Böcker av Catherine Perles

With the long-awaited publication of these three volumes we have the first thorough documentation of one of the most important prehistoric sites in the Mediterranean, that of Franchthi Cave in the Argolid Peninsula of Greece."e; -American Anthropologist... an exceptional contribution to the hitherto very inadequate knowledge of this period in Greece."e; -Antiquity... the archaeological and paleoenvironmental data from Franchthi Cave are unique in providing a site-specific record of the cultural responses to great environmental changes."e; -Quarterly ResearchPerles's study is impressive in the systematic application of a well-thought-out methodology."e; -American AntiquityThis study of chipped/flaked stone tools found in the excavations at Franchthi Cave is the first of its kind in Greek archaeology, if not in the whole of southeastern European prehistory.

Farmers made a sudden and dramatic appearance in Greece around 7000 BC, bringing with them new ceramics and crafts, and establishing settled villages. They were Europe's first farmers, and their settlements provide the link between the first agricultural communities in the Near East and the subsequent spread of the new technologies to the Balkans and on to Western Europe. In this 2001 book, Catherine Perles argues that the stimulus for the spread of agriculture to Europe was a colonisation movement involving small groups of maritime peoples. Drawing evidence from a wide range of archaeological sources, including often neglected 'small finds', and introducing daring new perspectives on funerary rituals and the distribution of figurines, she constructs a complex and subtle picture of early Neolithic societies, overturning the traditional view that these societies were simple and self-sufficient.