The Asea Valley from the Neolithic Period to the Early Bronze Age

A renewed study of the finds from the old Swedish excavations at Asea Paleokastro in Arcadia, Greece, combined with an archaeological field survey conducted in the Asea Valley between 1994-1996, has provided new information about the area's settlement pattern during the Neolithic and Early Bronze Age periods. Asea Paleokastro was probably settled during the Early Neolithic and seems to have remained occupied, with some gaps, throughout the Neolithic and EBA periods. In the valley surrounding Asea Paleokastro the survey discovered several other sites of Middle Neolithic date, indicating a rather complex settlement pattern during this period possibly even pointing to social differentiation within the valley. A much smaller amount of Late/Final Neolithic and Early Bronze Age material was found in the survey, thus indicating either a decline/loss of settlements, or, a nearly total nucleation in the valley during these periods. These results are significant, not least for reflecting a radically different trajectory in settlement development compared to that witnessed in other areas of the Peloponnese, e.g. Southern Argolid, Berbati-Limnes and Laconia.