Living on Small Islands: Archaeological Perspectives on Vulnerability and Resilience

Edited by Erica Angliker Edited by Lilian de Angelo Laky

Book cover: Living on Small Islands: Archaeological Perspectives on Vulnerability and Resilience

Extent: 120 pages

Publisher: Archaeopress Publishing

Subjects: World Archaeology

Language: English

Paperback (No longer our product)

(August 2026)

ISBN: 9781805832768

7.99 x 10.87 inches

Price: $49.00

On back order

This volume explores how small island communities adapted to environmental challenges across time and place. Through case studies from the Aegean, Adriatic, Brazil and the Caribbean, it examines resilience, resource management, cultural traditions and human–environment relationships, and the role of islands in wider social and economic networks.


This volume examines the archaeology of small islands and the ways in which island communities have responded to environmental challenges across different regions and periods. The contributors examine the resilience of islanders in addressing these challenges, the solutions that they have devised, and instances in which resource depletion necessitated the abandonment of inhabited islands.

The topics addressed include the demographic and social impacts of environmental changes on small islands and the influence of the unique environmental conditions on local cultures and range from the survey of small Aegean islands and strategies for managing water scarcity in the Iron Age Cyclades to Greek colonisation in the Adriatic, shell mound-building societies of southern Brazil, and community-based approaches to heritage and climate resilience in the Caribbean. The contributors consider religious practices, social organisation, economies, material culture and traditions. Together, the studies demonstrate the diverse roles played by small islands within wider cultural and economic networks and highlight their importance for understanding long-term human-environment relationships. 

List of Figures and Tables

Acknowledgements

Introduction – Erica Angliker and Lilian de Angelo Laky

An Island through Time: Surface Survey and Selective Occupation on Strongylo (Antiparos) – Evan I. Levine, Hüseyin Ç. Öztürk, Alex R. Knodell, Denitsa Nenova, John F. Cherry, Demetrios Athanasoulis, Zozi Papadopoulou and Žarko Tankosić

Social Strategies for Dealing with Scarce Precipitation: Examples from the Iron Age Cyclades – Doug Forsyth

Resilience and Vulnerability of a Greek Colony on a Small Adriatic Island: The Case Study of Issa on Vis on the Croatian Coast of Dalmatia (4th – 1st Centuries BCE) – Lilian de Angelo Laky

Nearshore Islands as Resilient Cultural Landscape Among Shellmound Building Societies on the Southern Shores of Brazil – Henrique Kozlowski and Paulo DeBlasis

Community Participation in Response to Environmental Challenges in the Caribbean: A Dialogue Between Archaeology and Local Knowledge – Andrea Richards and Harold Kelly

  • Edited by Erica Angliker
  • Edited by Lilian de Angelo Laky