Klithi: Palaeolithic settlement and Quaternary landscapes in northwest Greece.
BAR-YOSEF, OFER
GEOFF BAILEY (ed.). Klithi: Palaeolithic settlement and Quaternary landscapes in northwest Greece. xxxiv+699 pages, 418 figures, 193
tables. 1997. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research;
0-9519420-2-6 hardback 70 [pounds sterling].
Everyone who was or is involved in compiling a final site report
will appreciate the work by Geoff Bailey and his 32 associates in
bringing these two impressive volumes to completion. Digging, analysing
and writing comprehensive reports is an ideal hard to achieve. As stated
by Bailey, the pace of each discipline is different, and linking various
studies requires patience with the slowest producer. Finally, however,
this impressive site and regional report is a major addition to Greek
prehistory, and by the same token to European Stone Age research, and
pays tribute `to the memory of Eric Higgs, who started it all'.
The history of research and the aims of the project are clearly
expressed (chapter 1). Two principles guided the investigation, namely,
regional perspective and the study of the sites in their settings. These
created the framework within which past lifeways of foragers in Epirus
were seen as based on seasonal rounds, a model first proposed by Higgs
based on known pastoral groups. Hence, the excavations at Klithi were
aimed at testing the so-called `transhumance hypothesis.' They
lasted, with a few interruptions, from 1983 to 1988.
A major challenge in connection with site catchment analysis was to
reconcile the various types of records (archaeological,
palaeoenvironmental, current landscape) with their chronological
resolutions. The discovery that the Mousterian is much older than
suspected in the 1960s and even the 1970s indicates that the temporal
boundaries are difficult to determine (as is clearly stated by Bailey),
and so the main target became the sites that fall within the Upper
Paleolithic. The particular timeframe within which Klithi and
neighbouring sites and sequences fall (chapter 2) stretches from the
Terminal Pleistocene through the Holocene. Klithi itself was occupied
from about 16,500 to c. 13,500 BP (uncalibrated), with one date within
the Younger Dryas.
The advantages and disadvantages of excavation techniques are
described in chapter 3, as are the drilling trials, followed by a
detailed description of the stratigraphy of the rockshelter (chapter 4).
The density of artefacts and bones per cubic metre and over time are
compared between Klithi, Kastritsa and Asprochaliko, leading to
observations concerning the terms of human occupations. From the rich
lithic assemblages, a few squares were chosen for refitting (chapter 5)
and the results show the expected effects of trampling and movement of
artefacts. These conclusions tie in well with the discussion of recovery
techniques (chapter 6) experimented with at Klithi.
The intra-site analyses (chapters 7-13) are on either complete or
partial subsets of the half-million bones and lithics recovered from the
site. The report on the lithics (chapters 8-9a & b) employs the
descriptive attributes of the concept of chaine operatoire. Various
tables and texts provide information concerning the sources of the raw
materials, procedures of blank production, types of retouched pieces and
the special segmentation technique. Replication experiments demonstrate
the validity of previous observations of the prehistoric pieces.
Preliminary multivariate analysis (chapter 10) indicates that a part of
the assemblage was imported, and other blanks were locally produced from
river pebble as replacements. These observations could be used to
identify the prehistoric routes taken by the foragers. The range of
their activities is reflected in the microwear analysis (chapter 11).
The sampled backed bladelets reveal that they were used as projectile points and barbs. Objects shaped from bone and antler, although not
numerous, consist of common Upper Palaeolithic types. Pierced canine
teeth were present in the lower layers. Other body decorations included
some marine shells. The faunal remains from Klithi are dominated by ibex
and chamois, with a kill pattern aimed at prime age adults. Specialized
hunting is not unknown from other Upper Pleistocene sites, and in the
case of Klithi reflects the craggy environment of the gorge.
Volume 2 moves from the site to its landscape. The Quaternary
geology of the immediate environment of Klithi, the sediments of the
excavated rockshelters, the vegetational history of the area and
archaeological reports from other sites in the gorge form the body of
chapters 16-22. Then, within the generalized model of foragers'
mobility during the Late Glacial, the larger region of Epirus, including
the sites previously excavated by Higgs, are presented in a series of
reports.
The regional chronological scope is longer, beginning with the
basal Mousterian from Asprochaliko, in addition to the surface
Mousterian sites from Epirus. The Mousterian assemblage from
Asprochaliko joins other examples in which blank production is not
dictated by the size of the available raw material. Human agency, it
seems, already played a major role in the Middle Paleaolithic. Chapter
25 describes and compares the Upper Palaeolithic industries from
Asprochaliko, Kastritsa and a sample from Klithi. It demonstrates the
variability in core reduction strategies and the special character of
all the sites in the Voidomatis Gorge area. Differences in the use of
the site between two layers emerged during the refitting study of Upper
Palaeolithic lithics from Kastritsa, the lake-side cave, where caches of
artefacts, hearths and postholes were recognized during the excavations
by Higgs. The shift was from ephemeral and episodic to more intensive
occupations, during which humans invested more energy in the site's
`furnitures'. This part of volume 2 ends with the results of the
overall regional survey.
The final section brings up a variety of subjects pertaining to the
geological history of Epirus (chapter 28), the overall Late Glacial
landscape and vegetation as reconstructed from the detailed analysis of
lake pollen cores (chapter 29), and the Palaeolithic geography of the
region as reflected in the biological and physical components. Site
territorial analysis is achieved through a series of maps and
calculations of animal densities (chapter 30). Seasonal movements
between the highlands and the coastal plain, which represent the pattern
of exploitation, avoid the trap of environmental determinism. This
reconstruction serves as a basis for calculating population size, and
the suggested number is interpreted as representing one `mating
system' of 500-1000 people (or c. 0.12-0.06 individuals per sq. km
of exploitable territory).
Modelling the relationship between plants, animals and people,
chapter 31 stresses the importance of human control over `animal
distribution and the maintenance of spatial patchiness' as support
for the overkill hypothesis. The cultural response to evolving
necessities in the face of shrinking natural resources would lead, under
particular social conditions, to the emergence of cultivation and animal
domestication. The impact of the role of human behaviour on a given
region is further enhanced as the ethnographic data from Epirus is
examined (chapter 32). Patterns of modern transhumance do not replicate
the past, but human concern with physical features is embedded in the
cultural experience.
The final chapter summarizes each aspect of the research and the
lessons that could be learned from the Klithi excavations and the
regional project. Of interest are Bailey's refutations of the
original Higgsian hypothesis concerning the `man-animal'
relationship and the herders' kind of transhumance, as well as his
own predictions concerning the hunted game on the basis of the acquired
evidence. The nature of the excavated sites and the presence or absence
of preserved activity areas are also a warning for future excavators,
although in this domain further emphasis on site formation processes
investigated through micromorphology would have been appropriate. The
chapter follows with sections on regional and inter-regional networks,
and archaeological and palaeo-economic comparisons. It ends with the
question `were the efforts worth it?' Bailey's response,
advocating the value of developing a theory based on the long-term
perspective of the human past as produced by empirical realities of
fieldwork, cognizant of the shortcomings in identifying the individual
(demanded by recently dominant orthodoxies of social and biological
theories), will be applauded by the many of us who share this attitude.
The two volumes are lavishly illustrated, with high-quality
black-and-white pictures, clear maps and diagrams, and technically
informative drawings of stone artefacts.
A short book review can hardly do justice to the richness of the
data sets and in particular to the numerous ideas and avenues of
interpretation expressed in these pages, which, judging from my personal
experience, will benefit many other prehistoric projects.
OFER BAR-YOSEF Peabody Museum, Harvard University
