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Modern Description: One of the oldest organised settlements in the Cyclades is on the islet of Saliagos just off Antiparos. The islet, which scarcely appears above sea-level, is visible in the strait (behind the islet of Revmatonisi which is in the foreground), 1 km to the north of the ferry route between Paros and Antiparos. Like the other islets in the strait it was originally a low rise on the continuum of land which then joined Paros and Antiparos. Some time – probably in the 2nd millennium BC – a massive seismic movement caused the land to sink by 10-12m, and what was formerly a peninsula became the island of Antiparos, and the summit of Saliagos became a reef.
The Neolithic settlement on Saliagos, inhabited by a community of sheep-farmers and fishermen of the late 5th-4th millennium BC, was excavated in 1964-5 by the British School at Athens. Stone foundations of buildings, obsidian arrow-heads, stone implements and pottery were found. A marble figurine of the seated, cross-legged, ‘fat-lady' type – an image found also on Malta in the same epoch – was unearthed, as well as some clay chalices of fine workmanship, decorated with abstract designs in white. The settlement has many characteristics in common with that at Fteliá on Mykonos, with which its is more or less contemporary.
Wikidata ID: Q601762

Info: McGilchrist's Greek Islands

(From McGilchrist’s Greek Islands, © Nigel McGilchrist 2010, excerpted with his gracious permission. Click for the books)

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