Our earliest information about the history of Skiathos comes from the "Travels"of an anonymous writer, previously thought to have been the geographer Skymnos of Chios. According to the writer of "Travels" then, the island was inhabited in prehistoric times by the Pelasgians, a pre-hellenic tribe which came down from Thrace.

It is possible, though, that before the Pelasgian settlement in Skiathos, the island may have been inhabited by Careans who, as the historian Thucydides tells us, settled in many Greek islands during those times.

However, it is likely that the island was inhabited by other people too, after the Pelasgian settlement.

Amongst these, for instance, there may have been Cretans who, we know, had occupied neighbouring Peparithos (or Skopelos, as it is called today).

This hypothesis is supported by the fact that one of the names by which the god Dionysos was called in the islands occupied by the Cretans was "Skiathos" an adjective which bears a very close resemblance to the name of the island. Finally, it is also probable that Thessalians, of the Mycenean age, had settled on Skiathos.

• Prehistoric times (-1100 B.C.)
• Early and Classical times (1100-338 B.C.)
• Hellenistic and Roman times (338 B.C. - 330 A.D.)
• The Byzantine period and Venetian rule (330-1538 A.D.)
• The period of Turkish domination (1538-1821)
• The Greek War of Independence (1821)