3 The First Mesolithic Site of Thesprotia Evangelos Tourloukis and Ourania Palli Introduction During the intensive surface survey which formed part of the Thesprotia Expedition, a lithic scatter, PS 3, was discovered in the Kokytos valley. The preliminary study of the lithic assemblage shows that the site can be assigned to the Mesolithic period. It is the first site of its kind to be recorded in Thesprotia. 1 The Mesolithic 2 period in Greece, ranging from ca. 10,500 to 9,000 years BP, remains poorly investigated, with only five excavated sites 3 : the shell-midden of Sidari in Corfu, providing the first definite Mesolithic evidence 4 ; Franchthi Cave in the Argolid, offering the first well-stratified sequence 5 ; the caves of Theopetra in Thessaly 6 and Klisoura in the Argolid 7 ; and lately, the Cave of Cyclope on the island of Youra (northern Sporades) with its fish-hooks and the fish bone assemblages. 8 Except for the inland site of Theopetra and perhaps also Klisoura, all of the aforementioned sites are situated either in coastal areas or on islands. This kind of site distribution originally led to the assumption that the Greek Mesolithic was a sea-oriented period, but, as new finds emerge, the legitimacy of an overall maritime character for the period and its corollary of a depopulated hinterland is being challenged. 9 For instance, recent surface finds from the area of Grevena, discovered at altitudes of no less than 1,600 masl, are expected to raise interesting questions. 10 All newly discovered Mesolithic sites have been identified during the course of intensive surveys. These include the two sites of the Berbati-Limnes survey area in the Argolid (FS 200, FS 201), fifteen sites at Kandia, Argolid, the sites on Alonnisos, and six sites in the Preveza region (Fig. 1). 11 Because of the patchy and unclear geographical/environmental distribution, many aspects of Mesolithic subsistence strategies, life-styles and adaptations remain elusive. Additionally, two main questions with regard to the preceding and succeeding periods 1 Two further sites with similar finds, PS 1 and PS 43, were detected by the survey, but the lithic assemblages have not been studied in detail so far. 2 Instead of “Mesolithic”, the term Epipalaeolithic is preferred by a number of scholars, mostly those working in the Balkans and the Near East, as emphasizing a sort of continuity with the Palaeolithic period. Since such a continuous development from the preceding period cannot so far be demonstrated at any of the known Greek Mesolithic sites, we choose to use the term Mesolithic. 3 For the now lost or destroyed Ulbrich and Zaimis Caves, see Galanidou 2003. 4 Sordinas 1970. 5 Perlès 1990. 6 Adam 1999; Adam 2000. Kyparissi-Apostolika 2003 7 Koumouzelis et al. 1996. 8 Sampson 1998; Sampson et al. 2003. 9 Galanidou and Perlès 2003; Galanidou 2003, 111; Bailey 1999, 166. 10 Efstratiou et al. 2004. 11 For Berbati-Limnes see Runnels 1996; for Kandia see Runnels et al. 2005; for Alonnisos see Panagopoulou et al. 2001; for Preveza see Runnels and van Andel 2003.