#cycladic culture

[blueiscoool]

A CYCLADIC MARBLE FOOTED CUP EARLY CYCLADIC II, CIRCA 2700-2200 B.C.

[nadjaerna]

Mysterious and memorable Neolithic ceramic male figure (5000–4500 BCE) from Szegvár-Tűzköves, Hungary, with a triangular mask-like face, known as a “Sickle God” due to the curved item he holds over his right shoulder.

A headless ceramic female figurine that accompanies him is equally exquisite, and both feel oddly contemporary. It ranks in accomplishment with Cycladic counterparts as do later limbless “violin”-shaped ceramic torsos (2,800–2,500 BCE). Such enigmatic human forms undoubtedly served a ritualistic function as witnessed by their archaeological contexts, yet the specific beliefs and practices are lost to time: no written record from these Neolithic or Copper era cultures has come down through the ages, if writing in these regions even yet existed.

[gemsofgreece]

Photos from Michael Pappas’s “Mitos: The Thread of Greece” project for Vogue. 

Sifnos, Cyclades islands

Stefanovíkio, Magnesia, Thessaly

[thesilicontribesman]

Cycladic Figurines of Ancient Greece, 4th and 3rd Millennium BCE

Most of the marble figures were sculpted in the Cyclades during the late 4th and 3rd Millennium BCE. The sculptors used simple tools, like obsidian for cutting and emery for polishing.

Found in settlements and tombs, these figures may have served as representations of the dead, of gods and goddesses and their followers or as offerings and amulets.

When the figures were first discovered, some still bearing traces of painted decoration, they were generally considered crude and ugly. Later in the 20th century their simple form influenced artists like Picasso, Modigliani and Moore.

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

expanding on my tags here a lil bit, I do think ml Scala is meant to take inspiration from multiple different european places but it really is very very italian to me. Like there’s the battle theme and architecture and potential symbolism yeah, but…hmm. Maybe I’m partly pulling from personal experience. I’ve visited Rome before so when I look at some of the shots in ml, mostly the nighttime ones, I just remember walking around the streets the first night I was there and how soft and warm the lighting was. It just feels the same to me somehow, which, if anything, is a testament to the amount of care and attention that was put into developing this version of Scala (from the devs themselves and in-universe ;) )

[techdriveplay]

13 Best Greek Islands That Should Be on Every Traveler’s List

The Greek islands are the perfect vacation destination if you dream of sunny skies, soft white sand beaches, crystal-clear turquoise waters, traditional cuisine, and ancient sites. They have everything from the iconic whitewashed buildings of Santorini and pristine beaches in Mykonos to mesmerizing ancient architecture in Crete and authentic Greek cuisine in Kefalonia. However, with over 220…

[porcelainsuit]

Carved Figurine, Greece, 17th c. BC.

[whereishermes]

Exploring Greece in the Pre-Homeric Era

[gemsofgreece]

For real the Sifnian attire is lovely!

Am I late? Most definitely, have a Sifnian Miku regardless :D

(I have seen the costume in person and it's the most gorgeous thing I've ever laid my eyes upon)

[blueiscoool]

Fossilized Olive Leaves Found on Santorini, Greece

Fossilized olive leaves from a tree that was alive 60,000 years ago on the island of Thira (the modern Santorini) are immortalized in the volcanic ash that encased them after an eruption.

The exquisite fossils were discovered at an old pumice quarry on the outskirts of Thira, a town on Santorini; in addition, three new plant fossil sites were also located in abandoned quarries nearby on the island, which was almost completely destroyed in a later eruption that occurred in the year 1650 BC.

Blowing apart the island that at that time was called Thira by its Minoan inhabitants, all that was left was a rim of land encircling a caldera; now known as Santorini, the crescent-shaped island marks one of the most cataclysmic eruptions that has ever taken place within recorded history.

The fossilized olive leaves are now exhibited at the Museum of Prehistoric Thera in the capital Fira on Santorini.

[the-puffinry]

uhm he'll be having some pumpkin soup on your dashboard now... thank you.

(first time I ever attempted to animate something with gimp lol. same figurine as yesterday.)

(Zoomorphic vase in the shape of an animal, a little bear or a hedgehog, holding a bowl. Chalandriani, Syros. Early Cycladic II period, Keros-Syros Culture (2800-2300 BC).

[gemsofgreece]

Mykonos getting prepared for Easter! Photo by Valantis M on Instagram. 

[thesilicontribesman]

Painted Reconstruction of the Cycladic Figurines of Ancient Greece, cast from original, 2800 to 2300BCE

Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

[whencyclopedia]

Mycenaean Civilization

The Mycenaean Civilization flourished in the Late Bronze Age (c. 1700-1100 BCE), peaking from the 15th to the 13th century BCE. The Mycenaeans extended their influence throughout the Peloponnese in Greece and across the Aegean from Crete to the Cycladic islands. They are named after their chief city of Mycenae in the Argolid of the northeast Peloponnese.

The Mycenaeans were influenced by the earlier Minoan civilization (2000-1450 BCE) which had spread from its origins at Knossos, Crete to include the wider Aegean. Architecture, art and religious practices were assimilated and adapted to better express the perhaps more militaristic and austere Mycenaean culture. The Mycenaeans came to dominate most of mainland Greece and several islands, extending trade relations to other Bronze Age cultures in such places as Cyprus, the Levant, and Egypt. The culture made a lasting impression on later Greeks in the Archaic and Classical periods, most tangibly in their myths of Bronze Age heroes like Achilles and Odysseus and their exploits in the Trojan War.

Major Mycenaean Centres

The Mycenaeans were indigenous Greeks who were likely stimulated by their contact with Minoan Crete and other Mediterranean cultures to develop a more sophisticated sociopolitical culture of their own. Major Mycenaean centres included Mycenae (traditional home of Agamemnon), Tiryns (perhaps the oldest centre), Pylos (traditional home of Nestor), Thebes, Midea, Gla, Orchomenos, Argos, Sparta, Nichoria, and probably Athens. In time, the Mycenaeans would even establish themselves on Crete and especially at Knossos, thus superseding the Minoans as the dominant culture in the southern Aegean by the second half of the 15th century BCE.

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[artifacts-and-arthropods]

Prehistoric Figurine of a Harp Player, from the Cyclades (Greece), c. 2700-2300 BCE: this figurine was shaped from a block of solid marble and then slowly sanded into form using pumice and emery

The figurine depicts a musician with a frame harp, an instrument that originated in the Near East and then later spread to the peoples of the Aegean. A sound box forms the section along the base of the instrument, and a small protrusion can be seen near the top of the harp's frame; some experts have argued that this protrusion might represent an ornamental carving of a waterfowl's head, while others argue that it represents a musical extension that facilitates the projection of sound (a feature that often appears on the stringed instruments of the ancient Near East).

This piece measures 35.8cm (about 14 inches) tall.

Musical performances like this are rarely depicted in Cycladic artwork. Depictions of male characters are similarly rare, representing only 5% of the Cycladic sculptures that are known to exist. When male figures are depicted, however, they are frequently shown playing musical instruments, as seen here.

Figurine of a Harpist, c. 2800-2700 BCE: a similar example of a Cycladic sculpture that features a musician with a frame harp

The Museum of Cycladic Art provides a more detailed explanation of the process by which these figures were created:

As we can deduce from the few unfinished figurines that have been discovered so far, the first step in the process was to roughly shape the raw piece of marble into a figure by the impact of a mallet. Emery powder was then used to abrade the surface until it obtained the desired shape and size. Once the desired shape was achieved, the surface was smoothed carefully before the fine work of carving the details started. At the end, the figurine was polished to a high degree that is still amazing.

And according to The Met:

Many of these figures, especially those of the Spedos type, display a remarkable consistency in form and proportion that suggests they were planned with a compass. Scientific analysis has shown that the surface of the marble was painted with mineral-based pigments—azurite for blue and iron ores, or cinnabar for red.

The Cycladic Islands (also known as the Cyclades) are a group of about 30 separate islands in the Southwest Aegean, off the coast of mainland Greece. These islands contain a wealth of natural resources, including marble, emery, pumice, obsidian, and an assortment of precious metals. The prehistoric peoples of the Cyclades made use of these resources for many different purposes, but the marble figurines/sculptures that they crafted during the Bronze Age are perhaps their most famous creation.

The vast majority of these figurines are stylized depictions of the female form. The cultural significance of the sculptures remains unclear; they may have simply been created as decorative pieces/artwork, without any additional function, or they may have been used as fetishes, totems, religious idols, grave goods, or votive offerings.

Sources & More Info:

The Getty Museum: Figurine of a Harp Player

The Met: Cycladic Harp Player

The Met: Early Cycladic Art and Culture

The Museum of Cycladic Art: Techniques