Exploring Uluzzian Lithic Technology at Klissoura Cave 1, Greece

Abstract The Uluzzian technocomplex (ca. 43,000–39,000 years BP) marks one of the earliest dispersals of Homo sapiens into Europe and the onset of the Upper Palaeolithic in the Mediterranean, yet well-documented evidence outside the Italian Peninsula remains rare. Klissoura Cave 1, in the northeastern Peloponnese (Greece), provides the most robust Uluzzian assemblage identified to date beyond Italy. Here we present a comprehensive technological analysis of the lithic assemblage from Layer V, integrating materials from the 1996–97 excavations with previously unpublished data from the 2002 and 2006 field seasons. The chronology of Layer V is constrained by a tephra horizon correlated with the Campanian Ignimbrite/Y5 eruption (⁴⁰Ar/³⁹Ar age: 39,800 ± 140 years) and a radiocarbon determination on marine shell (40,323–39,290 cal BP). The objective of the production was the manufacture of flakes and bladelets, obtained through unidirectional debitage from parallel-plane, semi-tournant, and orthogonal cores, with a strong reliance on locally available radiolarite. Bladelets were produced through the exploitation of lateral ridges and the management of convexities by means of crested and technical pieces. A defining feature of the assemblage is the combined use of bipolar and freehand direct percussion within single reduction sequences. Retouched implements are dominated by backed tools, including lunates and backed points, by truncations, becs, end scrapers and side scrapers. Together, these data document a technologically coherent Uluzzian assemblage aligned with the final phase of this technocomplex and provide the first well-documented evidence for this cultural tradition outside the Italian Peninsula.

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