38

Paul Halstead

5. Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence for seasons of consumption and residence at Neolithic sites in Greece
Paul Halstead

Introduction
Had Eric Higgs lived to see the new millennium, it seems unlikely that the works of Julian Thomas or Alasdair Whittle would have been preferred reading at his Panton Street lair in Cambridge. And yet, on one issue, the palaeoeconomists of the 1970s and early 1980s could happily have made common cause with those who have sought to rethink the Neolithic in the 1990s; both groups emphasised the need to dismantle the traditional package of Neolithic material culture, farming and sedentism (e.g. Barker 1975; Dennell 1983; Jarman et al. 1982; Thomas 1996; Whittle 1996a). Moreover, despite radical differences of agenda, both groups stressed the heterogeneity of the European Neolithic and the desirability of exploring this variability in its local and regional context. Nonetheless, both groups have at times perhaps been over-zealous in their enthusiasm for discarding the traditional model without due attention to the local and regional archaeological record. At worst, the traditional model of a Neolithic package has been supplanted by a more fashionable, but equally unfounded, pan-European orthodoxy of gradual and piecemeal adoption of domesticates, sedentary life and Neolithic material culture. This chapter focuses on one particular aspect of the Neolithic package sedentism which is explored in the context of the archaeological record from what is today Greece. Though a rather arbitrary geographical unit for the Neolithic, Greece is large enough to encompass a range of site types of diverse date and in a variety of ecological settings; yet it is small enough for a short paper to do reasonable justice to the available evidence. True to the critical spirit and contextual sensitivities of both the palaeoeconomists and more recent writers on the Neolithic, it is not claimed that the results of this study can be extrapolated to the rest of Europe; on

the contrary, similar empirical studies are needed for other areas. The basic argument advanced here is that the Neolithic of Greece is in need of resettling rather than unsettling. As Whittle has noted, recent discussion of Neolithic (im)mobility has embraced a range of temporal and spatial scales, ranging from seasonal to generational and from local to regional (Whittle 1997). Arguably, much recent discussion of Neolithic mobility has been muddied by the conflation of very different analytical scales. Before proceeding to argue for a largely sedentary Greek Neolithic, therefore, some clarification is offered as to the terms in which sedentism is understood here.

Sedentism
The primary focus of this study is on whether individual sites were occupied year-round or only seasonally. Sedentism or mobility on this time scale is a central issue for any attempt to explore the economic, demographic, social or ideological strategies of Neolithic populations. It is clear from ethnographic counter-examples that neither agriculture nor the storage of agricultural products necessarily ties farmers to a fixed residence. On the other hand, the duration and timing, as well as scale, of habitation in a given locality plainly constrain the range of viable subsistence strategies. The distinction between year-round and seasonal habitation may be crucial, therefore, in modelling Neolithic subsistence activity, even at the fundamental level of relative dependence on cultivation, animal husbandry and foraging (e.g. for the Neolithic of Greece: Halstead 1989). The degree of permanence of residence exercises an equally powerful influence on the nature of social interaction. While seasonal mobility offers a valuable safety valve for conflict resolution within local residential groups, year-round coresidence demands more active measures to maintain

Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence from Neolithic sites in Greece harmony. And, while seasonal mobility may present embedded opportunities for socialisation on a regional scale, year-round sedentism may require strategies for maintaining the inter-group relationships essential for biological and social reproduction. Likewise, sedentary and mobile populations are likely to have perceived the cultural landscapes that they inhabited in quite different terms, with far-reaching implications for resource use and ownership, for the nature of social relationships within and between local groups, and for cosmology (e.g. Barrett 1994; Chapman 1997; Edmonds 1999; Kotsakis 1999; Whittle 1996b). It must be emphasised, however, that sedentism, in the sense of year-round residence, does not preclude a significant degree of mobility. For any Neolithic habitation site, it is assumed here that, at minimum: on a more or less daily basis, most inhabitants will have ranged off-site (within a site catchment of up to, say, one hours walk) to work fields or gardens, gather food and fuel, collect water, graze livestock, and so on; on a seasonal basis, at least some inhabitants will have ranged several hours from the site, possibly involving overnight absence, in pursuit of game, fruits, raw materials, information, and so on; on a seasonal or inter-annual basis, some inhabitants will have visited neighbouring or more distant sites, variously to escape conflict at home, to acquire resources not available locally or to socialise with kin, friends and exchange partners; on an inter-annual or generational time scale, individuals or groups of inhabitants will have taken up long-term residence at different sites as a result of exogamy, conflict and fission, or subsistence failure; on a generational or longer time scale, some sites will have been abandoned, temporarily or permanently, as a consequence of conflict, disease, subsistence failure, environmental degradation, ritual contamination, and so on. It is worth noting that mobility on these temporal and spatial scales is probably characteristic of all modern Greek villages (e.g. du Boulay 1974; Karakasidou 1997; Sutton 2000), the majority of which would be classified by most Neolithic specialists as unambiguously sedentary.

39

Methodological considerations
The extent to which habitation at Neolithic sites in Greece was seasonal or year-round is explored here primarily through faunal evidence for season of death of domestic animals. In practice, the analysis concentrates on domestic animals dying in their first year or so of life, as only such young remains can be aged with sufficient accuracy to shed much light on season of death. Because of the relative scarcity of young cattle remains (and, even more so, of wild animals), the following analysis focuses on sheep, goats and pigs.

In assessing age at death, neonatal postcranial remains, recognisable by their distinctive surface texture and internal structure as well as size and gross morphology (e.g. Prummel 1987), are assumed to represent animals dying within one month or so of birth. Otherwise, assessment of age at death is based solely on eruption and wear of mandibular cheek teeth, information on which is available in varying detail for different sites. Both timing of eruption and speed of wear are subject to some variability. For goats and sheep, ages are assigned to successive stages of dental eruption and wear following the studies of a range of herds/flocks by Deniz and Payne (1982) and Jones (in press) respectively, in each case adopting age ranges which encompass 95% of cases. In the case of pigs, for which such precise information is not available, ages are assigned to successive stages of dental development following Higham (1967). Interpretation of these age data in terms of season(s) of death entails assumptions about the timing of lambing/ kidding and farrowing. The peak lambing/kidding period in recent, unimproved sheep and goats fell during January-February in lowland northern Greece and a month or so earlier in lowland southern Greece (Halstead field notes). In the last few decades, herders have increasingly manipulated the timing of births, usually to take advantage of seasonal market conditions, by improving feeding and housing (so that females come into oestrus earlier) and by restricting the movements of breeding males. Despite archaeobotanical evidence that fodder was provided for livestock at Neolithic sites in northern Greece (Valamoti 2004), the decreasing stature of domestic animals through the course of the Neolithic, in Greece (e.g. von den Driesch 1987) as elsewhere, argues against intensive feeding on a scale sufficient to neutralise natural seasonal influences on the timing of births. Farrowing dates seem to have been rather variable in recent, unimproved pigs, not least because sows sometimes produced two litters per year (or five litters in three years), but there is evidence for a single farrowing season in one of the faunal assemblages discussed below. Among extensively herded pigs in woodland in northern Greece, the main farrowing season falls rather later than the peak lambing and kidding period (Halstead field notes) and, given the role of the autumn glut of acorns in bringing pigs to peak nutritional condition and the nearly four-month duration of gestation, this may plausibly be taken as the norm for Neolithic Greece. Thus farrowing is assumed here to have taken place in March-April, in northern Greece, and in February-March, in the south. It must be acknowledged that such normative birth seasons only represent the central tendency in lambing, kidding and farrowing times; for a variety of reasons, some earlier and later births are inevitable. For the sake of simplicity, however, it is provisionally assumed that the faunal evidence reviewed is largely derived from births during the peak season. For the same reason, although slightly earlier birth dates have been assumed here for southern

40

Paul Halstead or early winter (October-December; not spring see Hillman 1981, 1478) and harvested around early summer (June [pulses] and July [cereals] in northern Greece, one month earlier in southern Greece). Whether or not grain crops were grown in the vicinity of each site is discussed below. The sparse archaeobotanical evidence for gathering of seasonally available fruits and nuts is not considered, because the quantities involved are too small to preclude the possibility of exchange between sites rather than collection in the vicinity of each archaeological site.

than for northern Greece, a common definition is used for the four seasons: winter December to February, spring March to May, summer June to August, and autumn September to November. Interpretation of evidence for the timing of animal deaths in terms of season(s) of human habitation assumes that the remains of young domesticates represent animals killed on-site, or introduced soon after death, rather than the delayed transport of preserved body parts between sites. This assumption seems secure, not least because analysis here focuses on the mandible, which is of modest meat utility (Binford 1978) and so unlikely to have been curated and transported between sites on a significant scale. Whether or not faunal evidence of human activity in all seasons of the year indicates year-round occupation (rather than complementary seasonal activities in different years) is discussed towards the end of this chapter. Two factors should be noted, however, that militate against demonstrating activity at a given site in every season. First, the combination of a two-month birth period and of variability in dental development ensures that much of the mandibular evidence, that forms the core of the following analysis, could potentially be assigned to a range of seasons (cf. OConnor 1998). To reduce the risk of imprecisely aged specimens creating a spurious picture of occupation in all seasons, an assessment is initially made below of the minimum season(s) represented by the evidence from each site. For example, if neonatal remains of sheep/goats clearly indicate late winter deaths, firstyear sheep mandibles aged more broadly to late winterearly summer and to autumn-winter may both be attributed to late winter. This procedure thus entails the rather unrealistically cautious assumption that the late winter-early summer specimens were fast developers, while the autumn-winter jaws were slow developers. Because the evidence for different seasons also tends to be of variable precision (see below), the effect of this procedure may well be to obscure indications of occupation in some seasons of the year. Secondly, it should be emphasised that the slaughter of young domesticates in recent, sedentary rural communities in Europe is often markedly seasonal, for a combination of ecological and cultural reasons (e.g. Cobbett 1979; cf. Halstead 1998 for some Greek examples). It is perfectly plausible that the slaughter of young livestock in the Neolithic may similarly have displayed some seasonality for reasons unconnected to temporal patterns of residence. Ironically, for this reason, year-round residence may be easier to demonstrate for Mesolithic sites in Denmark, with a diversity of wild animals including migratory species of restricted seasonal availability, than for Neolithic sites in Greece, with sparse evidence for hunting, fishing or fowling. Any archaeobotanical evidence for cereal and pulse grain crops is also noted for each site. It is assumed that such grain crops were mainly sown in mid- to late autumn

Seasons of consumption and residence at Neolithic tell sites in Thessaly, northern Greece
The depth of occupation debris at Neolithic tell sites in Thessaly provides striking evidence for habitation of considerable duration and was regarded by Childe (1957, 60) as indicative of sedentism and an advanced farming regime (cf. Kotsakis this volume). Strictly speaking, however, tell formation indicates recurrent building activity on a generational or longer time scale, rather than year-round residence. Moreover, tell formation is a cumulative process and so impressive mounds might well conceal the remains of very transient early occupation, as Whittle has argued with reference to thin early levels at Thessalian tells such as Sesklo and Akhillion (Whittle 1996a). Until recently, groups of transhumant or nomadic shepherds from the surrounding mountains over-wintered in the immediate vicinity of many lowland Thessalian tell sites and a similar pattern of regular seasonal movements has been suggested for the Neolithic (Jarman et al. 1982, 1501). A third possibility should also be considered that the Neolithic inhabitants of Thessaly moved on a more irregular basis, occupying individual sites at different seasons in different years.

Middle Neolithic late Neolithic Plateia Magoula Zarkou

The idea of seasonally mobile Neolithic settlement received apparent support from geoarchaeological investigations around the tell site at Plateia Magoula Zarkou, on the northern edge of the flat, west Thessalian basin (Fig. 5.1) and close to the Pinios, one of the largest rivers in Greece. Coring suggested that early occupation was located in an active floodplain, subject to annual inundation in winter-spring until river incision, perhaps from the later middle Neolithic onwards, reduced the risk of flooding; as a result, it has been argued, early Neolithic and middle Neolithic human occupation at Plateia Magoula Zarkou would necessarily have been seasonal (van Andel et al. 1995; van Andel and Runnels 1995; Whittle 1996b, 17). As van Andel et al. (1995, 138) make clear, however, they were unable to determine the frequency of flooding, leaving open the possibility that the early Neolithic-middle Neolithic settlement was

Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence from Neolithic sites in Greece flooded no more frequently than such major and longestablished European cities as Athens and Prague. Modest assemblages of faunal remains (overwhelmingly of domestic mammals) are reported from both middle Neolithic (Becker 1999) and late Neolithic (Becker 1991) levels at Plateia Magoula Zarkou. Neonatal sheep/goat are reported from both levels (Becker 1999, 12 table 4; 1991, 20 table 5), implying a human presence around or up to a month after the suggested lambing/ kidding season of January-February, thus in mid-winter to early spring. Dental data for age at death of sheep and goats are not published in a format compatible with that used below for other sites, but young pig mandibles (Table 5.1) imply deaths in early spring to early summer and in mid-autumn to mid-winter during the middle Neolithic; and in late spring to late summer, in mid-autumn to mid-

41

winter and in early winter to mid-spring during the late Neolithic. The neonatal sheep/goats thus indicate human habitation at middle Neolithic and late Neolithic Plateia Magoula Zarkou firmly in the middle of the winter-spring period, when flooding supposedly drove people away from the site. Most of the young pig deaths are potentially compatible with this same period, but additional late Neolithic activity is implied at some less precisely identifiable stage(s) of the remaining mid-spring to early winter period. Information on the timing of deaths of first-year lambs and kids might further fill in the seasonal cycle, while middle Neolithic caches of bitter vetch, Vicia ervilia (Kroll cited in Becker 1991, 77 table 14; Jones and Halstead 1993), if cultivated locally, would confirm a human presence in mid-autumn to early winter (for sowing) and in early summer (for harvesting).

Figure 5.1 Map of Greece, showing the location of sites discussed in the text. Key: 1. Plateia Magoula Zarkou, 2. Prodromos 12 and 3, 3. Akhillion, 4. Ag. Sofia, 5. Dimini, 6. Doliana, 7. Cave of Zas, 8. Makriyalos.

42

Age stage EN Oct-Jan DecApril DecApril DecApril Oct-Jan Oct-Jan Oct-Jan Oct-Jan Oct-Jan DecApril Sept-Dec NovMarch MarchJune MarchMay FebApril MarchMay July-Nov Oct-Jan DecApril MN LN LN LN FN FN

Age in months

Prodromos 1-2 3 Plateia Magoula Zarkou Dimini Doliana Agia Sofia Cave of Zas

EN

Neonatal

0-1

Makriyalos LN Pit 212 MarchMay

d4E

0-2

2-4

4-7

MayAug July-Nov

MayAug -

MayAug -

MayAug July-Nov

MayAug July-Nov

d4W M1U M1E M1W M2U

7-9

Oct-Jan

Paul Halstead

M2E

9-12

Table 5.1 Ages and suggested seasons of death of pigs at EN Prodromos 1-2 and 3, MN and LN Plateia Magoula Zarkou, LN Ag. Sofia, LN Dimini, LN Makriyalos (Pit 212), FN Cave of Zas and FN Doliana.

Suggested ages for dental stages after Higham (1967). Assuming birth seasons of March-April (N Greece) and February-March (S Greece). Mortality data for Prodromos 1-2 and 3 from Halstead and Jones (1980, 99 fig. 3; and unpublished records), for Plateia Magoula Zarkou from Becker (1991, 24 table 8), for Agia Sofia from von den Driesch and Enderle (1976, 44 table 11), for Dimini, Makriyalos, Cave of Zas and Doliana from authors unpublished records.

Key: d4 fourth deciduous premolar, M1 first molar, M2 second molar, U unerupted, E - erupting, W in wear

Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence from Neolithic sites in Greece

43

Early Neolithic Prodromos 13

A cluster of Neolithic sites at Prodromos in the southern part of the west Thessalian basin lies close to the margin of recent marsh. Prodromos 3 forms an impressively tall tell, topped by Bronze Age and historical deposits. Prodromos 1 and 2 may represent two closely spaced low mounds, but with the benefit of hindsight might be interpreted as parts of a disturbed flat-extended site (see below). The deposits of Prodomos 12 and the lower levels of Prodromos 3 were assigned to early Neolithic and the transition to middle Neolithic. First-year pig mandibles from Prodromos 12 are assignable to deaths in late spring to late summer, in mid-summer to late autumn and in mid-autumn to midwinter; specimens from Prodromos 3 are assignable to deaths in mid-autumn to mid-winter and in early winter to mid-spring (Table 5.1). This evidence could be accommodated to short periods of human presence in late summer to mid-autumn at Prodromos 12 and in early or mid-winter at Prodromos 3, but is more likely to represent activity extending earlier and later at both sites. First-year mandibles of sheep/goats, assigned broadly to the periods between mid- or late summer and mid-winter (both sites) and between mid-autumn and mid-spring (Prodromos 12 only), are compatible with the evidence from young pig deaths (Table 5.2). Samples of cereal and pulse grains (Halstead and Jones 1980, 115 table 8), if derived from local cultivation, would favour an extended human presence at Prodromos 12, from harvest time in early and mid-summer until sowing time in mid-autumn to early winter. The apparent late winter to mid-spring gap at Prodromos 12, reflecting the lack of records of neonatal remains or of very young mandibles, should be treated with particular caution for two reasons. First, this site was excavated under rescue conditions, so that retrieval of small specimens may be worse than at the other tells discussed here. Secondly, neonatal bones were not distinguished as a separate category during recording of the Prodomos assemblages, but might be included among the lamb/kid specimens represented by unfused scapula, pelvis, distal humerus and proximal radius recorded at both sites (Halstead and Jones 1980, 112 table 4c).

however, if derived from crops grown locally, would again entail a human presence in mid-autumn to early winter (sowing) and early to mid-summer (harvesting). Despite the paucity of relevant data, therefore, there is some evidence for occupation in all seasons of the year.

Late Neolithic Agia Sofia

The Agia Sofia mound is located in the slightly elevated north-eastern part of the Thessalian plain. The mandibular evidence for age at death of young undifferentiated sheep/goats (probably mostly sheep) and young pigs is published in reasonable detail for the late Neolithic Agia Sofia assemblage (von den Driesch and Enderle 1976). First-year pigs died in spring, in late spring to late summer, in mid-autumn to mid-winter, and in early winter to mid-spring (Table 5.1), implying activity at the site during spring and also later in the year at minimum in early or mid-winter. First-year sheep(/ goat) deaths in late winter to late spring, in early spring to mid-summer, between mid-spring and mid-winter, and between mid-autumn and mid-spring (Table 5.2) are consistent with the evidence of young pigs, suggesting activity at the site at least during (and probably extending beyond) spring.

Late Neolithic Dimini

Dimini occupies a slight rise on the edge of the coastal plain of Volos and the modest sample of young sheep and goat mandibles (Halstead 1992 and original records) documents deaths in late winter to mid-spring, in mid- to late spring, in early spring to mid-summer, in midsummer to early winter, in late summer or early autumn to mid-winter, and in mid-autumn to early or mid-spring (Table 5.2). The few jaws from first-year pigs suggest deaths at least during late spring to late summer, during mid-summer to late autumn, and during mid-autumn to mid-winter (Table 5.1). Young sheep/goat and pig deaths thus concur in indicating occupation at least during late winter or spring and also, less precisely, during summer to mid-winter (minimally mid- to late autumn, but probably longer). Caches of both cereals and pulses (Kroll 1979), if grown locally, would indicate a human presence during mid-autumn to early winter (sowing) and early to mid-summer (harvesting) and so strengthen the evidence for activity in all seasons.

Early Neolithic-middle Neolithic Akhillion

The tell site of Akhillion is located in the rolling hills on the southern edge of the Thessalian lowlands and is thus safe from the risk of flooding. Published mortality data do not distinguish between early Neolithic and middle Neolithic material (Bknyi 1989, 323 table 13.8), but newborn specimens of sheep/goat and pig suggest deaths of livestock and a human presence in mid-winter to early spring and in spring, respectively. The use of very coarse age categories (juvenile, subadult) precludes discussion of faunal evidence for the rest of the annual cycle. Sparse finds of cereal and pulse grains from both early Neolithic and middle Neolithic levels (Renfrew 1989),

Discussion: going nowhere in Neolithic Thessaly?

For none of these Thessalian tells can occupation be demonstrated for all seasons of the year, but this may well be an artefact of the nature of the available evidence. Activity can be firmly documented at some sites in late winter-early spring and/or spring because neonatal and infant remains are very distinctive and can be aged very precisely, but such remains are subject to acute preservation and retrieval biases and so their absence may shed no light on season(s) of human activity. As animals

44

Age stage LN Sheep MarchJuly AprilJuly MaySept AprilAug JuneNov JulyDec SeptJan OctMarch OctApril AugJan JulyJan MayAug MarchJuly FebJune AprilJuly MayOct MaySept JuneDec AugDec AugDec JulyDec SeptMarch Jan-March Dec-Feb Dec-Feb Goat Sheep Goat Sheep Goat LN FN LN Pit 212 Sheep Goat -

Age in months

Dimini

Makriyalos

Cave of Zas

Sheep

Goat

Prodromos 1-2 3 EN EN Sh/Gt Sh/Gt Agia Sofia LN Sh/Gt

0-1

0-1

Doliana FN Sheep JanMarch AprilAug -

Neonatal d4W M1U FebMay MarchJuly FebApril AprilMay FebApril AprilMay JanMarch MarchApril

1-2

1-3

M1E

2-5

3-6

4-6

5-9 April -Jan JulyDec SeptJan OctApril OctMarch OctApril AugJan

5-8

Paul Halstead

6-10

6-11

JulyJan AugJan -

JulyDec SeptJan -

M1W M2U (C1-2) M1W M2U (C3-4) M1W M2U (C5) M1W M2U (C6+)

8-11

7-11

AugJan

M2E

9-13

9-14

OctApril

Table 5.2 Ages and suggested season(s) of death of sheep and goats at EN Prodromos 1-2 and 3, LN Agia Sofia, LN Dimini, LN Makriyalos (Pit 212), LN and FN Cave of Zas, and FN Doliana.

Suggested ages for dental stages after Jones (in press), for sheep, and Deniz and Payne (1982), for goat; Jones sub-stage C6+ modified to exclude specimens with erupting M2. Assuming birth seasons of January-February (N Greece) and December-January (S Greece). Mortality data for Agia Sofia from von den Driesch and Enderle (1976, 39 table 8), for Dimini from Halstead (1992, 46 fig. 7; and unpublished records), for Prodromos 1-2 and 3, Makriyalos, Cave of Zas and Doliana from authors unpublished records.

Key: see Table 7.1.

Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence from Neolithic sites in Greece progress through the first year, their mandibles become increasingly robust (e.g. Munson and Garniewicz 2003) and also larger, greatly enhancing the likelihood of both survival and retrieval; at the same time, because of variability in the timing of tooth eruption and, especially, in the speed of tooth wear, the precision of age determination declines (cf. OConnor 1998). As a result, although later first-year animals are well represented in at least some of these assemblages, human activity tends to be identified for rather broad periods (summer-autumn, autumn-winter) rather than for single seasons. The clearest seasonal gaps in the evidence for human presence can plausibly be attributed to coarse analytical methods (e.g. late winter to mid-spring at Prodromos 12, summer to early winter at Akhillion), insufficient detail in published records (e.g. mid-spring to early winter at middle Neolithic Plateia Magoula Zarkou), or small sample size (e.g. late winter to early autumn at Prodomos 3). Figure 5.2 offers a simplified overview of the evidence for seasons of occupation discussed in detail above. Faunal evidence is distinguished as very strong, strong or moderate (i.e. deaths assigned to a period of two-three months, four months or five months, respectively); weak evidence (deaths assigned to a period of six or more months) is treated in Figure 5.2 in the same way as an absence of evidence. In addition, the times of year are highlighted at which reported crop remains would if grown locally require a human presence for sowing and harvesting. With due allowance for variation in sample size, retrieval standards, and the precision of recording or reporting relevant data, the faunal evidence consistently indicates a human presence in winter and/or spring, probably extending into more or less of the summerautumn period. Other than the very unreliable absence of evidence for late winter-spring activity at Prodromos 1 2, there is no hint that different sites occupied complementary positions in a system of regular seasonal movements. Nor is there any support for the claim that the inhabitants of Plateia Magoula Zarkou were driven away from the site in winter-spring by flooding. If Neolithic tells were abandoned, therefore, in the context of regular seasonal movements, it seems that their inhabitants must have moved to un-recognized sites of a different type and/or located outside the Thessalian lowlands. Seasonal movement with livestock to summer pastures at high altitude, as practised by recent specialised pastoralists, is compatible with the faunal evidence, but as yet there is no evidence in favour of this practice nor would it necessarily have involved movement of the entire human population of a tell settlement. Moreover, the window for such an absence is narrowed if cereals and pulses were grown in the vicinity of these sites, implying habitation at least during the June-July harvest season, and perhaps later if crops required processing for storage on a large scale. Local cultivation cannot be demon-

45

strated, but cereal and pulse grains seem to be encountered in all tell excavations (Kroll 1981), despite the lack of systematic sampling. Crops must have been grown round at least some of these sites, therefore, unless we posit the importing of cereals and pulses from sites that, again, remain to be discovered. Consideration of the extent and probable number of inhabitants of known sites leaves little room for doubt that cereals and pulses were grown in significant quantities around all Neolithic tells in Thessaly (Halstead 1989). When the practical implications of local crop husbandry are also taken into account (Fig. 5.2), the case is further strengthened for occupation of these sites in all seasons of the year. Given the longevity and coarse chronological resolution of these tell sites, it must be acknowledged that the faunal and archaeobotanical assemblages are compatible with a pattern of irregular seasonal mobility, in which individual sites were occupied at different seasons in different years. Such opportunistic residential mobility, however, seems far less likely than year-round habitation to have led to the accumulation (or even purposive creation cf. Chapman 1997; Kotsakis 1999) of monumental tell sites. Arguably the most parsimonious interpretation of the available evidence (from early Neolithic, middle Neolithic and late Neolithic levels alike) is that these Thessalian tell sites were occupied year-round by at least some of their inhabitants.

Seasonality of consumption and residence at non-tell Neolithic sites in Greece

In addition to the impressive tells, known in largest numbers in lowland central and northern Greece, at least three other types of Neolithic site are now well documented in Greece: small and short-lived open sites, located in large numbers by survey projects in southern Greece, but also found in northern Greece; caves, frequently used in the later Neolithic, especially in southern Greece; and flat-extended open sites, recently recognized in northern Greece. The small open sites and, for obvious geological reasons, the caves are often located in agriculturally marginal locations, and inter alia have been interpreted as seasonal herding camps. The flatextended sites are, like the tells, found in the fertile lowlands, but represent a radically different form of spatial organization, with habitation traces drifting laterally through time rather than building up vertically on the same spot (Kotsakis 1999). Ditches encircling the flat-extended site of Makriyalos (Pappa and Besios 1999) are somewhat reminiscent of Neolithic enclosures in north-west Europe and perhaps invite speculation that these sites represent seasonal gathering places, rather than an alternative form of long-term residential site. The bioarchaeological evidence for seasonality of human activity is reviewed here for one site in each of these three non-tell categories (Fig. 5.3).

46

Paul Halstead

EN-MN Akhillion December November January SG3

February SG3

Winter (Dec - Feb)

October

March SG3, P3

Autumn (Sept-Nov)

September

April P3

Spring (March-May)

August July June

May P3

Summer (June-Aug)

EN Prodromos 1-2

EN Prodromos 3 December P4, P5

February

December P4 November P4, P5 October P4, P5

January P4

January P4, P5

November P4 October P4

February P5

March

March P5

September P5

April

September

April P5

August P4, P5

July P4, P5

June P4

May P4

August July June

May

MN Plateia Magoula Zarkou

LN Plateia Magoula Zarkou December P4, P5 January SG3, P4, P5 February SG3, P5 March SG3, P5

December P4 November P4 October P4

January SG3, P4

February SG3 March SG3, P4

November P4 October P4

September

April P4 May P4

September

April P5

August July June P4

August P4

May P4 July P4 June P4

LN Ag Sofia

LN Dimini

December P4, P5 November P4 October P4

January P4, P5

December P4, S5

January P4, S5

February P4, P5 March SG4, P3, P5, SG5 April SG4, P3, P5, SG5 May SG4, P3, P4, SG5

November P4, S5, P5 October P4, S5, P5

February S3

March S3, G5

September August P4 July P4, SG5 June P4, SG5

September S5, P5 August P4, P5 July P4, G5, P5 June P4, G5

April S2, S3, G5

May S2, P4, G5

Figure 5.2 Evidence for season(s) of Neolithic human activity at tell sites in Thessaly. Key: Dark fill very strong faunal evidence (deaths within period of 23 months);
Medium fill strong faunal evidence (deaths within period of 4 months); Light fill moderate faunal evidence (deaths within period of 5 months); Unfilled weak (deaths within period of 6+ months) or no faunal evidence; Bold outline probable harvest and sowing periods for cereal and pulse crops; SG3 etc type of faunal evidence for activity in any month (e.g., S2, SG3, P4, G5 = sheep, sheep/goat, pig and goat deaths attributed to periods of 2, 3, 4 and 5 months, respectively).

Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence from Neolithic sites in Greece

47

Final Neolithic Doliana, Ipiros

Rescue work uncovered a small, short-lived open site of final Neolithic date in the Doliana basin, at 400m altitude on the western flank of the Pindos Mountains of northwest Greece. The brevity of occupation and lack of building remains other than two successive hut floors favoured interpretation as a seasonal herding camp (Dousougli 1996); a nearby pollen core has also been interpreted in terms of seasonal herding (Willis 1997). A modest faunal assemblage (Halstead et al. in preparation) included neonatal remains of sheep/goats and pigs, suggesting activity in mid-winter to early spring and in spring, respectively. Young mandibles indicate first-year deaths of sheep in mid-spring to late summer, in midsummer to early winter, and in early autumn to midwinter (Table 5.2), and first-year deaths of pigs in midsummer to late autumn, in mid-autumn to mid-winter, and in early winter to mid-spring (Table 5.1). The mandibular evidence thus implies further human activity at some stage(s) between early summer and early winter at minimum, during mid- to late summer (sheep) and during mid- to late autumn (pigs). Although seasonal abandonment of the site cannot be ruled out, interpretation in terms of year-round activity would perhaps require less special pleading.

autumn to early spring (Table 5.2); pigs are rare, but late first-year mandibles imply deaths at least in early autumn to early winter and in late autumn to early spring (Table 5.1). The smaller late Neolithic sample provides a less continuous, but broadly similar, record of deaths of firstyear lambs and kids. Although only securely demonstrable for winter-spring, human activity in all seasons is the most parsimonious reading of the faunal data, especially for the larger final Neolithic assemblage. Cereal and pulse grains were found in considerable numbers in both the late Neolithic and final Neolithic levels (Zachos 1999, 1567) and, if grown locally, would strengthen the case for a human presence nearby in late spring-early summer (harvest) and mid-autumn to early winter (sowing). Whatever the function of the cave, therefore, it seems more likely to have been used by people from a nearby and relatively sedentary settlement than as a shelter for mobile herders taking advantage of summer pasture on Mt. Zas.

Late Neolithic Makriyalos, Central Macedonia

The flat-extended site of Makriyalos is located on gentle slopes close to the sea. Extensive excavation of enclosure ditches, borrow pits and huts of early late Neolithic and late late Neolithic date yielded one of the largest faunal assemblages from prehistoric Greece. Unlike Zas, the assemblage did not avoid carnivore attrition, nor did rescue excavation permit the same high standards of retrieval, but again recent and detailed dental records are available. Analysis is restricted here to a single shortlived context, in order to reduce the risk that apparent evidence for year-round activity might in fact represent the conflation of numerous seasonal visits, the timing of which varied from year to year or even from century to century. The early late Neolithic Pit 212, with a diameter of 30m, produced the remains of at least several hundred domestic animals and a wealth of pottery, both apparently deposited rapidly over a period of months or just a handful of years and interpreted as the remains of large-scale collective feasting (Pappa et al. 2004, 1644). It should be noted that the evidence for seasonality from Pit 212 seems to be very similar to that for the rest of the early late Neolithic assemblage. Remains of newborn sheep/goats and pigs indicate deaths in mid-winter to early spring and in spring, respectively. Young mandibles of sheep and goats suggest deaths in late winter to mid-spring, in mid- to late spring, in early spring to mid-summer, in mid- or late spring to late summer, in early summer to late autumn, in midsummer to early or mid-winter, in late summer or early autumn to mid-winter, and in mid-autumn to early or mid-spring. Young mandibles of pigs suggest deaths in late spring to late summer, in mid-summer to late autumn, in mid-autumn to mid-winter, and in early winter to midspring. Pit 212 provides the strongest faunal evidence yet considered for human activity in all seasons and this is strengthened by two further considerations. First, pre-

Late Neolithic-final Neolithic cave of Zas, Cyclades

The cave of Zas is located at 600m altitude on the limestone mountain that dominates the island of Naxos. The cave is small and dark enough to cast doubt on its use as a habitation site, while an abundance of metal finds perhaps suggests a ceremonial or symbolic function (Broodbank 2000, 165). Either way, an agriculturally marginal location perhaps invites suggestions of use by seasonally mobile herders (Zachos 1999). The late Neolithic and final Neolithic faunal assemblage from this cave has benefited from strikingly better preservation (carnivore attrition was negligible) and retrieval (deposits were systematically and intensively sieved) than all other sites discussed in this chapter. In addition, the present author (with collaborators) recorded this assemblage (and those from Doliana and Makriyalos) recently, and thus has access to records far more detailed than would be tolerated by most publishers. Remains of newborn sheep/goats (both late Neolithic and final Neolithic) and newborn pigs (final Neolithic) imply activity at the cave in winter and in late winter to mid-spring, respectively, that is at the time of year when seasonally mobile herders might have been expected to be absent from the vicinity. At this site, sheep and goats are almost equally represented, but the latter exhibit more first-year deaths. In the larger final Neolithic assemblage, mandibles of lambs and kids suggest deaths in mid-winter to early spring, in early to mid-spring, in mid-spring to mid-summer, in late spring to early or mid-autumn, in early or mid- or late summer to early winter, and in early

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Paul Halstead

liminary results from a study of enamel hypoplasia in the pig mandibles (cf. Dobney et al. 2002) provide empirical support for a single farrowing season (U. Albarella and K. Dobney pers. comm.); this makes it unlikely that the observed range of ages at death of young pigs represents seasonal slaughter of animals born at different times of year. Secondly, in the case of sheep, every stage of firstyear dental development is represented - and the same is almost true of pigs and largely so of goats; thus the argument for slaughter in every season of the year is independent of the assumptions made here as to the timing (absolute or relative) of lambing, kidding and farrowing. In addition, Pit 212 yielded archaeobotanical samples rich in cereal chaff and these crop remains, if grown locally, provide supporting evidence for human activity at Makriyalos in mid-autumn to early winter (sowing) and in mid-summer (harvesting). Finally, as noted above, Pit 212 represents a relatively short depositional episode, probably spanning at most a handful of years; the record of deaths in all seasons, therefore, is highly unlikely to be an artefact of complementary seasonal episodes of slaughter in different years. Pit 212 surely results from year-round slaughter and consumption at late Neolithic Makriyalos.

Discussion: going nowhere in Neolithic Greece?

If tell sites have long been equated with sedentary occupation, the reverse has often been assumed for Neolithic caves and small open sites and, more tentatively, for flat-extended sites. Contrary to these expectations, bioarchaeological evidence from the small open site of Doliana, from the Cave of Zas and from the flat-extended site of Makriyalos, is, in each case, more or less strongly suggestive of year-round human activity (Fig. 5.3). These three sites cannot be treated as typical of all such sites, but nor is there any reason to imagine that they are unusual other than in the quantity and/or quality of available bioarchaeological data.

Conclusions
While bioarchaeological evidence for year-round activity at Neolithic sites in Greece is of variable strength, it must be underlined that several of the assemblages discussed are small and that most are of coarse chronological resolution, while most publications of data sets from tells address different research questions and so provide insufficient detail for assessment of seasonality. Moreover, almost any set of dental data could be accommodated

LN M akr iyalo s Pi t 2 12 January SG3, P4, P5, S5 February SG3, S3, P5 M arch P3, SG3, S3, P5, G5 April S2, P3, S3, P5, G5, G5 M ay S2, P4, G4, G5, G5

FN Doliana January S3, P4, P5, S5 February S3, P5 March S3, P3, P5

December P4, P5, S5 November P4, P5, S5 October P4, P5, S5

December P4, P5, S5 November P4, P5, S5 October P4, P5, S5

September P5, S5 August G4, P4, P5, July G5 P4, P5, G4, G5, G5

September P5, S5 August P5, S5

April P3, P5, S5 May P3, S5

June G4, P4, G5, G5

July P5, S5

June S5

LN Zas

FN Zas

December SG3, S5 November S5 October S5 September G5, S5 August G5, S5 July G4, G5

January SG3

February SG3, G5 March G5 April G4, G5 May G4, G5, G5

December January SG3, P4, S5, SG3, S3, P5 P5 February November SG3, S3, P3, P4, S5, P5 P5 October P4, S5 September P4, G5, S5 August G5, S5 March S2, S3, P3, P5 April S2, P3, G4, May G4, G5

June G4, G5, G5

July G4, G5

June G4, G5

Figure 5.3 Evidence for season(s) of Neolithic human activity at non-tell sites in Greece. Key: see Figure 5.2.

Resettling the Neolithic: faunal evidence from Neolithic sites in Greece to seasonal slaughter by assuming the appropriate combination of early or late birth, precocious or tardy tooth eruption, and fast or slow tooth wear. On the other hand, it is striking that the strength of the evidence for year-round activity is related not to the type, location or date of each site, but to sample size and preservation, retrieval standards, the level of detail of available dental records, and the chronological resolution of each excavation. The most parsimonious interpretation of the evidence is that all of these sites were used more or less year-round. As has already been stressed, human activity in the Neolithic of Greece must have taken place off-site (i.e. away from archaeologically recognizable sites). It is also highly likely that known archaeological sites include loci (e.g. some of the ephemeral scatters of Neolithic material located by several survey projects in southern Greece) used on only a seasonal or shorter-term basis. It seems, however, that most excavated Neolithic sites, including tells, flat-extended sites and at least some caves and small open-air sites, were used more or less year-round by at least some of their occupants. Although uncomfortably close to traditional assumptions of a sedentary Neolithic, this conclusion poses some interesting questions: how did local aggregations maintain communal solidarity in the face of the tensions inevitably arising from long-term co-residence and despite the divisive tendencies implied on most open sites by domestic architecture? how did neighbouring sites (often close enough for regular contact in herding, gathering, hunting, etc) interact and how did they avoid (or win) conflicts? how did communities, or individuals, maintain the distant social relationships needed to find marriage partners and implied by exotic objects and longdistance stylistic similarities? Answers to these questions are beyond the scope of this chapter, but the wealth of fine, often decorated tablewares in Neolithic ceramic assemblages from Greece suggests that the consumption of food and drink (and, perhaps, other stimulants) was of fundamental social, as well as nutritional, significance (Halstead 1995; Kotsakis 1983; Sherratt 1991; Vitelli 1989). Faunal evidence most dramatically, the massive assemblage from Pit 212 at Makriyalos suggests that consumption of the meat of domestic animals played a major role in such commensal politics (Pappa et al. 2004, 1644). While the recurring desire to question the link between farming and sedentism is undoubtedly healthy, the available evidence for the Neolithic of Greece favours a largely sedentary pattern of settlement, which in turn poses some important and interesting questions concerning social reproduction in the early farming populations of this region. Faunal remains both provide evidence for sedentary habitation and offer some hints as to how the attendant stresses on social life may have been resolved.

49

Acknowledgements
I am grateful to Doug Bailey and Alasdair Whittle, for encouraging dissent, and to Amy Bogaard and Valasia Isaakidou, for comments on drafts of this paper. For access to faunal material discussed here, I am indebted to Giorgos Hourmouziadis (Prodromos and Dimini), Angelika Dousougli (Doliana), Kostas Zachos (Zas), and Maria Pappa and Manthos Besios (Makriyalos). I also thank Pat Collins and Valasia Isaakidou, for helping to record the Doliana, Zas and Makriyalos assemblages; Umberto Albarella and Keith Dobney, for preliminary results of their analysis of enamel hypoplasia in the Makriyalos pigs; and Gill Jones, for access in advance of publication to her study of sheep tooth eruption and wear.

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