Four pieces of clay 'tokens' from Capo Alfiere Calabria

Abstract

For some years, Professor Denise Schmandt-Besserat has been documenting the presence of small geometric clay artifacts, that she labels 'tokens' at Middle Eastern sites of all periods from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age (see most recently Schmandt-Besserat 1992). This article presents some finds from excavations at a Neolithic site in southern Italy that suggest that the distribution of such objects may have not been confined to the eastern Mediterranean, during the earlier stages of Mediterranean prehistory.