US EditionLaser Scans Reveal Ancient Settlements Across Greek Islands
Non-invasive technologies mapped 87 Cycladic islands, revealing settlements from prehistoric to medieval times and aiding heritage protection and sustainable tourism, researchers said.
- On December 8, 2025, the Small Cycladic Islands Project completed surveys of 87 uninhabited Cycladic islands using airborne LIDAR and magnetometry, with results appearing in archaeology journals.
- To limit destructive digging, researchers used non-invasive techniques like LIDAR, magnetometry, and ground-penetrating radar to avoid full excavation and stretch limited funding for humanities research.
- Surveys revealed material spanning multiple periods by magnetometry and airborne LIDAR, detecting stone walls, magnetic anomalies, and topographic features from Neolithic colonization through Bronze Age sites, medieval castles and churches, and possible Paleolithic traces.
- Collaboration with the Greek Ministry of Culture resulted in Polyaigos being designated a protected archaeological site, while mapping guides tourism planners and cultural heritage authorities toward sustainable development.
- Levine plans to expand machine learning and LIDAR work by continuing teaching at the University of Copenhagen and publishing interdisciplinary workflows to apply these methods beyond the Cyclades.
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13 Articles
Archaeologists Uncover Hidden Ancient Sites in Greece’s Cyclades Islands
The enclosed tower complex at Cheimarrou, Naxos, showing the tower, courtyard enclosure, and ancillary rooms. Credit: Emlyn Dodd / CC BY 4.0 Archaeologists have identified ancient buried structures and traces of long-lost agricultural systems across the Cyclades islands in Greece, opening a rare window into how ancient communities shaped some of the Aegean’s most iconic landscapes. The findings come from new work on Paros, published in the “Jour…
Archaeologists use lasers to locate ancient settlements and artifacts on Greek Islands
A group of scientists are studying the Cyclades, an island group in Greece's Aegean Sea, looking for signs of early human activity. They are using technology such as laser scanning and magnetometry, which may be more effective and non-invasive than traditional archaeological methods.
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Archaeologists use lasers to locate ancient settlements and artefacts on Greek Islands
A group of scientists are studying the Cyclades, an island group in Greece’s Aegean Sea, looking for signs of early human activity. They are using technology such as laser scanning and magnetometry, which may be more effective and non-invasive than traditional archeological methods.
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