Dispilio

Lake Orestiada.

Dispilio (Greek: Δισπηλιό) is an archaeological site containing remains of a Neolithic lakeshore settlement that occupied an artificial island near the modern village of Dispilio on Lake Orestiada in Kastoria regional unit, Macedonia, Greece.

The lake settlement was discovered during the dry winter of 1932, which lowered the lake level and revealed traces of the settlement. A preliminary survey was made in 1935 by Antonios Keramopoulos. Excavations began in 1992, led by George Hourmouziadis, professor of prehistoric archaeology at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki. The site's paleoenvironment, botany, fishing techniques, tools and ceramics were published informally in the June 2000 issue of Επτάκυκλος, a Greek archaeology magazine and by Hourmouziadis in 2002. A recreation of the lake dwellers' settlement has been erected near the site to attract tourists from Greece and abroad.

The site appears to have been occupied over a long period, from the final stages of the Middle Neolithic (5600-5000 BC) to the Final Neolithic (3000 BC). A number of items were found, including ceramics, wooden structural elements, seeds, bones, figurines, personal ornaments, flutes and what appears to be the most significant finding, the inscribed Dispilio Tablet.

Further reading

• G. H. Hourmouziadis, ed., Dispilio, 7500 Years After. Thessaloniki, 2002.
• G. H. Hourmouziadis, Ανασκαφής Εγκόλπιον. Athens, 2006.

See also

Dispilio Lakeside Neolithic Settlement Archaeological Collection

External links

• Media related to Dispilio (Kastoria) at Wikimedia Commons
• Dispilio Excavations Official Website, Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Macedonia, Greece
• Dispilio, Exhibition of prehistoric finds
• The excavation's journal, Anaskamma, is available at anaskamma.wordpress.com