The
archaeological site of Dikili Tash is mainly a prehistoric settlement , dating
to the Neolithic period (6400-4000 BC) and the Bronze Age (3000-1100 BC). The
earliest archaeological evidence for organised life in the region, at the
settlement of Dikili Tash, dates to the prehistoric period and is located in
the tell of Krinides, a short distance from the archaeological site of Philippi
and south east of Drama. This
is the oldest Neolithic settlement in Eastern Macedonia and Thrace, and one of
the most important in the Balkans.
Recently, large quantities of the charred berries of pressed grapes have been found in the settlement, indicating that fresh fruits were pressed to extract their juice. This is a particularly important finding for European prehistory as it is at present the earliest evidence for winemaking in Europe.
The name
Dikili Tash dates to the Ottoman period and means “upright stone” in Turkish. It
refers to a Roman tomb monument set up along the length of the Via Egnatia (the
Roman road that connected the Adriatic coast with the city of
The oldest wine samples ever recorded
in Europe were discovered in the prehistoric settlement of Dikili Tash. The
existing data regarding the way of life during the Neolithic period is shown by
the archaeological excavations at the Dikili Tash prehistoric settlement site,
which began in 1961 by the Archaeological Society of Athens in collaboration
with the École française diseAthènes. Recent findings were dated with carbon
using the C-14 method and were found to date back to the middle of the fifth
millennium BC (4500 BC). The
findings included charred grape seeds and compressed grape skins (footsteps) of
wild and cultivated grapes, both a hint of viticulture and evidence of
winemaking activity that, at least in Europe, is considered the oldest.
The excavations of 2013 in
sector 6 of Dikili Tash added a new phase of occupation in the sequence of the
site: it is attested by two deep wells and its floor, which is in an
intermediate position between the last layer of destruction of the Late
Neolithic and the first structures of the Early Bronze Age. Some 80 ceramic
vessels and fragments have been collected among the rubble, which are parallel
in the material of the Final Neolithic / Final Chalcolithic sites in the
neighbour Thassos
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