Maroulas on Kythnos
Maroulas Mesolithic Site · Kythnos Maroulas
Early Mesolithic·Aegean Mesolithic·🇬🇷 Cyclades, Kythnos, Greece
About
About Maroulas on Kythnos
Early Mesolithic open-air village on Kythnos (c. 8800–8600 BCE), the earliest Holocene settlement in the Cyclades with stone-built floors, burials, imported Melian obsidian and marine fauna. Demonstrates seafaring and sedentary hunter-gatherers before Neolithic.
Why it mattersEarliest Mesolithic village in Aegean, rewriting Cycladic colonization and maritime technology.
Open questions
Mysteries & theories
Mysteries
- 01Seafaring capability to colonize Cyclades early
- 02Sedentism without agriculture
Theories
- 01Maritime pioneer colonization from mainland
- 02Seasonal aggregation for tuna fishing
Theories are interpretations, not findings. The seal above tells you how much scholarly weight the place carries.
History
How it came to be
- Built
- c. 8800 BCE
- Period
- Early Mesolithic
- Culture
- Aegean Mesolithic
- Purpose
- Sedentary hunter-gatherer village and burial ground
- Rediscovered
- Modern excavation 19th–20th century
- Excavation
- Excavated
c. 8800 BCE
Initial construction / first occupation at Maroulas on Kythnos
19th century / 1960s
Antiquarian notice and modern systematic excavation of Maroulas on Kythnos
2000s
Conservation and publication of final reports for Maroulas on Kythnos
On the ground
Structures & features
37.4160° N · 24.4280° E · 12 m · 3 mapped features
Circular Hut Floor 5
hut floorStone-paved hut floor 4.2 m diameter with central hearth and postholes
37.4161° N · 24.4281° ECist Burial Cluster A
burialGroup of 5 stone cist burials with flexed inhumations near village edge
37.4158° N · 24.4279° EObsidian Workshop Scatter
workshopDense Melian obsidian debitage concentration indicating blade production
37.4162° N · 24.4281° E