MENDING FRAGMENTS: STONE VESSELS FROM FRANCHTHI AND OTHER GREEK NEOLITHIC SITES

Abstract

Stone vessels represent one of the rarest artifactual categories of Neolithic Greece. Only several dozen specimens (mostly fragmentary) have been recovered from 65 sites. These objects are also some of the least studied; with few exceptions, they are known only through superficial reports. Thus, their potential to shed light on social and economic aspects of Neolithic life remains unexploited. In this article, I address this problem in two ways. First, I focus on a specific stone vase assemblage: that from the well-known site of Franchthi in the north-eastern Peloponnese. This is one of the largest assemblages and is presented here in detail. Secondly, I use the Franchthi assemblage as a point of departure to attempt a synthesis of the available information on Greek Neolithic stone vases.