The epipalaeolithic site of ouriakos on the island of lemnos and its place in the late pleistocene peopling of the east mediterranean region

Until a few yeas ago Lemnos, the eighth largest Greek island and located in the north-eastern Aegean Sea between Mount Athos, Samothrace, Imbros and Lesbos Fig. 1 , was known mainly for the Bronze Age settlement of Poliòchni and the archaic and classical city of Hephaestia and its sanctuary, the Kavirion. The island extends over an area of 478 sq. km. At present its shortest distance from the mainland coast of northwestern Anatolia is ca. 62 km. Although of volcanic origin, some areas of the island consist of depressions covered with Holocene alluvium, sometimes spotted with shallow salt basins and lagoons, which are common along the north-eastern coast and the innermost part of Moudros Bay.