The Southern Euboea Exploration Project (SEEP) was co-directed by Malcolm B. Wallace (University of Toronto) and Donald R. Keller (American Center for Oriental Research), and later with Jere M. Wickens (Lawrence University) and Zarko Tankosic (Indiana University Bloomington), with the support of the 11th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities of Euboea. From 1984 to 2007, SEEP employed a range of archaeological methods to investigate the region of Southern Euboea, an area well known in ancient literature but largely understudied prior to this project.
Since 1984, SEEP has added over 375 ancient sites to the record (compared to only nine known from earlier surveys) with over 200 professionals and student volunteers conducting research and fieldwork in the region. The first phase of the project, the Paximadi Peninsula Survey (1986–1988), covered the largest contiguous area ever intensively surveyed in Greece. Surveyors recorded 162 ancient sites, including an Early Iron Age sanctuary at Plakari, with 94 sites preserving architectural remains dating to the Classical through Roman periods. In 1989, SEEP extended their investigation eastward toward the Bouros-Kastri Peninsula to continue studying ancient land use and inland communication routes. Subsequent pedestrian surveys and excavations in the Karystian Plain (Kampos) have also located many previously unknown sites spanning from the Neolithic to the Late Byzantine periods, confirming the region’s continuous inhabitation from prehistoric to modern times.
Select Bibliography
Cullen, T., L.E. Talalay, D.R. Keller, L. Karimali, & W.R. Farrand. 2013. The Prehistory of the Paximadi Peninsula, Euboea. Philadelphia: INSTAP Academic Press.
Talalay, L.E., T. Cullen, D.R. Keller & L. Karimali. 2005. “Prehistoric Occupation in Southern Euboea: an Overview.” 21-44. In Ancient Greece at the Turn of the Millennium: Recent Work and Future Perspectives. N.M. Kennell & J.E. Tomlinson eds. Athens: Canadian Archaeological Institute at Athens.
Tankosic, Z. & M. Chidiroglou. 2010. “The Karystian Kampos Survey Project: Methods and Preliminary Results.” Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 10.3: 11-17.
Wallace, M.B., Keller, D.R., Wickens, J. & R. Lamberton. 2006. “The Southern Euboea Exploration Project: 25 Years of Archaeological Research.” 18-50. In Antiquities of Karystos. M. Chidiroglou and A. Chatzidimitriou eds. Karystos: Kosmos Press.
Wickens, J. 2011. “Survey of the Bouros‐Kastri Peninsula in the Southern Karystia, Euboea.” 77-94. In Euboea and Athens: Proceedings of a Colloquium in Memory of Malcolm B. Wallace. Athens, 26‐27 June 2009. D.W. Rupp & J.E. Tomlinson eds. Athens: Canadian Institute in Greece.
Wickens, J.M., S.I. Rotroff, T. Cullen, L.E. Talalay, C. Perlès, & F.W. McCoy. 2018. Settlement and Land Use on the Periphery: The Bouros-Kastri Peninsula, Southern Euboia. Oxford: Archaeopress.
More on the project can be found here: https://portal.cig-icg.gr/node/171
