Chap. 12
Utilitarian devices and facilities of the residential areas
Equipements et dispositifs utilitaires des zones résidentielles
p. 227-234
Résumés
The utilitarian devices and facilities identified at Klimonas include sediment extraction pits, hearth pits and heating plates, small mosaic-lined pits, offering pits and possible storage pits, as well as potential water collection and storage systems. This chapter deals more specifically with the hearth pits found in the residential buildings, for which 19 examples show a marked standardisation in the form of round-bottomed models (60 cm long and 30 cm deep) devoid of any stones or other arrangement except an enigmatic small side pit (nightlight?). They were almost always located inside the buildings; the only exception being B800 that was associated with a large external fire pit and an internal heating plate. Compared with those of the PPNA continental sites, the equipment of Klimonas appears poorer, less sophisticated and more reminiscent of certain mainland Natufian sites. Stone was seldom used for utilitarian devices or buildings. These, probably local, specificities may be due to the remoteness of Klimonas from the main centres of the PPNA culture.
Les dispositifs et installations utilitaires identifiés à Klimonas sont des fosses de taille moyenne pour l’extraction de sédiments, des fosses et des soles foyères, de petites cuvettes énigmatiques tapissées de pierres mimant une mosaïque, des fosses à offrandes et d’autres peut-être utilisées pour le stockage des denrées, ainsi que de possibles systèmes de collecte d’eau. Deux fosses ayant permis l’extraction de havara ou de remblais de bâtiments abandonnés ont été identifiées dans le Secteur B. Elles sont associées aux premières phases de développement de cette partie du village. Au fond de l’une d’elles, une petite figurine en pierre, dont la tête a été ôtée, souligne la forte dimension symbolique liée à la construction des bâtiments. La grande majorité des dispositifs pyrotechniques est composée de fosses à fond rond de 60 cm de diamètres et 30 cm de profondeur, de type intermédiaire entre les « fosses-foyers » et « foyers creusés » décrits du Levant nord. L’analyse de 19 de ces fosses, dont la moitié comportait encore leur remplissage fonctionnel chauffé ou cendreux, a montré qu’elles étaient dépourvues de tout aménagement à l’exception d’une énigmatique petite fosse latérale (veilleuse ?). Presque tous les bâtiments possédaient une seule fosse foyère et celle-ci était toujours située à l’intérieur, sauf en B800, où la fosse extérieure, plus grande (et plus profonde ?), alimentait probablement en braises ou en pierres chauffées une plaque de cuisson internes. À l’exception de ce dernier cas, les fosses foyères de Klimonas se caractérisent par une forte standardisation et par l’absence de tout appareillage (notamment en pierre). Il n’y a jamais plus d’un foyer par bâtiment, et presque tous les bâtiments en sont pourvus. Cela souligne l’importance de la maisonnée dans l’organisation sociale du village. Par ces caractéristiques, Klimonas diffère significativement des sites continentaux PPNA, aux dispositifs pyrotechniques variés, presque toujours richement appareillés et le plus souvent localisés à l’extérieur des bâtiments. Le site chypriote apparaît à cet égard plus proche des villages natoufiens mais l’absence de pierres, dans les foyers comme dans les murs des bâtiments, semble figurer comme une spécificité locale. Seulement deux cupmarks destinées au concassage-broyage étaient encore en place dans le sol du bâtiment, mais les très nombreux fragments de macro-outillage trouvés partout sur le site soulignent le caractère relictuel de cette information. Un éventuel mortier profond taillé dans la havara rappelle des cas similaires du Natoufien de Palestine. Les cinq petites fosses à fond arrondi dites en «mosaïque» de Klimonas sont très similaires à trois fosses découvertes à Shillourokambos. Elles n’étaient pas utilisées pour faire du feu. Elles avaient une valeur à la fois symbolique et technique, mais leur fonction exacte reste énigmatique. D’autres petites fosses arrondies creusées dans les sols des bâtiments ont été utilisées comme caches lors des rituels de fondation ou d’abandon. La présence de fosses dédiées au stockage des récoltes dans les bâtiments résidentiels reste sujette à caution, l’essentiel du stockage étant vraisemblablement concentré dans le Bâtiment communautaire. La présence de diatomées d’eau douce stagnante dans le paléosol du village et dans la terre à bâtir, ainsi qu’un possible barrage en bois situé en amont d’une petite ravine fossile suggèrent la présence d’installations hydrauliques visant à collecter et à stocker l’eau à l’intérieur du village. Bien que cela ne soit pas surprenant, nos analyses ont révélé qu’au moins certains des dispositifs et équipements techniques de Klimonas avaient une double dimension, à la fois technique et symbolique. Comparé aux grands sites continentaux du PPNA, le fonds d’équipement de Klimonas frappe par sa relative pauvreté et par sa simplicité. Cela résulte en partie de l’état d’érosion avancé du site. Mais ce dernier est lui-même accentué par la quasi-absence d’utilisation de pierres dans la construction comme dans les dispositifs et installations utilitaires. La pauvreté et la simplicité des équipements, qui rappellent certains sites natoufiens continentaux plutôt que ceux du PPNA, tout comme l’exclusion massive de l’usage de la pierre apparaissent donc comme l’expression de spécificités culturelles.
Texte intégral
Introduction
1Apart from the archaeological structures directly relating to the buildings, several hundred other PPNA structures were described in chap 5 to 8, inside or outside of the constructions. They have been grouped into five categories: earth extraction pits, hearth pits and other fireplaces, crushing and grinding devices, possible storage or other pits, and waterworks. Because of the high degree of erosion on the site, they are only small windows on the domestic or communal activities. This chapter aims to regroup and discuss this degraded but precious information and compare it to what was found in the continental PPNA villages. It is mostly limited to the residential areas, as the devices and facilities of the Communal building are described, discussed and compared in detail in chap. 5.
1. Earth extraction pits and possible secondary use for rubbish
1.1. Predictions
2We argued in chap. 11 that the sediments composing the building earth came partly from the digging made for terracing or embedding the buildings and partly from the reuse of demolition products of precedent building(s). It cannot, however, be excluded that this was not enough for the construction of some buildings, especially for the first settling phases when the products of demolition were absent or poor. The villagers, therefore, might have extracted additional sediment from the ground surrounding the new building, especially during the early development phases. Such a practice seems to be the only explanation for a small number of large pits found in the Sector B central area (zone b).
1.2. The pit with the feminine figurine, St 696
3The most convincing earth extraction pit is St 696 (fig. 12-1, 12-2; appendix 12-1). This 55 cm large deep pit (180 x 105 cm, i.e. 0.8 m3) was dug in a narrow havara vein, 10-15 cm east of the digging made for the B26-B27 and B13-B14 building terraces (chap. 7). It was composed of two coalescent excavations. The verticality of its north limit suggests that it was excavated from the south to the north. The fills were detrital (sparse flint, microtool fragments and rare burnt bones), without any remarkable concentration or deposit, except a small probably feminine stone figurine (chap. 20, fig. 20-3) whose head has been removed by percussion – this was not found in the fill despite cautious sieving. Such a deposit is rare enough in this site to be considered as not fortuitous. It probably refers to some ritual of construction similar to the frequent caches of remarkable objects found in the bases of the earth walls (chap. 13).
Fig. 12-1 – Oblique view of the St 696 pit (Sector B) probably used for extracting sediments for making building earth.

Vue oblique de la fosse St 696 (Secteur B) probablement utilisée pour l’extraction de sédiments destinés à la fabrication de terre à bâtir. Cliché B. Jakob, Neuchâtel Univ.
Photo B. Jakob, Neuchâtel Univ.
Fig. 12-2 – Sub-nadir view of the centre of Sector B at the end of all the structure excavations, showing the red spots of the hearth pits of buildings located on marl (B13-B14-B29 down, B26-27 in the centre, B07-B08 top left), and the non-coloured hearth pits of the buildings settled on the havara (B09 left, B10 top centre, B18-28 top right). Between B13 and B18 (right), can be seen the large hollow of havara extraction (St 696) already figured in fig. 12-1.

Vue sub-nadirale du centre du Secteur B montrant les taches rouges des foyers des bâtiments implantés sur la marne (B13-B14-B29 en bas, B26-27 au centre, B07-B08 en haut à gauche), et les foyers non colorés des bâtiments installés sur la havara (B09 à gauche, B10 en haut au centre, B18-28 en haut à droite). Entre B13 et B18 (à droite), le grand creusement d’extraction de havara St 696, déjà représenté sur la fig. 12-1. Cliché J.‑D. Vigne, CNRS.
Photo J.‑D. Vigne, CNRS.
4Besides, it cannot be excluded that the rounded shape of the pit was related to its secondary used for melting the extracted sediment with water and cereal hulls in order to make cob.
5This pit was cut by the foundation trench (St 6623) of building B25 (fig. 12-1), a building which was itself covered by B10 then B12. Depending on which version of the Harris matrix we choose (see chap. 7, fig. 7-77), this pit can be related to the earliest (B27-B26) or to the second earliest (B13) phases of development in this area. This matches with our above prediction of a greater need to extract new sediments at the beginning of the site’s occupation.
1.3. Other possible earth extraction pit
6In Sector B, very near pit St 696, we also found some deep and large funnel-shaped pits excavated into the thick fill of the same buildings (B26-B27) mentioned above (chap. 7, fig. 7-10). These diggings were initially considered as Sotira pits (chap. 4), comparable to the ones found in the north part of the Communal building (chap. 5) and in the B800 large building fill (chap. 6). However, the absence of any Sotira pottery shards or ruminant bones in these pits and, on the contrary, the presence at the bottom of significant PPNA primary deposits of food refuse, in the form of poorly fragmented wild boar bones (chap. 24), suggest that they were actually excavated by PPNA people. Here again, such a deep excavation cannot result from just wanting to bury food refuse – it must be related to the need for building earth. In this case, the earth may have partly come from the precedent building’s demolition and been reintegrated into the construction material of the new buildings, a reuse largely attested by the micromorphological analyses (Mylona et al. 2017a; chap. 9).
7Such sediment extraction was not frequent on the site, probably because, as already mentioned above, most of the sediment was extracted by notching the slope to make the building terraces. However, such pits could also have been destroyed by erosion or by the numerous further diggings made by the Sotira people (chap. 4).
2. Hearth pits and other fireplaces
2.1. Hearth pits
2.1.1. Inventory
8We found one round-bottomed hearth pit in almost all the sufficiently preserved residential buildings, except in two very small buildings that we interpreted as technical constructions (B05 and B24; chap. 11, fig. 11-2). Together with some hearth pits of the south-east area of the Central Sector (chap. 8), that were not clearly associated with a well-identified building, this makes a total of 19 hearth pits that could be studied, to which should be added the two located in the road profiles. They were distributed in all the excavated sectors: 15 in Sector B, 1 in Sector F, 3 in the south-east area of the Central Sector. The characteristics of these 19 structures are described in detail in appendix 12-2: location, position with reference to the buildings, size and shape, substratum, fills and references of the illustrations in the different chapters.
2.1.2. Red-lined bottom
9Typically, these round-bottomed pits were lined with a millimetric to centimetric brick-red layer covering at least part of the walls and bottom of the pit (fig. 12-2), forming a more or less continuous and thick red circle around the surface of the pit at the beginning of their excavation (chap. 7, fig. 7-14). For the nine pits excavated in the grey-greenish marls and for the four excavated in the carbonated colluvium, both rich in iron, this red layer was around 1-2 cm thick and spread across all the pit’s surface, except in two cases where it disappeared near the bottom. Micromorphological observations (J.-D. V.) indicated that this red colour was nothing other than the enclosing marl (with its marine microfossils well preserved) where the green ferric ion had oxidised because of heating and turned into the red ferrous ion.
10Half of the six hearth pits excavated in the havara showed only a millimetric light red film on their walls and bottom, which in fact was of a different nature: it appeared to be composed of decalcification clay coming from the chemical alteration of the calcium carbonate of the havara, accelerated by heating. Three other round-bottom pits excavated in the havara did not present any red colouration (B09, B18, B28) and were consequently only cautiously interpreted as hearth pits, based on their shape and position in the building.
2.1.3. Shape and size
11Seven of the 19 hearth pits were partly eroded, two of them being reduced to the reddish spot of their deepest part. Only the 12 non-eroded pits could be used for estimating the average depth. Fig. 12-3, A shows that it was very standardised, fluctuating between 25 and 33, and a median of 30 cm, with only one exception of the terminal and very large B10 building (19 cm).
Fig. 12-3 – Dimensions of the 19 round-bottomed hearth pits: A, Comparison of the depth of the eroded and non-eroded pits, and kernel density distribution of the second; B, Scatter diagram of the pit major and small axes; C, Notched box-plot comparison with outliers of the two same measurements for the non-eroded pits (N = 12).

Dimensions des 19 fosses foyères à fond rond : A, comparaison des profondeurs des fosses érodées et non érodées, et distribution de densité de kernel des fosses non érodées ; B, diagramme de dispersion des grands et petits axes des fosses ; C, boîtes à moustaches à encoches et représentation des mesures extrêmes, permettant de comparer les valeurs des deux mêmes mesures pour les fosses non érodées (N = 12).
12Because the pit’s profiles were, in general, not strictly hemispherical but rather tending to a sub-cylindrical shape with a concave bottom, the opening of the barely eroded pits were generally not significantly smaller than those of the intact ones (fig. 12-3, B). Among the 17 pits taken into consideration for estimating the opening outline shape and size, 12 were perfectly round, with the 5 others being slightly ellipsoid or oval (B08, B09, B14, B18, B27). However, the average major and small axes of the ellipsoids did not statistically differ from each other (fig. 12-3, C). There was no correlation between the hearth pit and their respective building shapes. Three hearth pits were significantly larger than the others (B14, B29, B800; fig. 12-3, C). Like the depths, the opening dimensions thus appear to be relatively standardised with a median diameter around 58-60 cm. Here again, the hearth pit size did not correlate to its respective building size or suspected function. The largest hearth pits appeared in B800 and in the last phases of occupation of Sector B (phases 4 and 5 of the Harris matrix, chap. 7, fig. 7-78), but this tendency was not statistically supported (ANOVA, Kruskal-Wallis H = 3.5, p = 0.5).
2.1.4. Associated structures
13Ten of the well-preserved hearth pits showed a small side pit completely filled with brick-red sediment, for those on the marl substratum. They were hemispherical, with a diameter and a depth comprised between 5 and 15 cm. Half of them were more or less coalescent with the hearth pit; the second half being located 5-10 cm apart, sometimes to the west, sometimes to the north-east or the north-west (appendix 12-2). The pits without a small side pit were all eroded at different degrees, suggesting that small side pits existed for all the hearth pits and played a major function in fire or light management. They might have served to keep a small permanent fire or a night light when the main pit was not in use.
14In B04 and B09 the hearth pit was associated with a larger pit containing macrotools or pebbles: they were probably used for processing food or other activities connected with the use of fire.
2.1.5. Sometimes functional, sometimes ritually filled
15Ten of the 17 hearth pits with preserved fills were composed of more or less compact and sometimes stratified ashy crusts, light grey ash silts or reddish sandy silts. They frequently comprised burnt flint, macrolithic tool fragments (N = 4) or animal bone splinters (N = 1), greyish limestone blocks (N = 2) and (micro-)charcoals (N = 3). Micromorphological samples of four fills are still under study.
16However, for seven of the hearth pits, the functional fill was replaced by silt and sometimes stones without any heating marks or ritual objects. Some of these fills even contained remarkable deposits, in the form of flint blades (B10), a retoucher/compressor accompanied by three spherical stone hammers (in B10 and B18), shell or picrolite ornaments (B09, B10) or ochre (B28). This suggests a ritual of closure of the hearth and, symbolically, the home, and emphasises the not only technical but symbolic importance of hearths.
17Other offerings, in the form of shell ornaments, were also found in two of the hearth pits that had not been emptied of their fire residues (B04, B800). The large pits associated with the hearth pits in B04 and B09 also contained remarkable objects.
18It should be emphasised that these relatively standardised hearth pits were absent from the Communal building, where we found only one or two small ritual fireplaces and some fire plates (chap. 5).
2.2. Fire plates and external hearth pit in B800
19The hearth pit of B800 was not only one of the biggest (90 cm diameter and 25 cm deep, probably underevaluated by 10-20 cm), but also the only one located outside its likely related building. There was no fireplace inside B800, although there were two quadrangular fire plates (appendix 12-2). The first one was covered by the entrance ramp and probably related to a foundation ritual, similar to the four fire plates found at the foot of the south bench of the first version of the Communal building (chap. 5). The second one was located in the centre of the building, near the central post hole, in continuity with the circulation floor (chap. 6, fig. 6-32). These observations suggest that, contrary to all the residential buildings of the Central and B Sectors, the fire was made outside and embers or heated stones were brought inside for heating the fire plate.
20This does not exclude that such a device was also present in some other residential buildings and escaped our observations, because it is very difficult to detect fire plates on degraded floors (Stordeur 2015). Maybe St 45 of the south-east area of the Central Sector was one of them (chap. 8).
2.3. Fire devices, cooking practices and social structuration: reflections and comparisons
21If we exclude B800, the fire devices of the residential areas of Klimonas appear to be characterised by: i) only one type of 60 cm large and 30 cm deep hearth pits, intermediate between the fosses-foyers and the foyers creusés of the continental PPN (Molist 1985, 2008, Albukaai 2016); (ii) very simple fire devices, devoid of any arrangement except an enigmatic small side pit (night light?); in particular, there was no constructed earthen or stone edge; iii) one hearth pit per building, located inside.
22This pattern significantly differs from the much diversified and sophisticated PPNA fire devices, with very diverse and sometimes complex stone arrangements, that have been described for the Northern Levant and South East Anatolia (Molist 1985, 2008, Stordeur 2015, Albukaai 2016), and for the Southern Levant (e.g. Bar Yosef et al. 1991). It seems more similar to the Natufian patterns, even though the Natufian hearth places are generally edged by stones (Aurenche and Kozłowski 1999, Valla et al. 2001, Bar Yosef and Valla 2013, Abbès 2014).
23These brief comparisons are enough to forcefully underline the singularity of the absence of stone at Klimonas. An absence which echoes the same lack in the building construction, emphasised in chap. 11. It should be reminded here that the hearth of the early A and B phases of Shillourokambos were similar to the ones of Klimonas in this respect (small and rather shallow depressions without peripheral stones; Guilaine and Gérard 2021a). This appears more and more clearly to be the expression of a heavy cultural singularity of local or regional (insular?) dimension.
24The probable absence of fire plates inside the buildings exclude the frequent continental device where embers or heated stones were put in a fire (most of the time external and often collective at the end of the PPNA) then transported to an internal (and private) fire plate or to a foyer posé, secondarily used for cooking. At Klimonas, it appears that most of the cooking process was done in the private internal hearth pit. In this respect, Klimonas also differs from Shillourokambos, at least for the middle and late phases (8th millennium), where fireplaces appeared to have been external to the buildings, grouped in a common space (Guilaine 2021). In Khirokitia, like in many other late PPN sites in Cyprus, the fireplaces were also external and nourished internal fire plates (Molist 1989, Le Brun 2017, Parès and Tengberg 2017).
25Considering the social significance of cooking (e.g. Conati Barbaro 2021), the strict correspondence between hearth pits and buildings observed at Klimonas suggests that the private space and the social group held an important place in the social organisation, with respect to the more collective organisation that developed later at Shillourokambos then Khirokitia, possibly reflecting social complexification.
26In this context, because of the presence of an external and larger hearth pit associated with an internal fire plate, B800 again appears as a singular building within the Klimonas village, more similar to Shillourokambos than to the late PPNA continental standards. This building, therefore, appears more “modern” than the ones of Sector B, even though we know that the radiocarbon dating of B800 was not significantly different from the rest of the site (chap. 10).
3. Crushing and grinding devices
27Often broken, macrolithic crushing and grinding elements were abundant everywhere on the site, especially in the substructures of the Communal building (Robitaille 2017, chap. 16), but heavy elements incorporated into the architecture were rare (chap. 7). They consist of two cupmarks (probably three, if we include the one found in 2015 in the rubble coming from zone (e) of Sector B) from two buildings with similar shapes and surfaces, B28 (fig. 7-67, 7-68) and B29 (fig. 7-48, 7-54), very close to each other. They were cautiously and strongly embedded in the floor, with some small wedging stones for B29, and were both located less than 1 m from the fire pit. These two buildings were also two terminal buildings in the stratigraphic sequence of Sector B, suggesting that the other edifices also contained cupmarks that were retrieved when the buildings were abandoned. Many enigmatic pits between 30 and 20 cm deep, found in the floor of the residential buildings of Sector B, and in B800, might have been used for fitting cupmarks or other grinding elements.
28The deep structure that seems to be a mortar carved into the geological substratum in B18 should also been mentioned here (fig. 7-68). It reminds us of the Palestine Natufian mortars interpreted as structures for making fermented beverages (Liu et al. 2018), but it could also have been used for crushing pistachios for oil extraction (Rousou 2022).
4. “Mosaic-lined” and other pits; storage
4.1. Mosaic-lined pits
29In total, five “mosaic-lined” round-bottomed pits have been found, two in the earliest floor of the Communal building (chap. 5, St 81 and 82), and the rest in three of the smallest buildings in Sector B (chap. 7, chap. 11, fig. 11-3; appendix 12-3). They were characterised by a continuous coverage of the bottom and flanked by cautiously arranged limestone or small polyhedral sandstone blocks (fig. 12-4). The latter had been fitted into the building earth and maybe covered by plaster. There were no heating marks around the pit, on the stones or in the fill, which excludes these pits being excavated hearths (foyers creusés), similar to those described and experimentally reconstructed by Albukaai (2016). Similar features have also been found in the middle-late phases of Shillourokambos (Guilaine and Gérard 2021b) and interpreted as conservation structures (Guilaine 2021). In early A phase of the same site, another pit, though more quadrangular and less cautiously lined with stones, could also refer to this type of feature (St 437 in the North Sector, Guilaine et al. 2011, p. 171), even though, in this case, the ashy fill suggests a fire pit. The measurements are similar in the two sites, except for pit B17 in Klimonas, which is significantly larger than the other ones (fig. 12-5).
Fig. 12-4 – Example of a “mosaic” pit settled in the foundation trench of building B28.

Exemple de fosse « mosaïque » installée dans la tranchée de fondation du bâtiment B28. Relevé Y. Franel, Inrap, DAO J.‑D. Vigne, CNRS.
Survey Y. Franel, Inrap, CAD J.‑D. Vigne, CNRS.
Fig. 12-5 – Measurements of the “mosaic-lined” pits of Klimonas and Shillourokambos (references in appendix 12-3).

Mesures des fosses « mosaïques » de Klimonas et Shillourokambos (références en appendix 12-3).
30Four of these eight pits were located in remarkable places: two in the Communal building, respectively 1 m north and west of the central post; one in the foundation trench of B28, probably hidden by the earthen wall after a short time; and one (St 324) in a similar situation at Shillourokambos (“Maison” 13). This suggests that these particular pits played an important role in symbolic processes. The technical and symbolic functions are, however, still enigmatic.
4.2. Other pits
31Other pits of variable sizes were found in the floors of the PPNA buildings of Sectors B and F. Some of them contained remarkable deposits that were hidden by the floor plaster: flint blades or tools, macrotools, ornaments, charred seeds (pistachio in B800) or unfragmented faunal remains. They can be considered as caches (chap. 13) related to foundation or closure rituals.
32Apart from these pits, the fire devices, the “mosaic-lined” pits and the stake or pole holes, a rather limited number of pits excavated during the PPNA occupation in the building floors showed no distinctive mark. They might have been used for food and, especially, crop storage. However, it should be kept in mind that, due to the very bad state of preservation of botanical remains (chap. 23), mice bone remains were the main evidence of crop storage and that the only place where we found significant densities of mice bones was in the Communal building (chap. 28). It cannot therefore be excluded that most if not all the crops were stored in the Communal building, with very little or nothing being stored in the residential buildings. Such a collective device would contrast with the more privative organisation of the hearth pits that we interpreted above as an expression of the importance of household in the social organisation.
5. Water management and hydraulic devices: reflections and hypothesis
33The abundance of diatoms in the paleosol of the village visible in the road profile (chap. 3), as well as in the building earth (chap. 9), suggests stagnant water within the village, possibly in earthern or wooden tanks. In addition, a line of eight stake holes, two of them being coupled, were found located at the origin of the north-south gully that incised the slope between the centre and the east parts of Sector B (chap. 8, fig. 8-3). The only explanation that we can suggest for such a device is a kind of dam for retaining rainwater. These two, admittedly fragile interpretations, encourage reflection on the issue of water supply in the Klimonas village.
34Geomorphological surveys demonstrated that the Athiaki stream was flowing more or less permanently in the small fluvial plain located less than 300 m down from the village (chap. 3, fig. 3-5). It is also possible that water was available, at least during certain seasons, from the small tributary of the Athiaki stream located two minutes away if walking in the direction of Throumbovounos, west of the village (chap. 2, fig. 2-1, C).
35However, a population estimated at between 80 and 770 persons (chap. 11) would have needed large quantities of water immediately available in the village, not only to drink, but also for many other technical uses, including massive and regular fabrication of building earth (Stordeur 2015). It cannot be excluded that water sources emerged from the upper cliff of the village. The gullies evidenced in the road profile (Vigne et al. 2011) and, to a lesser extent, also in Sector B (chap. 8), attest that rainwater was abundantly running on the site during the Holocene. Both natural sources and rainwater could have contributed to meet the need of water on site, providing that systems of water collect, management and storage were in place. We know that PPNA people on the continent had already developed such systems in the form of rainwater drainage pipes at Göbekli Tepe (Clare 2020) or water tanks in the cooking rooms of the buildings at Jerf El’Ahmar (Stordeur 2015).
36We therefore suggest that the diatoms in the paleosols and building soil on the one hand, and the line of post holes in Sector B on the other, may refer to more sophisticated but largely inaccessible hydraulic installations at Klimonas.
6. Conclusion
37The utilitarian features and facilities identified at Klimonas include medium-sized pits for sediment extraction, hearth pits and heating plates, small enigmatic mosaic-lined pits, offering pits and those probably used for food storage, as well as possible water collection systems.
38Two pits for the extraction of havara or sediments accumulated in the abandoned buildings were identified in Sector B. They were associated with the early phases of development of this part of the village. At the bottom of one of them, a small stone figurine, whose head had been removed, emphasised the strong symbolic dimension linked to the construction of the buildings.
39The vast majority of the pyrotechnic devices consisted of round-bottomed pits, 60 cm in diameter and 30 cm deep, of an intermediate type between the fosses-foyer and the foyers creusés described from the Northern Levant. Analyses of 19 of them, half still with their heated or ashy functional fill, showed that they were devoid of any features except for one enigmatic small side pit. Almost all the buildings had a single fire pit which was always located internally, except at B800, where the larger (and deeper?) external pit probably fed embers or heated stones to an internal fire plate. With the exception of this last case, the fire pits of Klimonas are characterised by a high degree of standardisation and by the absence of any kind of appliance (notably stone). There was never more than one fire pit per building, and almost all the buildings were equipped with them. This situation emphasises the importance of the household in the social organisation of the village. These characteristics indicate how Klimonas differs significantly from the continental sites of the PPNA, with varied pyrotechnic devices, almost always using sophisticated stone devices, and which where most often located outside the buildings. In this respect, the Cypriot site appears to be closer to the Natufian villages, although the absence of stones in the hearths and in the walls of the buildings seems to be a local specificity, which survived at Shillourokambos two millennia later.
40Only two cupmarks for crushing or grinding were still in place in the floor of their respective building, but the numerous fragments of macrotools found throughout the site underline the relict nature of this information. A possible deep mortar cut in the havara is reminiscent of similar cases from the Natufian of Palestine.
41The five small, rounded-bottom so-called “mosaic-lined” pits of Klimonas were very similar to three pits found at Shillourokambos. They were not used to make fire, maybe with the exception of one of them. They had both symbolic and technical value, but their exact function remains enigmatic. Other small rounded pits dug into the floors of buildings were used as hiding places during foundation or abandonment rituals. The presence of pits dedicated to the storage of crops in the residential buildings remains questionable, as the bulk of the storage was probably concentrated in the Communal building.
42The presence of stagnant freshwater diatoms in the village paleosol and in the building earth, as well as a possible wooden dam located upstream of a small fossil gully, suggests that the villagers used hydraulic installations for collecting and storing water coming from rain, or even from the surrounding nearby streams or other local sources.
43Although this is not surprising (Lemonnier 1991), our analyses revealed that at least some of the technical devices and equipment in Klimonas had a double dimension, both technical and symbolic (hearth pits, “mosaic-lined” pits).
44Compared to the large PPNA continental sites such as Netiv Hagdud, Jericho or Jerf el’Ahmar, the equipment found at Klimonas is striking for its relative poverty and simplicity. This results partly from the advanced state of decay of the site. However, this state of decay is itself due to the almost absence of stones in the buildings, as in the utilitarian devices and facilities, which has facilitated erosion.
45The poverty and simplicity of the facilities, reminiscent of some continental Natufian sites rather than those of the PPNA, as well as the massive exclusion of the use of stone, thus appear to be the expression of cultural specificities.
Annexe
KLIMONAS-Ch12-A01, https://doi.org/10.34847/nkl.74fddw7k
Stratigraphic section of the St 696 pit infills • Relevé stratigraphique de la coupe du comblement de la fosse St 696
Bastien JAKOB (U. Neuchâtel)
KLIMONAS-Ch12-A02, https://doi.org/10.34847/nkl.df6e1bn7
List and main characteristics of the hearth pits and fire devices found in the residential areas of Klimonas • Liste et principales caractéristiques des foyers et des aménagements liés au feu trouvés dans les zones résidentielles de Klimonas
Jean‑Denis VIGNE (CNRS)
KLIMONAS-Ch12-A03, https://doi.org/10.34847/nkl.edddtqt4
Main caracteristics of the “mosaic” pits found at Klimonas and Shillourokambos • Principales caractéristiques des fosses “mosaïques” trouvées à Klimonas et Shillourokambos
Jean‑Denis VIGNE (CNRS)
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