This is a brief summary of Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2006.6.21, J.D. Muhly’s review of:
- E. Elster and C. Renfrew, Prehistoric Sitagroi: Excavations in Northeast Greece, 1968-1970, vol. 2: The Final Report, Monumenta Archaeologica 20 (Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA, 2003), ISBN: 931745-03-X
The site of Sitagroi, a prehistoric mound in eastern Macedonia on the Drama plain, was excavated during the years 1968-1970 as a joint Anglo-American project whose co-directors were Marija Gimbutas ... and Colin Renfrew ... Sitagroi proved to be a very productive excavation site, occupied for more than 3,000 years, from Middle Neolithic into the Early Bronze Age, ca. 5500-2200 BC. Within this period five major cultural phases were identified, designated Sitagroi I-V.
Sitagroi I, edited by Colin Renfrew, Marija Gimbutas and Ernestine Elster, appeared in 1986. It described the main excavated areas of the site, with detailed reports on chronology and radiocarbon dates, vegetational history and faunal remains, geomorphology, pottery and figurines. Sitargoi 2, edited by Ernestine Elster and Colin Renfrew ... contains detailed reports on all aspects of the use of stone at the site, on the evidence for the crafts of spinning, weaving and mat-making and the use of bone tools, on the botanical evidence from the site, the grains, seeds and fruits, and on the technologies involved in working with clay and metal.
With the appearance of Sitargoi 2 we now have something of a landmark in Neolithic archaeology: a small prehistoric site in northeastern Greece published in two volumes that, taken together, represent some 1,200 pages of solid archaeological documentation. There is material here for many, many years of scholarly discussion and debate. ... Ernestine Elster and Colin Renfrew have done a magnificent job of publishing Sitagroi in such a splendid fashion. And all students of Aegean archaeology should thank the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA for making possible publications of such scope and quality.2
