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From the Invitation to the Stavros Paspalas Lecture on Archaeological Research on Kythera.

Lecture entitled: Kythera: A Mediterranean Island Through Time.

The island of Kythera, best known for its mythological and literary associations with Aphrodite, lies between southern Greece and Crete, and on the western threshold of the Aegean Sea.

Its nodal position as regards seafaring and communication networks was well noted throughout Antiquity and into the Mediaeval period.

An Australian team has conducted an archaeological survey project in the north-central part of Kythera since 1999, and this lecture will present some of its findings set against the background of the island’s history as known from the written sources.

The results of the survey project have documented human presence in the survey area from the Early Bronze Age onwards, with particular peaks during the Minoan, Classical and Late Mediaeval periods. The archaeology of the island provides a view into how the lives of the islanders were affected by developments in the wider Mediterranean world, and how they strove to exploit the resources Kythera offered.

Invitation to Stravros Paspalas Lecture, April 5, 2006