I woke up bright and early today this morning and met our geologist -- Gilbert -- from Athens and Rebecca, a long time colleague of Dr. Strasser. We set out west of Plakias in search of raw materials that our prospective Mesolithic group could have used for their tools -- specifically chirt and flint.
They would probably not have ventured far from their homesite, unless on extensive hunting trips where minimal baggage would be imperative. This means that they would have chosen smaller materials that washed down from the mountains to the shore. Taking this into account we drove along the seaside from some time before stopping a small beach-side cafe. The shore was incredibly rocky, littered with smooth, round stones. It was among these that Gil and I found nodules of varying size of black chirt. It was beautifully smooth, but much of it had striations in it, so wasn't ideal for knapping.
We traced the potential path of the stones -- with the help of Gil's Sponge-Bob GPS -- to a wonderful outcropping of limestone. It was full of nodules of black chirt, from a cm in diameter to 20 cm. Most were perfectly round, others a strange series of spheres all joined together. Chirt forms like flint, with sediment filling in the spaces of a more porous rock. Chirt is found in limestone, flint in chalk.
This particular chirt site had once been a shallow cave that collapsed, evident by the strange formation of calcite crystals from broken stalactites. Gil then took us east of Plakias to see Preveli Gorge and look for hand-axes. We were not successful, but the view from the cliffs was phenomenal. The rough scrubby vegetation that covers all but the lowest valleys of the interior gave way to shear bare rock faces. The banks of the green river itself were covered with tall lush palms and tropical flowers.
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