Konispol Cave, southern Albania, and correlations with other Aegean caves occupied in the Late Quaternary

Abstract

Archeological excavations in a karstic cavern on the south facing slopes of the Pindus range, southern Albania, have disclosed a continuous, 4.5 m thick sequence of human occupation since the Mesolithic. In 1994 geoarcheological field work identified nine (9) principal lithostrata that correspond with successive occupations. Sedimentary sequences indicate that during the Mesolithic spring flow was active and produced a pool in the cave's central chamber. This accounts for settlement along the dry western margin of the cave. After 6000 B.P. episodic flushing of Terra Rossa soil from the cave slopes was dominant. Sediments were variously modified or mobilized by weathering, diagenesis and human agency. These changes are correlated to the chronology and contribute to a limited reconstruction of site formation process. Comparison of sediment stratigraphy with an earlier study of magnetostratigraphy verifies an inferred moist pulse of the Early Holocene/Mesolithic and a turn to warmer/drier conditions during the Middle Holocene/Neolithic. The Konispol sequence is compared to cave chronologies in neighboring Epirus (Kastritsa and Klithi) and to Franchthi in southern Greece. Sedimentation patterns reveal that these caves were initially occupied at the same time (Late Pleniglacial) and that during deglaciation there was a general hiatus in deposition (15,000–10,000 B.P.). Early Holocene moisture phases correspond to an increase in sedimentation during the Neolithic when the caves were intensely utilized. © 1998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.