The Cyclops Cave, also called the Cave of the Cyclops, is on the uninhabited

islet of Youra Gioura ( el, Γιούρα), sometimes romanized as Youra, is a Greek island and abandoned settlement in the eastern part of the Northern Sporades. It is administratively part of the municipality of Alonnisos. The island name comes from the ancien ...

(or Gioura), in the

Northern Sporades The (Northern) Sporades (; el, Βόρειες Σποράδες, ) are an archipelago along the east coast of Greece, northeast of the island of Euboea,"Skyros - Britannica Concise" (description), Britannica Concise, 2006, webpageEB-Skyrosnotes " ...

, ( from Alonissos) off the coast of

Thessaly Thessaly ( el, Θεσσαλία, translit=Thessalía, ; ancient Thessalian: , ) is a traditional geographic and modern administrative region of Greece, comprising most of the ancient region of the same name. Before the Greek Dark Ages, The ...

in Greece. It is the location of an archaeological site with evidence of human occupation from the

Mesolithic The Mesolithic (Greek: μέσος, ''mesos'' 'middle' + λίθος, ''lithos'' 'stone') or Middle Stone Age is the Old World archaeological period between the Upper Paleolithic and the Neolithic. The term Epipaleolithic is often used synonymo ...

through the Late

Neolithic The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several part ...

periods. There is also later material, such as Roman lamps. The site was excavated beginning in 1992 and continuing into 1996 by a team led by

Adamantios Sampson Adamantios Sampson ( el, Αδαμάντιος Σάμψων) is a Greek archaeologist who served as an Inspector of Antiquities for the Greek Administration of Antiquity. Since 1999, he has been a professor in the University of the Aegean, Departme ...

, Inspector of Antiquities, during a project whose more general purpose was to clarify the prehistoric occupation sequence in the area, with an emphasis on the pre-pottery sequences from the Late

Pleistocene The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the '' Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed ...

Ceramic A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelai ...

fragments of painted pottery dated to 6000 BC – 5500 BC were found. Other evidence of human occupation includes the remains of sheep and goats. Excavation of layers of the Mesolithic period found ash and charcoal and an abundance of animal, bird, and fish bones, shells, scales, and a human skull. In this layer were also tools such as millstones and grinders, fish-hooks made from bone and other bone tools. There were also a small number of tools made from obsidian and

siliceous Silicon dioxide, also known as silica, is an oxide of silicon with the chemical formula , most commonly found in nature as quartz and in various living organisms. In many parts of the world, silica is the major constituent of sand. Silica is ...

rocks.

References

Bibliography

* Patrick Quinn, Peter Day, Vassilis Kilikoglou, Edward Faber, Stella Katsarou-Tzeveleki, Adamantios Sampson, "Keeping an eye on your pots: the provenance of Neolithic ceramics from the Cave of the Cyclops, Youra, Greece" ''Journal of Archaeological Science'' 37:5:1042-1052 (2010) * Judith Powell, "Fishing in the Mesolithic and Neolithic—the Cave of Cyclops, Youra", ''Zooarchaeology in Greece: Recent Advances (2003)'', ''British School at Athens Studies'' 9:75-84 * Nikos Efstratiou, ''book review'' of Adamantios Sampson, ''The Cave of the Cyclops: Mesolithic and Neolithic Networks in the Northern Aegean, Greece. Vol. 1, Intra-Site Analysis, Local Industries, and Regional Site Distribution'' ''American Journal of Archaeology'' 114:1 (January 2010) ww.ajaonline.org/book-review/656 full text/ref> Neolithic Greece Sporades 1992 archaeological discoveries 1992 in Greece {{archaeology-stub, date=April 2021