Neanderthals on Naxos? New work at the early prehistoric chert source of Stélida

Summary

A two-year geo-archaeological survey of the Stélida chert source on Naxos (Cycladic islands) has documented Middle Palaeolithic activity across the site, both near the best quality chert outcrops and in front of two small rockshelters. The material is dominated by products from a discoidal core technology, followed by Levallois flake and blade industries. The assemblage part-relates to the Denticulate Mousterian, which in Greece – along with Levallois technologies – are exclusively related with Neanderthal populations; Stélida arguably provides the first evidence for Neanderthals in the Cyclades.

A key research question is whether this material was the product of intense moments of exploitation or quarrying and knapping activity over the long-term, but precisely dating the material is difficult, with comparanda spanning 250–40 ka. Thus we currently do not know if early hominin visits to the source involved crossing glacial lowstands, or ‘modest seagoing’ from the mainland to the ‘Cycladean’ island mass. With recent Pleistocene sea-level reconstructions suggesting that a landbridge existed between Anatolia and the southern Greek mainland, the Stélida data is also helping us to reconfigure our view of Greece from being a Pleistocene cul-de-sac, or refugium, to potentially a major route in early hominin dispersal.

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This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 80th Annual Meeting, San Francisco, CA (2015)

Keywords

Spatial Coverage