Did you know that Homo Sapiens were found just 1 hour from Athens, near Aliartos in Boeotia?
Seidi in the international literature is referred to as a cave. But it is a rock roof with little depth. Its limestone rock, eroded by millennia and rainwater, is considered to be of exceptional natural beauty, as for its dome with its incised alterations, it is an additional beautiful image in the eyes of the visitor who arrives there.
The excavations carried out in the middle of the last century brought to light Palaeolithic remains and a Pleistocene fauna of large mammals, while in the lower layers of the rock roof flint lithics, traces of fire, bones and teeth of mammals, remains of shells, and even food remains of its inhabitants; some 30,000 of them actually date back.
Paris Varvarousis (with studies, publications and tenure at the Universities of Athens and Munich) in his book "Seidi, Palaeolithic settlement in Boeotia" (published by Papazisi) sheds light on this rock roof located next to the national road Thebes - Livadeia, just three kilometers east of Aliartos.
In 166 pages, it presents the excavations of the German archaeologists Rudolf Stampfuss and Elisabeth Schmid, which were carried out around the middle of the last century in Seidi and confirmed habitation from the Upper Paleolithic. In a slick but at the same time scientific way, as aptly noted by the head of the 9th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities, Alexandra Harami. A useful publication for any reader who wishes to learn about the prehistoric culture of Boeotia and Aliartos in particular.
The revelation of the specific rock roof is considered of fundamental importance, because, as the author notes, it essentially changed the map of Greece, which had appeared until then without the imprint of Paleolithic sites. It gives the reader (although the impressive photographs are absent) every information about the prehistoric civilization of Boeotia during the Stone Age, details of representative finds, which reveal the lifestyle and living conditions of the prehistoric inhabitants.
Mr. Varvarousis talks about the "Seidi project", he refers to the archaeologists' conclusions and the first samples of Paleolithic life in Greece, since until then, on the map of the distribution of Paleolithic finds in Europe, the southern part of the Balkans, our country , "appeared as a white spot."
The French professor Catherine Perlès argued that in 1941, R. Stampfuss discovered for the first time in Greece a stratigraphic sequence of the Upper Palaeolithic at this location in Boeotia. "But we would have to wait until the 60s for systematic research to begin...".
The Austrian Josef Fischer has underlined that the first excavation material of the Paleolithic era in Greece is due to Seidi, while the Canadian archaeologist Nicolas Rolland wrote that this rock roof has "symbolic importance due to the primary knowledge that its cultural findings offered to prehistoric archaeology". Difficult times, since as Professor Georgia Kourtesi-Filippakis (University of Athens) has noted, this short excavation that took place during the German Occupation "could have given some impetus to the investigation of the Paleolithic in Greece, if the circumstances were not so difficult".
The archaeological findings testify to the settlement of people in the area since the Ice Age.
If for the most recent periods Seidi was a strategic passage, the notes of Elisabeth Schmid emphasize to us that it was a station for hunter-gatherers. But let's not forget that the religious processions passed through Thebes and Livadia, to consult the Oracle at Delphi.
Today, according to the author of the publication, it could "become a new educational and tourist station". "The confirmation that the rock roof hosted people of the Homo Sapiens species is not only of scientific interest but also of the general public." The Seidi cultural product, believes P. Varvarousis, is multi-useful. It offers new educational material, but it could also be a starting point for highlighting the local prehistoric culture, in combination with other archaeological sites in the area.