David Hill Researcher and archaeologist (Classical, Roman and Byzantine Archaeology in the Aegean, Greece and Turkey, Viking and Medieval archaeology in Northwest Europe) at NIKU - Norwegian Institute for Cultural Heritage Research: leads excavations on Mediterranean islands, combining the use of geographic information system mapping software (GIS) to consider topography and settlement developments together with political, historical, and archaeological data. Hill has carries out fieldwork at the Byzantine site of Kastro Apalirou on Naxos. Hill also researches the Late Geometric to Archaic periods when city-states formed in the Hellenic world and many islands unified around one single polis (e.g. Paros, Naxos, Samos and Chios), however on other islands, fragmented political landscapes developed (e.g. Lesbos, Kos and Rhodes), a topic scholars continue to debate for the repercussions on island identity formation. Politically unified islands may have had the advantage of being able to access resources, and avoid potential conflict between neighboring states, however unified insular states with political ambitions often became targets for super-regional powers. Hill analyses if political fragmentation was more sustainable than unification and why some insular societies unified while others did not, a debate with relevance to semi-autonomous island regions today.