Achilleion (Thessaly)

For the palace on Corfu, see Achilleion (Corfu). For the city in the Troad, Turkey, see Achilleion (Troad). For other uses, see Achilleion (disambiguation).

Achilleion is an early Neolithic site in Thessaly, Greece. It was partly excavated in the 1970s.

Description

Achilleion is a large site that is practically untouched by archaeologists. Archaeologist Marija Gimbutas, who led the partial excavation, claimed it was filled with Neolithic debris and hundreds of Neolithic mounds.

Excavation

The excavation was funded by UCLA with additional support from the National Science Foundation and the Samuel H. Kress foundation. The dig, performed by 40 students and scholars under Gimbutas' leadership, proceeded in the months of August and September 1973 and 1974.

Excavation was begun with the expectation of finding significant numbers of preceramic Neolithic artifacts and remains. These could provide proof of an earlier age of European Neolithic settlement then was previously known. While the excavation was still in progress, there were four test pits dug each about 5 metres (16 ft) deep. Some useful things were recovered from the site; samples of preserved fauna, pottery, and 3 houses were discovered. However, Gimbutas seems to have overlooked important details when reporting on her excavation. One reviewer complained that “no geologic, geomorphologic, sedimentologic, or pedologic study was carried out - a serious failing”.[1]

The work ended in 1974, officially because the dig failed to yield any significant findings. However, Gimbutas claimed that the dig was interrupted by the political unrest caused by the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in July 1974.

References

  1. ^ Alan McPherron. Review of Achilleion: A Neolithic Settlement in Thessaly, Greece, 6400-5600 BC by Marija Gimbutas, Shan Winn, Daniel Shimabuku, in American Antiquity 56, no. 3 (Jul 1991): 567–8.

Sources

  • Claude Björk. Early pottery in Greece: a technological and functional analysis of the evidence from neolithic Achilleion, Thessaly. Jonsered, Sweden: P. Åströms V., 1995.
  • Marija Gimbutas, Shan Winn, & Daniel Shimabuku, eds. Achilleion, a Neolithic settlement in Thessaly, Greece, 6400-5600 B.C. Los Angeles, Calif.: Institute of Archaeology, University of California, Los Angeles, 1989.
  • Marija Gimbutas. “Achilleion: A Neolithic Mound in Thessaly; Preliminary Report on 1973 and 1974 Excavations”, Journal of Field Archaeology 1, no. 3/4 (1974): 277–302.
  • Catherine Perlès. The early Neolithic in Greece: the first farming communities in Europe. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001.
  • “Thessaly”, Encyclopædia Britannica.

39°15′50″N 22°25′48″E / 39.26396°N 22.43009°E / 39.26396; 22.43009


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