The building has stone walls measuring a total of 9.5 m in length and nearly 8.5 m wide, and is one of the largest of this period to be found in Greece. AMNA
A large, Middle Neolithic building was found at the top of the Koutroulou Magoula Neolithic settlement in Central Greece, archaeologists said.
The building has stone walls measuring a total of 9.5 m in length and nearly 8.5 m wide, and is one of the largest of this period to be found in Greece. It also appears to have been supported by a massive external buttress.
Another significant find is a complex of heavily burnt, closed pottery kilns found near the edge of the settlement. One of the kilns preserves extremely well its plastered floor, parts of its plastered walls and dome, and other architectural features. It was built on a coarsely plastered platform.
Excavations this year proved beyond any doubt that the settlement in the Neolithic was surrounded by perimeter ditches, large, seemingly communal works with multiple social, symbolic and practical functions.
These ditches would have been a central feature in the material and social life of the community,” noted professor Hamilakis.
This season’s findings included many clay figurines and house models, adding to the already impressive and diverse collection of figurines from the site which numbers more than 400 to date.
It was attended by more than 200 people and the theme merged archaeological narratives with contemporary discourses on gender relations.
The tell settlement of Koutroulou Magoula measures 3.7 hectares, rises around 6.6 m from the surrounding plain, and was occupied during the Middle Neolithic period (6000-5800 BCE); it was also used for burials during the Late Bronze Age (c. 15-14th centuries BCE) and the Medieval periods (c. 12th century AD).
The 10th season of the Koutroulou Magoula Archaeology and Archaeological Ethnography Project was competed last week.
In the 2018 and 2019 seasons, the University College London also collaborated, under the directorship of Dr VasilisTsamis.
The excavation is carried out under the auspices of the British School at Athens, and in the 2019 field season included students and archaeologists from Greece, the US, the UK, the Netherlands, and Taiwan.
Source: ANA-MPA
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