Despite the wealth of data provided by the very long archaeological sequence at Franchthi, the use of independent phasing system by each specialist and the large number of discrete trenches renders a synthetic view extremely difficult, if not quasi-impossible. We have therefore elaborated a general chronostratigraphic framework based on all the available data —the sediments, the archaeological and bioarchaeological remains—, the phasing suggested by each author for its own material, the stratigraphic sections and the excavation notebooks. In a way, this amounted to an excavation of the excavation!
Despite many contaminations, both prehistoric and recent, and cross-cutting during the excavation as no sterile layers separate the phases and subphases, we were able to isolate sequences of units in which contextual integrity, or at least the general associations of remains, was preserved. This led us to define 16 phases and a number of subphases many of which unrecognised so far, from the earliest Upper Palaeolithic to the Final Neolithic.
We will here present the method we used, the underlying postulates, the difficulties we met, the different paces of change among the different categories of remains, and outline some of the unexpected results of our work.

First Author: Catherine Perlès

Co-Authors: Mark Rose

Keywords:
Franchthi Cave
Chronostratigraphy
Arrythmia
Palaeolithic
Mesolithic
Neolithic