Mediterranean Islands, Fragile Communities and Persistent Landscapes: Antikythera in Long-Term Perspective [Kietas viršelis]

Mediterranean landscape ecology, island cultures and long-term human history have all emerged as major research agendas over the past half-century, engaging large swathes of the social and natural sciences. This book brings these traditions together in considering Antikythera, a tiny island perched on the edge of the Aegean and Ionian seas, over the full course of its human history from the Neolithic through the present day. Small islands are particularly interesting because their human, plant, and animal populations often experience abrupt demographic changes, including periods of near-complete abandonment and recolonization, and Antikythera proves to be one of the best-documented examples of these shifts over time. Small islands also play eccentric but revealing roles in wider social, economic, and political networks, serving as places for refugees, hunters, modern eco-tourists, political exiles, hermits, and pirates. Antikythera is a rare case of an island that has been investigated in its entirety from several systematic fieldwork and disciplinary perspectives, not least of which is an intensive archaeological survey. The authors use the resulting evidence to offer a unique vantage on settlement and land use histories.

This book builds upon a detailed, interdisciplinary program of archaeological fieldwork, archival research, and scientific analysis to consider the long-term human history of Antikythera, a small Greek island that lies among key routes of maritime passage between the eastern and central Mediterranean and the Peloponnese and Crete. The authors consider patterns of the island's human settlement, land use, and interaction with the wider world and use this case study as a means for offering more general observations about the nature of Mediterranean landscapes, island communities, and the balance between environmental and historical factors in the shaping the human past.