ABSTRACT

The Early Bronze Age is characterised by a succession of cultural groups originally named by Colin Renfrew. They are Grotta-Pelos culture, Kampos Group, Keros-Syros culture, Kastri Group, Phylakopi I culture and equate with the Early Bronze Age I–III periods. The EC III gap by Rutter has now been closed thanks to carefully dated strata. Key sites are Markiani on Amorgos, Grotta on Naxos, Skarkos on Ios, Kastri on Syros, Dhaskalio-Kavos on Keros, Koukounaries on Paros, Poliochni on Lemnos, Thermi on Lesbos, Emborio on Chios and the Heraion on Samos. Settlement patterns gradually move from a dispersed to a nucleated scenario in the Middle Bronze Age. House plans range from circular to rectangular/megaron, while the corridor house becomes particularly popular on the mainland. Fortified settlements, such as Palamari on Skyros and Panormos on Naxos, become particularly popular in the Early Bronze Age II period and signal a period of unrest. Gradually, towns in the northeastern Aegean Islands are developing an urban character which is apparent from the many waste water installations, elite houses, street systems, fortification systems, communal halls and settlement planning in general. The people were typically buried in cist tombs in designated cemeteries, many of which have been excavated. The two largest cemeteries are Chalandriani on Syros and Agrilia on Ano Kouphonisi. The most iconic objects from the Early Bronze Age are the Cycladic marble folded-arm figurines which were normally found in association with funerary contexts. As many of these figurines, including the famous ‘Keros Hoard’, come from looted contexts, the recent excavation of a special deposit on Keros (Kavos) with hundreds of fragments of figurines is particularly welcome. Renfrew, the excavator, has interpreted the deposits at Kavos and the building on nearby Dhaskalio as the first maritime sanctuary in the Cyclades. An even greater puzzle are the so-called Cycladic frying pans – an object made of clay whose function remains speculative. Metals like copper, lead and silver played a major role in the Aegean and were moved widely across the sea between processing stages. The main metal sources were the islands of Siphnos (copper, silver, lead), Kythnos (copper), Seriphos (copper) and Lavrion (copper, silver, lead) on the Greek mainland. Tin and arsenic were used as alloys with copper. Early Bronze Age II (Keros-Syros culture) represents the most mobile and cosmopolitan phase in the islander’s prehistory (what Renfrew has called the ‘international spirit’), supported by the existence of longboats that could traverse the Aegean within just a few days to reach the Greek or Turkish mainlands.