Community hub
Recent from talks
Knowledge base stats:
Talk channels stats:
Members stats:
Tilos
Tílos (Greek: Τήλος; Ancient Greek: Τῆλος, romanized: Telos) is a small Greek island and municipality located in the Aegean Sea. It is part of the Dodecanese group of islands, and lies midway between Kos and Rhodes. In 2021, the island had a population of 746 people. Along with the uninhabited offshore islets of Antitilos and Gaidaros, it forms the Municipality of Tilos, which has a total land area of 64.525 square kilometres (24.913 sq mi). Tilos is part of the Rhodes regional unit.
Popularly, Telos was the son of Helios and Halia, the sister of the Telchines. He came to the island in search of herbs to heal his ill mother, and later returned to found a temple to Apollo and Neptune. However, Telos (Telo or Tilo) does not appear in Greek mythology and the name probably has an unknown pre-Hellenic origin. Pliny the Elder notes that in antiquity Telos was known as Agathussa (Αγαθούσσα) (also Agathusa and Agathousa). In the Middle Ages, it was known by the Italian as Episcopio, either because it was a Bishop Seat or because its position as Vantage Point. The island has also been called in Turkish İlyaki and in modern Italian Piscopi.
During the Late Pleistocene, suggested to be from about 45,000 years ago, the island was inhabited by a dwarf elephant species, Palaeoloxodon tiliensis, whose remains have been found in the Charkadio cave, near the centre of the island. Based on preliminary radiocarbon dating, some authors have suggested that the elephants survived until around 1500 BC on the island, which would make them the latest elephants to have lived in Europe; however, other authors consider this unconfirmed.
Humans have been present on the island since at least the Final Neolithic around the 4th millennium BC, based on evidence found at Charkadio cave and elsewhere on the island.
Tilos followed Rhodes into the Byzantine Empire, following the death of Theodosius I, and was a member of the naval Theme of Samos between the 9th and 14th century.
The Knights of Saint John took control of Tilos from 1309, restoring the Byzantine castles, and building new ones in order to defend against pirate raids. It was evacuated in 1470 as the Ottomans began the Siege of Rhodes and control passed to Suleiman I in 1522 when Rhodes fell.
In 1523, Tilos was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and the island was put under the privileged administrative and tax system known as "maktou." Christian pirates pillaged the island constantly.
Despite its relative significance in Classical times, the island has left little in the way of its earlier material culture other than elements of its architectural remains and finds of its coinage, featuring the characteristic crab on the reverse. Openly accessible on the maritime route along the western Asia Minor littoral, the island must for centuries have seen its cemeteries, as well as its domestic, civic, and religious sites looted. Serious antiquarian research began in the second half of the 19th century, coinciding with both the Turkish and Greek authorities becoming more aware of the need to restrict unlicensed excavations, although in remoter regions this was difficult, if not impossible. The British Museum has a small number of acquisitions from the island, notably from the collections of Charles Newton and Thomas Spratt. The first antiquarian visit of note was that made by Ludwig Ross in May 1844 when he spent a few days visiting sites, including the acropolis. Remarkably, the next dedicated investigations were not to occur for some 40 years, when, in late February 1885, the English explorers Theodore and Mabel Bent excavated various graves, but removed nothing of significance. Their base was the small monastery below Megálo Chorió, serendipitously a few metres from the site of the island's new archaeological museum. Undoubtedly, to date the island's most celebrated archaeological find is the Attic red-figured bell-krater (390–360 BC) attributed to the 'Telos Painter', which is now in the British Museum. The vessel was bequeathed to the museum in 1824 by Richard Payne Knight, who specified its provenance as 'Telos'. Based on this, John Beazley classified a group of stylistically similar, beautifully decorated vessels under this name, and several other examples are kept in museums around the world.
Hub AI
Tilos AI simulator
(@Tilos_simulator)
Tilos
Tílos (Greek: Τήλος; Ancient Greek: Τῆλος, romanized: Telos) is a small Greek island and municipality located in the Aegean Sea. It is part of the Dodecanese group of islands, and lies midway between Kos and Rhodes. In 2021, the island had a population of 746 people. Along with the uninhabited offshore islets of Antitilos and Gaidaros, it forms the Municipality of Tilos, which has a total land area of 64.525 square kilometres (24.913 sq mi). Tilos is part of the Rhodes regional unit.
Popularly, Telos was the son of Helios and Halia, the sister of the Telchines. He came to the island in search of herbs to heal his ill mother, and later returned to found a temple to Apollo and Neptune. However, Telos (Telo or Tilo) does not appear in Greek mythology and the name probably has an unknown pre-Hellenic origin. Pliny the Elder notes that in antiquity Telos was known as Agathussa (Αγαθούσσα) (also Agathusa and Agathousa). In the Middle Ages, it was known by the Italian as Episcopio, either because it was a Bishop Seat or because its position as Vantage Point. The island has also been called in Turkish İlyaki and in modern Italian Piscopi.
During the Late Pleistocene, suggested to be from about 45,000 years ago, the island was inhabited by a dwarf elephant species, Palaeoloxodon tiliensis, whose remains have been found in the Charkadio cave, near the centre of the island. Based on preliminary radiocarbon dating, some authors have suggested that the elephants survived until around 1500 BC on the island, which would make them the latest elephants to have lived in Europe; however, other authors consider this unconfirmed.
Humans have been present on the island since at least the Final Neolithic around the 4th millennium BC, based on evidence found at Charkadio cave and elsewhere on the island.
Tilos followed Rhodes into the Byzantine Empire, following the death of Theodosius I, and was a member of the naval Theme of Samos between the 9th and 14th century.
The Knights of Saint John took control of Tilos from 1309, restoring the Byzantine castles, and building new ones in order to defend against pirate raids. It was evacuated in 1470 as the Ottomans began the Siege of Rhodes and control passed to Suleiman I in 1522 when Rhodes fell.
In 1523, Tilos was conquered by the Ottoman Empire and the island was put under the privileged administrative and tax system known as "maktou." Christian pirates pillaged the island constantly.
Despite its relative significance in Classical times, the island has left little in the way of its earlier material culture other than elements of its architectural remains and finds of its coinage, featuring the characteristic crab on the reverse. Openly accessible on the maritime route along the western Asia Minor littoral, the island must for centuries have seen its cemeteries, as well as its domestic, civic, and religious sites looted. Serious antiquarian research began in the second half of the 19th century, coinciding with both the Turkish and Greek authorities becoming more aware of the need to restrict unlicensed excavations, although in remoter regions this was difficult, if not impossible. The British Museum has a small number of acquisitions from the island, notably from the collections of Charles Newton and Thomas Spratt. The first antiquarian visit of note was that made by Ludwig Ross in May 1844 when he spent a few days visiting sites, including the acropolis. Remarkably, the next dedicated investigations were not to occur for some 40 years, when, in late February 1885, the English explorers Theodore and Mabel Bent excavated various graves, but removed nothing of significance. Their base was the small monastery below Megálo Chorió, serendipitously a few metres from the site of the island's new archaeological museum. Undoubtedly, to date the island's most celebrated archaeological find is the Attic red-figured bell-krater (390–360 BC) attributed to the 'Telos Painter', which is now in the British Museum. The vessel was bequeathed to the museum in 1824 by Richard Payne Knight, who specified its provenance as 'Telos'. Based on this, John Beazley classified a group of stylistically similar, beautifully decorated vessels under this name, and several other examples are kept in museums around the world.