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this manner, allowing us a relatively The fragile communities of Antikythera comprehensive picture of the surface Andrew Bevan, James Conolly and Aris Tsaravopoulos1 artefact distribution across the island and, very unusually for a survey of this kind, While many Mediterranean islands have been subjected to archaeological recorded by each individual surveyor survey methods of one kind or another, until now few if any have been covered rather than lumped into broader survey in both a comprehensive and intensive manner. In this article the authors units (Fig. 3b). Each surveyor also made describe a survey on the Greek island of Antikythera (the Antikythera Survey separate collections of diagnostic pottery Project – ASP) and demonstrate how full investigation of a tiny, remote (defined for our purposes as rims, handles, and very sparsely populated island offers distinct analytical advantages for base or decorated pieces) and all worked archaeologists. Some of the resulting benefits are methodological, relating to stone, glass etc for each 10m section that simplified sampling procedures, while others relate to the archaeology itself and they walked. In general, we have placed include the documentation of rollercoaster demographies, changing connections great emphasis on make such permanent with the wider world and the development of idiosyncratic insular lifestyles. collections, rather than attempting to date artefacts solely in the field because they allow us slowly to improve our he Antikythera Survey Project and we take these as a starting point for chronological understanding over the (ASP) brings together a range of discussing some of our aims, methods specialists to consider the long- and preliminary results.3 termT history and human ecology of a tiny Greek island. Antikythera is one of Simplified sampling the smallest (c.20km2) and most remote Surfaces surveys in archaeology have inhabited islands in the Mediterranean become ever more intensive in recent (Figs. 1–2) and might at first glance seem years, with the increasing adoption of like a strange place in which to invest systematic recovery methods, attention to an intensive research effort. In fact, for landscape sampling issues and application of modern digital and/or analytical two of us, the inspiration for such a 4 study lies very much in past and present techniques. On Antikythera, we sought involvement with the Kythera Island a compromise between introducing new Project (KIP, whose directors are Cyprian approaches and ensuring comparability Broodbank and Evangelia Kiriatzi) with the many existing survey datasets in which has been studying the larger the Aegean area. island to the north since 1998.2 Not Our investigative strategy therefore only does our work on Antikythera offer comprised two stages. The first adopted an excellent complement to Kytheran the well-known technique of breaking research, but also provides an unusually up the landscape into a series of arbitrary attractive micro-perspective of its own or field-shaped units (depending on the through which to consider a whole degree of local landscape variability) range of methodological and substantive which a team of surveyors then walked issues in Mediterranean archaeology. across in a series of parallel lines, spaced There are at least four main reasons for 15m apart (Fig. 3a). Overall, we have it being a favourable research locale walked over 95% of the island in Figure 2 Antikythera with place names mentioned in the text (original image courtesy of Digital Globe. course of laboratory study. It is clear that artefacts from certain chronological phases are highly recognizable in the Antikytheran landscape, while others require far more careful and prolonged study to identify (particularly given the often coarse and nondescript nature of survey finds). It is the earliest, prehistoric phases of occupation that were initially most problematic (indeed these were almost entirely unknown prior to the survey). Our second stage survey method therefore involved returning to nearly 60 suspected prehistoric scatters and collecting further surface material on a 10x10m grid (Fig. 3c). Within each grid square, a circular area of 5m2 was completely vacuumed of cultural material over a timed 5-minute observation period, and any further diagnostics (as defined above) in the remainder of the square were also collected. Overall, we covered Figure 1 The Aegean with Antikythera circled in orange (original image courtesy of NASA, Terra- about 1% of the island in this manner, Modis). page 33 ARCHAEOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 10

Figure 3 ASP’s surface survey methods: a) stage-one “tractwalking” by surveyors spaced 15m apart, b) a perspective view looking south, with the density of surface pottery (all periods) plotted from the records of each individual walker, c) stage-two collection in 10x10m squares, d) a perspective view looking north, with the stage-one tract units outlines in orange and the stage-two gridded collections shown in red.

providing a more detailed impression of a huge effect on the interpretation of to studying, amongst other things, the the size and function of the numerous any archaeological pattern and such a relationship between artefact recovery, prehistoric scatters observed across the belief-based (or probabilistic) approach geomorphology and ground visibility; island (Fig. 3d) to artefact dating allows us to address the patterns of attraction or repulsion These methods reflect a strong issue statistically, as well as measure other between different types of site; the factors concern with controlling the spatial important factors, such as intra-and inter- affecting the location of settlements and scale and positional accuracy of our observer variation in the dates assigned by field systems; routes of human and animal collection strategies as well as facing up those specialists who study the artefacts, movement through the landscape and the to the inevitable uncertainty that exists or the gradual accumulation of extra influence of different patterns of on- and in dating survey finds. In particular, we chronological clarity that comes from off-island visibility. used a combination of high-resolution laboratory study. satellite imagery and GPS (both handheld We have also collected a range of Rollercoaster demographies and survey-grade) to ensure that all datasets on an island-wide basis, including A second important advantage of finds from the survey could be plotted mappings of topography, vegetation Antikythera and other small inhabited to a uniform resolution (with a relative communities, bedrock, soil chemistry, islands is that, because of their limited accuracy of c.10m or better in all cases). standing buildings, terraces and field carrying capacity, they can experience Not only does this make it easier to systems, and perhaps most fundamental of rapid demographic changes, including compare the finds from our two different all for our purposes, surface artefacts. The periods of near complete abandonment stages of collection, but it also makes full coverage of the island combined with and then recolonization. Our survey them far more easily integrated with an attention to collection scale, locational work on Antikythera confirms such various digital datasets. We also keep a accuracy and temporal uncertainty then a rollercoaster history, punctuated by separate database record for each one of allows us to deploy spatial statistics (to population highs and lows. Briefly, the our finds and, rather than giving them explore and confirm our archaeological earliest identifiable evidence of human a categorical date in the usual way (e.g. patterns) with much greater confidence activity on the island probably dates “Hellenistic, or possibly Late Roman”), than in other landscape survey contexts to the 5th or 4th millennium BC, for we have given each a rough probability of where variable levels of investigation, which we have tiny, concentrated scatters belonging to a certain phase (e.g. c.70% unverifiable dating of finds by a few (<0.25 ha) of chert and obsidian artefacts chance of being Hellenistic, c.30% Late experts in the field, and/or ragged sample (Fig. 4), along with a small amount of Roman). Chronological uncertainty has edges can all be very frustrating. We pottery (for the latter, see Fig. 5a), and we have taken a formal statistical approach propose that these are often the remains ARCHAEOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 10 page 34

Figure 4 An obsidian blade core and projectiles Figure 6 View looking north across the village of Potamos, with the Hellenistic fortified town points in both obsidian and white chert. (“Kastro”) across the water in the background. of seasonal visitations by hunters from particularly in terms of pottery styles of locations across the island occurs by either Crete or Kythera. (Fig. 5c-d), clay-preparation recipes and around the 12th century. From the 13th Though further study is still required weaving techniques, to the extent that at century onwards, overall responsibility to delineate these patterns fully, more least some are likely to have been actual for Antikythera seems to have lain with a substantial and differently configured colonists from the larger island to the Venetian noble family, but the following exploitation of the island may begin south. centuries appear to have seen only limited sometime in the 3rd millennium BC After this peak of Bronze Age activity, perhaps with periods of complete (Fig. 5b) and is certainly established by exploitation, there is no good evidence abandonment. Both archaeological finds the 2nd millennium BC, when we can as yet for much activity during the earlier and documentary sources suggest that document 25-30 small scatters (~0.25-0.5 part of the first millennium BC. The next substantial settlement only picks up again ha) that in many cases appear to be single- obvious phase of settlement occurs about in the late 18th century when the island family farmsteads. The people involved a millennium later, most prominently in was recolonized more permanently by were probably cultivating particular soils the late 4th to mid 1st century BC when a group of families from western Crete. and topographic features, such as flysch- the island is dominated by a fortified This initial episode was then sustained by filled sink-holes or the alluvial deposits town (c.7ha) at a strategic position on a period of internal population growth, found in shallow channels that could be its northern coast (Fig. 6), overlooking a expanding agricultural investment and cross-terraced to aid in soil and moisture natural protected harbour. Documentary in-migration over the 19th century, with retention.5 The communities exhibit very evidence suggests its role in piracy (see occasionally up to c.1,000 people living strong cultural affiliations with Crete, below). Our survey indicates the presence across the island, in small clusters of of one or two other Hellenistic scatters on houses that were often given the name the island however and it remains to be of the main family. The population has seen whether these reflect smaller, more however declined again during the 20th agriculturally-oriented communities or century, and dramatically since the 2nd are, in some manner, part of the logistical World War, so that now there are no more and economic agenda of the fortified town than 30 year-round inhabitants. itself. The latter’s sack by the Romans in This comparatively discontinuous about 69–67 BC seems to have prompted record of human activity on Antikythera a dramatic decline in activity and we do is of course interesting for its own sake, not find evidence for similarly extensive but also means that the landscape is a less finds until much later, in the 5th–7th complicated palimpsest than in most other centuries AD. By this time, we can Mediterranean locations. In particular, we document 4–5 denser scatters of material, are excited by the way this simplified and often accompanied by small groups of punctuated record may inform us about contemporary cist graves,6 each at the one particularly characteristic feature of heart of a more fertile region of the island. Mediterranean landscapes, their often Most of these appear to be relatively small complex and extensive systems of terrace hamlets, perhaps of a few families each, fields. The latter are a good example of and one larger village near Potamos. long-term, non-mechanical investments Figure 5 Prehistoric pottery: a) a fragment of After another phase of apparent (sometimes called “landesque” capital) a Final Neolithic ‘cheesepot’, b) an Early Bronze that usually have an anticipated use 2 ‘sauceboat’, c-d) two fragments of a Minoan discontinuity, the next period of renewed tripod cooking pot. of substantial exploitation at a number beyond the current farming cycle and/or page 35 ARCHAEOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 10

over many human generations. Despite their obvious importance in the past, and clear relevance to modern concerns with sustainable agriculture, the social context in which these structures emerge is not clearly understood. On Antikythera, we have been exploring these structures in greater detail, through a combination of archaeological survey, geoarchaeological prospection and ethnohistorical research (Fig. 7). Overall, we have mapped some 12,000 terrace structures on the island. The most extensive period of terracing is probably the most recent one during the late 18th–19th century AD, but in several a b areas, stratified terrace soils and their associated finds indicate important earlier episodes, which we aim to clarify through further study, and radiocarbon or OSL dating. In addition, there are also clear correlations between those areas chosen for terracing and environmental variables such as soil type and prevailing aspect. Island connectivity A third interesting feature of Antikythera is the nature of its connections to the outside world and what these linkages imply for the wider geopolitics of the region. Both Kythera and Antikythera are, c d depending on the context, well-placed to act as favourable stepping-stones, as Figure 7 Terracing on Antikythera: a) a collapsed terrace wall made of even-sized limestone cobbles obstacles to be negotiated, or as filtering with at least two buried soil horizons behind it, b) a collapsing terrace wall made in a different mechanisms for people, plants, animals technique, with large limestone slabs filled with smaller stones, c) an aerial photograph from 1944 and things travelling both north-south when the terraces were last under heavy cultivation (courtesy of the Aerial Reconnaissance Archive), between the Peloponnese and Crete, and d) perspective view looking north-west with individual terraces plotted on top of a digital elevation east-west, across the Mediterranean. For model. example, Antikythera is an extremely More recently, during the 2nd World insights into human behaviour, and the important stop-over for a variety of 7 War, Antikythera continued to hold a island has also been the base for a range migratory bird species and is said to be strategic importance well beyond its size. of fringe and/or socially transient types host to endemic plant species as well. Major naval engagements occurred just of people, including economic refugees, From the earliest phases of human off the coast and our survey has found bits political exiles, hermits, hunters, pirates activity on the island there have been of military equipment and installations and perhaps monks. important off-island linkages, suggested of this date on the island. In 1944, the For example, the earliest evidence for example by the surprisingly large whole island’s population was removed to for human activity on the island seems amounts of obsidian (given the island’s Crete by the retreating German forces to to argue for its importance to seasonal size, its location and the amounts found avoid them assisting the Allied advance. hunters from off-island. Migratory in neighbouring areas), which originally All of these examples suggest that the birds may have been one resource that comes from the island of Melos some island’s off-island cultural connections such groups were aiming to exploit 100km away (Fig. 4). For the Bronze Age, have been very important to its viability as (as hunters still do today), but either Antikythera is an important early example a place to live, but have often been quite native or introduced deer and/or goat of the process of Cretan colonization fragile. Indeed, over the last twenty-five are also possible targets given the size and/or cultural affiliation affecting the years, the Greek government has tried to and number of stone projectile points Aegean, prior to and contemporary with subsidize this connectivity by providing we have found. The larger neighbouring the emergence of the Cretan Bronze extra ferry services, a new harbour mole, 8 island of Kythera was certainly visited Age palaces. The island seems to have an electricity plant, a heliport, a full-time by medieval monks wanting to get away maintained important contacts both with doctor and telephone services. from the corrupting influences of more Kythera to the north and with western populated centres, and there are hints Crete during this phase. Later on, the Eccentric lifestyles that Antikythera occasionally offered a Hellenistic “pirate” community on A final interesting aspect of small, similar haven. During the 19th and early Antikythera is an excellent indication of comparatively isolated, islands such 20th century AD, Antikythera served as a the island’s strategic location with respect as Antikythera is the set of eccentric, place of exile for political radicals10 as well to shipping lanes, as is the number of innovative or otherwise illuminating social as seeing the arrival of sometimes quite known shipwrecks in the area, including roles that their inhabitants sometimes substantial numbers of refugees for short a 1st century BC wreck which produced play in the wider world. In several works periods. Another profession associated the intricately geared navigational device of literature, Antikythera has been evoked 9 with Antikythera in Hellenistic times known as the Antikythera mechanism. as a special place that promotes unusual was that of piracy, to judge from several ARCHAEOLOGY INTERNATIONAL 10 page 36

separate documentary sources. By far the 4 J. F. Cherry, “Archaeology beyond the site: most impressive and imposing Hellenistic regional survey and its future”, in Theory site on the island is known as the Kastro: and Practice in Mediterranean Archaeology: it preserves remains of two phases of Old and New World Perspectives, J. massive and beautifully-made fortification Papadopoulos, and R. M. Leventhal (eds), 137–59. (Los Angeles: Cotsen Institute of walls around the town, a similarly- Archaeology, 2003) protected upper citadel and other well- 5 A. Bevan, “The rural landscape of preserved structures such as a rock-cut Neopalatial Kythera: a GIS perspective”, ship-shed, a cemetery and a harbour Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology 15.2: 11 temple to Apollo. Piracy was often a 217–56, 2002. quasi-legal activity in the Graeco-Roman 6 N. Pyrrou, A. Tsaravopoulos & C. O. world and the activities of Hellenistic Bojica “The Byzantine settlement of Antikythera may in fact have their origins Antikythera (Greece) in the 5th–7th in Persian strategic initiatives during the centuries”, in The society of the living – the time of Alexander.12 However, later on, community of the dead (from Neolithic these activities still prompted at least two to the Christian era), S. A. Luca and significant military responses (by Rhodian V. Sîrbu (eds). Proceedings of the 7th and Roman fleets respectively) and both International Colloquium on Funerary Archaeology, 224–36 (Sibiu: Bibliotheca are arguably visible in destruction layers Septemcastrensis, 2006). present at the site and from projectile 7 M. Dimakis, C. Papazoglu & T. Akriotis, finds such as catapult balls, slingstones “Bird-ringing in Antikythira Island (S. and projectile points. Greece)”, The Ring 28, 85–94, 2006. In any case, we would argue that 8 C. Broodbank, “Minoanisation”, Proceedings these eccentric activities, along with of the Cambridge Philological Society 50, Antikythera’s other analytical advantages, 46–91, 2004; C. Broodbank & E. Kiriatzi, makes it not only an interesting place “The first ‘Minoans’ of Kythera revisited: to study in its own right, but also an technology, demography, and landscape in important touchstone for understanding the Prepalatial Aegean”, American Journal of the broader, Aegean- or Mediterranean- Archaeology 111, 241–74, 2007. wide, social, political and economic 9 T. Freeth, Y. Bitsakis, X. Moussas, J. H. systems that surrounded it. We have now Seiradakis, A. Tselikas, H. Mangou, M. Zafeiropoulou, R. Hadland, D. Cate, A. completed almost all of our fieldwork Ramsay, M. Allen, A. Cawley, P. Hockley. and study. Preliminary versions of many T. Malzbender, D. Gelb, W. Ambrisco & survey datatsets are available on our M. G. Edmunds, “Decoding the ancient website (www.ucl.ac.uk/asp), and we will Greek astronomical calculator known as be completing a monograph on the results the Antikythera Mechanism”, Nature 444 over 2008–9. (7119), 587–91, 2006. 10 G. Alisandratos, “O Ilias Zervos – Notes iakovatos kai alloi pizospastes exoristoi 1 26th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical sta Antikythira”, in Koinonia-Oikonomia. Antiquities, Greek Ministry of Culture. Kithira: Mithos kai Pragmatikotita (A’ 2 www.ucl.ac.uk/kip Diethnes Synedriou Kithiraikon Meleton), 3 This research project has been conducted G. Leontsinis & N. Glitsos (eds), (Chora: through the Canadian Institute in Greece, Eleuthero Anoikto Panepistimio Dimou under permits from the Greek Ministry Kithiron, 2003). of Culture and Institute of Mining and 11 A. Tsaravopoulos, “Antikithira. Ta archaia Geology, and under the supervision of Aigila sti skapani ton archaiologon”, the 26th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Corpus 202, 22–33, 2002; T. Martis, M. Classical Antiquities and 1st Ephorate Zoitopoulos & A. Tsaravopoulos, “The Byzantine Antiquities. Our chief funding early Hellenistic cemetery of a pirate’s agencies have been the Social Science and town”, in The society of the living – the Humanities Research Council (Canada), community of the dead (from Neolithic to the Arts and Humanities Research Council the Christian era), S. A. Luca and V. (UK), the British Academy and the Sîrbu (eds). Proceedings of the 7th Institute for Aegean Prehistory (US) with International Colloquium on Funerary further support from University College Archaeology, 125–34 (Sibiu: Bibliotheca London and Trent University, Canada. Septemcastrensis, 2006). We owe a particular debt to the directors, 12 N. K. Rauh, Merchants, sailors, and pirates Cyprian Broodbank and Evangelia in the Roman world (Stroud: Tempus Press, Kiriatzi, and other team members of the 2003); A. Tsaravopoulos, “Enepigraphes Kythera Island Project with whom we polivdides apo tis erevnes ton televtaion have worked since 1998. In addition, eton sta Antikithira”, Horos 17, the following offered important advice forthcoming 2008; P. Brulé, La piraterie or academic support: Ted Banning, John crétoise hellénistique (Paris: Annales Bennet, Angelos Chaniotis, John Cherry, Littéraires de l’Université de Besançon, Jack Davis, Jennifer Moody, Lucia Nixon 1978). and Todd Whitelaw. A final thanks to ASP team members and the current inhabitants of Antikythera for making all of this work possible.