Cycladic Islands Research Articles

Religious fervour in the Cyclades (1823–1842): seers, discoveries of holy objects, and Protestant missionaries

This article examines a wave of divine interventions on four Cycladic Islands (Tinos, Naxos, Syros, and Santorini) in the 1820s and 1830s. The aim is to understand the social dynamics that created a specific atmosphere of religious fervour in the Aegean during that period and to build an idea of lay practice and lay reaction to the arrival of a Catholic sovereign and Protestant missionaries. Missionaries provided islanders with a new lens for looking at and questioning their own traditional religious practices. However, instead of rejection, their intervention brought about renewed commitment and zeal. In an attempt to prove the superiority of their own religion, Orthodox from the Cyclades started to unearth icons, crosses, and bones at the very moment that they were accused by Protestants of superstition.

Tourism and Cultural Sustainability: Views and Prospects from Cyclades, Greece

The objective of this paper is to explore cultural tourism perceptions, practices, concerns and prospects among local residents, tourists and business representatives in the Cycladic Islands, specifically three sites (Andros, Syros and Santorini). The concept and framework of cultural sustainability are employed to analyze the variable interrelationships between culture and tourism in the development of cultural tourism and in overall local sustainability, from a bottom-up/destination perspective. The methodological approach was an on-site exploratory questionnaire survey, effectuated in the context of the SPOT Horizon 2020 EU project, on cultural tourism in the Cyclades. Our findings show that the role of culture as an actual tourism attraction and the potential for further growth in cultural tourism, and consequently local development, are broadly recognized. However, the role of tourism in cultural development, management and appropriation is viewed with a certain degree of trepidation and ambivalence. Culture and tourism emerge from the results of this research study as positively interlinked in the minds of the locals, the visitors and the entrepreneurs involved in cultural tourism and tourism more generally. Despite the fact that it is mostly privately driven, the culture–tourism relationship is viewed as holding great potential for all sides involved and for local cultural and overall sustainability.

Gourimadi Archaeological Project. The results from the first excavation season

The Norwegian Institute at Athens received a permit from the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports in 2018 to conduct a five-year excavation project at the site of Gourimadi in southern Euboea. The first field season, conducted in June 2018, lasted for four weeks during which two trenches were opened at the site and partially excavated by a Norwegian-Greek team of researchers and students. The aim of the project is to understand the transition from the Neolithic to the Bronze Age in this part of the Aegean in the light of emerging regional maritime interaction networks and lasting settlement of the Cycladic islands. In addition, data collected from both the surface and excavation indicate that Gourimadi can contribute potentially crucial information needed for examining the Aegean prehistoric obsidian exchange and the introduction of metallurgy in the same region. Finally, the project is the first systematic (i.e. non-rescue) excavation of a prehistoric site in southern Euboea. The 2018 excavation confirmed our expectations about the importance of the site and has added to our understanding of prehistoric Euboea and the Aegean. The paper contains a brief preliminary but comprehensive report of the 2018 Gourimadi Archaeological Project results.

The Iron Age Cyclades and Crete: Different Approaches to Connectivity Speculatively Related to Food Security

This paper offers a case study of some of the Cycladic Islands examining connectivity and insularity between 1000 – 500 BCE. In the Cyclades, evidence of interaction with areas outside of the archipelago and of intra-island connectivity is observable on many of the islands. It will be argued that environmental factors, predominantly low rainfall, may be at least part of the explanation for the adoption of a strategy of reaching out beyond an island’s shores. Cycladic islanders plausibly sought to develop strong networks of affiliation with trading partners from other regions perhaps to serve as buffer zones to rely on during periods of poor food productivity. Compared to Cycladic material, the archaeological evidence of Cretan items found outside Crete is not as robust. This paper speculatively suggests that Cretans, living in a more fertile environment, did not feel the same need as Cycladic islanders to establish networks of affiliation for purposes of food security.

Mining activity and island landscape issues: evidence from Cyclades islands, Greece

ABSTRACT This paper maps the visual impact of mining activities on terrestrial and marine landscapes of the Cyclades islands, Greece, an island complex in the Aegean Sea of particular natural and cultural heritage. In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, mining activities developed on the islands, many of which are abandoned today. Some of the remaining inactive mines and accompanying structures have been registered as monuments and part of the national industrial heritage. The remaining active mining units conflict for land with the main economic activity today, tourism. The visual impact of the mining units is calculated and mapped, resulting in viewshed analysis which quantifies the impact of mining units on terrestrial and marine landscapes, with emphasis on nominated traditional settlements and mention of non-traditional ones. The quantitative results have shown that the landscape study needs to be incorporated in terrestrial and marine spatial planning.

Impacts of beekeeping on wild bee diversity and pollination networks in the Aegean Archipelago

Maintaining the diversity of wild bees is a priority for preserving ecosystem function and promoting stability and productivity of agroecosystems. However, wild bee communities face many threats and beekeeping could be one of them, because honey bees may have a strong potential to outcompete wild pollinators when placed at high densities. Yet, we still know little about how beekeeping intensity affects wild bee diversity and their pollinator interactions. Here, we explore how honey bee density relates to wild bee diversity and the structure of their pollination networks in 41 sites on 13 Cycladic Islands (Greece) with similar landscapes but differing in beekeeping intensity. Our large‐scale study shows that increasing honey bee visitation rate had a negative effect on wild bee species richness and abundance, although the latter effect was relatively weak compared to the effect of other landscape variables. Competition for flowering resources (as indicated by a resource sharing index) increased with the abundance of honey bees, but the effect was more moderate for wild bees in family Apidae than for bees in other families, suggesting a stronger niche segregation in Apidae in response to honey bees. Honey bees also influenced the structure of wild bee pollination networks indirectly, through changes in wild bee richness. Low richness of wild bees in sites with high honey bee abundance resulted in wild bee networks with fewer links and lower linkage density. Our results warn against beekeeping intensification in these islands and similar hotspots of bee diversity, and shed light on how benefits to pollination services of introducing honey bees may be counterbalanced by detriments to wild bees and their ecosystem services.

Biogeographic patterns of blood parasitism in the Aegean Wall Lizard across the cycladic islands

The biogeography of host-parasite dynamics is an area that has received little attention in studies of island ecology. While a few studies have shed insight on patterns of parasitism in insular host populations, more empirical evidence is needed to ascertain how isolation impacts parasites. Biogeography generally theorizes that the physical size of islands and the duration of each island’s isolation can be driving geographic factors controlling species interactions and populations dynamics. To test this, we assessed the effect of island structure and population isolation on the endemic insular lizard Podarcis erhardii and its native hemogregarine parasite (Apicomplexa: Adeleorina) in the Cyclades (Aegean Sea). We analyzed the relationships of prevalence and parasitemia of hemogregarine infection with several factors concerning the island (size, time of isolation, spatial isolation, population density) and host (body size) levels using regression and structural equation models, respectively. Regressions indicate that islands with greater host density and islands which have been isolated for shorter timespans tend to have higher hemogregarine prevalences; structural equation models suggest a similar pattern for parasitemia. We hypothesize this may be driven by insular density compensation. Hosts on islands that are more temporally and spatially isolated also tend to have higher prevalence and parasitemia of hemogregarines. Our results indicate that island area, island isolation, and host population density are likely to be significant drivers of changes in host-parasite interactions in fragmented populations.

Cursing Theophrastos in Paros

This article publishes a cast-lead figurine from the early fourth century BCE, excavated in a tile grave on the Cycladic island of Paros. The figurine was pierced with seven iron nails, the arms were bound behind the back, and a lead collar shackled the neck. Inscriptions on the body in the epichoric Parian alphabet suggest that the object was produced locally. The aggressive nailing, binding, shackling, inscribing, and modulation of the figurine, combined with the mortuary context and abundant parallels, suggest that the object was ritual in nature, implicated as an effigy (κολοσσός, Rachepuppe, or so-called voodoo doll) in a binding curse. Examination of the object in relation to the growing corpus of curse effigies sheds new light on private curse rituals, onomastics, the local Parian script, and notions of sexuality and competition in the classical Aegean.

Promoting Tourists’ Destinations in Greece with Social Media: The Case of Kimolos Island

Purpose: The paper examines how social media presents Kimolos, a small Cycladic island in the Aegean Sea, to future travelers. This research provides valuable information regarding the actions taken by Kimolos and the local enterprises' actions in promoting the island and the local products and attracting tourists using social media. Methodology/Approach/Design: Quantitative research and qualitative methods were used for the collection of data. Data were collected during the period between May and June 2018. Findings: Enterprises in Kimolos have realized the potential to use the world wide web and social media to promote their services. The municipality of Kimolos, on the other hand, do not use social media at the time that the research took place, but it is planning to use it in the future. Practical implications: This research seeks to show tourism professionals the use of social networks and encourage them to use them. Originality/Value: There is limited research in Greece about promoting services and products through social media in small Greek islands.

The Small Cycladic Islands Project (2019–2020): a comparative survey of uninhabited landscapes near Paros and Antiparos, Greece

The Small Cycladic Islands Project is a diachronic archaeological survey of several small, currently uninhabited islands located in the Cyclades, Greece. In 2019 and 2020, surface investigations focused on the multi-method, comparative documentation of 21 islets surrounding Paros and Antiparos, revealing oscillating patterns of use and non-use from prehistory to the present.

Delos Archaeological Marbles: A Preliminary Geochemistry‐Based Quarry Provenance Study

This paper presents for the first time chemical data on the ancient (Antiquity period) marble quarries of Delos Island and some architectural marbles from its famous and exceptionally well‐preserved archaeological site. Delos geological substratum is mostly composed of granite, including very few decametric marble enclaves. However, ancient Delian architecture is dominated by gneiss and marbles. A large quantity of marble had thus to be imported from neighbouring Cycladic Islands and continental Greece. Their provenances remain mostly unknown. Several analytical methods have been developed in archaeometry for years to determine the origin of marbles, but they are generally destructive. This paper reports a methodology based on a hand‐held portable X‐ray fluorescence (pXRF) analyser to detect major and trace elements often used in provenance studies. Drawbacks of using those elements for marble provenance and analytical limitations attached to portable instruments were frequently discussed. Here the usefulness of pXRF for marble provenance research was tested in association with principal component analysis (PCA). Two artefacts of presumed Delian origin were selected and the results showed that one of them came undoubtedly from a Delian quarry while the other one was not of local origin. This protocol appeared to be a powerful tool when conventional destructive analyses are precluded.

Assessment of the Mobile Mental Health Units' effectiveness in Cyclades islands.

In Greece, the provision of mental health shows inefficiencies in remote and inaccessible areas due to the lack of appropriate structures and access to healthcare. The purpose of this study was to assess the effectiveness of the Mobile Mental Health Units (MMHUs) in Cyclades with and without MMHUs' operation based on Real-World Evidence (RWE). The study population consisted of 724 people who visited the MMHUs of the western and northeastern Cyclades in 2015. The data derived from the patients' medical records of EPAPSY classified by International Statistical Classification of Diseases and Related Health Problems 10th Revision (ICD-10) and the Global Assessment of Functioning (GAF) scale. The analysis revealed that 60.9% of the participants were women and the average age was 50.1. 50.4% of the people who visited MMHUs without referral from primary health care professionals and 18.8% with referral. The calculation of effectiveness was based on DALYs (Disability-Adjusted Life Years) and was performed according to the World Health Organization methodology. In the specific population, there are no recorded deaths caused by mental disorders and thus DALYs are equal to Years Lost due to Disability (YLDs) with MMHUs' operation. 18% of the population was diagnosed with mood disorders (F30-F39) and morbidity burden 9.49 (YLDs), while 17.5% of the patients were diagnosed with neurotic, stress-related and somatoform disorders (F40-F48) and corresponding morbidity burden 4.53 (YLDs). Our results revealed that the effectiveness of MMHUs corresponds to 17.98 Disability-Adjusted Life Years (DALYs) averted in 2015. The mood disorders and the neurotic, stress-related disorders have shown a high morbidity burden. Advanced age, non-permanent employment, existence of psychopathology in the family and referral on patients' own will were found to significantly affect the mental health status of the participants. The implementation and expansion of flexible and alternative community-based interventions, such as MMHUs, constitute a best practice both for obtaining higher clinical outcomes and for facing regional inefficiencies related to population's access to healthcare.

Langurs in the Aegean Bronze Age? A Review of a Recent Debate on Archaeoprimatology and Animal Identification in Ancient Iconography

Recently, an article was published in the journal Primates, in which an interdisciplinary team consisting of primatologists, a taxonomic illustrator, and an art historian/archaeologist suggested a new identification of the monkeys depicted in a wall painting from Room 6 of Building Complex Beta in the Bronze Age town of Akrotiri on the Cycladic island of Thera. Briefly summarised, Pareja et al. argued that the monkeys represented are to be identified as grey or Hanuman langurs (Semnopithecus spp.), a monkey genus native to the Indian subcontinent. With this, they diverged from the traditional identification as green monkeys/vervets/grivets of the genus Chlorocebus from Africa. It was claimed that the new identification as langurs provides (further) evidence for links between the Aegean and the Indus River Valley during the Bronze Age, with Mesopotamia as a likely intermediary region. According to the authors, the Cycladic artists could have seen langurs on their travels, and monkey iconography could have reached the Aegean via objects originating from these regions.

Reverse trajectory study of oil spill risk in Cyclades Islands of the Aegean Sea

The impact of hypothetical oil spills in Cyclades Islands (Aegean Sea, Eastern Mediterranean) is investigated by a reverse trajectory method whereby tracers have been back-tracked using surface current and wind data from 2013 to 2018. Results show that the westernmost islands of the archipelago (Kithnos, Kea, Andros) are at high risk all year round due to the proximity to the western oil tanker route (Bosphorus to Western Mediterranean). The arrival time of oil to these islands is less than 1 day, with the involvement of the entire perimeter of each island. The eastern islands are exposed to oil coming from the eastern oil tanker route (Bosphorus to Suez). In the summer, oil can reach the northern coast of Amorgos and Donousa in less than 1 day and Naxos in less than 2 days due to persistent ‘meltemi’ and induced surface current. Oil surveillance (for example by SAR) should focus all year round on the western route and on the eastern route north of the archipelago during the summer.

Underwater

A unique exhibition was held between 19 and 22 September 2018 in the deep blue waters of Amorgos, Greece. Amorgos is the easternmost of the Cyclades islands, neighboring the Dodecanese island group. The island’s rich aquatic life and architectural beauty featured prominently in French director Luc Besson’s internationally acclaimed English-language film on freediving, The Big Blue (Le Grand Bleu, 1988), transforming the island into an international destination for tourists and freedivers. The exhibition Underwater Gallery: On a Single Breath, was installed at a depth of 7 to 17 meters inside a sea cave in the area of Aghios Pavlos, below the Monastery of Hozoviotissa. Hozoviotissa’s famous top-floor window of the “big blue” opens to the Aegean Sea, affording visitors a bird’s eye view to the Aegean. It is clear that the gallery’s connection to Besson’s artwork is indisputable.

The Kythnos Microgrid: A 20-Year History

The noninterconnected island of Kythnos (100 km2 with 1,600 inhabitants) belongs to the complex of the Western Cyclades islands in Greece and is located in the Aegean Sea, 104 km from Athens. The island has a rich history in the adoption of sustainable energy applications, starting from the installation of the first wind farm in Europe [5 ? 20-kW wind turbines (WTs)] by the Public Power Corporation (PPC) in 1982, followed in 1983 by the first hybrid station comprising a 100-kW photovoltaic (PV) system coupled with a 400-kWh battery storage, also by PPC. In 1989, the WTs were replaced by 5 ? 33 kW (Figure 1), and in 1992, the PV inverters were upgraded.

Underwater

A unique exhibition was held between 19 and 22 September 2018 in the deep blue waters of Amorgos, Greece.1 Amorgos is the easternmost of the Cyclades islands, neighboring the Dodecanese island group. The island's rich aquatic life and architectural beauty featured prominently in French director Luc Besson's internationally acclaimed English-language film on freediving, The Big Blue (Le Grand Bleu, 1988), transforming the island into an international destination for tourists and freedivers. The exhibition, Underwater Gallery: On a Single Breath, was installed at a depth of 7 to 17 meters inside a sea cave in the area of Aghios Pavlos, below the Monastery of Hozoviotissa. Hozoviotissa's famous top-floor window of the “big blue” opens to the Aegean Sea, affording visitors a bird's eye view to the Aegean. It is clear that the gallery's connection to Besson's artwork is indisputable.

A reassessment of the diversity of green toads (Bufotes) in the circum-Aegean region.

The dynamic biogeography of glacial refugia may cause complex patterns of genetic admixture between parapatric taxa, which in turn can mislead their systematics, diversity, and distributions. We investigated this issue for green toads (Bufotes) inhabiting the circum-Aegean region, a biodiversity hotspot of the Eastern Mediterranean. A previous phylogeographic study based on mitochondrial and microsatellite loci identified the hybrid zone between the European (viridis) and Anatolian (sitibundus) lineages of B. viridis all over the Balkan Peninsula, but subsequent range-wide genomic analyses (>1000 SNPs) located this transition in Turkey, a thousand kilometers eastwards. In order to clarify the diversity and taxonomy of the circum-Aegean populations, we reconciled these conflicting findings by integrating previous data with pure sitibundus individuals. Our results confirmed that the viridis/sitibundus hybrid zone extends in Western Anatolia, but that southeastern European populations feature cytonuclear discordances and a high and structured microsatellite diversity. This remarkable situation may stem from a massive geographic displacement of the hybrid zone during the last glacial fluctuations, an underappreciated yet seemingly common feature among the herpetofauna of the region. Our study thus contributes to the rising view that mitochondrial DNA can be a poor predictor of current phylogeographic structure, hence the need for genomic data, especially for narrowly distributed taxa. Finally, the analyses unambiguously support the distinction of a micro-endemic clade of green toads unique to some Cyclades islands, for which we provide a formal taxonomic description.

An island archaeology of uninhabited landscapes: Offshore islets near Paros, Greece (the Small Cycladic Islands Project)

The Small Cycladic Islands Project (SCIP) is a diachronic archaeological survey of numerous small, uninhabited islands in the Cycladic archipelago. There is a rich history of archaeological survey and comparative island archaeology in the Aegean. SCIP narrows the size of an individual island survey, and at the same time expands the conceptual and comparative scope by surveying multiple islands with the same set of methods and in the context of the same project. All target islands are currently uninhabited, and many probably never sustained any habitation. We know from other cases, however, that such places were used for a variety of purposes in the past, including as goat islands, cemeteries, stopovers, and pirate hideaways. In its initial field season in 2019, SCIP carried out comprehensive surveys of 10 islets in the vicinity of Paros. This comparative program of research provides new insights concerning various types of human activities—habitation and non-habitation, diachronic and incidental—that took place in marginal island environments.

Climate disaster and the resilience of local maritime networks: Two examples from the Aegean Bronze Age

This paper investigates changing patterns of maritime small-world networks among the Cycladic islands of the southern Aegean Sea in the context of two climate disasters in the Bronze Age (ca. 3200 BCE - 1100 BCE): the 4.2 ka event at the end of the Early Bronze Age and the eruption of Thera in the late 17th century BCE in the Late Bronze Age. The 4.2 ka event is a period where changing environmental conditions — including landscape degradation, deforestation, and increased drought — correlate with drastically reduced maritime connectivity and increased settlement isolation. Previous archaeological study of the eruption of the Theran volcano (Santorini) has shown the persistence of regional-scale communication networks for a period of up to a century after the eruption. This paper examines the effect of the eruption on local-scale maritime networks. The archaeological study of both climate events is complicated by chronological discrepancies and, in the case of the 4.2 ka event, reliance on indirect environmental data.This paper addresses the questions: a) what effect did these two climate disasters have on small-world maritime networks in the Bronze Age Cyclades, and b) how did the island inhabitants adapt within a context of disruptive environmental phenomena? GIS modeling reveals that small-world networks in the Early Bronze Age Cyclades were substantially altered in the face of the 4.2 ka climate event, while in response to the eruption of Thera, small-world networks were resilient. Variables influencing the differing network responses include the temporality of the climate disasters, the availability of the sail as a technology of resilience, and varying environmental and social vulnerabilities.