Changing Landscapes: Settlement Strategies, Cultural Dynamics, and Material Evidence on Kos, Dodecanese, during the Final Neolithic and the Bronze Age

Summary

Landscape as a concept incorporates not simply the geographic and environmental characteristics of an area, but also the cultural and symbolic value vested in places. Understanding the relationship of these factors, which are often closely linked, to past societies remains a challenge in archaeology. In this paper, we attempt to reconstruct the Final Neolithic (FN) through Bronze Age landscape on the island of Kos, Dodecanese, and investigate its cultural meaning to the prehistoric peoples. We combine environmental methodologies, using GIS to examine the relationship of topography, viewsheds, vegetation, and resource distribution to site location, with the analysis of significant changes in the material cultural assemblage. Our results identify shifts in occupation patterns from sparse upland settings in the FN and the Early Bronze Age (EBA) 1-2 phases to a nucleated center in the coastal plain beginning in EBA 3. In addition, changes in ceramic repertoire, fabric mixes, and technology, as well as in ceremonial and burial practices, demonstrate a parallel shift in the perception of landscape through time. Cultural contact and a growing participation in wider regional trade networks are considered factors contributing to this changing view and use of the Koan landscape.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 83rd Annual Meeting, Washington, DC (2018)

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Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 22002