TY - JOUR
T1 - Mountain Landscape and Human Settlement in the Pindus Range: The Samarina highland zones of Western Macedonia, Greece
AU - Biagi, Paolo
AU - Starnini, Elisabetta
AU - Efstratiou, Nikos
AU - Nisbet, Renato
AU - Hughes, Philip
AU - Woodward, Jamie
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was jointly supported from grants from the Aristotle University, Thessaloniki (Greece), Ca’ Foscari University, Venice (Italy), The Prefecture of Western Macedonia (Greece), and the Institute for Aegean Prehistory (INSTAP, USA). E.S. received funds from the University of Pisa (Italy), Excellence Project of the Department of Civilizations and Forms of Knowledge, n. 429999-DIP-ECCELL-CIVILTA-2018-2022.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 by the authors.
PY - 2022/12/28
Y1 - 2022/12/28
N2 - Past human mountain settlement patterns and resource and high-altitude landscape exploitation are underexplored research fields in archaeology. This study presents data gathered during more than 20 years of fieldwork in the Pindus range of Western Macedonia (Greece), focusing in particular on Holocene land use. The investigated territory is located around the Vlach town of Samarina. The area is partly bounded by Mounts Vasilitsa, Gurguliu, Bogdani and Anitsa, and their interconnecting watersheds between ca. 1400 and 2000 m a.s.l. This research led to the discovery of many sites and findspots of lithic and ceramic artefacts attributed to the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, and several Historical periods. The radiocarbon results show an unexpected longue durée of Holocene human landscape use. The number of sites, their distribution, location, and subsistence strategies exhibit shifts between the Middle Palaeolithic and different periods of the Holocene, which are closely related to the exploitation of the mountain environment and its resources. Moreover, typical knapped stone artefacts have been used as a proxy for dating the glacial landforms which characterise the Samarina highland zone; we correlate them to the better-known moraine systems of Mount Tymphi in Epirus and contribute to the reconstruction of the Pleistocene glacial landscapes of the Pindus Range.
AB - Past human mountain settlement patterns and resource and high-altitude landscape exploitation are underexplored research fields in archaeology. This study presents data gathered during more than 20 years of fieldwork in the Pindus range of Western Macedonia (Greece), focusing in particular on Holocene land use. The investigated territory is located around the Vlach town of Samarina. The area is partly bounded by Mounts Vasilitsa, Gurguliu, Bogdani and Anitsa, and their interconnecting watersheds between ca. 1400 and 2000 m a.s.l. This research led to the discovery of many sites and findspots of lithic and ceramic artefacts attributed to the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Late Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, and several Historical periods. The radiocarbon results show an unexpected longue durée of Holocene human landscape use. The number of sites, their distribution, location, and subsistence strategies exhibit shifts between the Middle Palaeolithic and different periods of the Holocene, which are closely related to the exploitation of the mountain environment and its resources. Moreover, typical knapped stone artefacts have been used as a proxy for dating the glacial landforms which characterise the Samarina highland zone; we correlate them to the better-known moraine systems of Mount Tymphi in Epirus and contribute to the reconstruction of the Pleistocene glacial landscapes of the Pindus Range.
KW - Pindus range
KW - human landscape
KW - mountain environment
KW - north-western Greece
KW - prehistoric settlement
U2 - 10.3390/land12010096
DO - 10.3390/land12010096
M3 - Article
SN - 2073-445X
VL - 12
JO - Land
JF - Land
IS - 1
M1 - 96
ER -
