In the prehistoric settlement of Limenaria Thassos, during the excavations embankments of the late Middle and early Neolithic period were found in the southwestern part of the settlement as well as architectural remains of the Bronze Age on the top and on the eastern side of the hill. The first settlement on the site dates back to the middle of the 6th millennium BC, while the newest archaeological layers date back to the 2nd millennium BC. Limenaria is one of the most widely excavated prehistoric settlements in the northern Greek area, where the archeological geomorphological research has complemented to a remarkable extent our knowledge of the original settlement and its evolution in the area.
The prehistoric site was located at the southwestern end of a plateau that corresponds to a Middle or Upper Pleistocene terrace section, at the foot of the hills that border the Limenaria-Kalivia valley from the east. The settlement develops on the hill, with a horizontal displacement of the facility. Which in the Neolithic period is located on the western slopes, while in the Bronze Age it was shifted to the top of the hill and the eastern slopes. Periodically, large-scale shaping operations were found with leveling or embankment of parts of the residential area and the construction of terraces with stone analema walls. In the periphery of the Neolithic settlement, trenches were found that functioned as waste pits.
In the layers of the advanced Early Bronze Age, two stone walls, possibly of the same settlement phase, were identified, right on the borders of the natural terrain. The way they were built, mudstone construction with mud as the only binding material, recalls the masonry of the end of the Early Bronze Age as we know it from the same settlement.
Outside the northernmost of the walls was found a heating structure with a clay floor, the three successive layers of which show an excellent state of preservation. The upper one is made up of sherds of large vessels, the middle one of pebbles and the lower one of flat stones.
The movable finds of the excavation were few: fishing weights, fragments of stone chisels, some stone beads, spindle whorls and a clay figurine. However, important quantitatively and qualitatively is the pottery, with a high percentage of it decorated with engraved and pressed motifs. This category of pottery is very widespread in Eastern Macedonia during the first half of the 3rd millennium BC.
The most important find is the identification of objects related to metalworking, such as a typical hemispherical funnel with traces of slag. The find comes to be added to several so far from the phases of the Early Bronze Age, with which the on-site processing of brass and silver is attested.
Editor: Fotini Anastasopoulou