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| "Photograph by Beth McIntosh and Sebastian Heath, used with the permission of the Perseus Project." |
A Neolithic site in Thessaly, Greece, Sesklo represents an early and advanced culture. The settlement was inhabited between 6500- 1500 BC, the middle of the Neolithic Period, and may have housed some three thousand to four thousand inhabitants at its peak. The Sesklo culture extends from Serbia in western Macedonia south to Lianokladhi in Phthiotis, covering one hundred square miles or more.
Sesklo was first discovered at the end of the 19th century. The first excavations, led by Chr. Tsountas, took place between 1901 and 1902. D.R. Theocharis began excavating again in 1956 and since 1972 research has been collected on the extended settlement.
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| "Photograph by Beth McIntosh and Sebastian Heath, used with the permission of the Perseus Project." |
The first inhabitants farmed and raised stock, founding a small settlement around 6500. This settlement eventually grew to be an acropolis surrounded by a lower town. A one-meter thick wall barrier guards the acropolis. Inside this barrier are square and rectangular buildings, including a rectangular building with a porch and an axially placed door. Near this is a two roomed rectangular building, assumed to be a potter’s shop, in which there are internal buttresses to support the roof. These internal buttresses appear to be quite common and have since been found in other buildings, including houses.
Houses commonly have foundations of fieldstones one meter high, and structures of mudbrick, which is similar to the early Neolithic Period. The roofs are pitched and made of thick layers of clay placed upon a timber frame. The walls most likely contained windows and doors and possibly were painted. These houses are square or rectangular, contain few rooms, and are separated by narrow alleys and open squares.
The pottery at Sesklo is considered to be greatly advanced. The most common items found are red or pink slip ware and red and white pattern decorations. Figurines found at Sesklo resemble those of the early Neolithic Period where large female figures with slits for eyes and fat buttocks were common, although Sesklo contains more male figurines.
Surprisingly, not a single burial site has been found at Sesklo. This odd dilemma has lead archaeologists to believe that burials were either conducted beyond the town limits or were considered insignificant and bodies were simply discarded. In fact, in the entire Middle Neolithic Period the only evidence of a burial is a collaboration of secondary cremation burials in a cave at Prosymna.