My favorite activity during our third week on the program was our visit to the Cycladic Art Museum. It is one of the greatest collections of Cycladic art in the world and it was really interesting getting a tour through the pre-history exhibit. The main issue with being able to go see Cycladic art is that it is hard to find as full pieces rather than fragments. On top of that the Cyclades for years have been revenged by illicit archeology which means that many full pieces of Cycladic could be sitting in private collections throughout the world. For both of those reasons, the Cycladic Art Museum was remarkable.
There have been archeological finds in the Cyclades that date early habitation all the way back to the 5th millennium. And it was interesting to see how the art of the people progressed over time. The Cycladic art style is very abstract and early forms of the art appeared violin-like and were made to symbolize the female form. The importance of this art to the early Cycladic people can be seen by the fact they would repair broken figures so they could still be worn. We saw an example of this in a broken violin-shaped figure which had two holes in the middle of it one on each side of where the break was which would have allowed for them to use a piece of twine to tie the broken piece back together. Another interesting piece of early Cycladic culture is their use of the obsidian tools. Obsidian could have only been found on the island of Milos yet early Cycladic stone tools have been found on many islands throughout the Cyclades. This is evidence for early trade between the Cycladic islands.
Another facet of Cycladic culture exhibited in the museum is their pottery. The interesting part about this pottery is that although meticulous in its design it was made without the use of a potter’s wheel. They also created marble vessels that were so thin that you could see the light shine through them. The marble vessels that they made were not just limited to drinking vessels but on Kevos they found a large dish that contained small birds in the center which could have been used for ritual purposes since Kevos was an island sanctuary.
The most famous aspect of Cycladic art is known as Cycladic Figurines. These small and in some cases large figurines feature a crossed-armed style. These figurines were not given flat feet which forced them to only be placed lying on their back reclined. The crossed arm style represented the female form but there also has been finds of male figurines that characteristically were always in action either hunting, playing music, or drinking in the case of the picture below. These figurines were theorized to be used for many Cycladic rituals and have been found in graves as well. The most fascinating part of these figurines is the craftmanship required to construct them. The male drinking figurine below known as the cupbearer is a striking example of this craftmanship as it features an extended hand which has been regarded as the hardest sculpting style. This has been referred to as the hardest sculpting style since it usually requires supports of some kind either hidden or visible yet this piece is unsupported; truly showing the elite craftsmanship of early Cycladic sculptors. Since it is believed that the Cycladic people worshipped these figurines they are characterized as the first anthropocentric culture. It was truly amazing to see so much of early human history and art that you cannot really see anywhere else in the world.
After we toured the prehistory section of the museum and a brief talk on the museum’s initiative to preserve the beauty and culture of the Cyclades, we were free to explore the rest of the museum. I stayed and walked through the remaining floors. One piece in particular stuck out to me as it related to a discussion we had in my myth class earlier in the week. We talked about the origin of the Centaurs and how it is believed that the myth may have been a result of people witnessing the first accounts of horseback riding in the mountains near Volos. The ancient Greek etymology of the word Centaur translates to “the men who fight (pierce) bulls”. These early horse riders went to go fight bulls in Volos and could be misconstrued in the distance as being half horse and half man. This is one rationality of how Centaurs became a common image in Greek mythology. Yet in the Cycladic art museum, I found a piece which I will include below that seems to provide evidence for this theory. The description of the piece was “Bronze figurine of horse with partially preserved human figure, 8th century BC possibly from a Thessalian workshop”. The timing and location of this figurine provide evidence that horseback riding was in the region and could have been what the creators of the Centaur myth originally witnessed.
