The Small Cycladic Islands Project

The Small Cycladic Islands Project (SCIP) is a diachronic archaeological survey of several small, uninhabited islands in the Cycladic Archipelago of the Aegean Sea (Greece). The project is a collaboration (synergasia) between the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades, the Norwegian Institute at Athens, and Carleton College. In 2019 and 2020, fieldwork involved the comprehensive survey of 21 small islets around Paros and Antiparos, where evidence of human activity was documented from prehistory up to the present day. In 2021 we focused on the islets around Syros and the western Cyclades (Kythnos, Serifos, and Sifnos). The 2022 field season turned to the small islets around Milos and Kimolos, as well as Polyaigos, the largest uninhabited island in the Aegean. In 2023 we turned to the eastern Cyclades and the islets surrounding Andros, Tinos, Mykonos, and Amorgos. The final field season of archaeological survey took place in the summer of 2024 in the islets around Santorini, Anafi, and the Small Cyclades. By the end of the survey, the team had carried out intensive pedestrian surveys of 87 islets, with several others visited or subject to lidar analysis. Study of materials and publication is ongoing. Since its inception in 2019, SCIP has involved over 70 individual team members, specialists, researchers, and cultural heritage professionals from Greece, Norway, the United States, Australia, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Germany, Serbia, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and more.

This website provides an overview of SCIP, where you can find information about the background and goals of the project, as well as individual field seasons. There is also a selection of fieldwork photos, a list of resources and bibliography of further interest, and a section with project information for team members.

The Small Cycladic Islands Project operates under the overall direction of Demetrios Athanasoulis (Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades), and is co-directed by Alex Knodell (Professor of Classics, Carleton College) and Zarko Tankosic (Project Leader at the Center for Early Sapiens Behavior, University of Bergen). We thank the institutions and individuals who have supported the project (see Team page of this site), as well as the communities of Paros, Antiparos, Kythnos, Sifnos, Syros, Kimolos, Andros, Tinos, Mykonos, Amorgos, Santorini, Anafi, Folegandros, and Naxos for their warm hospitality. We are grateful for the funding and other support of the US National Science Foundation, the Loeb Classical Library Foundation, the Archaeological Institute of America and the National Endowment for the Humanities (AIA-NEH Grant for Archaeological Research), the Rust Family Foundation, Carleton College (especially a Mellon Public Works Grant, the Humanities Center, the Towsley Fund, and the Dean of the College Office), the Afentakeio Foundation, the Institute for Aegean Prehistory, the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades, the Municipality of Santorini, and the Norwegian Institute at Athens.