The Ecology of Bronze Age Flaked Stone Tool Production in Southern Greece: Evidence from Agios Stephanos and the Southern Argolid

Abstract

The analysis of flaked stone tools from various regions of Greece provides considerable information on site chronology, subsistence practices, exchange networks, and the evolution of technology. This report compares Bronze Age material from the Southern Argolid Survey and the excavated site of Agios Stephanos in Laconia. The results of the Argolid Survey give us a broad understanding of various trends that can be checked against individual sites, such as Agios Stephanos, with stratigraphic contexts revealed through excavation. The types of material used in the two regions indicate the relative importance of lithic resources and ease of access to exotic sources. The thesis that acquisition of Melian obsidian was an adjunct to the procurement of other resources is supported by the results of this study. The presence of a specialized obsidian production center in the southern Argolid during the Bronze Age is suggested; the situation in Laconia during this period is not as clear because of the lack of published survey data. The inhabitants of both regions manufactured similar tool types, reflecting similar subsistence adaptations. The dimensions of obsidian blades in both regions during the Bronze Age exhibit tight statistical clustering and indicate considerable sharing of technology between different sociopolitical units. Flannery's adaptation of general systems theory to archaeology is used, in conjunction with a rational decision model, to analyze the use of flaked stone tools as an aspect of local ecology in southern Greece.*