The Site of Skarkos on the Island of Ios: Throwing Light on the Dark Aspects of Bronze Age Cycladic Archaeology

The Early Bronze Age settlement is a privileged one, situated on a hill in the middle of the west side of the island of Ios, beside one of the safest and most spacious sheltered harbors in the Cyclades and the most extensive arable lands on Ios. It has a concentrically organised town plan, wide streets and squares and stone-built rectangular, two-storied, buildings. The buildings bear witness to an agglomerative manner of construction. The settlement was enlarged by the construction of new buildings which were added to preexisting ones. In this manner were created large architectural complexes or insulae whose individual houses were independent from each other, separated by double walls between them. The buildings are quite sophisticated for the 3rd millennium Aegean. Most of them have upper storeys the access to which was provided by means of stone-built exterior stairs. The abundant movable finds are very interesting and in combination with the architectural remains give a picture of the function of the rooms of the buildings. Each house includes spaces for special activities such as cooking areas on the ground floor and/or the adjacent court, and rooms for agricultural and pottery storage on the upper floor. Many of the artefacts were not attested in the Cyclades until the excavation on Skarkos.