Head of neolithic figurine.

The site was excavated for one month in 1976. It has an important strategic position on the right bank of the river Nestos (see map). Nestos today forms the border between eastern Macedonia and Thrace. Surface finds had indicated that the periods represented at the site were the Late Neolithic and Bronze Ages. The 1.7 m deep stratigraphical sequence belongs to the Late Neolithic period, however. Graphite painted pottery dominates.

Both the archaeological finds and the radicarbon dates demonstrate that the site is contemporary with Sitagroi III: radicarbon dates 4995–5825 b.p. or the 5th millennium BC.

The results were published as Hellström, P., Johnson, J., Larje, R., Reese, D. & Blennow, M.-L., Paradeisos. A Late Neolithic Settlement in Aegean Thrace (ed. by P. Hellström). (Medelhavsmuseet Memoir 7). Stockholm 1987. ISBN 91-7192-677-1.

Map of the area of Paradeisos.

Pontus Hellström