Agios Petros and the Neolithic pottery-making traditions of the deserted islands, Northern Sporades, Greece

Abstract

The Neolithic sites of the Cyclops Cave and Agios Petros provide insights into a once flourishing culture that inhabited the ‘Deserted Islands’ of the northern Sporades in the Greek north Aegean. Building on scientific analysis of ceramics from the seasonally inhabited Cyclops Cave, the present study examines in detail 39 sherds from the permanently settled site of Agios Petros on the adjacent island of Kyra Panagia, using a combination of thin section petrography, geochemistry, scanning electron microscopy and X-ray diffraction. The two ceramic assemblages have been directly compared, revealing close similarities and differences that provide insights into the relationship between the neighbouring sites and their functions. The chaîne opératoire of the dominant local pottery-making tradition of the Deserted Islands is reconstructed and its implications for the identity of the Agios Petros-Yioura/Northern Sporades Culture are considered.