Abstract
<p><em>The excavations in the Aegean since the 1990s onwards have revealed a new cultural stage, starting from the beginning of 9th millennium down to the end of 8<sup>th</sup>. A network of sites extends from the northern to the southern Aegean Sea and from the West to the East, having as reference points the obsidian sources of Melos and Yali, Nissiros. In recent years, we have an increase of Mesolithic sites in the insular Aegean, the mainland Greece as well as in the western Asian coast, Cyprus and Crete. Recent research changes the data and shows that, along with the navigation capability and the specialization in fishing, an early Neolithisation in the Aegean began</em><em> </em><em>already in 9<sup>th</sup> millennium BC. It means that active Mesolithic groups from the early 9<sup>th</sup> mill. till the end of 8<sup>th</sup>could have been able to travel to the East, interact with local populations of the PPNA and PPNB and transfer plants and animals, domesticated or not to the Aegean and the Greek mainland, contributing to the full Neolithisation of the area. </em></p>
Highlights
They’ve been twenty five years since the excavation of the Cyclops Cave on Youra Island revealed undisturbed Mesolithic layers, hither to unknown in the Aegean islands (Sampson 1998, 2008, 2011)
The recent discoveries in maritime Aegean, Crete, western Anatolia and Cyprus are quite enough to put on a new basis the debate for this intriguing theme of the pre-Neolithic movements in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean
Since the beginning of 9th mill BC, for 2000 years, there has been a constant presence in the Aegean by populations familiar with the sea, navigation and geography, living in some areas in a mixed Mesolithic/Neolithic stage, participating in common networks of exchange of raw material and sharing common technological types during the whole period
Summary
They’ve been twenty five years since the excavation of the Cyclops Cave on Youra Island revealed undisturbed Mesolithic layers, hither to unknown in the Aegean islands (Sampson 1998, 2008, 2011). By revealing a Mesolithic settlement of the beginning of 9th mill BC at Maroulas on Kythnos island and locating several contemporaneous sites (Sampson et al, 2010), the characteristics of this cultural stage were defined, such as the architecture, the burial customs and the stone industry. The excavation of an extensive Mesolithic site on Ikaria Island (Sampson et al, 2012) and the location of www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/ac
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