The reconstruction of a palaeoenvironment is integral to any archaeological project and requires geomorphological, pedological and palaeobotanical investigations. It is widely accepted that the vegetation in almost any area has been subject to dramatic change since late-glacial times, but the corresponding changes in soils are not always appreciated. The reconstruction of former soil landscapes can be attempted by study of palaeosols, by making inferences on the basis of vegetational information, or by an analysis of the results of landscape degeneration. In a semi-arid area such as Greece, for which there are few pollen diagrams, the analysis of fluvial and colluvial deposits is essential to try to elucidate the chronology and magnitude of soil change. Such pioneering work has been carried out by Vita-Finzi (1969), who has obtained evidence throughout the Mediterranean for two major phases of alluviation-the Older and Younger Fills; he suggests that the former dates to late Pleistocene whilst the latter is almost entirely Late Roman and medieval in age. Bintliff (1975, 1976) has recently reviewed the literature and provides additional evidence to confirm Vita-Finzi’s alluvial chronology, which both relate to climatic change, although alternative explanations have been proposed (Wagstaff, 1967). This short paperc reports some results from a project on the island of Melos in the Aegean (Figure 1). The principal activity of the project is the excavation at the prehistoric site of Phylakopi, directed for the British School of Archaeology at Athens by Colin Renfrew. The site was first excavated by the School between 1896 and 1899, when it was shown to be a major prehistoric settlement with deposits ranging from the beginning of the early Bronze Age c. 3000 BC to the later part of the late Bronze Age c. 1100 BC. The project as a whole has the wider aim of reconstructing, as far as is possible, the developments in settlement and population in Melos from the earliest period to the present. The Melos survey, which is conducted in collaboration with Dr Malcolm Wagstaff of the Department of Geography, University of Southampton, involves therefore a consideration of land use in the present as well as in the past. Melos has a high-energy geomorphic environment. Its climate is of classic Mediterranean type characterized by a long arid summer, short sharp showers of rain in winter and wide inter-annual variations in precipitation. Much of the island consists of relatively