The Southern Mani Archaeological Project (SMAP) was initiated in 2024 to survey and study the southernmost portion of the Mani Peninsula, encompassing the Cape Matapan and archaeological sites of Tainaron and Kainepolis. Conducted with the permission of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Lakonia, the project is directed by Chelsea Gardner (Acadia University), William Parkinson (Field Museum / University of Illinois at Chicago), with Rebecca Seifried (University of Massachusetts Amherst). The primary goal of SMAP is to document patterns of landscape use and resource exploitation across the Mani Peninsula throughout its early history. The project seeks to place these developments within the broader regional history of the southern Peloponnese and the wider eastern Mediterranean, adopting a diachronic perspective that traces long-term changes in human activity. During the 2024–2025 pilot seasons, the team carried out preliminary investigations, including an intensive survey in 2025 over an area of approximately 0.5 sq.km near the bay of Porto Kagio, during which diagnostic surface finds were collected and geographic data recorded. All visible landscape features and archaeological remains dating from the prehistoric period through the Ottoman era were documented to create a detailed map of the area, an ongoing project that will continue as future surveys extend across the region.
Read more about the pilot season here: https://www.cig-icg.gr/first-season-of-the-southern-mani-archaeological-project/
