Archaeological survey in north-west Andros, Cyclades

Abstract

The scope of this survey was twofold: a) to locate and study sites reported to have antiquities and b) to investigate selected areas with intensive methods. The sites are described and interpreted in Chapter III. - Evidence from both the extensive and intensive part of the survey is combined to observe general trends in the distribution patterns from the Neolithic to the Roman period in the Conclusions.

A greater emphasis is given to the prehistoric period, for which two main observations were made: a) the number of Neolithic sites recovered show that the North-West part of the island was already settled since the Late phase of this period and b) during the Bronze Age the small number of finds suggest that Andros followed the general developments in the Aegean, except for the Early Cycladic period which is not well represented.

The limited number of ancient sources referring to Andros do not allow to reconstruct the ancient topography and history of the island in any detail. The effort to associate finds from the survey with historical developments had some success mainly for the Classical and Hellenistic period. It appears that the location of the port and the proximity of the North-West part of the island to the mainland was the main reason for the development of this region. Finds from the Roman period are more difficult to interpret since ancient sources are even more limited.