This island was famous even in ancient times, and in ours it is one of the best in the Archipelago. It is said that, ever since the distant past, its name was the same as it is today, Melos. However, an ancient sage writes that originally it was called Byblos, because the people who first set foot there were brought from a Phoenician city called Byblos. The philosopher Aristotle calls it Zephyria, because of all the islands, Melos is the most westward, but it is most correct to say that it falls towards the south-west. It is cut across in the middle by a wide bay, a veritable sea, which almost divides it in two, and has a wide inlet on the north where ships may enter. Of these two parts of the island, only that towards the east is inhabited. The other isa complete desert, being all rocks and wild dry mountains. –Fotis Kontoglou, Ταξείδια, 1928
At the southwestern entrance of the Aegean Sea, Melos, Kimolos, Polyaigos, Antimelos and numerous islets around and between them – the products of extensive and different geological periods of volcanic activity in the area – form an island cluster that delimits the southwestern tip of the Cyclades.
Much larger than the other islands of the cluster and the fifth in size among the Cyclades, Melos stands out for its peculiar, horseshoe-like shape. This it owes to the deep bay that forms a large natural harbour and safe anchorage.
Its opportune geographical location, at the crossroads of important sea routes between the West and the East, and its geological structure, with its mineral-rich volcanic soil, have determined its development over time and shaped its historical course.
With a human presence traceable back to Neolithic times, Melos evolved into an important centre of the prehistoric Aegean during the Bronze Age and prospered in many periods of historical times until the end of antiquity, as is evidenced by the archaeological remains scattered throughout its area.
The archaeological map of Melos, published in 1982 after a systematic surface survey by the British School at Athens and showing all the sites identified then known, lists a total of 111 certain ancient sites with indications of habitation or other activities, from the Neolithic period to Late Antiquity.
The rescue excavations of the Ephorate since then have strengthened the data on the already identified sites, but have mainly enriched the archaeological map of Melos by adding many important new sites.
Among the most famous and representative rocks of Melos is the volcanic glassy rock of obsidian. Due to its exceptional quality, Melian obsidian was the most desirable raw material for making tools in the very early prehistoric Aegean. Its presence in the Franchthi cave of the Argolid, in Upper Palaeolithic layers (11th millennium BC), constitutes to date the earliest documented evidence for the extraction of the material from the Melian sources and its trafficking overseas. The sources are in two locations in eastern Melos, on the hills of Sta Nychia and Demenegaki, whose surfaces are scattered with thousands of blade cores, blades and millions of knapped fragments.
The main source of wealth of Melos in historical times, probably from the Classical period, was the exploitation, production and trading of ‘earths’, such as Melian earth, alum, pumice, and sulphur, which even attracted interest from outside the island. Several coastal sites date back to Roman times, such as Agia Kyriaki and Paliochori, where facilities for the exploitation of the earths have been found, along with areas for enriching and storing the mineral product, and living quarters for the labourers. Ceramic workshops are known too.
