Quick facts
Location: a hilltop in Kambos, one of the island’s most fertile areas, about 1 kilometre from Chora.
Occupied: from around the middle of the third millennium BC, during the Early Cycladic II period, with a later cemetery added on part of the same hill in the middle of the second millennium BC.
Significance: one of the most important prehistoric sites in the Aegean, excavated between 1984 and 1997 and now recognised as the largest known settlement of its period in the Cyclades.
Recognition: winner of the 2008 European Union Prize for Cultural Heritage, the Europa Nostra Award, for the sensitivity of its conservation work.
Why visit
Skarkos is easy to overlook next to Ios’s beaches and nightlife, but it is a genuinely significant site, a Bronze Age hilltop town, laid out nearly 5,000 years ago, with stone walls still standing 3 to 4 metres high and a settlement plan clear enough to walk through today. It is one of the best preserved Early Cycladic settlements anywhere in the islands, and the short trip from Chora makes it an easy addition to a day mostly spent elsewhere.
History
Skarkos flourished during the Early Cycladic II period, in the middle of the third millennium BC, growing into what archaeologists now regard as the largest known settlement of its period anywhere in the Cyclades, home to somewhere in the region of 200 to 300 people at its height. Systematic excavation ran from 1984 to 1997, uncovering roughly a third of the total site across 35 buildings and 6 distinct construction phases, work particularly associated with the Greek archaeologist Marisa Marthari, who has published extensively on the site’s architecture and finds. Long after the original settlement was abandoned, part of the hill was reused as a cemetery in the transition between the Middle and Late Bronze Age, around the middle of the second millennium BC.
What you will see today
The settlement covers about 1.1 hectares and follows a distinctive circular layout, with 2 main streets, each about 1 to 2 metres wide, spiralling up the hill in a pattern locals still call karavola, meaning snail shaped. Rectangular stone buildings, some with a ground floor, an upper storey and an enclosed courtyard, vary noticeably in size, evidence that the settlement’s inhabitants were not all of equal social standing. The walls that survive today, in places still 3 to 4 metres high, were carefully conserved between 2002 and 2007 rather than heavily rebuilt, which is what earned the site its 2008 European heritage award. Finds from the site, including marble figurines, seals, obsidian tools, pottery and storage jars up to 1.3 metres tall, are on display at the Archaeological Museum in Chora.
Getting there
Skarkos sits about 1 kilometre from Chora, an easy walk or short drive. See getting around Ios, Ios taxi and the Ios bus timetable for wider routes, and how to get to Ios for ferry connections.
Map
Visiting tips
Check current opening hours before you go. The site is managed by the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades, and hours and admission can change, so it is worth confirming locally or online before planning a visit around it.
Wear proper footwear. The site is built on a hillside with uneven ancient stonework underfoot, so trainers or hiking shoes are more practical than sandals.
Pair it with the Archaeological Museum. Seeing the finds in Chora alongside the site itself gives a far better sense of what daily life here actually looked like than the ruins alone.
Check current drone rules before you fly. Greece follows the EU’s common drone regulations, which generally require operator registration for anything over 250 grams, and there are no fly zones around archaeological sites such as Skarkos. Rules can change, so check the current requirements from Greece’s Civil Aviation Authority before your trip.
Explore more of Ios
Chora, Ios Town · Getting around Ios · How to get to Ios · Ios bus timetable · Ios taxi · Ios map · Ios weather · Best villages in Ios
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