The first of two systematic reports on the more than one million sherds of pottery recovered from the Franchthi Cave in Greece. Over two and a quarter metric tons of pottery were recovered from Neolithic deposits at Franchthi and Paralia which will significantly increase our understanding of Neolithic pottery and Neolithic society in southern Greece. Through the development and application of a new system of ceramic classification, this fascile analyzes the pottery from the earlier Neolithic deposits as a direct reflection of the human behavior that produced it. “A highly innovative study that foregrounds the decision-making and technological choices of Neolithic potters.” —Antiquity “Imaginative, rigorous and admirably lucid study.” —Journal of Hellenic Studies

" . . . a highly innovative study that foregrounds the decision-making and technological choices of Neolithic potters . . . " —Antiquity " . . . imaginative, rigorous and admirably lucid study." —Journal of Hellenic Studies The first of two systematic reports on the more than one million sherds of pottery recovered from the Franchthi Cave and Paralia which will significantly increase our understanding of Neolithic pottery and Neolithic society in southern Greece. Illustrated.

The second of two systematic reports on the more than one million sherds of pottery recovered from the Franchthi Cave in Greece. Over two and a quarter metric tons of pottery were recovered from Neolithic deposits at Franchthi and Paralia which will significantly increase our understanding of Neolithic pottery and Neolithic society in southern Greece. Through the development and application of a new system of ceramic classification, this fascile analyzes the pottery from the earlier Neolithic deposits as a direct reflection of the human behavior that produced it. “A highly innovative study that foregrounds the decision-making and technological choices of Neolithic potters.” —Antiquity “Imaginative, rigorous and admirably lucid study.” —Journal of Hellenic Studies

This fascicle completes the presentation of the ceramic remains from the Franchthi Cave excavations.

This fascicle is the thirteenth in the series of Level One publications of the excavations at Franchthi Cave and is the third and final installment of the report on the site's chipped stone industries. The objective of Catherine Perlès's study is to make sense of the chronology of the site in its economic, technological, and typological dimensions. All phases of the Neolithic are represented at Franchthi Cave. Rich with more than 3,000 reconstructed pieces, this study offers a representative and technical typology that is unequaled today. The first part of the analysis offers diagnostic elements to facilitate comparisons between the lithic sequence and surface dating and is more descriptive than interpretive. The second part is dedicated to a step-by-step analysis of the Franchthi material in a well-defined chrono-stratigraphical framework. The third and most interpretive portion of the study addresses itself more specifically to those who are interested in the socio-economic organizational problems of Neolithic societies. Excavations at Franchthi Cave, Greece—Thomas W. Jacobsen, editor, with Karen D. Vitelli

The famous Franchthi Cave excavations in Greece brought to light an exceptionally long sequence of ornaments, spanning from the earliest Upper Paleolithic to the end of the Neolithic. This volume focuses on the Neolithic, whose assemblages are far more diversified than those of earlier times. The introduction during the Neolithic of entirely artificial shapes, geometric and anthropomorphic, creates a marked departure from earlier periods and shows new directions in creativity by the bead makers. It also denotes a conceptual break in the treatment of shell, no longer solely a natural element barely modified by perforation, but now also a raw material rendered anonymous by workmanship. Due to the systematic sieving of the sediments and its location by the sea, the Franchthi cave and its outdoor settlement, the Paralia, yielded one of the richest collection of ornaments for Neolithic Greece.

“Presents detailed descriptions of the physical and depositional characteristics, strata, and radiocarbon chronology of Franchthi.” —Journal of Anthropological Research This fascicle describes the background of the Franchthi project and its excavation history and methodology. Particle size, mineralogy, and chemistry are all taken into consideration as the cultural remains and the sediments from the cave are analyzed to determine their origin and history. William Farrand constructs an integrated stratigraphy for the entire cave using excavators’ notes, laboratory analyses, and personal field data to correlate sequences in separate trenches. On the basis of some 60 radiocarbon dates, the evolution and chronology of the sedimentary fill is postulated.

A report on the prehistoric ceramic figurines recovered from the Franchthi Cave in Greece. Talalay reports on a small body of figurines (twenty-four figurines and twenty-one fragments) recovered during excavations at Franchthi Cave and at the nearby open-air settlement along the present shoreline. She also reexamines the theoretical and methodological foundations of scholarship in the field of figurine studies. A thorough and pathfinding study of the most important body of figurines from southern Greece, this book will be especially valuable to specialists in prehistoric Greece and to all scholars interested in early representations of the human figure in prehistoric art and in the significance of these representations to the members of early human communities. The book also makes a contribution to the growing body of literature on gender in early societies with a critical evaluation of the uses of evidence in addressing gender issues.

This volume explores the myriad ways in which pottery was created, utilized, and experienced in the prehistoric Aegean, across a period of more than 4000 years between the Middle Neolithic and the Early Iron Age transition.