History of Greece
Pre-Hellenic Greece
	Prehistory of Greece
-3200	Cycladic civilization
-2700	Minoan civilization
-1550	Mycenaean civilization
Ancient Greece
-1200	Dark Ages
-800	Archaic
-510	Classical period
-323	Hellenistic
-146	Roman Greece
Medieval Greece (C)
330	Byzantine Empire
1202	Fourth Crusade
1453	Ottoman Greece
Modern Greece
1799	Republic of the Seven Islands
1822	Revolutionary War
1832	Kingdom of Greece
1936	Plan of August 4
1941	Occupation
1946	Civil War
1967	Dictatorship of the colonels
1974	Hellenic Republic

Head of a female figurine, Keros-Syros culture, ancient Cycladic II (2700-2300 BC.) Muse du Louvre.

The Greek archaeologist Christos Tsountas suggested in the late ^nineteenth century , after having compared various discoveries on many islands, the Cyclades have been subsumed in a cultural unit in ^the third millennium BC. BC : Cycladic civilization , found to Portugal and at the mouth of the Danube . Similarly, the cemetery of Agios Kosmas in Attica found graves containing type Cycladic Cycladic objects may indicate either the presence of a Cycladic settlement, a significant proportion of the population of Cycladic origin, in any case influence Cycladic some .

Are traditionally distinguished three main periods (equivalent to those which divide Helladic on the mainland and Minoan Crete) :

• the Old Cycladic I (CA I) (3200-2800) said Grotta-Pelos Culture also;
• the Old Cycladic II (CA II) (2800-2300) also called Keros-Syros culture, often considered the peak of the Cycladic civilization;
• the Old Cycladic III (CA III) (2300-2000) also said Phylakopi Culture.

The Cycladic civilization

The study of skeletons found in graves cist , shows an evolution from the Neolithic. Osteoporosis back even though dental disease and arthritis are present. Life expectancy has increased: there is the maximum of forty to forty-five years for men, but only thirty years for women . The sexual division of labor remained the same as that found in Neolithic: women small domestic and agricultural labor, men the biggest jobs and the "craft" . The agriculture was, as elsewhere in the Mediterranean, on cereals, vines and olive trees. The wine is already focused mainly on goats and sheep, pigs and a few, but very few cattle, still underdeveloped in the islands. Fishing complemented the food resources, such as through regular migration of tuna . The wood was more abundant then than today, allowing the construction of structures and vessels .

Reconstruction of a cist tomb.

The inhabitants of the Cyclades were remarkable sailors and traders, thanks to the position of their islands. Apparently, the Cyclades have more then exporting and importing goods , is quite unique in their history. The pottery found at various sites Cycladic (Phylakopi on Milos, Aghia Irini on Kea and Akrotiri on Santorini) proves the existence of trade routes from mainland Greece to Crete through the Cyclades, mainly in western Cyclades up at Cycladic Recent. Vases products on the mainland and in Crete and imported into the islands were found during excavations at three sites .
We know that there were craftsmen: founders, blacksmiths, potters and sculptors, but it is impossible to say whether they lived on their work . Obsidian remained the dominant material for making tools, even after the development of metallurgy. We found tools made in a primitive bronze, alloy of copper and arsenic. The copper came from Kythnos and already contained a high content of arsenic. Tin, whose origin was not determined, was introduced in the islands until later, after the end of the Cycladic civilization. The tin bronzes older were found to Kastri on Tinos (Phylakopi period of Culture) and their composition show that they came to Troas , either as raw materials or already in the form of finished products . Trade existed then between the Troad and the Cyclades.
These tools were used to the marble work, mainly originating from Naxos and Paros or to the famous Cycladic figurines , or for marble vases. It does not appear that the marble was then being exploited in mines, as now: it would be found in large quantities at floor . However, tools of obsidian from Milos remained the most numerous because cheaper. The emery of Naxos also provided polishing materials. Finally, pumice from Santorini allowed a perfect finish .
The pigments that can be found on the statues, but in the tombs were also from the islands, such as azurite blue for iron ore for the red .

Culture Grotta-Pelos

Grotta-Pelos figurines like "violin" drawn by archaeologist Theodore Bent in 1884 that identified a man and a woman.

The culture takes its name from the site of Grotta on Naxos, outside the present capital of the island and site of Pelos on Milos. We found other habitats on Paros and Antiparos, Amorgos on (site Kapros) and elsewhere on Naxos . Habitats are poorly known: dry stone houses have disappeared. By the end of the period have been found rectangular houses, with one or two rooms with walls of stone and clay . Cemeteries can assess its size. There were small agricultural villages . In the tombs, vases, pottery and marble, and marble statuettes, usually in the form of "violin", were found. The pottery was then made by hand (the tower was barely known). The cylindrical box (pyxis) was the main form of pottery .

Culture Keros-Syros

Keros-Syros period is often considered the peak of the Cycladic civilization. It derives its name from the Little Cyclades, now deserted, Keros, south of Naxos and Syros. She is best known, thanks in part to the abundance of objects discovered in tombs. Habitats were larger, reaching the size of a Cycladic village today, better organized, planned and even better built. They were located by the sea islanders pulled in some of their food, but they were also traders who sailed. The coastal plains also provided drinking water and opportunities for agriculture. However, we know a few places on fortified heights (Kastri on Syros, Panormos on Naxos or the summit of "Mount" Kynthos on Delos ) but sometimes houses were built outside the walls . The metal was widespread. Pottery and sculpture were very developed and inspired neighboring cultures .

The habitat is different from what is now in Crete: no monumental palaces, but stone houses with wooden beams and a roof of branches . The cemeteries were located near the villages . The graves were quite similar to that of the Grotta-Pelos period, but their size increased, sometimes used for multiple burials over several floors . For cons, the objects found in tombs differ from the previous period. The famous Cycladic figurines are most often found in these graves, but not exclusively. Moreover, only a small part of the tombs contained marble idols. The funeral offerings were varied: Cycladic figurines, but also of marble vases, jewelry, bronze or silver, toiletries, tubes containing pigments. On Amorgos, at the end of the period, weapons made their appearance in the Graves .

Keros-Syros pottery was abundant, forms more varied, and for the first time with painted decorations, and not just incised. The most common form was that known as "saucer" shape typically Cycladic in origin and which strongly influenced the pottery on the mainland. It was also around this time that "frying pans" (whose function remains a mystery) had their most elaborate decoration. Zoomorphic vases are also characteristic of this period .

The Cycladic idols Keros-Syros are considered the standard "canonical" whose conventions evolved little over five centuries. There are exceptions: the lyre player, and some groups of male figures. The canonical type were: a stylized female figure, geometric, arms folded on his stomach, right below the left . Many hypotheses have been made as to their meaning: doll (but we have not found in the tombs of children), substitute wife for unmarried men, the object of worship, status symbol, ... No hypothesis has yet been definitively confirmed or ruled out .

Culture Phylakopi

Kernos Milos

The culture takes its name from the oldest levels of the city of Phylakopi on Milos, sometimes called a Phylakopi I. It is the final phase of the Cycladic culture (from Old Cycladic contemporary periods of the Bronze Age in general) but also is already very close and chronologically and culturally to what is known about the Middle Bronze Age on the mainland and Crete .
Habitats then regrouped in towns relatively large and well organized as on Milos, where Phylakopi was virtually the only habitat type almost urban. The tombs cysts remained the majority, even though we can note the appearance of tombs carved directly into the rock .
The main characteristic of this period is the gradual disappearance of Cycladic marble figurines. We do know that some schematic figures. By cons, pottery enjoyed a strong development and experimentation in forms such as kernoi (see cons below) askos (mud duck) or beaker sheet .

Habitats then left the seashore to settle on top of islands inside fortified walls complemented by round towers at the corners. We consider that piracy would have appeared in the archipelago .

Discovery of the Cycladic civilization

In 1818, Reverend Robert Walpole (not to be confused with the Prime Minister Whig eighteenth ^century) published in Memoirs Relating to European and Asiatic Turkey and Other countries of the East from Manuscripts Journals Cycladic statuette. He described it as "stiff and expressionless Bibliography

• (In) Robin Barber, Greece, Blue Guide, London, 1988. ( ISBN 0-7136-2771-9 )
• Claude Baurain, The Greeks and the eastern Mediterranean. The Dark Ages to the late Archaic period. New Clio, PUF, 1997. ( ISBN 2130479936 )
• Phlippe Bruneau, Michel Brunet, Alexandre Farnan, Jean-Charles Moretti, Delos. Sacred Island and cosmopolitan city., CNRS Editions, 1996. ( ISBN 2271054230 )
• (In) John F. Cherry and Jack L. Davis, "The Cyclades and the Greek Mainland in Late Cycladic I: The Evidence of the Pottery. "In American Journal of Archaeology., Vol. 26, No. 3, July 1982.
• (In) J. Lesley Fitton, Cycladic Art. British Museum Press, 1989. ( ISBN 0714121606 )
• Guide Bleu. Greek islands., Hachette, 1998. ( ISBN 2012426409 )
• Reynold Higgins, The Art of Crete and Mycenae, Thames & Hudson, London, 1995 ^(1st edition 1967, revised in 1981 and 1995) (ISBN 2-8711-097-8), p. 53-63
• Rene Winch, Darcque Pascal, Jean-Claude Poursat Gilles Keyser, Civilizations Aegean Neolithic to the Bronze Age. New Clio, PUF, 1989. ( ISBN 2130422802 )
• Christian Zervos , L'Art des Cyclades, from the beginning to the end of the Bronze Age, 2500-1100 BCE, Editions Cahiers d'Art , Paris, 1957.

Notes

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