Episode 1: VIPs in Cycladic culture: Idols, Sea and Eruptions









Within our excursion to Greece, one of the threads we followed from Athens to Santorini was the interest for the unique features of the Ancient Cyclades, from their distinctive human representations and their underlying concepts of the body, to the development of a maritime culture nested between highly active volcanoes and the Aegean Sea. Whilst our week-long stay was a very short time to address such a wide topic, we certainly managed to get acquainted with some of the “VIPs” of Cycladic culture: the idols, the sea and the eruptions.


The Idols

The Cycladic idols must today be considered the most prominent or iconic relics of the Bronze Age Cycladic culture (~ 3200 - 2000 BC). Their clear schematic design inspired no other than co-founder of the cubist movement Pablo Picasso and many other artists of the 20th Century. In Athens, major collections of these special objects are on display in the National Archaeological Museum and the Museum of Cycladic Art. Additionally, the GRK delegation also saw the idols from Akrotiri while visiting the Prehistoric Thera Museum on Santorini. Within the scope of our excursion, Katharina Zartner and Sonja Speck presented the idols from the more archaeological perspective of their own PhD research. The starting points were the first anthropomorphic sculptures from Neolithic mainland greece and the Cyclades.




Fig. 1: Violin-shaped figurines of the pre-canonical phase, Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens 
(photo: Katharina Zartner).


Like most prehistoric representations of humans, the Greek anthropomorphic sculpture is characterised by strict frontality, axial symmetry and different levels of simplification and reduction of body shapes and details. Therefore, Sonja’s method of identifying markers and limits of concept components through the varying extendedness of the body shapes could also be applied to Greek anthropomorphic sculptures. As it turns out, Neolithic Greek anthropomorphic sculpture shares many but not all of the body concepts coded in the extendedness of body shapes with the precursors of the idols (fig. 1) from the Early Bronze Age Cyclades. In contrast, the Cycladic idols show, for example, that in the course of their development the abdominal region lost its significance as a separate body part, as the torso is almost immediately attached to the legs (fig. 2). It is actually a characteristic of Cycladic anthropomorphic sculpture that the human body is downright fitted into certain shapes, or maybe is built out of certain shapes.


Fig. 2: Mari standing next to an almost life-size Cycladic figurine (canonical type) 
in the Museum of Cycladic Art (photo: Sonja Speck).


The Cycladic idols are mainly made of marble which originates from the islands of Paros and Naxos. They date from the so-called Early Cycladic Period which can be divided in three sub-phases due to different characteristics in their representation. While the earliest examples are very schematic representations (the so called violin-shaped figurines, fig. 1), the figurines of the canonical phase, which yielded the most famous and best known specimens of the Cycladic figurines and marked the peak of their production, are characteristically elongated with the legs formed as one block, folded arms and a big head with a prominent nose.



The vast majority of the figurines depict women. However, some of them - mostly special variants like musicians (fig. 3) or groups of two or more interacting figures - show no gendered characteristics. Besides those variants, there are a few figurines that show traces of colour or carved details or that are of exceptional size (fig. 2).


Fig. 3: Aulos player and harpist, National Archaeology Museum of Athens (photo: Katharina Zartner).





Clearly, the Cycladic figurines must have been important in one way or the other since there are so many. But what was their actual purpose? There is no explicit answer to this question but a lot of different ideas concerning the interpretation such as symbols of fertility, grave goods or objects for ritual use. The fact that a significant number of the known specimen came from the collectors’ market makes it difficult to draw definite conclusions. The figurines from secure contexts were found in graves as well as in settlements which may hint in the direction of some kind of multi-purpose use, possibly connected to religious/ritual practices in the broadest sense.


Fig. 4: Katharina presenting Cycladic art during the evening meeting (Photo: Shahrzad Irannejad)




The Volcano

The fascinating experience in the enigmas of the Cycladic Art Museum in Athens (Fig. 4) has paved the way for the GRK-crew’s next destination: Santorini Island, Cyclades. This little bit of paradise, that lies in the heart of the southern Aegean sea, has been made especially unique throughout history by its (still active) volcanic subsoil. In fact, together with Methana, Milos, Nisyros and Kos, Santorini is part of the so-called Southern Aegean Volcanic Arc, namely the area of subduction of the African tectonic plate beneath the Eurasian plate (Fig. 5).

Fig. 5: The Southern Aegean Volcanic Arc (photo: Wikimedia Commons, the free media repository)


According to the theory of the plate tectonics, the convergence of two plates generates a continuous emission of magma and, in case both edges of the plates lie under the oceanic surface, it leads to the formation of underwater volcanoes and calderas, as in the case of Santorini’s ring-shaped archipelago. Starting with the destructive Minoan eruption – that occurred between 1610 and 1590 B.C. and is believed to have contributed to the downfall of the Minoan civilization –, several evacuations of underwater magma have over time shaped Thira and the other smaller islands of the archipelago: Therasia, Palea and Nea Kameni, Aspronisi (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6: Santorini’s archipelago (photo: EOS photo NASA, public domain)




Most of these eruptions have even been reported by ancient and medieval historiographers and natural scientists, pilgrims and curious travelers, some of whom have even documented the phenomena by drawing suggestive sketches (Fig. 7). Especially in the ancient times and in the Middle Ages, the most destructive volcanic eruptions in Santorini have been related by the sources to extraordinary historical events, such as the victory of Rome against Philip II of Macedon in 197 B.C., or the celebrations for the 800th anniversary of the foundation of Rome in 47 A.D., or the beginning of the Byzantine iconoclasm in 726.[1]

Fig. 7: Volcanic eruption on Nea Kameni Island, in a depiction made by the Russian monk Barskij in 1745
(image: Friedrich, W. L.: Santorini. Volcano, Natural History, Mythology. Aarhus University Press, 2009)
In the course of the centuries, the geographical and geological peculiarities of this island have, on the one hand, put strain on the interrelationship between humans and nature and, on the other hand, allowed the preservation and transmission of stunning archaeological remains, such as the already mentioned Cycladic icon relics and the lost city of Akrotiri (Fig. 8). Both the extraordinary volcanic morphology –and history– of the island and the presence on its soil of unique traces from past civilizations, made Santorini the perfect destination of this GRK excursion.




Akrotiri

Speaking of past civilizations both destroyed and preserved by the activity of volcanoes, one of the highlights of the Excursion was the visit of the archaeological site of Akrotiri (Fig. 8). The 60 m of volcanic ash that buried the city after the already mentioned Minoan eruption were, ironically, also the key to its exceptional preservation. The excavations, which began in 1967 under the directorship of the late Prof. Spyridon Marinatos, brought to light numerous buildings preserved at times up to the second floor and a wealth of artefacts, including a cache of Cycladic figurines, which reveal much of the life in a thriving coastal city at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age.

Fig. 8: Site of Akrotiri (photo: Mari Yamasaki)



Richly coloured wall paintings were also discovered adorning several of the houses – both public and private – showing people, animals and landscapes in a naturalistic way. Among the most showcased wall paintings are scenes from a maritime journey to an exotic land and the safe return home of the ships. These decorate the upper registry of room 5 of the West House, which is sometimes nicknamed “the House of the Admiral” due to the recurrent reference to the maritime element elsewhere in the building such as the two fishermen (also from room 5 and now on display at the Prehistoric Museum in Fira - Fig. 9) and the series of captain’s cabins or palanquins that decorate room 4. Paintings such as the Miniature Frieze, or Flotilla Fresco as it is sometimes referred to, are of capital importance in our understanding of the Ancient Cycladic culture as they show us a unique glimpse of a Late Bronze Age maritime community from the perspective of its own people.

Fig. 9: Young fisherman, Prehistoric Museum Fira (photo: Mari Yamasaki)

To conclude, this excursion gave us a chance to first-hand observe and experience the complexity of the ancient Cycladic culture, its artistic outcomes as well as its archaeological wonders, all within a unique and utterly stunning geographical setting.




[1] About Rome against Philip II of Macedon and the eruption in 197 B.C., see Strabo, Geographia (1,3,16) and Titus Livius, Ab urbe condita (33,1-3); about the 800th Anniversary of the foundation of Rome and the eruption in 47 A.D., see Sextus Aurelius Victor, Liber de Caesaribus (4,14); about the beginning of the Byzantine iconoclasm and the eruption in 726, see Nicephorus I, Breviarium historicum de rebus gestis post imperium Mauricii (59,3) and Theophanes Confessor, Chronographia (404).




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