Macedonian Museums-16-Proistoriko Dispiliou-74

The Dispilio Lakeside Neolithic Settlement Archaeological Collection is a

museum A museum ( ; plural museums or, rarely, musea) is a building or institution that cares for and displays a collection of artifacts and other objects of artistic, cultural, historical, or scientific importance. Many public museums make these ...

Dispilio Dispilio ( el, Δισπηλιό) is a village near Lake Orestiada, in the Kastoria regional unit of Western Macedonia, Greece. Near the village is an archaeological site containing remains of a Neolithic lakeshore settlement that occupied an art ...

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. It was the first Neolithic settlement by the side of a lake excavated in the country. Many important artifacts were found, the most notable being the Dispilio Tablet. The village is 8 km from

Kastoria Kastoria ( el, Καστοριά, ''Kastoriá'' ) is a city in northern Greece in the modern regions of Greece, region of Western Macedonia. It is the capital of Kastoria (regional unit), Kastoria regional unit, in the Geographic regions of Gree ...

. In 1932, Professor Keramopoullos of the

Aristotle University of Thessaloniki Aristotle (; grc-gre, Ἀριστοτέλης ''Aristotélēs'', ; 384–322 BC) was a Greek philosopher and polymath during the Classical period in Ancient Greece. Taught by Plato, he was the founder of the Peripatetic school of phil ...

located traces of a prehistoric lake settlement there. Thirty years later Professor Moutsopoulos conducted surface investigations and confirmed the existence of the settlement. In 1992 Professor

Nikos Hourmouziadis Nikos ( el, Νίκος, ''Níkos'') is a Greek given name. It originates from Greek ''Nikolaos'', which means "victory of the people".Liddell & Scott, Abridged Greek Lexicon Although used as a proper first name, Nikos is also a popular nickname of t ...

of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki began systematic excavations, which are still going on. A settlement has been uncovered which dates to the mid-Neolithic period, i.e. the middle of the 6th millennium BCE. The strategic aim of the excavations is to study the settlement as a specific cultural system. The finds include tools (stone, bone, and flint) and quantities of animal bones, a discovery which shows that the inhabitants engaged in agriculture, hunting, and fishing; materials with which the huts were built (wooden piles and floors, post-holes); large clay storage jars; baskets woven in the manner of that period; cooking utensils (many of them boat-shaped); and bone and stone jewellery. The most important find is a bone flute, one of the oldest musical instruments ever found in Europe. There is also a model in the exhibition area illustrating the form of the huts and how they were constructed. A short distance from the exhibition area, lake, lakeside and land dwellings have been built by the lake, all exact reconstructions of the huts of the prehistoric settlement. Inside the huts are all the utensils which the people used for their everyday needs. An earthen cover in the middle of the settlement served to protect the fire, and there is a kind of pirogue moored at the lakeside, which the inhabitants would have used for fishing.

File:Macedonian_Museums-16-Proistoriko_Dispiliou-75.jpg, A view from a distance File:Macedonian_Museums-16-Proistoriko_Dispiliou-76.jpg, Lake dwelling File:Macedonian_Museums-16-Proistoriko_Dispiliou-77.jpg, A kind of pirogue moored at the lakeside File:Macedonian_Museums-16-Proistoriko_Dispiliou-78.jpg, An earthen cover to protect the fire File:Macedonian_Museums-16-Proistoriko_Dispiliou-79.jpg, Interior of a hut

External links

Triton reportThe place where the collection is kept (overview)Photos from the neolithic site
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