Dispilio ( el, Δισπηλιό) is a village near
Lake Orestiada
Lake Orestiada or Lake of Kastoria ( el, Λίμνη Ορεστιάδα) is a lake in the Kastoria regional unit of Macedonia, northwestern Greece. Sitting at an altitude of 630 metres, the lake covers an area of 28 square kilometres.
Nine rivule ...
, in the
Kastoria regional unit of
Western Macedonia
Western Macedonia ( el, Δυτική Μακεδονία, translit=Ditikí Makedonía, ) is one of the thirteen Modern regions of Greece, regions of Greece, consisting of the western part of Macedonia (Greece), Macedonia. Located in north-western ...
,
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders wit ...
. Near the village is an archaeological site containing remains of a
Neolithic lakeshore settlement that occupied an artificial island.
History
The lake settlement was discovered during the dry winter of 1932, which lowered the lake level and revealed traces of the settlement. A preliminary survey was made in 1935 by
Antonios Keramopoulos
Antonios Keramopoulos ( el, Αντώνιος Κεραμόπουλος; Vlasti, 1870 – Athens, 13 May 1960) was a Greek archaeologist. He conducted numerous excavations studying Mycenean and classical Greek antiquities during the early 20th ce ...
. Excavations began in 1992, led by
George Chourmouziadis, professor of prehistoric archaeology at the
Aristotle University of Thessaloniki
Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phi ...
. The site's paleoenvironment, botany, fishing techniques, tools and ceramics were published informally in the June 2000 issue of , a Greek archaeology magazine and by Chourmouziadis in 2002. A recreation of the lake dwellers' settlement has been erected near the site to attract tourists from Greece and abroad.
The site appears to have been occupied over a long period, from the final stages of the
Middle 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 par ...
(5600-5000 BC) to the Final Neolithic (3000 BC). A number of items were found, including ceramics, wooden structural elements, seeds, bones, figurines, personal ornaments,
flutes
The flute is a family of classical music instrument in the woodwind group. Like all woodwinds, flutes are aerophones, meaning they make sound by vibrating a column of air. However, unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is a reedless ...
and a wooden tablet with markings on it, the
Dispilio Tablet.
See also
*
Orestis (region)
Orestis (Greek: Ορέστης) was a region of Upper Macedonia, corresponding roughly to the modern Kastoria regional unit located in West Macedonia, Greece. Its inhabitants were the Orestae, an ancient Greek tribe that was part of the Molossi ...
*
Upper Macedonia
Upper Macedonia (Greek: Ἄνω Μακεδονία, ''Ánō Makedonía'') is a geographical and tribal term to describe the upper/western of the two parts in which, together with Lower Macedonia, the ancient kingdom of Macedon was roughly divided ...
References
Further reading
*G. H. Chourmouziadis, ed., ''Dispilio, 7500 Years After''. Thessaloniki, 2002.
*G. H. Chourmouziadis, ''Ανασκαφής Εγκόλπιον''. Athens, 2006.
External links
*
Dispilio: The Lakeshore Prehistoric Settlement of Greecefro
greekreporter.com(in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national id ...
)
Neolithic Lake Settlement of Dispiliofro
greek-crossroads.gr(in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
)
Dispilio Excavations Official Website, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greecefro
museumsofmacedonia.gr(in
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national id ...
)
* The excavation's journal, ''Anaskamma'', is available at anaskamma.wordpress.com
The Neolithic Settlement of Dispiliofro
istorikakastorias.blogspot.com(in
Greek
Greek may refer to:
Greece
Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe:
*Greeks, an ethnic group.
*Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family.
**Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor ...
)
{{coord, 40, 28, 50, N, 21, 17, 15, E, source:elwiki_region:GR_type:city, display=title
Populated places established in the 6th millennium BC
Neolithic settlements in Macedonia (region)
Populated places in Kastoria (regional unit)
Pre-Indo-Europeans
Populated places in ancient Greece
Ancient artificial islands in Greece
Former populated places in Greece
Populated places disestablished in the 3rd millennium BC
6th-millennium BC establishments
3rd-millennium BC disestablishments
Archaeological sites in Macedonia (Greece)