Ionian Islands
The Ionian Islands form an archipelago in the Ionian sea parallel to the western coast of Epirus and the Peloponnese. There are seven islands in a line from north to south: Corcyra, Paxoi, Leukas, Ithaka, Kefallinia, and Zakynthos. The interiors of these islands are limestone crags and human settlement is nestled in the small valleys between the peaks, or between the mountains and the sea. Seafaring trade, fishing, and pastoralism have been the principal economic activities of the islanders. The Venetians made an attempt in the 17th and 18th centuries to convert the economies of Corcyra and the other Ionian islands to specialized production of olive oil and light, dry white wine. To this day Corcyra has some three million olive trees that bear witness to the efforts of her Venetian masters.
HistoryThe Ionian Islands have had an independent history, no doubt because of their position between Greece and Italy. Corcyra has always been the most important island because of its large size, fertile soil, and good supply of water. Corcyra's strategic position at the mouth of the Adriatic Sea has attracted conquerors from Odysseus to Napoleon, and, like all the Ionian Islands, it changed hands many times before becoming part of the Greek state in 1864.
The islands were first settled on a permanent basis by Neolithic seafarers sometime after 6000 B.C., and one of their small villages has been excavated on the far northern tip of Corcyra. The larger islands of Corcyra, Kefallinia, and Leukas had flourishing settlements in the earlier Bronze Age, but the most important prehistoric period was the Mycenaean late Bronze Age. Corcyra has been claimed as Homeric Scheria, home of the Phaiakians, which was visited by Odysseus during his wanderings. Ithaka, although it is one of the smallest of the Ionian Islands, was according to legend the home of Odysseus, one of the leaders of the Greek expedition to Troy. The palace of Odysseus in Ithaka is described in detail in Homer's Odyssey, and many attempts have been made to find it. Heinrich Schliemann began his archaeological career in 1868 after conducting an unsuccessful search for the palace in the course of his first visit to Greece. Schliemann's assistant, W. Dorpfeld, held that Ithaka was really Leukas, and he searched for the palace on that island. All that can be concluded is that the islands must have been part of one or more Mycenaean kingdoms.
Corcyra was colonized by Corinthians early in Classical Antiquity, and became independent and wealthy through seafaring and trade. It was social revolution in Corcyra, when the waring factions called in Athens and Corinth, that helped spark the first phase of conflict in the Peloponnesian War. Corcyra and the other islands remained independent after the war, but were annexed in the 3rd century B.C. by Rome. As strategically important staging grounds for military operations in Greece and the eastern Mediterranean, the Ionian Islands passed from hand to hand in late Antiquity and Medieval times. The greatest period of stability was under the overlordship of Venice from the 14th century to the eve of the 19th century.
SitesCorcyra-Apart from the eroded remains of the Neolithic tell of Sidari on the north coast, the most important Corfiote site is located at modern Corfu town on the northwest coast. The charming old town is dominated by Venetian fortresses. The Classical city is located directly to the south of the modern town, and it has been excavated off and on for decades, the most recent campaigns being conducted by American and Greek archaeologists. On the wooded slopes of the Kanoni peninsula scattered remains of an important Archaic stone temple (source of the famous Gorgon pedimental sculpture in the archaeological museum), Roman baths, stoas, and other remains are to be seen, although some are in the gardens that belong to the exiled king of the Hellenes, Constantine.
Only scattered remains of Classical period walls are to be seen on Paxoi, Leukas, Kefallinia, and Zakynthos. The walls and temple foundations at Vathy in Ithaka were wrongly thought by Schliemann to belong to the Mycenaean period. Their earliest date is ca. 700 B.C. Most of the archaeological remains of interest on all of these islands are portable finds, mostly pottery and sculptural fragments, that have been collected in the local archaeological museums.
Curtis Runnels