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Dating Knossos and the arrival of the earliest Neolithic in the southern Aegean

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2017

Katerina Douka ,
Nikos Efstratiou ,
Mette Marie Hald ,
Peter Steen Henriksen  and
Alexandra Karetsou
Katerina Douka*
Affiliation:
Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX2 0AG, UK
Nikos Efstratiou
Affiliation:
Department of Archaeology, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Thessaloniki 540 06, Greece
Mette Marie Hald
Affiliation:
Environmental Archaeology and Materials Science, National Museum of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Peter Steen Henriksen
Affiliation:
Environmental Archaeology and Materials Science, National Museum of Denmark, 2800 Kongens Lyngby, Denmark
Alexandra Karetsou
Affiliation:
Ephorate of Antiquities, Ministry of Culture, 2 J. Hadjidaki Street, 71202, Herakleion, Greece
*
*Author for correspondence (Email: [email protected])
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Abstract

Knossos, on Crete, has long been famous both for its Minoan period remains and for the presence, at the base of the stratigraphy, of an early Neolithic settlement. The chronology and development of the Neolithic settlement, however, have hitherto been unclear. New light is now thrown on this formative period by combining new and older radiocarbon dates with contextual information in a Bayesian modelling framework. The results from Crete and western Anatolia suggest that an earlier, small-scale Aceramic colonisation preceded the later Neolithic reoccupation of Knossos.

Keywords

AegeanKnossosNeolithicearly farmerssea-faringradiocarbon dating
Type
Research
Information
Antiquity , Volume 91 , Issue 356 , April 2017 , pp. 304 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd, 2017 

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