The Koutraphas area has some of the oldest and most stable surfaces in the TAESP survey area. Most of the soils derive from the Pleistocene. Apart from the centre of the area, there was little evidence of erosion or instability.
A thin blanket of both chipped and ground stone was spread across the area. Much of the ground stone appeared rougher than the Bronze Age examples recovered at Mandroudhes (TP239) and Koutroullis (TP135), but was similar to the aceramic material found at Kambos tou Lemonari (TP095). Some of the chipped stone also appeared to be Aceramic Neolithic in date.
It is possible that these lithics were made, used and discarded by small agricultural groups working seasonally in the area. These may have been mobile foragers in the period before the Aceramic Neolithic, or they may have been task groups sent out from Aceramic Neolithic settlements. If Neolithic, their permanent settlements were presumably close to sources of the chert from which they made their tools, such as at Politiko Kelaïdhoni and Agrokipia Palaeokamina (Given and Knapp 2003, 182-6; McCartney 2005).
In the east of the Koutraphas area is a clear focus to this seasonal activity, which was probably the temporary settlement of one of these groups. This is shown by the significant concentrations of chipped and ground stone at Potami Kambos tou Lemonari (TP095).
TP095 Potami Kambos tou Lemonari
No evidence for Bronze Age activity was recorded within the Koutraphas area itself. At Nikitari Petrera (TP242) just outside it, on north-sloping ground to the south of the Elaia River, there was a small amount of pottery. This included some very distinctive handles with four or five slashes. There was also an impressive collection of ground stone, including four well-made rubbers of two distinct types, a rubbing stone, querns, an anvil stone and a pounder. It is clear that intensive cereal production and processing was a major activity at and around Petrera. Subsistence was not the only activity, however. A senet board implies that game-playing was a significant part of the lives of at least some of the inhabitants.
On the whole it would appear that, while there was Bronze Age activity in the wider area, the Koutraphas area was not heavily used or exploited during the prehistoric periods, perhaps because it was too far from larger centres of occupation or exploitation.