Mediterranean Islands, Fragile Communities and Persistent Landscapes

'A gem of an archaeological history for a very small island - a book that builds impressively on accomplishments of the past four decades in Greek regional studies, while exploring the generally complex relationships between landscapes and the human populations that reside in them.' Jack L. Davis, University of Cincinnati

'Here, for the first time, are presented the fascinating results of a diachronic archaeological survey of a small Greek island, in its entirety and at an unprecedented level of detail. The sophistication of the graphical displays and statistical analyses is both pathbreaking and breathtaking.' John F. Cherry, Brown University

'Antikythera, the first Mediterranean island to undergo site survey in its entirety using modern GIS techniques, reveals the fragility and yet resilience of its landscape and human population. Bevan and Conolly's analysis of change, from pioneer farmers to predatory pirates, ably documents the microcosmic vulnerability of life in a changing sea.' Colin Renfrew, University of Cambridge

Andrew Bevan is Senior Lecturer in Archaeology at University College London. His primary research interests include landscape ecology, spatial and computational modeling, and archaeological fieldwork techniques. Recent publications include contributions to journals such as Antiquity, Archaeometry, Ecological Modelling, Environmental Archaeology, the Journal of Archaeological Science and the Journal of Mediterranean Archaeology. He is author of Stone Vessels and Values in the Bronze Age Mediterranean (Cambridge University Press, 2007) and co-editor (with David Wengrow) of Cultures of Commodity Branding (2010). James Conolly is Canada Research Chair in Archaeology at Trent University, Canada. His research interests span archaeology and ecology and he has published widely on the biogeography of early plant and animal domestication and on the application of spatial modeling and geographical information systems to archaeological and palaeoenvironmental datasets. He is the co-author (with Mark Lake) of Geographical Information Systems in Archaeology (Cambridge University Press, 2006) and the co-editor (with Sue Colledge) of The Origins and Spread of Domestic Plants in Southwest Asia and Europe (2007). His current research focuses on early to mid-Holocene environments and archaeology in the lower Great Lakes region of North America.

1. Problems and perspectives; 2. Methods and data; 3. A Mediterranean and island environment; 4. Material worlds; 5. Landscape archaeology and historical ecology I; 6. Landscape archaeology and historical ecology II; 7. Mobility and investment; 8. The eccentric, the specialist, and the displaced; 9. Antikythera in context.