M. Marthari, C. Renfrew and M. Boyd (eds.) 2019. Beyond the Cyclades: Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context from Mainland Greece, the North and East Aegean. Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow (original) (raw)
This second volume on Early Cycladic (and Cycladicising) sculptures found in the Aegean, examines finds from mainland Greece, along with the rarer items from the north and east Aegean, with the exception of those discovered in the Cyclades (covered in the preceding volume), and of those found in Crete. The significance of these finds is that these are the principal testimonies of the influence of the Early Bronze Age Cycladic cultures in the wider Aegean. This influence is shown both by the export of sculptures produced in the Cyclades (and made of Cycladic marble) and of their imitations, produced elsewhere in the Aegean, usually of local marble. They hold the key, therefore, to the cultural interactions developing at this time, the so-called ‘international spirit’ manifest particularly during the Aegean Early Bronze II period. This was the time when the foundations of early Aegean civilization were being laid, and the material documented is thus of considerable significance. The volume is divided into sections wherein contributions examine finds and their archaeological, social, and economic contexts from specific regions. It concludes with an overview of the significance and role of these objects in the Early Bronze Age societies of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean regions. This will be the first time that this material has been systematically gathered together. Highly illustrated, it follows and builds on the successful preceding volume, Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context (Oxbow 2016).
Related papers
In Marthari, M., C. Renfrew and M. Boyd (eds.) 2019. Beyond the Cyclades: Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context from Mainland Greece, the North and East Aegean. Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow
Marble sculptures of the Cycladic canonical folded-arm form are quite widely found outside the Cycladic Islands themselves. They are mainly found in contexts of the mature phase of the Aegean Early Bronze Age, the time of the Keros-Syros culture, and the form seems to have developed in the Cycladic Islands, where it is preceded both by the Plastiras type and the Louros type. The earliest (Kapsala) variety of the folded-arm figure is rare outside the Cyclades, but the Spedos variety does occur at a number of sites on the Greek mainland and Euboea, to which those examples found were presumably imported from the Cyclades. In addition, the Dokathismata variety occurs at Nea Styra on Euboea. Among the varieties of the folded-arm type only one, the Koumasa variety, seems to have been produced outside the Cyclades...
Marthari, M. 2017. Early Cycladic sculptures as archaeological objects
in M. Marthari, C. Renfrew and M. Boyd (eds.), Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context, Oxford and Philadelphia: Oxbow, pp. 13-21
It was a February afternoon in 2009, in the prehistoric antiquities room of the Archaeological Museum of Naxos, when I first talked with Colin Renfrew about the publication of all the Early Cycladic figurines found in excavations. Our conversation took place among the cases in which the antiquities from Keros, and all the large figurines from Aplomata, Phiondas, and other sites are exhibited. Renfrew, as the excavator of Keros, where a large number of marble figurine fragments and vases have been recently found, wanted to look for comparanda in the excavated material. The author, as the then Ephor of the Ephorate of Antiquities for the Cyclades but also the excavator of Skarkos, wished to see all the excavated material published. Thus we joined forces and after a long collaboration our efforts materialized in the form of a symposium entitled Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context, held at the Athens Archaeological Society on 27–29 May 2014. The results of this symposium are presented here. The current volume aims to publish a very important class of material, partly unknown to scholarship. At the same time, it constitutes a break from the usual way of treating and publishing Early Cycladic sculptures...
N. Chr. Stampolidis, Lourentzatou I.G., Angelopoulou A. and Legaki I (eds.), Cycladic Society. 5000 Years Ago, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens., 2016
The paper aims to present the development of the Cycladic settlements during the Early Bronze Age (3rd millennium BC). Reference is made to the topography, size, settlement planning, architectural tradition and socio-economic organization of the Early Cycladic habitation sites. Special reference is made to buildings of specialized use as for example workshops and buildings of communal character. The differences observed in Early Cycladic settlement patterns foreshadow the transition from the small scattered communities of the 3rd millennium BC to the first "cities" of the end of the Early Bronze Age (end of the 3rd-beginning of the 2nd millennium BC).
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Related papers
N. Chr. Stampolidis, Lourentzatou I.G., Angelopoulou A. and Legaki I (eds.), Cycladic Society. 5000 Years Ago, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens., 2016
Beyond the Cyclades, Early Cycladic Sculpture in Context from Mainland Greece, the North and Eastern Aegean, 2019