Palaeolithic in the Argolid

Author(s): Perry A. Bialor and Michael H. Jameson

Source: American Journal of Archaeology, Vol. 66, No. 2 (Apr., 1962), pp. 181-182
Published by: Archaeological Institute of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/502581
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 Notes
Archaeological
PALAEOLITHIC IN THE ARGOLID1
PLATES 49-50
Evidence of the palaeolithic period in Greece was
for long unknown and remains little known today.
In 1941 Rudolf Stampfuss excavated the "Seidi" cave
on the south side of the Copaic basin in Boeotia,
where he found plentiful examples of a blade industry
which he assigned to the end of the Upper Palaeo-
lithic (roughly between 30,000 and 15,000 years ago).2
In 1958 the German Archaeological Institute in Athens
investigated the rubble river banks cut through by the
Penaios west of Larissa in Thessaly. Some 250 stone
tools together with worked bones were found in four-
teen locations. The finds, published by Vladimir
Milojci6, include examples of a Middle Palaeolithic
flake industry of Levalloisian type (roughly 120,ooo-
70,000 years old) and an Upper Palaeolithic blade
industry of Aurignacian type (roughly 70,000-50,000
years old).3 In i96o Jean Servais of the French School
in Athens found four pieces of worked red flint 4 km.
west of Neochori towards Kastron (Castel Tornese)
in Elis. They were found by chance in sandy deposits
of a blowout or eroded area about 2 m. below the
present surface of a small valley, some 2 km. from the
sea. M. Servais3a has kindly permitted us to describe
the implements. Two are flake points, apparently of
Levalloiso-Mousterian technique, one with faceted plat-
form and one without. The most finely worked is
the flake point with plain platform; it is leaf-shaped
with considerable secondary retouch concentrated par-
ticularly along one curving edge and at the point.4
The other two artifacts are a flake and a blade-like
flake with signs of use. The finds seem to indicate
the presence of a Middle Palaeolithic flake industry
in the western Peloponnesos, as well as in Thessaly.
In view of this scanty evidence it has seemed worth-
while to publish a description of a flake point of
Levalloisian type, found by Jameson in July of 1958
in the valley of Riniza in the Argolid, and now in
the Nauplion museum. Subsequent exploration of a
number of nearby caves by Jameson and Bialor in
1959 proved negative for palaeolithic remains, though
1 We are indebted to Professor J. L. Caskey for the photo-
graphs of the Riniza stone and for his interest in our venture. Balkanhalbinsel,"Germania,Anzeiger der r6misch-germanischen
ProfessorI. Papademetriou,Dr. N. I. Verdelis, and Mr. Michales Kommission des Deutschen archdologischen
Papavasileiou of Hermione facilitated our work in every way. 319-24. The suggested example of a single flake implement
The costs of the cave explorations were met by the Committee from an Early Palaeolithic ("Acheulean")
on the Advancement of Research of the University of Pennsyl- doubtful. MilojEi6 also speaks of some mesolithic
vania while our presence in Greece was made possible by the the dump of a Hellenistic burial, but
American Philosophical Society (Bialor) and the Bollingen described.
Foundation (Jameson); to all we express our appreciation.
2 "Die ersten altsteinzeitlichen H6hlenfunde in Griechenland,"
Mannus, Zeitschrift fiir Deutsche Vorgeschichte, 34 (1942)
132-47.
providing interesting evidence of pleistocene fauna.
To a description of the stone, we append a description
of the area and an account of the caves and their
fossils.
The implement (pl. 49, figs. 1-4) is apparently a
Levalloiso-Mousterian flake point of a dense, dull
black flint. The striking platform is multiply faceted.
The dorsal face has two main longitudinal facets and
several transverse facets with none of the sources of
origin of the blows present. The edges have a some-
what irregular but continuous vertical retouch which,
however, leaves the side edges rather notched and
trims the tip to a medial point. The bulbar face has
not been retouched and the bulb of percussion, though
prominent, is not very bulging. The implement is
widest and thickest at its bulbar end, narrowing only
slightly until near the tip end, then narrowing sharply
by straight diagonals to the point. The tool is intact.
Dimensions, 0.053 m. x 0.036 m. x 0.013 m.
The stone was found on the surface in a field in
the small valley of Riniza some 13 km. due north of
Hermione (see pl. 49, fig. 5 and plan, pl. 50, fig. 6).
About five minutes south of the place of finding there
is a good spring. The valley lies on the eastern slopes
of the mountain known as Megalovouni or Didymo,
1,1I3 m., the highest point in this part of the Argolid.
Geologically, the eastern end of the Argolid consists
of a range of schist known as Adheres, joining near
Riniza the limestone of the greater part of the peninsula
including Megalovouni. Riniza is bounded to the north
and northeast by schist with limestone outcroppings,
to the southeast, south, and west by limestone. The
surface of the valley itself consists of a deposit of
quaternary alluvium. The valley is near the watershed
and the probable border of the ancient territories of
Hermione (to the south), Troizen (to the east), and
Epidauros (to the northwest). The stream in the
valley flows south into the Hermionid, but about I km.
to the north there begins a steep valley with a stream
flowing northeast into the Saronic gulf, and further
to the northwest begins the descent to the Bedeni
valley with its stream flowing west into the Argolic
gulf. Riniza is thus on an easy route from the north-
west and northeast of the Argolid to the south. At
3 "Die neuen mittel- und
altpalHolithischenFunde von der
Instituts, 36 (1958)
industry is very
pieces from
they are not further
sa "Outils paleolithiques d'tlide," BCH 85
(i96I) I-9.
4 Cf. Miloji'i, op.cit. (supra, n. 3), pl. 37 (facing page 321),
N. 5. With the other point, cf. ibid. pl. 37, N. 2.

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 182 AMERICAN JOURNAL
the present time it belongs to Loukaiti, primarily a
herding village, about 4 km. to the south on the edge
of the plateau of Iliokastron (Karakazi).5
Eight caves or shelters in the vicinity were investi-
gated in 1959. Two are adjoining caves known as
tou Phournou (to the north) and Ktiste (to the south),
about 15 minutes south of the spring, below lime-
stone cliffs on the east side of the valley and above a
talus slope falling to the stream bed (pl. 49, figs. 7,
8, and 9). They measure about 6 m. wide by 6 m.
deep, and 12 m. wide by 8 m. deep, respectively, at
standing height. In both caves, below a thin layer
of dung and ash there was a compacted deposit of
lumps of limestone and unworked red flint, no doubt
fallen from the cave walls, together with much fossil-
ized bone in a hard matrix of red-brown earth. The
deposit reached a maximum depth of just under a
meter (in tou Phournou). No evidence of man was ob-
served below the surface layer, and none whatsoever
of palaeolithic man. The caves are relatively dry and
have probably been used for temporary shelter from
Neolithic or Early Bronze Age times to the present
day, to judge from a fragment of a black flint trim-
ming blade with transverse flaking on both main facets
(pl. 49, fig. io), and another flint fragment, both
found on the slope below the caves, and from coarse
sherds found in the surface layer.
The fossils from the two caves, together with others
from the stalactite cave known as Spelaia tou Pro, an
hour away to the northwest and much higher up on
the slopes of Megalovouni, are being studied by Pro-
fessor Maximos K. Mitzopoulos and his associates of
the Geological Laboratory of the University of Athens.
He has already identified one tooth as that of Crocuta
crocuta spelaea, the extinct pleistocene cave hyena who
here makes her first recorded appearance in Greece."
Mitzopoulos would date the fossil deposit in the caves
to the period from the latest Cromer up to Wiirm,
i.e. roughly 300,000 to ioo,ooo years ago. Thus the
hyenas are likely to have disappeared before the arrival
of the maker of the flake, though they are possibly
contemporary.
A third cave, tou Roumeliote, high up in the lime-
stone cliff on the west side of the Riniza valley about
35 minutes to the northwest of the first two caves, is
smaller but dry and was also used as a shelter. The
deposit, below the loose surface layer, consisted of a
dry, hard yellow earth with few bones and nondescript
sherds to a depth of about half a meter. Here there
was no sign of pleistocene fauna. A fourth cave, tou
5 For the geography of the region see further, Alfred Philipp-
son, Der Peloponnes (Berlin 1892) 49; A. Philippson and
Ernst Kirsten, Die griechische LandschaftenIII: Der Peloponnes
I (Frankfurt am Main 1959) Io9ff, with Abb. 4. The most
detailed geological map is in G. Aronis, "Geologikai kai
Koitasmatologikai Ereunai eis Metallophoron Periokhen
Ermiones," in Geologikai kai Geophysikai Meletai (Athens
1951) 153-88 (with a summary in English).
6 M. K.
Mitzopoulos, "0ber den ersten Nachweis einer
Pleistozanen Hyaene in Griechenland," Annales Geologiques
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OF ARCHAEOLOGY [AIA 66
Gorgoula, about half an hour to the south and east
of the Riniza valley, had a deposit of about half a
meter of calcined and very friable brown earth, per-
haps the result of many fires on the limestone bedrock.
The deposit was sterile except for a single unidenti-
fiable sherd. Similar conditions were found in two rock
shelters to the north and south of Riniza. The remain-
ing two caves examined were unsuitable for habita-
tion: Kotinas, a large limestone sink hole in the ridge
to the west of the ancient kastron of Iliokastron, and
tou Doulzou, a low, damp cave about 2 km. to the
northwest of Hermione; a pyramidical spindle whorl
found outside the latter suggests the ancient as well
as modern use of the cave as a shelter for flocks.
It is improbable that the caves in the vicinity of
Riniza were regularly inhabited by palaeolithic man.
It may be significant that the finds of the German
Institute in Thessaly and of Servais in Elis, also of
Levalloisian type, were not apparently associated with
caves and shelters. The Seidi cave in Boeotia contained
Upper, not Middle, Palaeolithic remains. In sum, at
present there is evidence of Middle Palaeolithic flake
industries that may be conventionally described as
Levalloisian or Levalloiso-Mousterian in Thessaly, Elis,
and the Argolid, while Upper Palaeolithic is known
in Thessaly and Boeotia. A great deal more is to be
learned about the palaeolithic in Greece. For the
Middle Palaeolithic progress is likely to depend, as it
has hitherto, on chance discoveries but a greater aware-
ness of the period can put such discoveries to good
account.7
PERRY A. BIALOR
H. JAMESON
MICHAEL
ATHENS
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA
THE AEGINA TREASURE
PLATES 51-54
The gold ornaments of the Aegina treasure, offered
to the British Museum in 1891 by an importer of
sponges, were purchased in 1892 and published in the
JHS 1893 (i95ff) by Sir Arthur Evans. He traced
the locale of discovery to a Mycenaean cemetery on
the island but allocated the treasure to the eighth or
ninth centuries B.C. Recently R. A. Higginst has re-
ferred the hoard to the Late Minoan I period, 1580-
1500 B.c. Others on the basis of stylistic traits have
dated the gold work in the seventh century B.c.2
des Pays Helliniques 1I (196o) 293-96.
7Mention should be made of an important recent develop-
ment-the finding in October, I96o, of a Neanderthal skull in
the Clemoutsi cave in Chalkidiki (Kathimerini, Jan. 22, 1961;
Vima, Feb. 5, 1961). A report is soon to be published in
L'Anthropologie.
1 BSA 52 (1957) 42ff.
2 E.g. G. Becatti,
Oreficerie Antiche dalle Minoiche aile
Barberiche (Rome 1955) pl. xxv.
 BIALOR AND JAMESON PLATE 49

GFIG. 2

FIG.
I Photographs of flake point from Riniza FIG. 3a

Flc. 3b
-

FIG. IO. Fragment of

trimming blade from
FIG. 4. Drawing of the point, slope below
slope below cave, I

FIG. 5. View of Riniza valley from south FIG. 7. Tou Phournou and Ktiste caves from west

FIG. 8. Entrance of tou Pkournou FIG. 9. Ktiste

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 MT. ORTHOLITHI

POROS

TROIZEN

MT. DIDYMO RINIZA

ILIOXA
STRON

IRANIDI
o HERMIONE

sE L J L L
L
o
SPETSAI

FIc. 6. Plan of southeastern end of the Argolid

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