Fifteen Years in the Cloud and 3500 Years in One Click: A Contextual Summary of Koan Prehistoric and Protohistoric Occupational Sequences

This article presents for the first time a full contextual summary of Koan prehistoric and protohistoric occupational sequences, based on the results of the “Serraglio, Eleona, and Langada Archaeological Project” (SELAP). SELAP’s considered time span ranges from the local Final Neolithic 1 up until the end of the Late Protogeometric phase, approximately encompassing 3500 years. In addition to providing a synopsis of Koan sequences in their wider contextual and stratigraphic settings, the goal of this contribution is also to present the project’s baseline dataset to the wider academic community. While incorporating information from more recent archaeological research, SELAP’s work is primarily based on legacy data from L. Morricone’s excavations and Hope Simpson and Lazenby’s survey, respectively carried out on Kos from 1935 to 1946 and from 1967 to 1968. SELAP’s proposed chronological sequences rely on the project’s holistic theoretical approach to periodization, which is fully disclosed and discussed in this article. SELAP’s results demonstrate that, when biases and limitations are critically addressed, legacy data can still be relevant for our current understanding of ancient human communities.