The Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, in collaboration with the Association of Friends of the AMTh, is delighted to host Dr. Carmelo Di Nicuolo, a researcher at the Italian Archaeological School of Athens and the University of Rome Tor Vergata, for a presentation titled: “The ‘Silver Island’ (‘Argentiera’) | Topographical, Historical, and Archaeological Investigations on Kimolos (Cyclades).”

A postdoctoral research project conducted at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, in collaboration with the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades, led to the creation of an archaeological-topographical, philological, and epigraphic database for the ancient city of Kimolos.

Kimolos, located on the far western edge of the Cycladic archipelago, is an integral part of the "micro-island" cluster centered around Milos. It serves as an exemplary case of a Cycladic city-state that lies on the margins of major historical narratives and of studies dedicated to Aegean archaeology.

During the Venetian period in the Cyclades, Kimolos was curiously recorded as Argentiera (“The Silver Island”), likely due to the discovery of yet unexplored silver veins. However, in antiquity, Kimolos was primarily renowned for its Kimolian Earth, a mineral extensively documented in ancient sources for its properties and wide-ranging applications.

The lecture will summarise the results of research on parts of the necropoles of Kimolos, dating from the Bronze Age to the early Byzantine period, as well as the topographical and geoarchaeological surveys carried out in recent years. These efforts aim to reconstruct the disiecta membra (scattered archaeological fragments) relating to the history and archaeology of this ancient Cycladic city-state.