We know as Cyclades a large group of more than 200 Greek islands that are in the Aegean Sea. They get this name from the Greek word kyklos, which means circle , because the Greeks thought they formed a circle around the central island of Delos.
Delos and the other Cyclades were first inhabited several thousand years ago . The earliest known settlement is on the island of Kythnos and may date back 9,000 years. It seems that the first people to settle on the island came from Anatolia (present-day Turkey), they were sailors, so all their first settlements were close to the coast, even on the largest islands. In later times, the Greeks referred to these people as pirates .
The ancient civilization of the Cyclades
The ancient Cycladic civilization, which is also known as the Cycladic culture, began when people living in the Aegean Sea region discovered how to make bronze from a mixture of copper and tin. This important event took place around 3,000 years BC. and signaled the beginning of the Bronze Age .
During the Bronze Age, the Cycladic islanders became experts in stone carving. They carved female figures in white marble, which they obtained from Paros and the largest of the Cyclades, Naxos. The sculptors polished the figures with emery stone, a hard, dark rock found mainly on Naxos. Some of these figures they carved were small, but they also made others almost life-size. Details were often added with red and blue paint. The figures were placed in tombs and archaeologists believe that they may have been images of goddesses, placed to protect the deceased. Figures of men playing musical instruments have also been found.
On the island of Milos, its inhabitants discovered another material that proved its usefulness for the entire region. This is obsidian, a crystalline volcanic rock that can be used to make knives and scrapers. It became such a sought-after commodity that the islanders of Milos specialized in trading obsidian throughout the region.
Around 2500 BC, the seafaring and fishing communities of the Cyclades began to move from the coastal areas to the interior of their small islands. They also began to build citadels, probably to defend against any possible attack. At Kastri, on the island of Syros, a citadel surrounded by six towers has been found.
Archaeologists have also found many useful and ornamental items that shed light on the lives of Cycladic people. In a cemetery near Kastri, 50 tombs were found containing many interesting objects, including terracotta, marble and even gold bowls, vases and other vessels. Silver and bronze needles were also found, which were used to fasten clothing and were engraved with designs similar to those found in mainland Egypt and Greece.
Historians believe that, between 2000 and 1500 BC, some of the Cyclades islands began to have more and more contact with the Minoans of Crete. It may even be that some of them were governed by them.
The people of the Cyclades
The islanders fished, grew cereals and had olive trees and vineyards. Grapes were used to make wine. Peasants raised mostly sheep and goats, but also some cattle and pigs.
People lived in two- or three-story houses, with many rooms, separated by narrow streets that had sewage systems to dispose of household waste. In Phylakope, on Milos, there were spacious houses, some of them beautifully decorated with wall paintings (frescoes). One of the most famous represents a group of flying fish.
The most complete group of Cycladic frescoes was found on the southern island of Santorini. This was buried under layers of volcanic ash from a gigantic explosion on the island around 1500 BC. The eruption was so violent that volcanic ash and dust were thrown into the atmosphere and carried by the wind to the island of Crete, 110 kilometers away. The explosion also destroyed the island, which, if it was only one before, after the cataclysm became a main island and four secondary islands around the crater of the volcano.
Santorini houses are up to three stories high and were found buried under 5 meters of volcanic ash, in the ancient city of Akrotiri. Some of the buildings are very well preserved and offer clues to what life was like in the Cyclades before 1500 BC. Many of the houses contained wooden furniture, long storage jars, ceramic objects, and frescoes from festivals, battles, sports, and religious ceremonies.
End of the ancient Cycladic civilization
Unlike the Roman city of Pompeii, which suffered a similar fate, excavations at Santorini uncovered neither jewelery nor fleeing human figures. Therefore, it is thought that before the final explosion there may have been a series of small earthquakes or eruptions that would have warned the islanders of what was coming, giving them time to escape with their most valuable possessions.
After 1500 BC, the Cyclades began to be increasingly influenced by people of a different culture, the Mycenaeans of mainland Greece. The Phoenicians also used the islands as trading bases. They were interested in the precious metals found in them, as well as a special purple dye obtained from a marine mollusk in the Aegean Sea.
By 1000 BC, Dorians from northwestern Greece had settled Santorini and Milos, while the rest of the Cyclades was conquered by Ionians from Anatolia. Cycladic culture was over .