape and people of the Franchthi region. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 2.Google Scholar
Van Zeist, W. & Bottema, S. 1982. Vegetational history of the eastern Mediterranean and the Near East during the last 20,000 years, in Bintliff, J.L. & Van Zeist, W. (ed.), Palaeoclimates, palaeo-environments and human communities in the eastern Mediterranean region in later prehistory: 277–321. Oxford: British Archaeological Reports. International series 133.Google Scholar
Villa, P., Helmer, D. & Courtin, J. 1985. Restes osseux et structures d’habitat en grotte: l’apport des remontages dans la Baume Fontbrégoua, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 82: 389–421.Google Scholar
Vitelli, K.D. 1993. Franchthi Neolithic pottery. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 8.Google Scholar
Wace, A.J.B. & Thompson, M.S. 1914. The nomads of the Balkans. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Waldron, T. 1987. The relative survival of the human skeleton: implications for palaeopathology, in Boddington, A. et al. (ed.), Death, decay and reconstruction: 55–64. Manchester: Manchester University Press.Google Scholar
Wells, B., Runnels, C.N. & Zangger, E. 1993. In the shadow of Mycenae, Archaeology 46(1): 54–8, 63.Google Scholar
White, T.D. 1992. Prehistoric cannibalism at Mancos 5MTUMR-2346. Princeton (NJ): Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, T.J. & Duhon, S.T. 1990. Franchthi Paralia: the sediments, stratigraphy, and offshore investigations. Bloomington (IN): Indiana University Press. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece 6.Google Scholar
Wollaston, A.F.R. 1912. Pygmies & Papuans: the Stone Age to-day in Dutch New Guinea. New York (NY): Sturgis & Walton.Google Scholar
Woodburn, J. 1982. Social dimensions of death in four African hunting and gathering societies, in Bloch, M. & Parry, J. (ed.), Death and the regeneration of life: 187–210. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Wright, G.A. 1978. Social differentiation in the early Natufian, in Redman, C.L. et al. (ed.), Social archaeology. 201–23. New York (NY): Academic Press.Google Scholar
Zivanović, S. 1975. A note on the anthropological characteristics of the Padina population, Zeitschrift für Morphologie und Anthropologie 66: 161–75.Google Scholar
Zvelebil, M. (ed.). 1986a. Hunters in transition: Mesolithic societies of temperate Eurasia and their transition to farming. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Zvelebil, M. (ed.). 1986b. Mesolithic prelude and Neolithic revolution, in Zvelebil (1986a): 5–15.Google Scholar
Zvelebil, M. & Rowley-Conwy, P. 1986. Foragers and farmers in Atlantic Europe, in Zvelebil (1986a): 67–93.Google Scholar