Grotte Franchthi

The cave is about 150m long and approximately 45m wide, with an orientation of NW-SE. It has two large openings where the roof has collapsed, producing piles of debris. These separate the cave floor into distinct areas. The collapses are estimated to have occurred towards the end of the Neolithic period (around 3,000 B.C.).

Towards the rear of the cave behind the central pile of rock, lies a small pool of brackish water. Up until the Neolithic, when sea level was lower than today, this area was a dry cavity adding usable space.

Excavations were carried out inside and outside of the cave between 1967 and 1979 under the directorship of T.W. Jacobsen of Indiana University (U.S.A) and the auspices of the American School of Classical Studies at Athens. Using pioneering excavation techniques and a multidisciplinary approach, the excavations identified significant evidence for the Palaeolithic and Mesolithic, periods previously largely unknown in Greece. In particular, they shed light on issues related to the transition from hunter- gatherer to farming societies, seafaring in the Aegean, mortuary practices in the Mesolithic and Neolithic, as well as clay pot making.

Since the end of the excavations, most of the trenches have collapsed. In the course of recent development work.

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