Melian obsidian at Franchthi Cave (Aegean seafaring)
Obsidiana de Melos en la cueva de Franchthi (navegación del Egeo)
- Date
- c. 11000 BCE · confidence medium
- Place
- Franchthi Cave, Argolis, Greece
- Credited to
- Aegean hunter-gatherers
- Field
- Movement
⚠️ Disputed: the sources disagree.
What was discovered
Obsidian from the island of Melos, reachable only by sea, appears at Franchthi from the end of the Palaeolithic or the Mesolithic. It is among the oldest evidence for sea voyages and long-distance exchange in the Mediterranean.
The level of first appearance (Final Upper Palaeolithic, c. 13 ka, or Mesolithic, c. 11-9 ka) is debated; Perlès and others revised the sequences. There is comparable evidence on Cyprus (c. 8500 BC).
What it led to
- obsidian exchange networks across the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean
- Neolithic colonisation of Aegean islands and Cyprus