198-210

Liti I : designation of the probable site of the neolithic settlement

• Φίλης, Κώστας

A rescue excavation conducted on 2 building plots at the NW end of the village of Liti in Thessaloniki prefecture uncovered pits belonging to subterranean structures. They are part of an open type of settlement which lies among the lower elevations of a hilly range around the W. part of the Langadas basin. The relatively smooth incline favoured its erosion and created a homogeneous fill of considerable thickness, which presents no further archaeological data. This also explains why surface investigations found no trace of the settlement. The 2 excavated sites are 80 m apart and are conventionally referred to here as site A and site B.On site A, we explored part of a probably elliptical pit with a maximum length of 5.50 m. At a depth of 1.46 m we located a small part of a floor of compacted clay, on the surface of which were found 3 almost intact vessels and fragments of others. This, together with its dimensions, strongly suggests that this was a residential space. To the W. of it was found a smaller refuse pit containing a large quantity of mainly burnished ware. The excavations also yielded a considerable number of quartz and flint tools, stone axes, pestles, sling-bullets, and bone awls.On site B we uncovered an almost circular pit, 6 m in diameter, with 3 smaller pits inside, 2 of these with access between them. Two habitation phases were identified. The earlier phase (I) is represented by the fill covering the 2 deeper round pits (Λ1 and Λ2). The lowest layer in A1, just above the bottom, yielded a phiale with painted decoration, fragments of closed vessels, 2 millstones, and clay sling-bullets. The later phase (II) is represented by the shallower pit and part of the floor of a food preparation structure.The categories represented in the pottery collected from the 2 sites include Red, Brown, and Black Burnished Ware and, to a lesser extent, Painted Ware. The vessels are closed vessels with a conical neck and deep and shallow phiales with tubular handles or perforated mastoid lugs.So the archaeological data, which belong to the Middle Neolithic period, and the topography of the site allow us to hypothetically identify it as the settlement of Liti I, which was located during operations conducted by the Armée de l’Orient and published by Gardner and Casson in BSA 23, 194.

• History and Archaeology

• Ανασκαφές (Αρχαιολογία)

Νεολιθική εποχή, Θεσσαλονίκη, συνέδρια

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