Religion and Cult in the Dodecanese during the First Millennium BC publishes the proceedings of the conference of the same name, held in Rhodes in October 2018. Religion has always been one of the major components of peoples’ lives, an integral part of social, economic and political contexts, contributing to the formation of culture and history. In order to study and understand the religious and cult practices of a particular region, it is necessary to explore their various expressions through material culture and written sources. The oldest known cult remains in the Dodecanese can be dated to the end of the 10th and early 9th centuries BC and throughout the 1st millennium BC. They demonstrate the existence of a vibrant island society with various evolving cult practices. As a major stopover on maritime trade routes, the southeastern Aegean was influenced by contacts from throughout the Greek world and beyond. The contributions to this volume draw on archaeological and literary sources to explore both the development and continuity of cults in the Dodecanese, from the Early Iron Age through to the 1st century BC.

The area of Kymissala on the southwest coast of Rhodes is of great archaeological interest, as it conceals a large number of important archaeological sites belonging to the lesser known ancient deme of the Rhodian countryside, the deme of Kymissaleis. The region is also of exceptional environmental and ecological importance, as it has a particular biodiversity and is protected by the European 'Natura 2000' network of nature protection areas. Kymissala has systematically been researched during the past 10 years by the Kymissala Archaeological Research Project (KARP) inaugurated by the Department of Mediterranean Studies and the Ephorate of Antiquities of the Dodecanese in 2006. The research, escaping from its narrow academic and archaeological context and exploiting the comparative advantage of the region, may -and should- inter alia, intervene in a mild and sustainable manner in the promotion of the archaeological site of Kymissala. Its ultimate goal is to promote the antiquities of the area, its educational value and its historical and cultural continuity within a protected natural environment, in the context of an ecological-archaeological park. Under the title Kymissala: Archaeology - Education - Sustainability, fourteen original studies have been published, constituting the first complete presentation of the area of Kymissala and the work in progress, after ten years of systematic research, in terms of Archaeology, Education and Sustainable Development.