The Diros Project: Multidisciplinary Investigations at Alepotrypa Cave and Ksagounaki Promontory, 2010-2015

Summary

This paper summarizes the results of multidisplinary research conducted by The Diros Project in Diros Bay on the western Mani Peninsula of the southern Peloponnesos. The project centers around Aleptorypa Cave, a massive cave that was used for burials and other ritual and domestic activities throughout the entire Neolithic period (ca. 6,000-4,000 BC). Under the direction of Dr. Giorgos Papathanassopoulos (Honorary Ephor of Antiquities), The Diros Project was established by a team of international researchers in 2010 to catalog and publish the materials that had been excavated from Alepotrypa Cave and to survey Diros Bay in an attempt to place the cave site into a regional context. Excavations also were conducted at the open-air settlement of Ksagounaki Promontory, located adjacent to Alepotrypa Cave, where the team discovered evidence of an extensive settlement and burials that date exclusively to the Final Neolithic period. A rock-built Mycenaean ossuary also was discovered on the promontory, suggesting the locale had retained a special importance into the Bronze Age.

Cite this Record

The Diros Project: Multidisciplinary Investigations at Alepotrypa Cave and Ksagounaki Promontory, 2010-2015. William Parkinson, Anastasia Papathanasiou, Michael Galaty, Daniel Pullen, Giorgos Papathanassopoulos. Presented at The 81st Annual Meeting of the Society for American Archaeology, Orlando, Florida. 2016 ( tDAR id: 403881)

Keywords

General
Greece Neolithic

Geographic Keywords
Europe

Spatial Coverage

min long: -11.074; min lat: 37.44 ; max long: 50.098; max lat: 70.845 ;