Further Information Concerning the Environment of Palaeolithic Man in Epirus

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to bring together further information from Epirus which is relevant to the consideration of man's environment in Palaeolithic times in Greece. Some aspects of this study have already been published elsewhere (Dakaris et al., 1964; Higgs and Vita-Finzi, 1966; Higgs et al., 1968) and it is sufficient here to give only a brief summary of earlier conclusions.It has been thought that there are good grounds for believing that during the Last Glaciation mobile human groups occupied annual territories which ranged from the western coast of Greece to the central Pindhos mountain range (Higgs et al., 1968). Within these annual territories there were two groups of sites. One group, represented by Kastritsa, was at the base of the Pindhos and was occupied in summer, and another group of sites such as Asprochaliko was occupied in winter in warmer regions nearer to the coast. Together these groups exploited seasonally complementary resources which were so distributed that such a pattern was necessary.The question arises, however, was Asprochaliko in fact a more suitable site for occupation during the winter than Kastritsa? An attempt was therefore made to assess the living environment of the two caves themselves. While such an attempt was immediately relevant to the problem with which we are concerned, it has wider implications with regard to the choice of cave sites for human habitation (Legge, 1972).