The Norwegian Institute at Athens invites all interested to its upcoming lecture by Dr. Alex Knodell (Professor of Classics and Director of Archaeology, Carleton College) and Dr. Demetris Athanasoulis (Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades, Hellenic Ministry of Culture) on Wednesday, 28 January 2026, at 7:00 p.m. (EET).
The lecture is titled “The Small Cycladic Islands Project: From Miniature Landscapes to Regional Histories” and will be held at the Norwegian Institute at Athens in a hybrid format, accommodating both in-person and online attendance via Zoom.
Abstract
The Small Cycladic Islands Project (SCIP) is a diachronic archaeological survey of several small, currently uninhabited islands in the Cycladic Archipelago of the Aegean. The project is a collaboration between the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades, the Norwegian Institute at Athens, and Carleton College, and from 2019 to 2024 carried out comprehensive archaeological surveys of 87 small islands. These islets revealed a range of habitation and non-habitation activities, spanning prehistory to the present. This lecture provides an overview of the work of the project as a whole, with a focus on our most recent work in the eastern and southern Cyclades. In particular, it examines how the miniature landscapes of small places can be viewed together to make new contributions to the regional history of the Cyclades. It also highlights the methodological contributions of the project in combining systematic pedestrian survey with lidar analysis and other types of remote sensing and digital recording. A broader concern is developing an archaeology of uninhabited spaces and in-between places that have long been overlooked but nevertheless played crucial roles in wider networks.
Biographical Information
Dr. Alex Knodell is Professor of Classics and Director of Archaeology at Carleton College. In Greece, he has co-directed the Mazi Archaeological Project and the Small Cycladic Islands Project. He has published books and articles on the archaeology of Greece and the eastern Mediterranean, especially during prehistoric and early historical periods. Most recently, he has published articles on archaeological surveys in Greece and the Mediterranean, the comparative archaeology of small islands, and the results of SCIP (coauthored with several team members), as well as an edited collection of papers on archaeological lidar in Greece.
Dr. Demetris Athanasoulis is Director of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades. He has served as curator of the Byzantine monuments of Elis and Director of Byzantine Antiquities of Arcadia, the Argolid and Corinthia, director of Antiquities of the Dodecanese, president of the Association of Greek Archaeologists, and several national and international boards and committees, including the Central Archaeological Council of Greece and National Coordinator for the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018. He has conducted numerous archaeological field projects in the Peloponnese and the Cyclades and has published books and articles in the fields of Byzantine architecture and archaeology and the management of cultural heritage.
Registration is required for both in-person and virtual attendance.
To attend in person, please register at [email protected]
To attend online, please register via the following link: https://uib.zoom.us/meeting/register/uB9QCAfYThm1MHP6UCiQUQ