Surveying the Neolithic farmers in Aegean Thrace with digital technologies

Abstract

Some 27 Neolithic settlement sites have been recorded in Aegean Thrace thus far, of which only few have been excavated, and these by limited trench excavations providing very fragmentary evidence for their intra-site organization, architecture and other aspects of life. The exception to this is Makri near Alexandroupoli, which has been excavated almost in its whole extent revealing rich data for the organization of the settlement and the duration of its habitation. In order to improve the knowledge about the Neolithic settlers of Aegean Thrace, an ongoing project focusing on the Neolithic settlements in the provinces of Rhodope and Xanthe was designed, with the aim to investigate their intra-site organization, duration of habitation, palaeoenvironment, and environmental changes that may have affected the habitation. To this end, archaeological surface survey, multi-component geophysical research, palaeogeographical and geological investigations including borehole cores, and radiocarbon dating of the samples from drilling cores were undertaken at eight Neolithic settlements. In this paper, we present the results of archaeological surface survey of the settlements and digital technologies developed and applied in this research segment with particular focus on Diomedia, which appears to stand out from the rest with its exceptionally large size.