Karatsadhagli, An Early And Middle Neolithic Site in the Almiros Plain (Greece)

The aim of the paper is to give the general results of the investigation of Karatsadhagli, an EN-MN site, situated in the Almiros Plain in Thessaly (Greece). The site was rediscovered during an archaeological survey. It is situated on a fingerridge in the plain, 193 masl, at a distance of 1.5 km SW from the MN-LN site of Magoula Zerelia, where Wace did an excavation in 1908.

A surface sample from Karatsadhagli was studied, consisting of pottery sherds, chipped and ground stone, figurines and animal remains. The preservation of the material was fairly good, probably because the area was not under cultivation until the 1950s. The material from the site, in particular the pottery and the chipped stone, is comparable with that from Achilleion, situated at a distance of 30 km WNW of Karatsadhagli. Achilleion dates to the period 7500-6900 BP.

From the data from corings for palynological research it could be determined that the Almiros Plain in that period was covered by an open woodland vegetation: herbs and grasses with some trees, mainly deciduous oaks. The inhabitants of the site depended upon domestic mammals -sheep, goat, cattle and pig- for their food of animal origin. Evidence from the animal bones shows that husbandry at Karatsadhagli was well developed. Some meat of deer and shellfish enriched the diet. Although only a surface sample from Karatsadhagli was studied, the data give reliable information on the nature and the chronology of the site.