Inner Ionian Sea Archipelago: Archaeological Survey

Introduction

Meganisi and its satellite islands lie in the Inner Ionian Sea Archipelago, a relatively short distance from Aetoloakarnania and Lefkas (Fig. 1). The abundance of top-quality flint and the presence of small wetlands and karstic cavities were the first points that attracted our attention to this corner of western Greece. But there was something more. In the Pleistocene, the short distance between these islands and the neighboring Lefkas and Aetoloakarnanian coast, combined with the shallow seabed in this area, meant that changes in sea level during glacial and interglacial periods would have caused the islands to become alternately connected to and isolated from the larger landmasses. Thus, over time, new living conditions and environments were constantly created for the Paleolithic communities of southeast Europe, which responded to these in their turn. The islands of the archipelago form fragments, the higher tips, of the original Pleistocene landscape, a large part of...