The "Cave of Cyclops" is located on the uninhabited desert island of Giura and is the largest of the Northern Sporades. The cave is located at an altitude of 150 m, on the south side of the island. Its entrance facing the sea is wide and leads to a spacious room measuring approximately 40X50 m and an altitude of 15 m. The decoration of the cave is very rich, but it has stopped developing for a long time.
After a surface survey and after identifying remains of habitation from various periods, it was decided to carry out a systematic excavation that lasted from 1992 to 1995, from which it was established that in the first room near the entrance there was a high density of habitation, while inside only a few samples were found that certify use during the classical and Hellenistic periods.
During the Roman times (1st-2nd AD, century), we conclude from the rich findings in all areas of the cave, (mainly lamps) that it was intensively used and probably constituted a sacred place of worship.
Much of the cave fillings date to the Neolithic period (6500-4000 BC) and cover the earliest, middle and early part of the latest Neolithic. Already from the earliest Neolithic layers came written pottery, which in the next phase (Middle Neolithic, beginning of the 6th millennium BC) reaches its highest perfection, with decorative themes that are influenced by the textile or embroidery art of the time. These are fragments of approximately 20 spherical closed vessels, all found together in a specific area of the cave. Similar decorated vases were previously found in the Neolithic settlement of Agios Petros of Kyra Panagia, while they are completely absent from other areas outside the North Sporades.
It seems that this is a local workshop with particularities in the decoration that worked in the Northern Sporades and is one of the main characteristics of the "Jouron - Kyra Panagia culture". In this phase there were relations with Thessaly, Evia and other islands of the Aegean, as well as with Asia Minor and the Balkans.
Flint blades that had been used as scythes indicate that some agricultural activities were practiced on the island, although the areas for cultivation are very limited.
The same type of tool has also been found in Neolithic settlements of Thessaly, in layers of the earliest and middle Neolithic (7th-6th millennium BC). while the material (flint with a honey hue) has direct relations with western Bulgaria, where its unique source is located. In the later Neolithic I (5th millennium BC) the use of the cave became more intensive and people were more involved in animal husbandry, as shown by the huge amounts of animal bones. At the same time there were also hunting activities.
However, the deepest layers, which belong to the Mesolithic period and date from the 9th to the 7th millennium BC, are of greatest interest in the Cyclops cave.
These are superimposed residential floors, on which hearths and food remains were found consisting of hundreds of thousands of bones of animals, birds and mainly fish. Throughout the Mesolithic layers there were also huge quantities of seashells and snails.
The presence of the latter indicates humid conditions, which has been established for this period by paleoclimate studies.
The Mesolithic period is a phase that is inserted between the Paleolithic and the Neolithic and until today in the Greek area it is very rare since it has only been found in Theopetra of Kalambakas, in Attica and in Prosymna and Frachthi in the Argolis. For the first time, it is located in the Aegean area and in fact on such an isolated island as Iura.
Among the other findings, the hooks made of animal bone (about 45) stand out, the like of which have not been found anywhere in the Greek area to date. These are fishing hooks of various sizes from 6 mm long to 7 cm.
It is characteristic that the shape of the hooks has not changed to this day, which proves that a long experience and specialization in the field of fishing had been created.
There are also oyster jewelry, horseshoes that have been fashioned into spoons, and a host of stone and bone tools. An important find was part of a human skull found in 1995 in the deepest layers of the excavation and dated to the 9th millennium BC.
Its study by the anthropologist Mr. Poulianos showed that it belonged to a woman aged 65-70 years, which is considered a rare case considering the low average mortality of the time.
The Mesolithic findings of the Cyclops cave prove that 10,000 years ago the cave's occupants, in addition to hunting animals, mainly birds, were systematically engaged in the collection of sea shells (butterflies, mussels) and fishing.
That is, it is not about occasional fishing but probably about systematic and organized fishing expeditions, during which sophisticated fishing techniques were applied, as shown by the bone hooks.
The finding of skeletons of very large fish, mainly tuna. shows that the fishermen of this early period had also reached advanced navigational techniques. Without capable boats it would not be possible to face the unstable weather conditions and the dangerous sea of the North Aegean.
Also, the presence of obsidian tools in the Mesolithic layers of the cave of Milos is another important testimony for advanced navigation in those times. It was also established that there are similarities with microlithic tools from SW Asia Minor (Attalia area) and possibly contacts of the users of the cave of Jura with the local populations.
It is possible that the specialization of the prehistoric populations of the North Aegean in fishing was the result of a tradition whose beginnings go back to the last Paleolithic times.
In the Middle and Upper Palaeolithic (50,000-10,000 BC), due to the great fall of the sea level, the islands of Sporades were united with Thessaly. For that reason. in the surface surveys we have carried out in recent years in all the deserts, remains of Paleolithic habitation have been found. It is very likely that at the end of the last Ice Age, when serious geological and climatic rearrangements took place in the N. Sporades, prehistoric populations turned to forms of economy related to the sea, perhaps due to the area's abundance of fish, which existed until recently.
It is worth noting that fishing activities decrease drastically in the Ancient and Middle Neolithic (7th-6th millennium BC), while in the newer Neolithic, the findings show that fishing is almost not practiced.
In addition to these food-producing possibilities of the Northern Sporades, it seems that there were other reasons for the human presence in this area already from Paleolithic times.
The Sporades chain of islands, from Psathura to Skiathos, served prehistoric navigation and constituted a sea route for those sailing from mainland Greece to Asia Minor and from the northern Aegean to the south. It is established that navigation was done mainly through the Euboean Gulf, because in this way the dangerous open sea east of Evia was avoided.
The study of animal remains (bones of animals, birds and fish, oysters) as well as plant remains (coal, plant seeds, pollen grains), combined with the study of changes in sea level and paleoclimate. they are going to give a complete picture of the habitation of the Juras in the Mesolithic and Neolithic periods.
Editor: Fotini Anastasopoulou