The 7th millennium BCE witnessed the arrival of early farming groups to the islands of the Aegean. Taking advantage of the several-millennia-old Mesolithic maritime tradition of the area and characterized by a wide range of sea activities, including fishing and circulation of materials and goods, such as obsidian and food provisions, the first Neolithic groups made their way to the Aegean islands, making these lands their home for the years to come. Many aspects of the movement of these first farmers, such as the place of their departure, the sea routes they followed, the conditions they encountered, when they reached the islands, or the logistics involved in their traveling (the type of boats used, the cargo they carried) are still very little understood. Sea level rise in the last millennia has dramatically changed the present day topography of hundreds of the Aegean islands, greatly affecting the preservation of the archaeological remains, most of which are nowadays submerged and therefore lost forever to archaeology. The Early Neolithic settlement of Agios Petros on the island of Kyra Panagia in the central Aegean is a rare exception as a piece of this fragmentary picture. Favorable local geomorphological conditions led to the preservation of its archaeological remains, including both its on-land and submerged sections, which give a glimpse of everyday life in the Aegean islands at the time the first farming groups made their appearance in the area.
