This Thursday, we went to the Cycladic Museum of Art and it was awesome! Curator and Archaeologist Metaxia Routsi gave us an exclusive tour of the Cycladic exhibit and her lecture was really thorough and informative. She went through the evolution of shapes and designs of Cycladic figurines and their potential significance in the Cycladic society. A lot of the figurines were found in graves alongside the dead, maybe representing a small statue of them.
The Cycladic museum has the 2nd largest Cycladic figurine that is 1.5 meters (4.9 feet)! This is truly a discovery because most of the figurines are small, ranging from less than an inch (60 cm) to one foot. Archaeologists speculate that this was a representation of a deity that was kept in a public sanctuary, but they can never be too sure because not much is known about Cycladic religion due to writing and record keeping not being a thing yet.
Other artifacts found from Cycladic excavations included pottery and something called a frying pan. They are only called frying pans because of their shape, not because they were used for cooking. Instead the theories for its use range from being a mirror to being used as an ancient navigational tool!
One of the most interesting things from this exhibit was that there were a lot of leg pieces of figurines recovered from the digs in the Cyclades. Metaxia told us that this was because looters liked to break off the heads of the figurines because they sell at a higher price on the illegal market. She mentioned that a lot of figurines from the Cycladic period aren’t even known to them because they are being kept in private collections by people who acquired them from looters.
Looters are a huge problem when it comes to archaeological excavations because they disturb and disrupt the sites, making it harder for archaeologists to come up with a picture of how these people lived in the past. The information and artifacts are already in low supply, and they only make things worse. Despite things being lost to time and pesky looters, the exhibit was still very rich with the history of the Cyclades and their artistry!
After we finished the Cycladic exhibit, we had a discussion of the Cycladic Identity Initiative with Program Coordinator Theano Agalagou. The Cycladic Identity Initiative is a program created by the Cycladic Museum of Art that aims to give back to the islands of the Cyclades that they work in so often. The President & CEO Museum of Cycladic Art, Sandra Marinopoulou says: “The Museum of Cycladic Art owes its existence to the Cycladic islands. And we feel it is now time to give back to them. The Cycladic Identity initiative is our way of transforming our words of gratitude into works of impact.” They accomplish this by way of local programs or initiatives that help to preserve the Cycladic identity and traditions, the preservation, conservation and restoration of ancient sites, and protection of its natural biodiversity (flora and fauna, animals). This program is the first of its kind.
I really appreciate that the museum has taken steps to give back to the communities that they take from because it must be acknowledged that actual people live at some of these archeological sites. Doing excavations in their communities, so near to their homes and livelihoods have the potential to be disruptive to their lives. The Cycladic Identity Initiative takes care to preserve not only the ancient history, but the modern one as well, and I really respect that. Last week, we were at the site of the ancient Athenian Agora and the director of excavations there, Professor John Papadopoulos, was telling us that the American School of Archaeology displaced 366 homes in order to begin excavations in 1931. Since then, I have been thinking about the balance between trying to uncover the past and respecting the people who live in these places. On the one hand, displacing over 350 families to dig in the ground is bad. That is definitely not good. On the other hand, if that didn’t happen, we wouldn’t be able to see what remains of the Agora and learn what we learned about it. There is a delicate balance to the whole thing and I think that the work of the Cycladic Identity Initiative does a good job of finding it!