Summary
Stamatis I. Chatzitoulousis
The waterlogged wodden material from the Neolithic lakeside settlement at Dispilio, Kastoria
Wood, as an archaeological find, embodies all the stages of the chaine-opératoire, which transforms it from a natural product (ecofact) into a finished cultural product (artifact) and allows us to associate each of its stages to more than one aspects of human life (man’s ecological consciousness, technological capacity or economic decision-making level). The multidimensional exploitation of timber is being clearly reflected in the abundance of wooden objects found in waterlogged – anaerobic (considerable elucidation or exclusion of the available oxygen, which prohibits the development or the survival of organisms such as insect and fungi) deposits in an impressively good condition. Excavation in such wet sites has shed light on uses of timber only glimpsed at in dry sites, not only in relation to architecture, but also in the construction of means of transportation, of trackways and platforms, of agricultural and hunting tools, of the domestic toolkit, as well as a means for the ritual expression of past societies (figurines).
Excavation at Dispilio has revealed wooden objects (vertical piles and horizontal timber) which were used mostly in the construction of what appears to have been pile-framed houses erected on raised wooden platforms inside or just by the Kastoria lake. The wooden material included also natural roundwood (brushwood and twigs), as well as woodchips, indicating that most of the woodworking was being performed inside the habitation area, even though the material’s random distribution has made it impossible for us to detect specific woodworking areas.
The study of the toolmarks preserved on the timbers’ surface shows the application of chopping for the transformation of the tree-trunks edges into pointed ends of various types. Furthermore, there is evidence for the application of all the other common Neolithic woodworking techniques, the hewing and hollowing of the upper part of vertical piles for the fitting of horizontal timbers on them, as well as the splitting of trunks into rectangular boards. The tools used for chopping appear to have been small-sized and concave-edged ground stone axes and adzes, and it is highly possible (according to experimental and ethnographic studies and archaeological evidence from other sites) that wooden wedges and mallets, flint blades and probably bone tools were used for the splitting and the hollowing of the timbers respectively.
The prevalence of juniper, according to the tree-species identification results, followed by pine, fir and oak, among the tree-species of the timbers at Dispilio shows, on one hand, that this Neolithic community was well-aware of the properties and morphological characteristics of each tree-species and put them accordingly to the most appropriate use. For example, the prevalence of juniper in the vertical piles can be explained by the fact that juniper is resistant to water decay in wet conditions, while strong and suitable for constructions and the bearing of heavy loads. On the other hand, the identification of a variety of tree-species shows that the community of Dispilio used to select wood from various forest zones, not only close to the settlement but also from higher altitudes.
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