Mílos

A volcanic island in the southwestern Cyclades, Milos supplied obsidian for sharp stone tools across the early Aegean. Its Bronze Age settlement at Phylakopi flourished on the northeastern coast, leaving painted walls and pottery that show connections with Crete and other islands. In 416 BC Athens besieged Melos, killed its adult men and enslaved its women and children after the city resisted incorporation into its empire.

After the Fourth Crusade, Milos became part of Marco Sanudo's Duchy of Naxos. Ottoman authority followed in the 16th century; three locally elected magistrates managed the island's everyday affairs under an Ottoman governor and judge. Russian forces occupied the island for three years from 1771 during the Russo-Turkish War, before it returned again to Ottoman hands.