Koukounaries 1999 Overview

The Neolithic and Early Cycladic Settlement at Koukounaries, Paros, Cyclades
Intra-site analysis and outside contacts
Stella Katsarou

Koukounaries is a rocky, granite hill, rising 75 m. above sea level. It is situated just next to the water, in the great sheltered bay of Naousa, at the northern part of the island of Paros, Cyclades, Greece (Figs. 1, 2, 3). The siting is dominating a valley and river ending up to the bay, and is in close proximity to a freshwater spring. The site was excavated between 1976 and 1992 by Prof. D. U. Schilardi, who brought to light a renowned Mycenean citadel and parts of settlement and sanctuaries of Geometric and Archaic date. At several parts of the hill however the Mycenean and later remains are underlied by earlier occupation layers, dating back from the Neolithic to the Early Bronze Age, thus between the 5th and the 3rd mil. B.C.

Most part of this pre-Mycenean material is located at the extended plateau (the so-called Lower Plateau) lying at the same hill, but at lower elevation and to the east of the peak (Fig. 4) where the Mycenean Mansion and fortification walls stand. Another part of evidence on the pre-Mycenean occupation, though fragmented, is also present below the Mansion itself, whose settlers seem to have seriously disturbed the earlier occupation levels.

The Neolithic and Early Bronze Age material consists of several architectural evidence, such as stone foundations and post holes of houses made of perishable materials, also occupation floors and hearths, all of them rich in pottery and chipped stone flakes and tools implying two main occupation phases for the early settlement (Fig. 5): Late Neolithic Ib/II (second half of 5th to 4th mil. B.C.), and Early Cycladic IIa (early 3rd mil. B.C).

Koukounaries in the Late Neolithic
Most Late Neolithic evidence comes from the Lower Plateau, which preserves a high accumulation of deposits of all periods in good stratigraphic sequence. The area was excavated in 17 trenches (Fig. 6 a and b), and revealed a rich Neolithic horizon within the depth of 1,00 to 1,50/1,70 m., overlied by a thin Early Cycladic deposit, and thick layers of Mycenean and post-Mycenean age. The Neolithic horizon consists of various thin layers of small extent and horizontal position, ‘cutting’ at places a homogeneous stratum of brownish color, with high concentration of rocks, which covers most part of the centre and western area of the plateau and is strongly inclined to the south. It seems therefore that the Neolithic population of Koukounaries created habitation terraces by leveling, at places, the sloppy plateau to live on. The Neolithic deposits sit on top of the natural granite bedrock partly covered with big outcrops owed to the erosion of both the Lower Plateau and the higher plateaus of the same hill.

Finds are of a clear domestic use, such as pottery and tools from chipped obsidian. The abundance of chipped fragments suggests that the Neolithic settlers imported Melian obsidian in bulky cores and worked the material in situ to produce long bladed tools, leaf-shaped points and triangle arrowheads for hunting and fishing. The presence of bones suggest that the diet of the Neolithic settlers of Koukounaries depended highly on domesticated animals, on game and on marine resources, although the latter (fish and shellfish) did not seem to contribute significantly. The Neolithic inhabitants of Koukounaries produced coarse wares by using local clay fabrics as suggested by the macroscopic examination of the tempers, reflecting a rather utilitarian use intended to fulfill practical needs, such as the preparation and storage of foodstuffs. They also created pottery shapes found commonly in other Late Neolithic sites of the Aegean, such as large and shallow basins with perforated rims for drying fruits, broad-mouthed jars, as well as a broad variety of open vases. They used common decoration patterns, such as ‘elephant’ lugs on the walls of open bowls, mastoid lugs at their upper part of strip handles applied on bigger vases, or various types of incised, roped or applied patterns on rims and walls. Finally they did use slips and pigments of reddish orange or brown color on a small number of their vases, sometimes with patterned decoration (Fig. 7).

The presence of the lower part of a marble figurine representing a typical Neolithic type of ‘fat lady’ is totally consistent with the domestic character of the site, which should also have been rich in symbolic features, apart from the absolutely practical and utilitarian objects it was equipped with.

Koukounaries in the Early Bronze Age
After the end of the Neolithic, Koukounaries enters a transitional period, during which it seems to be visited scarcely only at the area of the peak, where some pottery shapes of a sub-neolithic character come from. This hiatus in permanent occupation occuring roughly between the mid- or late 4th and the early 3rd mil. B.C. falls well into the pattern of discontinuity in settlement so far attested by the data collected from all Cyclades. When the hill of Koukounaries was reoccupied on a settlement basis around 2800 B.C., it must have been a small number of families who had settled the area and had dispersed all over the lower plateaus of the hill, but mainly at the plateau of the very peak.

The stone foundations of a building of that date were brought to light at the eastern most fringe of the Upper Plateau. The walls were more solidly built compared to any other evidence of pre-Mycenean structure on the hill, and disposed of narrow rooms at the lower part, probably for storage use. The quality of the construction and the debris of small slabs and other stones excavated out of the interior of the house suggest that a stone superstructure of some height have existed, probably in combination with some lighter materials.

Pottery is again of domestic character as in the antecedent settlement, including well dated shapes and decoration patterns typically representing the period (Fig. 8). Clay fabrics were still local, but differed from the neolithic ceramics in terms of tempering choices and firing conditions which now seem to have been improved. As for their diet, Koukounaries settlers depended on agriculture and husbandry, while there is poorer evidence on fishing and hunting activities. A local tool industry fabricated obsidian blades out of big unworked cores imported from Melos.

Among other small finds, four parts of marble figurines of Keros-Syros culture (Fig. 8b-d) were collected within the debris below the Mycenean Mansion.

The position of Koukounaries in the Aegean prehistory
The site of Koukounaries provides us with a typical example of the island settlement pattern developed in the Cyclades in the Neolithic and the beginning of the Bronze Age (Figs. 9, 10), probably with deep roots as backwards as in the Cycladic Mesolithic. High rocky hills or low promontories projecting into or dominating well sheltered bays, usually with a northern orientation, good access in arable lands and herding areas, and immediate proximity to freshwater springs are the basic features of setting the Cycladians were attracted of.

Settlers in both periods consisted of a rather small number of families basing their subsistence on the exploitation of the local ecology. Their domestic space is characterized by small houses made of stone, straw-tempered clay and timberwork, equipped with functional material tools, such as wares for the cooking, serving and storing of the foodstuffs, and all implements of chipped and polished stone and bone.

The preference of the settlers for coastal locations testifies to the gravity the sea had in their lives, and subsequently to their ideology and symbolism, not so much due to its subsistence potential, but mainly as the means of contact with the outer world, upon which their sites are trained. This does not mean that the island’s interior was not included in their sphere of activities; recent palaeoenvironmental research in the Cyclades concerning the first millennia of the second half of the Holocene suggests that the islands disposed of rich resources of vegetation and game, to the contrary of the image of dryness and erosion we experience today. As a conclusion, the sea was the point of reference for all the Cycladic settlements, the link to each other and the base for a social sphere full of ideas and people who would come and go.

Selected bibliography

Broodbank C. (1995): ‘This small world the great’. An island archaeology of the early Cyclades (Cambridge, PhD).

Coleman J. (1977): Keos I. Kehpala. A Late Neolithic settlement and cemetery (Princeton).

Davis J. L. & Cherry J. F. (1990): Papers in Cycladic prehistory (Los Angeles, UCLA).

Doumas, C. G (1977): EBA in the Cyclades: Continuity or discontinuity, in E. B. French & K. A. Wardle (eds.), Problems in Greek prehistory, 21-29 (Bristol).

Evans J. D. & Renfrew C. (1968): Excavation at Saliagos near Antiparos (Oxford).

Sampson ?. (1997): Mykonos. The Neolithic settlement of Ftelia and the prehistoric inhabitation of the island (Athens).

Schilardi D. U. (1984): The Late Hellatic IIIC period at the Koukounaries acropolis, Paros, in J. A. MacGillivray & R. L. N. Barber (eds.), The Prehistoric Cyclades: Contibution to a workshop of a Cycladic chronology, 184-206 (Edinburgh).

Schilardi D. U. (1976, onwards): Anaskafi Koukounarion Parou (annual reports), P rakArchEt.