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Bronze age

The Bronze Age includes the Cycladic culture (Early Bronze Age), from which many artefacts, tombs and settlements have been found on Naxos, the Minoan epoch and the Mycenaean epoch. On this page you will find all the articles about these epochs.

Akrotiri on Santorin

5. October 2013

Unfortunately there is yet no translation available for some of the pages you find under the links below. Maybe try to translate the pages with Google translate (copy the URL and paste it into the…

The archaeological museum in Apiranthos

In the small village of Apiranthos one can visit five museums, one ethnological, one geological, one of natural history, one of fine arts and one archaeological. The archaeological museum was the f…

The Early Bronze age sanctuary Koryfi t’Aroniou

In the south-east of Naxos, about three kilometres north of the bay of Pánormos with the small Early Bronze age acropolis Korfári ton Amygdalión, there is a small site from the same period, which i…

The Mycenaean epoch

27. February 2012

The Late Bronze age in the Cyclades is called Mycenaean (= Late Helladic) epoch (about 1700 to 1150 BC). The most important centres of the Mycenaean epoch were on the Peloponnese and the southern G…

The Mycenaean domed tomb at Komiaki

20. February 2012

On Naxos exist only relatively few testimonies from the Mycenaean epoch (approx. 1,700 to 1,150 BC). One of them is the Mycenaean domed tomb (or tholos tomb) near Komiakí, one of only three domed t…

The Minoan epoch

3. September 2010

Die minoische Epoche Um 2000 v. Chr. nahm die charakteristische Kykladenkultur (3. Jahrtausend v. Chr.) ein Ende und die Minoer übernahmen in der Ägäis die Vorherrschaft. Entsprechend wird die nun…

Seafaring and trade in the Cycladic culture

28. October 2009

The earliest evidence of human presence on the Cyclades are the Paleo(!)- and Mesolithic chert tools on Naxos and the Mesolithic finds of obsidian from the island of Milos on the mainland and on ot…

Contacts to the neighbouring peoples

28. October 2009

As an island people the inhabitants of the Cyclades always had close contacts to their neighbours. The islands were probably settled by a people from the East, from the Levant and Asia Minor. Since…

The idols and the religion of the Cycladic culture

28. October 2009

The Cycladic idols The most famous artefacts of the Cycladic culture are doubtless the marble idols. These unique works of art testify in an especially impressive way to the craftsmanship and artis…

Crafts in the Cycladic culture

28. October 2009

In the Early Bronze age, crafts and techniques already known from the Neolithic age such as pottery, sculpture, metalworking and shipbuilding developed to a significantly higher level. Individual p…

Metal crafts in the Cycladic culture

28. October 2009

Even in the late Stone age, people occasionally used metal to make simple tools or jewelry. These were mostly made of metals, which could be found in a pure form in nature, not as an ore, like silv…

Cemeteries and burials in the Cycladic culture

28. October 2009

Already during the Stone age people started to bury their dead. The oldest known graves are dated to an age of 40,000 years. The first known cemeteries are about 12,000 years old. On the Cyclades a…