Consuming pottery at early Prepalatial Sissi. Preliminary observations on the EM IIA and B ceramic deposits from the settlement

During the recent 2015-2019 excavation campaigns, the Kephali hill at Sissi yielded a number of Prepalatial deposits that can be attributed to the EM II period (ca. 2700/2650–2200 BCE), offering, for the moment, the earliest evidence for occupation of the settlement in the Bronze Age. The most important architectural remains dating to EM II were found in 2019, immediately to the west of the Neopalatial Court-Centred Building (CCB), on a higher terrace that is called the Upper Terrace Extension (UTE). Since neither their excavation nor their study is completed, we are not yet sure whether we are dealing with one or more separate structures. Moreover, in the West and North-West Wings of the CCB, EM IIA and EM IIB levels were identified. In this chapter, some of the pottery assemblages found in these different areas is presented. Observations are evidently preliminary since only part of the deposit could be studied.