THALES embeds archaeological data from two excavation projects on the Milesian peninsula, Turkey, into wider discourses on economic production, landscape change and philosophical reflection in the Greek world between the 8th and 6th centuries BC. The archaeological finds from the Temple of Didyma and the nearby necropolis of Panormos (harbour of Didyma) provide vital information about the economy and ritual traditions of this lynchpin region of the Greek and Mediterranean world during a pre-modern era of ‘globalisation’. The project hopes to stimulate a transformation in the study of the early classical world with the application of state-of-the-art spatial theories to the landscape around these sites and an innovative combination of quantitative analysis to finds from both excavations, set against the context of contemporary scientific endeavours indexed by the earliest European philosophers writing in Ionia (most famous being Thales of Miletos).