Great discovery in Pindos: 80,000-year-old Neanderthal stone tools found
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The research program by archaeologists and university students started in 2002 and the result is impressive.

Both the dating – about 60,000 years before today – and the abundance of finds, inaugurated alpine archaeology, an archeology of the mountainous regions that until today was disappearing from Greece. This archeology is also presented by documentary “The Alpine Archeology of Smolika“, carried out in the framework of the Research Program “The prehistoric research of the AUTH in the NW part of the Prefecture of Grevena – The recording of Paleolithic sites and finds in the area of ​​Samarina” and which was recently screened in the competition section of the Greek Documentary Festival of Chalkida.

“When the research began, no one believed that there were archaeological remains at high altitudes, which could be described as mountainous and even alpine, i.e. altitudes that exceed 1,600 m,” Nikos Efstratiou, professor of prehistoric archeology, tells APE-MPE at AUTH and head of the research program.

The researchers encountered a multitude of archaeological remains, mainly stone tools at altitudes exceeding 2,000 meters / Source: APE-MPE
The proposal for the research was made by his friend and colleague Miltiadis Papanikolaou, professor emeritus at the AUTH, who comes from the area. “Strange is this challenge and especially the results of the research, which started gradually because I had no experience of high altitudes, just like many archaeologists in Greece, who do not deal with the archeology of high altitudes. I collaborated from the first moment with two Italian colleagues, prehistoric archaeologists, who had experience from the alpine regions of Italy, Paolo Biagi (Pialo Biagi) professor at the University of Venice and Elisabetta Starnini (Elisabetta Starnini) professor today at the University of Pisa . Therefore, starting the research and trying to detect the area we were surprised by the first findings we started to come across, which were all superficial”, he adds.

Walking in Smolikas, in mountainous areas and alpine lakes, at altitudes that often exceeded 2,000 m, the researchers began to encounter a multitude of archaeological remains, mainly stone tools. “We found them on the surface, in an area – and this is the important thing – where the visibility is very good. That is, there are no forests and dense vegetation because we are talking about alpine areas in which trees do not grow above a certain altitude. And this was something that particularly favored us, as walking in these areas we could locate, see, understand, and collect stone finds. This was the one surprise”, N. Efstratiou explains to APE-MPE.

The other surprise was their timing. “These are stone tools – blades, spikes, cores – which, based on their manufacturing technology and typology (they belong to the Levallois-Mousteria tradition), belong to the Middle Paleolithic, i.e. they date from about 80,000 to 60,000 years from today. These tools were not made by the modern man Homo homo sapiens, but by Homo sapiens neanderthalensis, our closest relative in terms of the biological evolution of the human species,” he emphasizes.

The findings date back to approximately 80,000 to 60,000 years from today / Source: APE-MPE
The research covered tens of kilometers in this area of ​​Pindos with the findings being recorded with absolute precision through modern technology (GPS), as well as the points from where they were collected. “We found some sites, that is, places where these Neanderthal groups stayed occasionally to make tools. These points were preserved because there is no development in the bad sense of the term, i.e. building activity and destruction of the landscape, therefore also of the archaeological layers. The area remained as it was thousands of years ago and this was particularly positive because it allowed these places to survive”, points out his interlocutor.

Some years the researchers climbed to altitudes that reached 2,300 m. “Even there there were findings!”, emphasizes N. Efstratiou, and clarifies as to the general explanation of the “phenomenon”: “We consider that because the climate in Europe had begun getting colder, at some point, these Neanderthal groups moved south to survive. Because we are not talking about permanent installations, but about groups that were constantly on the move for the purpose of hunting or searching for raw materials for the manufacture of their tools. In other words, we are talking about hunter-gatherers. Thus, it seems that they reached the Greek area and the area of ​​Samarina, which is a particularly important geographical point, a crossroads. It is no coincidence that even today the Vlach groups living in Samarina chose this spot”, adds N. Efstratiou, referring to another interesting parameter of the research, the ethnographic one.

“Through a controlled analog relationship, we can use Vlach mobile herders and modern hunters in the Samarina area and observe what they are doing today, what areas they move to, where they look for game… Is the same ‘simplistic’ working hypothesis possible? was it also happening 60,000 years ago from today? This is also a dimension of the research”, he emphasizes.

Most archaeological data concerns the Neanderthal groups. However, stone tools belonging to later periods have also been found, while there are also finds from the Bronze Age, around 3000 BC, but also later. The majority of finds, however, belong to the Middle Paleolithic Age. Had these hominids co-existed with individuals of our species? “This is a big research issue. Of course, research now refers to the coexistence of Homo homo sapiens and Homo neanderthalensis – indeed not only coexistence but also reproduction. Bones have been found in Spain which show that the two species had interbred. However, what we have considered for many years and is more or less true to this day is that Neanderthals lived in the region of south-eastern Europe for tens of thousands of years and at some point for some reason they were replaced by Homo homo sapiens, i.e. our boss”, explains his interlocutor.

Another interesting element of the research is the existence of glacial deposits in the area, known as moraines to geologists, which are formed during the movement of glaciers. “These are conical formations made of large stones, which have various breaks, angulations. That is, the ice and low temperatures during the ice ages of the planet in the West Macedonia and certainly before her climax Last Ice Age, 20,000 years ago they crushed the stones, forming sharp corners. We are preparing a large scientific article where the relationship between the glaciers of the region and the findings will be discussed. I think it will be very interesting”, points out N. Efstratiou, who also refers to the importance of the findings from the Bronze Age.

“We have identified archaeological sites, possibly farmsteads, which we believe were part of the Bronze Age ‘seasonally mobile pastoralists’. For many years there has been a great deal of question as to the time of commencement of this seasonal movement, “transitional herding” of people and herds as it is known. So we found places that we think should be included in this network of movements – which means that maybe they started from the Bronze Age, 4000 BC. and then, that is, much sooner than many of us thought,” he notes.

And the future of alpine archeology in Greece? If research is carried out in other mountains of the country, will similar findings be found there as well? “It is not certain”, the professor answers us.

“Archaeologists must be involved in field investigations. Only if you go to some mountainous place, only if you’re a “heterobama” and decide to research, for example, the Pieria Mountains or the Rhodopes, and based on the international experience of locating sites – why these hominids were not naive, they wanted areas where there was game, water and raw materials to make their tools – you can find out. Why don’t you imagine that the natural environment has changed a lot in these thousands of years. The riverbeds may have moved somewhat or the morphology of the plains has changed due to floods and the accumulation of materials, but nothing that points to dramatic geological changes has occurred”, concludes N. Efstratiou, who thanked the Ephoria of Antiquities of Grevena and all the agencies that helped in the implementation of the research – which is now in the phase of study and publication of the results – as well as all his collaborators who in often adverse weather conditions and in the middle of the pandemic carried out the on-site research.

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