Dispilio
Encyclopedia
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
lakeshore settlement that occupied an artificial island near the modern village of Dispilio on Lake Orestiada
Lake Orestiada
Lake Orestiada or Lake Kastoria is a lake in the Kastoria Prefecture of Macedonia, northwestern Greece. Sitting at an altitude of 630 meters, the lake covers an area of 28 square kilometers....
in Kastoria Prefecture
Kastoria Prefecture
Kastoria is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the region of West Macedonia. Its capital is the town of Kastoria.-Geography:...
, Macedonia
Macedonia (Greece)
Macedonia is a geographical and historical region of Greece in Southern Europe. Macedonia is the largest and second most populous Greek region...
, Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
.
The lake settlement was discovered during the dry winter of 1932, which lowered the lake level and revealed traces of the settlement. A preliminary survey was made in 1935 by Antonios Keramopoulos
Antonios Keramopoulos
Antonios Keramopoulos was a Greek archaeologist. He conducted numerous excavations studying Mycenean and classical Greek antiquities during the early 20th century, including excavations at the Agora of Athens and at the palace of Mycenae. He also wrote studies about later Greek history...
. Excavations began in 1992, led by George Hourmouziadis
George Hourmouziadis
George Hourmouziadis is a Greek archaeologist and Professor Emeritus of prehistoric archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. He led excavations in many prehistoric settlements in Thessaly and Macedonia and on 1992 he started the excavation of the neolithic lakeside settlement of...
, professor of prehistoric archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
The Aristotle University of Thessaloniki is the largest Greek university, and the largest university in the Balkans. It was named after the philosopher Aristotle, who was born in Stageira, Chalcidice, about 55 km east of Thessaloniki, in Central Macedonia...
. The site's paleoenvironment, botany, fishing techniques, tools and ceramics were published informally in the June 2000 issue of Επτάκυκλος, a Greek archaeology magazine and by Hourmouziadis in 2002. A recreation of the lake dwellers' settlement has been erected near the site to attract tourists from Greece and abroad.
The site appears to have been occupied over a long period, from the final stages of the Middle Neolithic
Neolithic
The Neolithic Age, Era, or Period, or New Stone Age, was a period in the development of human technology, beginning about 9500 BC in some parts of the Middle East, and later in other parts of the world. It is traditionally considered as the last part of the Stone Age...
(5600-5000 BC) to the Final Neolithic (3000 BC). A number of items were found, including ceramics, wooden structural elements, seeds, bones, figurines, personal ornaments, flutes (one of them dating back to the 6th millennium BCE, the oldest ever found in Europe) and what appears to be the most significant finding, the inscribed Dispilio Tablet
Dispilio Tablet
The Dispilio Tablet is a wooden tablet bearing inscribed markings , unearthed during George Hourmouziadis's excavations of Dispilio in Greece and carbon 14-dated to about 7300 BP...
.
Further reading
- G. H. Hourmouziadis, ed., Dispilio, 7500 Years After. Thessaloniki, 2002.
- G. H. Hourmouziadis, Ανασκαφής Εγκόλπιον. Athens, 2006.
External links
- Dispilio Excavations Official Website, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece
- Dispilio, Exhibition of prehistoric finds
- The excavation's journal, Anaskamma, is available at anaskamma.wordpress.com