The Small Cycladic Islands Project 2023: The Islets of Andros, Tenos, Mykonos, and Amorgos (20 min)

Presenters

Alex R. Knodell, Carleton College; Demetrios Athanasoulis, Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades; Jeffrey Banks, University of Cincinnati; Anna Belza, University of Cincinnati; Rosie Campbell, University of Cambridge; and John F. Cherry, Brown University

Abstract

The Small Cycladic Islands Project (SCIP) is a diachronic, comparative survey of numerous small, currently uninhabited islands in the Cycladic Archipelago of Greece. While most of these places never sustained long-term populations, they witnessed a variety of different uses in the past, including pasturage, agriculture, stopovers, refuges, and strongholds. Since 2019, SCIP has carried out systematic archaeological surveys of 67 small islands. The 2023 field season focused on 22 islets in the vicinity of Andros, Tenos, Mykonos, and Amorgos. This paper presents the results of this most recent phase of fieldwork.

The goals of the 2023 season were threefold. First, we aimed to expand our coverage to the islets of the eastern Cyclades. These zones are points of comparison with the western and central Cyclades, where the project conducted fieldwork between 2019 and 2022. Second, we aimed to include more “medium-sized” islets in the survey. Earlier work on relatively large (18 km²) and very small (under one square kilometer) islands revealed interesting patterns concerning island size and intensity and consistency of use. We had previously surveyed only two examples in a middle range between one and three square kilometers. In 2023 we surveyed five such islets, where the volume and variety of finds suggest a critical size threshold in this range. Finally, the 2023 field season provided an opportunity to implement a LiDAR-led methodology that combines intensive pedestrian survey with high-resolution remote sensing. This was an exceptionally effective survey strategy, especially for covering larger survey zones in a limited amount of time. In addition to these comparative and methodological advances, findings of particular interest include evidence of Neolithic visitation in several places; a major early cycladic settlement; an archaic-Hellenistic sanctuary site; Roman fortifications and waystations; and several medieval churches and settlements.