Communities in Transition. The Circum-Aegean Area in the 5th and 4th Millennia BC

616 pp, color and b/w figures, hb, in English.

Communities in Transition brings together scholars from different countries and backgrounds united by a common interest in the transition between the Neolithic and the Early Bronze Age in the lands around the Aegean.  Neolithic community was transformed, in some places incrementally and in others rapidly, during the 5th and 4th millennia BC into one that we would commonly associate with the Bronze Age. Many different names have been assigned to this period: Final Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Eneolithic, Late Neolithic [I]-II, Copper Age  which, to some extent, reflects the diversity of archaeological evidence from varied geographical regions. During this long heterogeneous period developments occurred that led to significant changes in material culture, the use of space, the adoption of metallurgical practices, establishment of far-reaching interaction and exchange networks, and increased social complexity. The 5th to 4th millennium BC transition is one of inclusions, entanglements, connectivity, and exchange of ideas, raw materials, finished products and, quite possibly, worldviews and belief systems. Most of the papers presented here are multifaceted and complex in that they do not deal with only one topic or narrowly focus on a single line of reasoning or dataset. Arranged geographically they explore a series of key themes: Chronology, cultural affinities, and synchronization in  material culture; changing social structure and economy; inter- and intra-site space use and settlement patterns, caves and include both site reports and regional studies.
 

Table of Contents

I. PREFACE
Acknowledgements
 
INTRODUCTION
 
II. INTRODUCTORY AND OVERARCHING STUDIES

• C. Renfrew / Inventing the Final Neolithic              
• K. Kotsakis / Transformation and changes at the end of the Neolithic  
• W.A. Parkinson, W.P. Ridge & A. Gyucha / Village nucleation and centralization in the Later Neolithic of Southeastern Europe:  a long-term, comparative approach   
• I. Aslanis / Greece in the fifth and fourth millennia B.C.: searching for the ‘missing’ fourth millennium. A new approach.
• J.E. Coleman & Y. Facorellis / The shadowy “Proto-Early Bronze Age” in the Aegean
• M. Mina / Casting doubts on metallurgy and the transition to social complexity: the evidence  from the Aegean.

 III. THE BALKANS

• A. Kapuran, A. Bulatovic & D. Milanovic / Settlement pattern changes during the central Balkan Copper Age     
• I. Merkyte / Modeling the black box. Bulgaria in the 4th millennium BC
• P. Georgieva / Possible approaches to tracing the fate of the population of the Varna, Kodjadermen- Gumelnita-Karanovo VI and Krivodol-Salcuta Cultures.
• P. Georgieva, M. Popova & V. Danov / Kozareva Mogila, a settlement and a necropolis from the west Black Sea region.
• K. Boyadzhiev & Y. Boyadzhiev / Chalcolithic settlement at Varhari: one production and trade center in the Eastern Rhodope Mountains.               
• V. Matsanova & T. Mishina / The Latest Late Chalcolithic settlement at tell Yunatsite
• S. Terzijska-Ignatova / Late Chalcolithic cult tables from tell Yunatsite, Bulgaria
• M. Kufel & L.Pospieszny / Rethinking the absolute chronology of South-Eastern Balkans in the later half of the  5th and in the 4th millennium BC.
• A. Reingruber / Graphite and carbon: relative and absolute chronology between the Aegean and the Black Sea in the 5th millennium BC.            
• I. Gatsov & P. Nedelcheva / The lithic technology on the territory between Lower Danube and Marmara region - 6 th - 5th millenium BC               
• C. Oberweiler, G. Touchais &  P. Lera / Synchronization of the Albanian and north Aegean Late Neolithic periods. New data  from the lakeside dwelling of Kallamas (Albania)

IV.  NORTH GREECE AND THESSALY

• Z. Tsirtsoni, P. Darcque, H. Koukouli-Chryssanthaki, D. Malamidou & R. Treui. / The chronological and social dimensions of the Late Neolithic I-II and the Late  Neolithic-Early Bronze Age transitions in a long-lived settlement in northern  Greece (Dikili Tash, Kavala district).           
• M. Pappa / Transformations of space in the Late Neolithic settlements of northern Greece.
• E. Alram-Stern / Visviki Magoula, Thessaly. Reconsidering cultural change from the Arapi to the Dimini phase.
• N. Kyparissi-Apostolika / The role of Theopetra cave in Thessaly Greece, at the end of the Neolithic. Habitual or symbolic use?           
• S. Katsarou-Tzeveleki / Beyond transition: tracing eventfulness behind the Middle Neolithic-Late Neolithic ceramic divide.
• S. Nanoglou / The beast with many heads: assembling bodies and changing history in the fifth millennium BC.

V.  WEST, CENTRAL AND SOUTH GREECE

• J. Bintliff & K. Sarri / Demographic Transitions from the Earlier Neolithic Stages until the first Early BronzeAge Settlements in the Plains and Hill-Country of Boeotia, Greece.       
• A. Sampson and V. Mastrogiannopoulou / Late Neolithic traditions. New evidence from the cave of Sarakenos, Kopais.   
• L. Karali, F. Mavridis & D. Lambropoulos / Lion’s Cave, Hymettus Mountain, Attica: figurines, structures and  material culture associations.
• A. Mari / The Later Neolithic use of the cave Oinoe IV, at Marathon (Attica, Greece): preliminary report.
• M. Nazou / The end of the Neolithic in eastern Attica: new data from Kontra Gliate (Kiapha Thiti) and Thorikos Mine 3.
• S. Dietz &  P. Bangsgaard / The Kastria/Pangali group and the beginning of the Chalcolithic in Southern Greece.
• G. Stratouli & O. Metaxas / Reading social changes in the Late Neolithic/Final Neolithic transition at Drakaina Cave, Kephalonia, W. Greece                
• D. J. Pullen / Caves and the landscape of Late Neolithic – Early Helladic I Greece: comparing  excavation and survey data from the Peloponnese..
• W. Gauss / New evidence for the beginning of habitation at Aigeira / Achaia (Greece).   
• C. Perlès / Stones, pots… and now ornaments: revisiting the MN/LN and the LN/FN transitions at Franchthi.
• J. Rambach / The EH I cemetery in Kalyvia in ancient Elis.          
• D. Riebe / Long-distance exchange of melian obsidian: diachronic changes at the cave site of  Alepotrypa, Greece.

VI. AEGEAN ISLANDS, CRETE AND CYPRUS

• S. Papadopoulos, O. Palli, S. Vakirtzi & E. Psathi / Aghios Ioannis, Thasos: the economy of a small coastal site dated to the second half of the fourth millenium BC.                
• B. Erdoğu / Neolithic to Chalcolithic transition in the Island of Gökçeada (Imbros).    
• Z. Tankosic / Land Management in the Final Neolithic/Early Bronze Age? Some tantalizing indications from Southern Euboea.
• F. Mavridis / The Later Neolithic cultures of the Aegean archipelago with special reference to the  Cyclades. Connecting strategies of space use.          
• C. A. Televantou / Strofilas, Andros. New perspectives on the Neolithic Aegean.         
• M. Georgiadis / The LN and FN phases on Kos and the Alasarna settlement pattern.

CRETE

• K. Nowicki / Settlement patterns and social organization in Crete during the Final Neolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Age (ca. 3700-3000 BC).
• T. Carter / The introduction of pressure blade technologies into Crete in the late 4th  millennium BC: where, how and to what end?  
• S. Di Tonto / The earliest phase of the FN at Phaistos in a wider Cretan context: new perspectives.
• S. Todaro / The FN-EM I transition in south-central Crete: new data from Phaistos.
• K. Kopaka & E. Theou / Gavdos or living on the southernmost Aegean island in the Neolithic cultural horizons.

CYPRUS

• E. Peltenburg / The entry of Cyprus into the circum-Aegean world and the growth of  regionalism on the island.                     
• I. Voskos / Rethinking the ‘Cypriot paradox’: socio-economic change in Late Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cyprus.

VII.  WEST ANATOLIA.

• T. Takaoğlu & A. Özdemir / The Middle Chalcolithic Period in the Troad: a new look from Gülpınar.
• T. Takaoğlu & A.O. Bamyacı / On the marble conical rhyta: new evidence from Yeşiltepe in West Anatolian hinterland.
• Z. Derin & T. Caymaz / The Chalcolithic period at Yeşilova Höyük.            
• Ö. Çevik / What follows the Late Neolithic occupation in Central-Western Anatolia ? A view from Ulucak.
• R. Tuncel & V. Şahoğlu / The Chalcolithic of coastal Western Anatolia: a view from Liman Tepe, Izmir.   
• B. Horejs & Ch. Schwall / Interaction as a stimulus? Çukuriçi Höyük and the transition from the Late Chalcolithic period to the Early Bronze Age in Western Anatolia.
• S. Günel / The prehistoric culture in Çine-Tepecik and its contribution to the archaeology of the region.
• T. Korkut, G. Isin & T. Takaoğlu / Cave habitations in Chalcolithic Lycia. The case of Tavabasi Cave at Tlos.    
• A. Umut Turkcan / At the crossroads. Changing Chalcolithic settlement patterns in Phrygia, Eskisehir.  

VIII. BIBLIOGRAPHY