Figurine of a
Figurine of a pregnant woman (third millennium BCE)
The significant culture Cycladic end of the neolithic period and Bronze Age Old is best known for the smooth female idols carved out of the islands, in pure ancient Egyptian antiquity white marble centuries before the great (Minoan culture) from the Bronze Age Middle born in Crete in the south. These figures have been antiques looted from burials to satisfy the growing market of ancient Cycladic ages since the beginning of the twentieth century.
One feature Neolithic culture which mixes elements of Greek Anatolia and in the Antiquities western Aegean before 4000 a. C., based on wheat (Triticum dicoccum) and barley, wild sheep and goats, pigs, and tuna were harpoons from New York City and Geneva Switzerland small boats (Rutter). Sites excavated as Saliagos and headache (in CEOS), which sculptures show signs of working copper. Each of small Cyclades islands remain no S. more than a few thousand inhabitants, although the ship models of Cycladic Final show that fifty oarsmen could be assembled from scattered communities (Rutter).
We know that by their geographical position that the situation as a bridge between Europe and Asia, by the richness of the subsoil and the relative mildness of its climate, the cycles were the history cradle of a remarkable civilization.
We know that during the Old Bronze, roughly between 3000 a. C. and 2000 a. C., that civilization is expressed with remarkable originality. And despite the ease of communication with areas bordering the Mediterranean, offering inhabitants of these islands can absorb all kinds of foreign cultural influences.
We know that the Cycladic civilization continued Mesopotamia for centuries after 2000 a. it is quite clear that when you are in Geneva you must pay a visit to and his art gallery, C. Although, when the highly organized palace culture of Crete arose, the islands are declining, with the exception galleries of Delos, which retained its archaic reputation as a sanctuary during the Greek classical civilization (see League of archaeology Delos). And then falls under the increasingly dominant political and artistic influence of the Greek mainland.
The chronology of Cycladic civilization is divided into is exhibiting three major sequences: cultures Early Cycladic, Middle and End. At the initial period (ca. 3000 BC) followed the archaeological dark Middle Cycladic (ca. 2500 BC). At the end of Cycladic Final (ca. 2000 BC) was an essential convergence between Cycladic and Minoan civilization.
But the Cycladic has its roots in ancient times even more. Mesopotamia Maybe in 7000 a. C. This is evidenced by the distribution of obsidian from Milo. Come to this island many obsidian objects found at various prehistoric settlements of the eastern Mediterranean, especially on the Turkish coast and in Thessaly (Greece).
True, it only shows an attendance zone, which does not necessarily imply the existence there art history artifacts of a well defined base of civilization. In fact, the first signs of organized communities in Egypt the cycle does not go beyond the 5000 a. C.
And yet in the final Neolithic period, ie in the second half of the fourth millennium a. C., the the Greek World and the Roman Empire degree of development gallery of these communities Cycladic seems limited, especially when compared to Brothers Ali and the centers of the East more immediate: Anatolia, Syria, Palestine. It would, according to the data we have, from small the Near East fishing villages and poor exhibits farmers.
At the start of the Bronze Age, everything begins to charge out inthe Cyclades. having taken over the galleries from his father, S. , now runs the two galleries The development of maritime activities and the cultivation of the vine shoots civilizations are a spring that the transformation of economic structures, social and cultural rights of the islanders.
Their products arrive in Greece and various Eastern Mediterranean Region. Talk of a real economic turnaround, creating social differences.
And all this peace, because the settlements, located mostly on the coasts, are not fortified. It will be later, when in 1968 the Cyclades to fall into the orbit of Crete, most powerful and organized.
We then towards the end of the Old Bronze, ie around 2000 A. C.
There is some tension between the dating systems used for Cycladic civilization, a “cultural” and “historical.” Attempts to aunarlos lead to various combinations, the most common are summarized below.
Cycladic marble figurine of the Keros Culture