Uninhabited Aegean island yields yet more surprises
US film star Tom Hanks and his wife Rita Wilson visited the excavations in June at Despotiko, the uninhabited island next to Antiparos in the Cyclades. This year’s findings confirmed that a rectangular construction dating to the 8th-5th century BC, found last year, was part of a water collection and treatment system. “The Sanctuary of Apollo at Despotiko was a large naval base for the supply of ships in the center of the Cyclades and had a huge water supply system,” said Yiannos Kouragios of the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Cyclades. The central tank (7.5mx5.5mx3.8m) was used in the Archaic and Classical periods. It underwent alterations in late antiquity and in Byzantine times.