About

The goal of the project is to characterize diachronic cave use (ritual, domestic, funerary, monastic etc.) by exploring the relations between the variety of material archaeological evidence from caves concerning the area - including the increasing number of new discoveries that have not been recorded yet - and the variety of geographical landscapes and spatial features associated with the caves of the region (continental, mountainous, island, coastal, riverside). Implementation of the data occurs on the foreground of wider frameworks including the strategic position of the region in the confluence of major sea routes of western Greece and in the center of the Mediterranean in relation to the historical context (ancient sea trade and colonies) and prehistoric patterns of land/maritime mobility.

In order to make the best exploitation of the available information, a geodatabase has been constructed that takes into account the geographical location and environs of the caves; their proximity to ancient sites; the types and spatial qualities of the caves; the information obtained from old and recent excavation archives; and most especially, the recording of the material finds using a comprehensive template to cover the wide range of vessels, terracottas and other artifacts, as well as their chronologies and qualitative and quantitative attributes related to the region. In this context, a large number of caves have been entered in the database, which corresponds to almost the 90% of the caves in the region, and includes both the archaeological and the non-archaeological caves. Although completeness of the archaeological data is not possible in all entries due to ongoing or unavailable studies, the archaeological cave map reveals a large chronological period of cave activity since the Palaeolithic and throughout the post-Byzantine era. More particularly, the focus of the informed database on cave shrines has revealed the wide diversity of ritual votive assemblages in caves during the 1st millennium BC in association with a variety of landscapes and geomorphological characteristics.

The objective of the action is not targeting towards the exhaustive retrieval of the archaeological record, but rather to the construction of a tool that can be used by the members of the archaeological community to further analyze their finds in relation to cave-site distribution and type of cave usage by humans, from prehistory to the end of antiquity. Especially in terms of the worship caves, the implementation of this tool will enable mapping the diversity of the votives and comparing among sites, locally and regionally. To this end, the archaeological data from selected cave shrines from other regions (Ithaca, Kephalonia, east central Greece) were also incorporated in this database to enable test searching and pilot comparisons. Overall, this database provides the framework for an integrated perspective of human activity in caves and the synthesis of the relevant archaeological knowledge.

The locational attributes of the caves were enough to carry out spatial analyses regarding their distribution density, the viewshed analysis, site catchment and the least cost paths of the caves to the water resources and the coastal regions. The results of these spatial analyses have been integrated in a web GIS-based application, which helps to visualize the hierarchy of each cave in each of their environmental contexts. The specific application is the starting point of how the analyses of the Cave Scapes can be carried out in different geographical contexts.

Research Team

Prof. Apostolos Sarris, University of Cyprus
Dr. Stella Katsarou, Ephorate of Palaeoantrhopology-Speleology, Ministry of Culture and Sports
Dr. Anglelos Chliaoutakis, FORTH
Mr. Aris Kydonakis, FORTH

The formulation and population of the database has become possible thanks to feedback and unpublished data provided by specialists Prof. Catherine Morgan, Prof. Katja Sporn, Dr. Andreas Darlas, Dr. Agathi Karadima, Yorgos Valvis and Varvara Giza.

Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the project "POLITEIA II" (Politismos-Technologia, New Technologies in the Research, Study, Documentation and Access to the Information for Cultural Heritage Objects and Monuments II) (MIS 5002478), implemented under the "Action for the Strategic Development on the Research and Technological Sector" and funded by the Operational Programme "Competitiveness, Entrepreneurship and Innovation" (NSRF 2014-2020) and co-financed by Greece and the European Union (European Regional Development Fund).