A Mycenaean IIIB Dagger from the Palaeolithic Site of Kastritsa in Epirus, Greece

Abstract

When a team of the Archaeological and Anthropological Department of the Cambridge University, working under Mr. Eric Higgs, recently discovered a Mycenaean dagger at the foot of the Kastritsa Mountain (altitude 757 metres), a few metres west of the mouth of the paleolithic cave, it came as no great surprise: for, in the last 15 years, about 10 bronze swords and daggers of Mycenaean provenance have been found in Epirus.On the other hand, the discovery of the paleolithic cave itself at the western foot of the Kastritsa Mountain, and the finds yielded by its excavation, were as unexpected as they were important. It is hoped that continued excavations of the cave with its deep deposits and clear stratification will throw light on some of the problems connected with Homo Sapiens: his origins, the time of his appearance in Europe, his relation to other groups in Epirus and outside it, the civilization he evolved, and the ecological conditions in which he lived in the last phase of the last Ice Age (Würm III).A fresh and more extensive excavation of the prehistoric settlement north of the village of Kastritsa, at the eastern foot of the mountain, would not be devoid of interest either, for it would complete the cycle of prehistoric research and probably throw light on the mesolithic occupation of which little is yet known in Greece.