Sitagroi

Settlement mound in eastern Macedonia, northern Greece, which has produced an important stratigraphy for the chronology of the north Aegean. Sitagroi began with a Middle Neolithic occupation dated c 4500 BC, and continued into the Early Bronze Age in the 3rd millennium BC. The site was chosen for excavation to clarify the relationships between the cultural sequence in the Aegean and the Balkans during those times. The excavation established that finds of Gumelnita type preceded by a considerable period of time finds of Troy I type. The site also supports claims for the primacy of southeast European metalworking over that of Anatolia and that copper metallurgy was an independent development in the Balkans.

A site in eastern Macedonia, northern Greece, which has produced an important stratigraphy for the chronology of the north Aegean. The 10 metres of deposit begins with a Middle Neolithic occupation dated c4500 be, and continues into the full Early Bronze Age in the 3rd millennium be. The site was chosen for excavation by Colin Renfrew in order to clarify the relationships between the cultural sequence in the Aegean and in the Balkans and to establish a radiocarbon chronology for the sequence. The excavation established that finds of Gum el-nit a type, occurring in Sitagroi III, preceded by a considerable period of time finds of Troy I type, found in Sitagroi V. This disproves traditional interpretations, which derived the Balkan Late Neolithic and Copper Age cultures from cultures of Troy I type. It also supports claims for the primacy of southeast European metal-working over that of Anatolia.