The site of Mavropigi-Filotsairi in western Macedonia provides a fresh look at Early Neolithic Greece. Its geographic location on a natural crossroads between the Balkans and southern Greece is reflected in the cultural material, which demonstrates affinities with sites in the surrounding plains and valleys. These connections offer new information on the process of Neolithisation in the Balkan Peninsula by early farming groups via Greece.
Take for instance the decorated pottery, which falls into two main groups—painted and “Impresso.” The polychrome painted pottery and some of tool-made “Impresso” examples find their closest parallels in the Korça basin in southwest Albania (i.e., the “Devollite” type at Vashëmi and Podgorie). The red-on-white painted pottery, however, is similar to that from the Macedonia plain (i.e., Nikomedia and Paliambela) and further south in Thessaly. White-on-red like that the Macedonian plain (i.e., Yiannitsa B and Axios) or Pelagonia (i.e., Velušina and Porodin) is rare. Given that Mavropigi-Filotsairi was occupied for several hundred years, these observations indicate that exchange was more routinely carried out to the northwest, rather than the northeast or south.
Additionally, the variety in decoration and quantity of vessels challenges previous notions of Early Neolithic Greek pottery production on a limited scale and as having more of a symbolic value rather than simply a tool for cooking or storage. It suggests a more nuances processes of production and consumption.
With its early radiocarbon dates (6590–6450 to 6200–6010 2σ BC), Mavropigi-Filotsairi’s ceramic assemblage challenges the established chronologies for painted pottery and “Impresso” pottery in both Greece and the neighboring regions, which has ramifications regarding the direction and rate of “leapfrog colonization.” While it may seem fairly straightforward the movement of Early Neolithic people was predetermined by geographical features, the question to what extent cultural preferences dictated the communication with certain areas must also be considered. This is a particularly relative point precisely because “Impresso” and white-painted pottery have traditionally been the focus of cultural periodization in the Balkans (i.e., Starčevo –Criş Culture) and later in the Adriatic (Impressed Ware Culture).
Communities, Landscapes, and Interaction in Neolithic Greece
International conference 29-30 May 2015
