Klisoura Cave is a rockshelter and collapsed karstic cave in Klisoura gorge in the north-western Peloponnese. The cave includes human occupations between the Middle Paleolithic and the Mesolithic periods, spanning between about 40,000 to 9,000 years before the present. The Upper Paleolithic portion of the site contains an extensive, well-dated Aurignacian sequence, between 28,000-34,000 years before the present.
In addition to its long sequence, the cave is important for the preservation of some 90 well-preserved hearths from the lower and middle Aurignacian periods. Of these, 54 are basin-like clay structures. The oldest hearths at Klisoura cave are dated to the Middle Paleolithic; these are simple superimposed white and gray ash and charcoal-rich black layers. The oldest clay-lined hearths at Klisoura are Upper Paleolithic, and dated between 32,000 and 34,000 years BP.
Upper Paleolithic Hearths at Klisoura Cave
The Upper Paleolithic hearths are small (.5-1 meter in diameter) and basin-shaped, with distinct, dark red burned clay outlines. The clay matrix is made up of alluvial clay from some distance away, with evenly distributed inclusions of sand- and silt-sized stone fragments. In other words, the researchers believe that the clay basins were purposefully built by the inhabitants, and do not represent simply in situ burned earth.
Temperatures reached in the hearths were likely between 400 and 600 degrees centigrade, based on differential thermal analysis; that's fairly typical of camp fires. Residues in the hearths included wood ashes, burnt bones, burnt plant remains and seeds. Animals accounted for include fallow deer, rabbits, mollusks and birds (mostly great bustards and rock partridges). Plant remains in the form of starches and phytoliths were recovered from the hearths and included chenopodium (goosefoot) and polygonum (knotweed). These hearths were likely used for cooking and heating purposes.
Excavations at Klisoura Cave
Klisoura Cave I was discovered by the Berbati-Limnes Archaeological Survey in 1988-1990, and excavated by the Ephory for Palaeoanthropology and Speleology in Athens and the Institute of Archaeology of the Jagellonian University in Krakow, Poland.
Sources
Karkanas, P., et al. 2004 The earliest evidence for clay hearths: Aurignacian features in Klisoura Cave 1, southern Greece. Antiquity 78(301):513–525.
Koumouzelis, Margarita, et al. 2001 The Early Upper Palaeolithic in Greece: The Excavations in Klisoura Cave. Journal of Archaeological Science 28(5):515-539.
This glossary entry is part of the Dictionary of Archaeology.
