Kythera Island Project (KIP) Fieldwalking survey 2017
Survey: Systematic fieldwalking survey
In 2017, the main objectives were to investigate the entirety of the Paliokastro urban zone to refine our understanding of the main timelines of human activity, to characterise better the changing spatial footprint of these activities, and to situate this key area more systematically within wider research agendas set by KIP (1998-2001), the Antikythera Survey Project (ASP) and the Petrocheilos excavations and others. Surface survey covered 2.0 km2. Surveyors counted 26,600 sherds and 21,300 tiles, and collected 2,800 feature sherds and over 200 other finds. Paliokastro follows a wider pattern, particularly clear on Crete and the Cyclades, of very late Late Bronze Age refuge sites following abandonment or decline of lowland centres and likely seaborne raiding. There is probable continuity of slow settlement growth from perhaps 1200–1000 BC through the Geometric–Archaic, expansion and growth during the Classical–Hellenistic, and stability or decline afterwards until as late as 50–100 AD. Exploration in 2017 suggests it is possible that the southern area — clearly part of the city in Classical, Hellenistic and Roman times — lay outside the Archaic settlement proper given the presence of 7th-century BC burials (which one might expect to be extra-mural). Different areas of the Classical town exhibit a different character in their surface assemblages; there is increased evidence for investment in higher status buildings on the lower southern slopes of the hill (finds of rosso antico, Parian marble, pebblemosaic floors, and fine ware pottery mostly of Hellenistic–early Roman date), and very reduced evidence for settlement on the top ridge running south–east from the acropolis’ Athena temple.
Active in 2017.