Milos
Milos
Μήλος | |
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From top: | |
UTC+3 (EEST) | |
Postal code | 848 00, 848 01 |
Area code(s) | 2287 |
Vehicle registration | EM |
Website | www |
Milos or Melos (
The and at the 2021 census the population was 5,193 inhabitants.
History
Obsidian (a glass-like volcanic rock) from Milos was a commodity as early as 15,000 years ago.[4] Natural glass from Milos was transported over long distances and used for razor-sharp "stone tools" well before farming began and later: "There is no early farming village in the Near East that doesn't get obsidian".[5] The mining of obsidian did not lead to the development of permanent habitation or manufacturing on the island. Instead, those in search of obsidian arrived by boat, beaching it in a suitable cove and cutting pieces of the volcanic glass from the quarries.[6]
The position of Milos, between mainland Greece and
The Bronze Age
The first settlement at Phylakopi (Greek Φυλακωπή) arose in the Bronze Age, flourishing as the extraction of obsidian was in the decline. The first settlers were tuna fishermen.[6] Lying on the north-east coast, 1896 excavations by the British School at Athens and later in 1973 by the Brirish archaeologist Colin Renfrew,[8][9] revealed a town wall and a Minoan-inspired structure, dubbed the Pillar room, which contained fragments of vivid wall paintings. The famous fresco of the flying fish[10] was found in the ruins of the Pillar room and was executed with delicate colouring and graphic observation of nature in the graceful movement of a fish. Stylistic similarities to Minoan frescoes are suggested, and it could perhaps have been the work of a Cretan artist.[11] Part of the site has been washed away by the sea.
The antiquities found at the site covered three major periods, from the Early
Dorian settlement
The first Dorian settlement on Melos was established no earlier than the 1st millennium BC.
From the 6th century BC up to the siege of 416 BC, Melos issued its own coinage, struck according to the Milesian weight standard: the base coin was the stater which weighed just over 14 grams.[13][14][15] Melos was the only island in the Aegean Sea to use this standard.[16] Most coins bore the image of an apple, which is a pun because the ancient Greek word for "apple" (mêlon) sounded similar to the name of the island.[17] The coins also often bore the name of its people: ΜΑΛΙΟΝ (Malion) or some abbreviation thereof.[18]
By the 6th century BC, the Melians had also learned to write, and they used an archaic variant of the
Α |
Β |
Γ |
Δ |
Ε |
Ϝ |
Ζ
|
Η |
Η |
Θ |
Ι |
Κ |
Λ |
Μ |
Ν
|
Ξ |
Ο |
Π | Ϻ |
Ϙ |
Ρ |
Σ | Τ |
Υ
|
Φ |
Χ |
Ψ |
Ω
| |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Laconia (Sparta) |
– | – | (φσ) | – | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
Attica (Athens) |
– | (χσ) | – | (φσ) | – | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Melos
|
– | (κϻ) | – | (πh) | (κh) | (πϻ) |
From at least as early as 470 BC and ending with the siege of 416 BC, the Melians exported
During the
Siege of 416 BC
During the Peloponnesian War (431-404 BC) between Athens and Sparta, the Melians made some small donations to the Spartan war effort,[22][23] but remained largely neutral despite sharing the Spartans' Dorian ethnicity. In 426 BC, the Athenians raided the Melian countryside, and the following year demanded tribute,[24] but Melos refused. In the summer of 416 BC, Athens invaded again with 3,400 men, and demanded that Melos ally with them against Sparta, or be destroyed. The Melians rejected this, so the Athenian army laid siege to the city and eventually captured it in the winter. After the city's fall, the Athenians executed all the adult men,[25] and sold the women and children into slavery. They then settled 500 of their own colonists on the island.[26] In 405 BC, with Athens losing the war, the Spartan general Lysander expelled the Athenian settlers from Melos and repatriated the survivors of the siege.[27][28] Sparta annexed Melos, which would mean that like other liberated islands, it received a military governor (a harmost).[29]
The tribulations of its population and the loss of its independence meant that the cultural distinctiveness of Melos faded away as it was absorbed into mainstream Greek culture.[30] Their coinage switched to the Rhodian standard[31] (tetradrachms weighing 15.3 g[32]) and ceased bearing the word ΜΑΛΙΟΝ. The production of its terracotta reliefs also ceased.
The Hellenistic period
In 338 BC,
The Roman and Byzantine period
In 197 BC, the Romans forced Philip V to withdraw from Greece, and Melos subsequently came under Roman influence.
During the early 9th century CE the
Medieval period
In the aftermath of the
Up to this point, the population of Melos was overwhelmingly Greek Orthodox Christian, just like the rest of the archipelago. When the Venetians conquered the archipelago, they brought Catholicism with them. The first Catholic bishop of Milos was appointed in 1253.[36]
Ottoman period
In 1566 the Venetians handed over the Duchy of Naxos to the Ottoman Empire, and its last Catholic duke fled to Venice. The Ottoman sultan Selim II appointed a Portuguese Jew named Joseph Nasi as its duke. Upon Nasi's death in 1579, the Ottomans formally annexed the territory.[37]
In the early 18th century, the population surpassed 6,000
In 1771 the island was occupied by the Russian Empire for three years, then retaken by the Ottomans.
In the late 18th century, the population declined considerably for uncertain reasons.[41] By 1798, it had fallen below 500 people.[42] Visitors reported that up to two thirds of the buildings had fallen into ruin. It began growing again in the early 19th century, reaching 5,000 people by 1821.[43] Reliable figures are hard to find as the Ottoman Empire never performed a census before 1881.
Modern period
Milos was one of the first islands to join the Greek War of Independence of 1821. The first naval battle of the war took place off the coast of Milos on 11 April 1821.[44] Milos became a refuge for refugees from numerous islands, particularly Crete. The port town of Adamantas was founded by Cretan refugees from the Cretan Revolt in 1841.[45][46]
When
During the 19th century, Milos was a major rendezvous point for American and British ships fighting Muslim pirates in the Mediterranean.[citation needed]
In February 1943, 14 male civilians were executed for collecting material owned by the German occupation forces that was washed up after the sinking of a cargo ship by Allied aircraft.[citation needed]
The population peaked in 1928 at 6,562 people.[48] In 2011 it was 4,977.
Geography
This section needs additional citations for verification. (July 2020) |
Milos is the southwestern-most island in the Cyclades, 120 kilometres (75 miles) due east from the
Antimelos or Antimilos, 13 miles (21 km) north-west of Milos, is an uninhabited mass of trachyte, often called Erimomilos (Desert Milos). Kimolos, or Argentiera, 1.6 km (0.99 mi) to the north-east, was famous in antiquity for its figs and fuller's earth, and contained a considerable city, the remains of which cover the cliff of St. Andrew's. Polyaigos (also called Polinos, Polybos or Polivo — alternative spelling Polyaegos) lies 2 km (1 mi) south-east of Kimolos. It was the subject of dispute between the Milians and Kimolians. It is now uninhabited.
The harbour town is Adamantas; from this there is an ascent to the plateau above the harbour, on which are situated
(Kampos).Climate
Milos has a Mediterranean climate (Köppen climate classification: Csa) with mild, rainy winters and warm to hot dry summers.[52]
Climate data for Milos | |||||||||||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec | Year |
Record high °C (°F) | 21.6 (70.9) |
26.2 (79.2) |
25.6 (78.1) |
28.4 (83.1) |
35.4 (95.7) |
40.0 (104.0) |
41.0 (105.8) |
38.4 (101.1) |
36.3 (97.3) |
32.0 (89.6) |
27.8 (82.0) |
23.4 (74.1) |
41.0 (105.8) |
Mean daily maximum °C (°F) | 12.9 (55.2) |
13.2 (55.8) |
14.8 (58.6) |
18.4 (65.1) |
22.8 (73.0) |
27.1 (80.8) |
28.1 (82.6) |
27.6 (81.7) |
25.2 (77.4) |
21.3 (70.3) |
18.0 (64.4) |
14.6 (58.3) |
20.3 (68.5) |
Daily mean °C (°F) | 10.5 (50.9) |
10.7 (51.3) |
12.1 (53.8) |
15.2 (59.4) |
19.3 (66.7) |
23.5 (74.3) |
25.0 (77.0) |
24.6 (76.3) |
22.3 (72.1) |
18.5 (65.3) |
15.3 (59.5) |
12.3 (54.1) |
17.4 (63.3) |
Mean daily minimum °C (°F) | 8.5 (47.3) |
8.5 (47.3) |
9.6 (49.3) |
12.4 (54.3) |
15.9 (60.6) |
19.8 (67.6) |
21.8 (71.2) |
21.6 (70.9) |
19.6 (67.3) |
16.1 (61.0) |
13.1 (55.6) |
10.3 (50.5) |
14.8 (58.6) |
Record low °C (°F) | −2.0 (28.4) |
−2.0 (28.4) |
0.0 (32.0) |
5.4 (41.7) |
8.0 (46.4) |
10.0 (50.0) |
14.0 (57.2) |
14.2 (57.6) |
11.6 (52.9) |
8.0 (46.4) |
2.8 (37.0) |
0.0 (32.0) |
−2.0 (28.4) |
Average precipitation mm (inches) | 74.7 (2.94) |
50.6 (1.99) |
47.2 (1.86) |
20.5 (0.81) |
13.1 (0.52) |
3.3 (0.13) |
0.3 (0.01) |
1.4 (0.06) |
5.8 (0.23) |
42.9 (1.69) |
60.7 (2.39) |
90.3 (3.56) |
410.8 (16.17) |
Average precipitation days (≥ 1.0 mm) | 8.8 | 7.3 | 5.7 | 2.9 | 1.4 | 0.3 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.9 | 3.9 | 5.8 | 9.0 | 46.2 |
Average relative humidity (%)
|
73.3 | 72.5 | 72.0 | 67.0 | 63.5 | 58.8 | 60.1 | 63.4 | 66.8 | 71.3 | 73.9 | 73.7 | 68.0 |
Source: NOAA[53] |
Natural resources
Volcanic minerals
Agricultural crops
Medicinal plants
Almost all of the uninhabited western region of Milos is a
Sister island
- Shōdoshima, Kagawa, Japan (1989)
Demographics
Historical population
Year | Island population |
---|---|
1798 | 500[42] |
1812 | 2,300[56] |
1821 | 5,000[43] |
1907 | 5,393[57] |
1928 | 6,562 |
1991 | 4,380 |
2001 | 4,771 |
2011 | 4,977 |
Modern popularity
While a lesser-known island within the extremely popular Cyclades archipelago, Milos has grown in popularity as a vacation destination in the past several decades. With its traditional Greek architecture, slower pace compared to Santorini and Mykonos, and varied beaches.[58]
Popular culture
- The 2007 film
People
- Antonio Millo (active 1557–1590), captain and cartographer
- Antonio Vassilacchi (1556–1629), painter
- Diagoras (5th century BC), philosopher
- Melanippides (5th century BC), poet
See also
- Aegean Islands
- Antimilos
- Arkoudes
- Catacombs of Milos
- Firiplaka
- Kimolos
- List of Aegean Islands
- Milos Island National Airport (MLO)
- Sarakiniko Beach
References
- ^ "Αποτελέσματα Μόνιμου Πληθυσμού κατά δημοτική κοινότητα" (in Greek). Hellenic Statistical Authority. 21 April 2023.
- ^ "statue". British Museum. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
- ^ "Population & housing census 2001 (incl. area and average elevation)" (PDF) (in Greek). National Statistical Service of Greece. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-09-21.
- ^ N. Laskaris, A. Sampson, F. Mavridis, I. Liritzis, (September 2011) "Late Pleistocene/Early Holocene seafaring in the Aegean: new obsidian hydration dates with the SIMS-SS method" Journal of Archaeological Science, Volume 38, Issue 9, pp.2475–2479
- ^ C. Renferew
- ^ ISBN 978-0-14-196999-2.
- ^ Chalk and Jonassohn, 65
- ^ "Renfrew, Colin". Retrieved 2023-09-13.
- ^ "Archaeological Site of Phylakopi". Retrieved 2023-09-13.
- ^ Flying fish Archived 2015-10-22 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ CAH pg. 448
- ^ Based on a map by Brian Sparkes, published in Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982).
- ^ Brain Sparkes, in Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982), p 230: "Melian coins of the late sixth and fifth centuries are of silver [...] and based on the Milesian weight standard."
- ^ Gardner (1918): "Already, in the sixth century, Melos struck coins on a different standard from that of most of the other islands of the Aegean, the stater weighing about 224 grains (grm. 14.50). Certain coins of the Santorin find (p. 122) are not of Aeginetan but of this Phoenician weight."
- ^ According to the website of Robert J. O'Hara (http://rjohara.net/coins/history/), a Lydo-Milesian stater weighed 14.10 grams.
- ^ Brain Sparkes, in Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982), p 47
- ^ Hill (1899), p. 176
- ^ Brain Sparkes, in Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982), p 230
- ^ Brain Sparkes, in Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982)
- , one each. The total number of ships, besides the fifty-oared boats, was three hundred and seventy-eight."
- ^ Brain Sparkes, in Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982), p 49
- ^ Geoffrey Ernest Maurice de Ste Croix (1954). "The Character of the Athenian Empire". An essay originally published in Historia 3, republished in Low (2008), pp. 245–246: "Epigraphic evidence allows us to go further still: it puts the original Athenian attack on Melos in quite a different light. The inscription found near Sparta [...] records two separate donations by Melos to the Spartan war-funds, one of twenty Aeginetan minae [...] The other figure has perished. The donors are described, it will be noticed, as toi Malioi, 'the Melians'. [...] This shows that the Melian subscription was an official one. [...] there is good reason to think these gifts to Sparta were made in the spring of 427."
- ^ The evidence is an inscription (IG V 1, 1) which reads: "The Melians gave to the Lacedaimonians twenty mnas of silver." See Loomis (1992), p 13
- ^ Brian Sparkes, in Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982), p. 49
- ^ Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War, 116
The key word in the account by Thucydides is hebôntas (ἡβῶντας), which generally describes people who have passed puberty and in this context refers to the men as Thucydides described a different fate for the women and children. Some translators such as Rex Warner translated this as "men of military age". Another possible translation is "men in their prime". Thucydides made no specific mention of what happened to the elderly males. - ^ Thucydides. History of the Peloponnesian War, 5.84-116
- ^ Xenophon. Hellenica, 2.2.9: "Meantime Lysander, upon reaching Aegina, restored the state to the Aeginetans, gathering together as many of them as he could, and he did the same thing for the Melians also and for all the others who had been deprived of their native states."
- ^ Plutarch. Life of Lysander, 14.3: "But there were other measures of Lysander upon which all the Greeks looked with pleasure, when, for instance, the Aeginetans, after a long time, received back their own city, and when the Melians and Scionaeans were restored to their homes by him, after the Athenians had been driven out and had delivered back the cities."
- ^ Brian Sparkes, in Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982), p. 49-50: "Melos thus passed from Athenian to Spartan control, and the Melians who returned found a government of ten established, made effective by the presence of a Spartan garrison and of a harmost or military commander."
- ^ Brian Sparkes, in Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982)
- ^ Brian Sparkes, in Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982), p 231
- ^ O'Hara, Robert James (1959-). "History, Metals, and Weight Standards (Ancient Coins of Miletos)". rjohara.net. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link) - ^ Brain Sparkes, in Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982), p 50
- ^ Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982), p. 58
- ^ Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982), p. 58-69
- ^ "Diocese of Milos, Greece". GCatholic. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
- ^ "History of Milos island - Greeka.com". Greeka. Retrieved 25 March 2019.
- ^ Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982)
- ^ Tournefort (1717), p. 180-181
- ^ Thompson (1752), vol 1, p. 291-300
- ^ Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982), p. 69
- ^ a b Olivier (1801), p. 156
- ^ a b Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982), p. 148
- ^ "History of Milos island | Greeka". Greekacom. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
- ^ "Milos". www.greece.org. Retrieved 2022-06-24.
- ISBN 978-1-78679-089-7.
- ^ Theodore Bent, The Cyclades, or Life Among the Insular Greeks (London, 1885, pp. 57ff.).
- ^ Renfrew & Wagstaff (1982), p. 70
- ^ "Milos Island: Working with Earth for 9000 years".
- ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-07-22. Retrieved 2020-07-30.
{{cite web}}
: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link) - ^ "Volcanoes in Greece & Greek islands | Greeka".
- . Retrieved January 29, 2013.
- ^ "Milos Climate Normals 1961-1990". National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Retrieved January 29, 2013.
- ^ C. Michael Hogan (2011). Sulfur. Encyclopedia of Earth, eds. A. Jorgensen and C.J. Cleveland, National Council for Science and the environment, Washington DC Archived 2012-10-28 at the Wayback Machine
- ISSN 2603-9109.
- ^ Turner (1820), p. 32
- ^ 1907 Greek census (1909), statistics.gr, page 411 (Δήμος Μήλου/ Milos Municipality 4.864 + Δήμος Αδάμαντος / Adamas Municipality 529 = 5.393)
- ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2020-02-05.
- ^ Archived at Ghostarchive
Sources
- public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Melos". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. This article incorporates text from a publication now in the
- I.F. Stone, 1988, The trial of Socrates, Anthos.
- Cambridge Ancient History, Vol.II, 1924, New York, MacMillan
- Colin Renfrew and Malcolm Wagstaff (editors), 1982, An Island Polity, the Archaeology of Exploitation in Melos, Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
- Colin Renfrew (editor), 1985, The Archaeology of Cult, the Sanctuary at Phylakopi, London, British School at Athens and Thames & Hudson.
- Leycester, "The Volcanic Group of Milo, Anti-Milo, &c.," in Jour. Roy. Geog. Soc. (1852).
- Tournefort, Voyage.
- William Martin Leake, Northern Greece, iii.
- Anton von Prokesch-Osten, Denkwürdigkeiten, &c.
- Bursian, Geog. von Griechenland, ii.; Journ. Hell. Stud, xvi, xvii, xviii, Excavations at Phylakopi; Inscr. grace, xii. iii. 197 sqq.;
- on coins found in 1909, see Jameson in Rev. Num. 1909; 188 sqq.
- "Mílos". Global Volcanism Program. Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
- Seaman, Michael G., "The Athenian Expedition to Melos in 416 B.C.," Historia 46 (1997) pp. 385–418.
- Chalk, Frank; Jonassohn, Kurt (1990). History and Sociology of Genocide: Analyses and Case Studies. New Haven: ISBN 0-300-04445-3.
- Bosworth, A.B. (2005). ""Athens and Melos." Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity ed. Dinah L. Shelton". Gale Cengage, enotes.com. Archived from the original on October 5, 2009. Retrieved 26 September 2009.
- Connor, W. Raymond (1984). Thucydides. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 151.
- Thucydides (1954). The Peloponnesian War. Harmondsworth: Penguin Books.
- Hill, G. F. (1899). A Handbook of Greek and Roman Coins. Macmillan and Co., Limited.
- Loomis, William T. (1992). The Spartan War Fund: IG V 1, 1 and a New Fragment. Franz Steiner Verlag. ISBN 978-3-515-06147-6.
- Renfrew, Colin; Wagstaff, Malcolm, eds. (1982). An Island Polity: The Archaeology of Exploitation in Melos. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0-521-23785-8.
- Thucydides (c. 400 BC). History of the Peloponnesian War. Translated by Richard Crawley (1914).
- ISBN 978-0-14-196999-2.
- Tournefort, Joseph Pitton de (1717). Relation d'un Voyage du Levant [An Account of a Voyage into the Levant] (in French).
- Thompson, Charles (1752). The Travels of the Late Charles Thompson, Esq. Vol. 1. Reading, Newberry.
- Turner, William (1820). Journal of a Tour in the Levant, Vol. 1. John Murray, Albemarle-Street.
- Olivier, Guillaume Antoine (1801). Travels in the Ottoman Empire, Egypt, and Persia. Paris H. Agasse.
- Gardner, Percy (1918). A History of Ancient Coinage. Oxford at the Clarendon Press.
- Low, P. (2008). Athenian Empire. Edinburgh Readings on the Ancient World. Edinburgh University Press. ISBN 978-0-7486-3124-7. Retrieved 2020-06-04.
External links
- Official website (in English and Greek)