Προϊστορικά ορυχεία ώχρας στη Θάσο
Part of : Το Αρχαιολογικό Έργο στη Μακεδονία και στη Θράκη ; Vol.7, No.1, 1993, pages 541-558
Issue:
Pages:
541-558
Parallel Title:
Prehistoric ochre mines on Thasos
Abstract:
The prehistoric ochre mines were located in 1981 in the framework of the Archaeometallurgical Investigation on Thasos Programme, a joint project by the Max Plank Institute, Heidelberg, the Xanthi branch of the Institute for Geological and Mineral Research, and the 18th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Kavala. Realising the importance and the unique nature of the find, the Kavala Ephorate of Antiquities began excavating in 1982, assisted and advised by the German archaeologist G. Weiss Gerber of the Bochum Bergbau museum, a specialist in the archaeology of mines, and with the scientific and geological support of the IGMR Xanthi, which was represented by the mining engineer Giorgos Gialoglou.The first stage of the excavation programme was completed in 1993 and involved the systematic investigation of two mines (T1 and T2) and surface and trial investigations all over Dzines Hill, where evidence of extensive mining activity was found. Mine T1 comprises a large chamber and a gallery; T2 is smaller, consisting of only a chamber. Different extraction techniques were used in the two mines. In T1 deer horns were used as wedges and pebbles as percussion tools. Other finds include tools fashioned from bone and horn and a considerable number of flint blades. The ochre was collected with small spatulas and stored in specially prepared horns.Only stone percussion tools seem to have been used in T2. Apart from theunfashioned stone tools, a few fragments have also been found of bone and horn, as also a few blades of flint. Following a study of the palaeozoological material found inside it, T1 has been dated to the Palaeolithic period. The dating was considerably assisted by the discovery of a Saiga tatarica horn, which had been used as a wedge. Thissteppe-dwelling antelope could not have survived in S Europe after the forests appeared at the end of the Holocene. An Upper Palaeolithic dating has been confirmed by radiocarbon dating, which has produced a dating around 20,230 B.P.
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Subject (LC):
Keywords:
προϊστορία, Θάσος , συνέδρια
Notes:
Περιέχει σχέδια και εικόνες
