SCIP is a diachronic survey of the very smallest of the Aegean islands, offering contributions to the long-term history and archaeology of the Cyclades, to the maritime history of the Mediterranean, and to comparative island archaeology. While all target islands are presently uninhabited, such places would have played a variety of roles at different points in the past. In the initial colonization of the Aegean Basin, tiny islands provided important “stepping stones” on the way to more sizable landforms. Small islands also served as cemeteries, maritime strongholds, sanctuaries, hideaways for pirates, or “goat islands.” Yet only a handful of such places in the Aegean have ever been studied archaeologically. SCIP aims to document the landscapes of several of these islands using multi-disciplinary survey techniques, and to situate them in their wider regional context, from the earliest evidence of human presence until the present.
Background and Goals
The earliest human activity known in the Cyclades is from the Middle Paleolithic period. Permanent populations appeared in the Neolithic, and activity increased considerably in the Early Bronze Age. The prehistory of the Cyclades is well documented, and the historical periods of Classical, medieval, and later times have received a good deal of scholarly attention as well. The smallest islands of the Cyclades, however, have been largely under-theorized. Some provided crucial stopover points between Anatolia and the Greek mainland, others between the northern Aegean and Crete. More habitual movements within this resource-poor region were equally important, as communities relied on a variety of microenvironments to sustain themselves.
There is a long tradition of island archaeology in the Aegean. We have good examples of regional overviews involving multi-island theaters, detailed surveys within islands, and even comprehensive surveys of entire islands (for example, Antikythera and Keros). SCIP aims to expand this tradition through a comparative survey of several small islands side-by-side.
A broader concern is to develop an archaeology of uninhabited spaces and in-between places. Most of these islands are too small to sustain permanent populations. This is precisely what made them attractive, however, for a number of the uses to which they were put. Goat islands (tragonisia) kept animals contained and away from rustlers. Cemeteries separated the world of the dead from the living and created a physical crossing from the latter to the former (e.g., Delos and Rhenia). Strongholds, stopovers, pirate hideaways, and refuges were deliberately marginal, though their in-between locations made them strategic (especially in the Venetian period). Survey archaeology has traditionally aimed to identify and document the history of human settlement across a continuous landscape. This project proposes an archaeology of non-settlement and incidental use, distributed across minuscule but resonant places of human activity, which will also be a meaningful methodological and theoretical contribution to island archaeology outside of the Aegean.
Methods and Scope
About 100 islands throughout the Cyclades have been identified and analyzed using WorldView-3 satellite imagery, obtained through a DigitalGlobe Foundation Imagery Grant. All are presently uninhabited and the vast majority are under 1 sq km in size (avg. size 0.43 sq km). Based on this initial analysis and background research, we selected the northern and central Cyclades to do a detailed study. This includes the islets around and between Paros and Antiparos; Serifos, Sifnos, and Kythnos; and Mykonos, Syros, Tinos, and Andros. The first group, surveyed in 2019, comprises of the small islands in the vicinity of Paros, a major hub of settlement, also famous for its marble production. In 2020, the project expanded to include the islets in the Bay of Naousa (Paros) and north and south of Antiparos. In 2021, we turned to the the Western Cyclades and Syros.
Each individual island was the subject of a thorough, efficient survey, usually taking one or two days. In practical terms, this means traveling by boat to each islet to conduct a thorough and efficient archaeological prospection.
Fieldwalkers carefully inspected the ground surface for archaeologically significant materials, counting and collecting artifacts. The team also documented archaeological features, including buildings, quarries, cisterns, and fortifications. The team also records detailed notes on the geology, soil, geomorphology, and landforms of each island. This program works in tandem with our remote sensing work, allowing us to identify soil, vegetation, and archaeological signatures on the ground that will help us study such landscapes elsewhere.
A further component of this project is explicitly sensory. Panoramic photos are taken and annotated on each island, in order to document visual relationships between places. This on-the-ground documentation can then be compared to more top-down methods of spatial analysis. In order to better understand the seascapes or islandscapes through which past people would have moved, routes through the islands are carefully mapped, and approaches to specific islands recorded with a variety of media.
The 2019 Field Season
In 2019 SCIP surveyed 10 small islands surrounding Paros and Antiparos, using Piso Livadi as a home port. The work of the project began at Dryonisi, across from the town of Dryos, Paros, in the vicinity of which prehistoric and other antiquities have been recorded.
The next target area was the Panteronisia island group between Paros and Antiparos, a popular destination for boaters. This group includes the islands of Panteronisi, Tigani, and Glaropounta. The number of finds here was much lower than on other islands, though Tigani does have an impressive sandstone quarry.
The final phase of the field season focused on the island group northeast of Paros, including Evriokastro, Gaidouronisi, and Filizi. While Evriokastro and Filizi were previously documented in surveys by Rubensohn, Schilardi, and Vionis, the more detailed work carried out by SCIP led to new discoveries.
In sum, several new sites were documented for the first time, and our understanding of previously known sites was refined. More detailed information about the nature of activity in all of these islands will come from further study.
The 2020 Field Season
In July of 2020, SCIP carried out a short, three-week field season with team members based in Greece (the COVID-19 pandemic made international travel largely impossible). The project began with the survey of Strongylo, located south of the islands of Antiparos and Despotiko. As the largest island in the survey area, this took some time, though it yielded a wide range of diachronic results.
Week 2 focused on the islets north of Antiparos, including Aghios Spiridon, Firo, Diplo, and Magrines, as well as a revisitation of Saliagos, well known for its Neolithic remains.
In the final week of the field season we returned to Paros to survey the islets of the Bay of Naousa, many of which were inhabited as part of the 1770-1774 Russian occupation of the area, which left a substantial material signature on these islets.
The 2021 Field Season
The team began the 2021 field season of SCIP on Kythnos, which we used as a base to carry out two weeks of fieldwork on several islets around Kythnos (Aghios Loukas, Aghios Ioannis Eleimon, Zogaki, Kalo Livadi and Piperi) and Serifos (Serifopoula and Vous). All of these yielded a range of material, some more than others. The more remote islands of Serifopoula and Piperi had exceptionally interesting finds, in spite of their remoteness, suggesting that these were important waypoints in wider Aegean networks.
For the third week of the project we moved to Platys Gialos, on Sifnos, from which we carried out a survey of Kitriani (or Kypriani), best known for the church of Panaghia Kypriani and as a historical haunt for pirates.
The final phase of the project consisted of fieldwork and study on several islets surrounding Syros. Near the port of Ermoupoli, we surveyed Didimi (sometimes called Gaidouronisi or Pharos, for the famous lighthouse on top), Strongylo, and Aspro. On the western side of Syros, we worked on the small islets in the Bay of Foinikas (Schoinonisi, Strongylo, Diakoftis, Psathonisi, and Alatonisi) and to the north of Kini (Delfini and Varvarousa).
The 2022 Field Season
In 2022 the Small Cycladic Islands Project carried out archaeological surface surveys on several islands in the Milos-Kimolos Group. These include the islets of Mikri Akradia and Paximadi, near Milos, and Aghios Efstathios, Prasonisi, and Manolonisi, near Kimolos. In addition to these very small islets, the project also carried out a comprehensive survey of Polyaigos, the largest uninhabited island in the Aegean (c. 18 sq km). This field season was the start of a new three-year program of fieldwork.
The islets surveyed in 2022 revealed an eclectic history of human activity from prehistory to the present. Findings on the small islands surveyed around Milos and Kimolos followed patterns previously documented by SCIP on other small islands around the Cyclades: a variety of long-term and incidental occupation that was not consistent across different islands or time periods. Evidence for intense occupation on Polyaigos was documented in many parts of the island, from prehistory to the very recent past.
The 2023 Field Season
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 square kilometers) and very small (under 1 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 1 and 3 square kilometers in size. 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.
Fieldwork began in the small islets of Andros and Tinos, where evidence of ancient use was limited, but an array of interesting remains from more recent periods were present. We next moved to Mykonos, where we surveyed the Revmatiarides islets, located between Delos and Rhenia, as well as several small islands surrounding Mykonos. We finished the field season with a long stay on Amorgos, which we used as a base to survey eight islands around it, including Anydros (the most distant) and Nikouria (the largest). Findings of particular interest from 2023 include evidence of Neolithic visitation; a major Early Cycladic settlement; an Archaic-Hellenistic sanctuary site; Roman fortifications and waystations; and several medieval churches and settlements.
The 2024 Field Season
In June 2024, SCIP completed its final season of field work in the Cyclades. Building
off of previous years of extensive survey and field work, the project targeted the
remaining small islets surrounding Santorini, Anafi, Folegandros, and Naxos. This final season of field work filled in the remaining gaps in project work and expanded our understanding of the cultural and archaeological histories of these islets in their wider Mediterranean contexts.
The project began on Santorini, where the team surveyed Christiana and Askania,
which had strong prehistoric presences alongside other antiquities.
The team spent a week in Anafi, working on the Fteno islets, Pacheia and Makria. There were strong indications of prehistoric, classical, and medieval presence across the landscapes, even though they were quite difficult to access.
During our time on Folegandros, we worked on Aghios Ioannis, Kardiotissa, and Tria Aderfia. These islands proved to be quite interesting with a number of different cultural and environmental features.
Our final base for the 2024 field season was Naxos, where we spent two weeks, in order to survey several islets among the Small Cyclades and in the Machaires group of islets between Naxos and Donousa. We took a day trip to Donousa in order to survey Skylonisi, located in the bay of Kalotaritissa in the northeast of Donousa.
Uncovering the histories of these remote and uninhabited islets creates opportunities
for local communities to deepen connection to these places. Our team, in collaboration with local authorities, cultural organizations, and community members, sought to present our findings as the project progressed. Throughout the field season, we held a number of community events in which we discussed the results of our work locally, along with the wider work of SCIP and its place in Cycladic archaeology.
