The Lower Palaeolithic site of Marathousa 1, Megalopolis, Greece: overview of the evidence

Marathousa 1 is a Lower Palaeolithic open-air site located in the Megalopolis basin, an area
in Southern Greece known for its fossiliferous sediments. Mining activities in the basin
uncovered a thick sequence of Middle Pleistocene lacustrine deposits representing the
environment of a palaeolake. Marathousa 1 was discovered in 2013 during a targeted
palaeoanthropological survey and excavated subsequently by an interdisciplinary team from
the Ephoreia of Palaeoanthropology–Speleology of Greece and the University of Tübingen,
Germany. This article presents results from the ongoing investigation and reviews the state
of knowledge about the site.
Systematic excavations during five field seasons have exposed a total of 72 m2 and revealed
a partial skeleton of the elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus and remains of other large
mammals in spatial and stratigraphic association with a “small tool” lithic assemblage.
Faunal and taphonomic studies indicate the presence of cut-marks and percussion damage
on elephant and other large mammal bones. The study of site formation processes, together
with taphonomic and geostatistic spatial analyses confirm the association of fossil and
hominin activity remains and the stratigraphic integrity of the site. Radiometric dating,
geological and biostratigraphical evidence suggest that hominin activity at the site occurred
between 0.5–0.4 Ma.
Marathousa 1 is the oldest currently known archaeological site in Greece and the only Lower
Palaeolithic butchering site in the Southern Balkans. It is also a key site for documenting high
resolution palaeoclimatic, palaeoenvironmental and cultural records of a wider geographical
area that potentially acted as a refugium during the successive waves of hominin
colonization of Europe.