Cycladic culture
As Cycladic culture are prehistoric societies of the Bronze Age on the island group of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea called. Archaeological finds from excavations on the islands include figurative representations, so-called Cycladic idols , pictures in the form of frescoes and finds from the everyday life of the islanders. The Cycladic culture is related to the Minoan culture on the neighboring island of Crete to the south , but differs in some essential characteristics.
Chronological order
The periodization goes back to Nikolaos Plato and Arthur Evans in Crete. The chronology is determined by finds of Greek pottery, mainly in the form of imported goods in Egypt . Both the Egyptian chronology and its effects on the dating in the neighboring regions have not yet been established and will be discussed further.
The table compares the epochs of the Minoan culture on Crete with the corresponding epochs on the Cyclades and the Helladic times on the Greek mainland. The individual phases within the epochs, as well as their partial further subdivision, usually correspond to a change in style, especially in ceramics.
The end of the Neolithic in the region is generally considered to be 3,000 BC. Chr. Defined.
| Years | Crete (according to Plato) | Crete (according to Evans) | Cyclades | Greek Mainland |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Pre-palace period | Early Minoan | Early Cycladic | Early Helladic | |
| 3000-2700 BC Chr. | FM I | FK I | FH I | |
| 2700-2200 BC Chr. | FM II | FK II | FH II | |
| 2200-2000 BC Chr. | FM III | FK III | FH III | |
| Middle Minoan | Middle Cycladic | Medium Helladic | ||
| 2000–1900 BC Chr. | MM IA | MK | MH | |
| 1900–1800 BC Chr. | Old palace time | MM IB | ||
| 1800–1700 BC Chr. | MM II | |||
| 1700–1600 BC Chr. | New Palace period | MM III A | ||
| 1600–1550 BC Chr. | MM III B | |||
| Late Minoan | Late Cycladic | Late Helladic | ||
| 1550-1520 BC Chr. | SM IA | SK I | SH I | |
| 1520-1430 BC Chr. | SM IB | SK II | SH II A | |
| 1430-1400 BC Chr. | Post-palace period | SM II | SH II B | |
| 1400-1330 BC Chr. | SM III A | SK III | SH III A | |
| 1330-1200 BC Chr. | SM III B | SH III B | ||
| 1200-1100 BC Chr. | SM III C | SH III C | ||
| Subminoic | Submycenaean | |||
Early Cycladic era
The finds on the tiny island of Saliagos between Antiparos and Paros , in Ftelia on Mykonos and Kephala on Kea can still be assigned to the Neolithic Age .
The first phase of the early Cycladic epoch corresponds to the Grotta-Pelos culture on Naxos , another site from this time is Phylakopi (on Milos ). Only grave finds are known, settlements from that time have not yet been discovered.
The Keros-Syros culture of the island of Sýros is classified in Early Cycladic II, traces of settlement on various islands (Kea, Ios and Delos ) are found from this period , as well as grave finds. From FK II at the latest, the inhabitants of the Cyclades started pirating . However, ocean shipping was most likely not a new phenomenon of FK II. Findings from the Keros-Syros culture (FK II) show that the porters of this culture had a "rowing or paddle-propelled type of longboat" with which they can cover longer distances could.
The Kastri or Lefkandi culture also on Sýros is either assigned to the end of FK II or it marks the beginning of FK III. After that, settlement continuity breaks off in almost all regions. So far, only the small settlement on the island of Daskalio in front of Keros can be proven to have been used continuously. With the Phylakopi culture of Milos, the settlements elsewhere only started again at the end of FK III.
Middle Cycladic Period
The Middle Cycladic epoch is usually not further subdivided, the exchange between the islands in the form of trade but also migration movements in connection with conflicts was intense, so that one can speak of a common culture for the first time. Only three of the twenty known settlements of the time have been excavated: Phylakopi (Milos), Paroikia on Paros and Agia Irini on Kea . In this epoch, the latter can partly be attributed to the Helladic culture of mainland Greece, as the influence of the island cultures is significantly reduced.
Late Cycladic
Phase I should be emphasized from the late Cycladic epoch, as the city of Akrotiri on the island of Santorini, which was buried and largely preserved by a volcanic eruption, is classified here. Other well-researched sites of the time are Phylakopi, Agia Irini, Delos and Agios Andreas on the island of Sifnos .
In the course of the epoch, the Cyclades merged with the mainland culture and are increasingly part of the Mycenaean culture of the Late Helladic era. After 1200 BC The settlement structures collapse, the transition period of the dark centuries begins. The upheaval for the Iron Age falls into it . With the protogeometric epoch around 1050 BC The classical antiquity in Greece.
Antique reception
Thucydides and Herodotus call the indigenous people of the Cyclades Leleges and mention that they would have been expelled to the southwest of Asia Minor , where they were called Carians . While Thucydides has them ousted by the mythological king Minos , Herodotus attributes this to the Dorians and Ionians .
literature
- Alexander Mazarakis Ainian (ed.): Les sanctuaires archaïques des Cyclades. Research récentes. Presses universitaires de Rennes , 2016.
- Werner Ekschmitt : The Cyclades. Bronze Age, Geometric and Archaic Age . Philipp von Zabern, Mainz 1993. ISBN 3-8053-1533-3 .
- Katarina Horst, Bernhard Steinmann, Claus Hattler: Cyclades - the worlds of an early Greek culture. Catalog Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe. Primus, Darmstadt 2011. ISBN 3-86312-016-7 .
Web links
- Aegean Prehistoric Archeology of Dartmouth College on the prehistory of the Cyclades
- Foundation of the Hellenic World website on the Bronze Age in the Aegean Sea
- Oklahoma University website with images of Bronze Age artwork from the Cyclades
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Olaf Höckmann: Early Bronze Age cultural relations in the Mediterranean area with special consideration of the Cyclades . In: Hans-Günter Buchholz (Ed.): Aegean Bronze Age. 1987, p. 65.
- ^ Olaf Höckmann: Early Bronze Age cultural relations in the Mediterranean area with special consideration of the Cyclades . In: Hans-Günter Buchholz (Ed.): Aegean Bronze Age. 1987, p. 66.