An Aurignacian Assemblage From The Island Of Lemnos (Greece): Some Aspects Of The Beginning Of The Upper Palaeolithic In The Northeast Aegean

The discovery of an Aurignacian lithic assemblage along the northern coast of the Island of Lemnos in the northeast Aegean Sea has opened new perspectives to the study of the beginning the Upper Palaeolithic in Greece. The site is located some 93 m from the present seashore. It was discovered in the summer of 2020 ca 2 km west of the Pournias Bay. The lithics were exposed in a well-defined oval concentration, ca 25x10 metres wide, buried by a Holocene sand dune. They were uncovered after sand removal by a bulldozer for the construction of a parking place. The knapped stones are made almost exclusively from hydrothermal siliceous rocks, a raw material available on the island. Raman spectroscopy and optical observations confirmed that this raw material is chalcedony. The surfaces of most artefacts are weathered due to deposition in an environment rich of marine salt which did not preserve any organic material suitable for radiocarbon dating. The knapped stone assemblage consists of diagnostic artefacts among which are different types of carinated end scrapers, cores, and a few bladelets. The discovery of an Aurignacian site plays an important role in the study of the Palaeolithic peopling of Lemnos and the northeast Aegean in general, a period which was previously known only through Epipalaeolithic sites discovered and exca-vated mainly along the eastern coast of the island.