Near our first AirBnB in Athens was the Cycladic Museum. Cycladic comes from cyclos the Greek word for circle. The circle in question was the circle of islands that surrounded the scared island of Delos. This area had a flourishing civilization from 3000 BCE to 1080 BCE. This place was most delightful and informative. The way the pieces were displayed made reading about them very easy. If you ever go to Greece make sure to visit this fine museum ( https://collections.cycladic.gr/collections ).
These are the Cycladic Islands
Fancy gold offerings buried with the owners 4th century BCE
Made of the stone Picrolite, these items came from 1900 BCE
This video board constantly changes replacing letters of the various alphabets that were used in the area. From Cypro-Minoan to Cypro-Syllabic to Eteo-Cypriote to Greek
A tomb stone from 400 BCE
A bronze menagerie
The need for perfume is obvious so many of the jars were made to store the perfume. This three lobes jar came from 1700 BCE
Horn like protuberances on a 1600BCE jug
A double barreled jug, its good for chugging
The primitive style shows the age of this piece. 3900 BCE makes this the oldest piece in the collection
A small bong
The Minoan and Mycenean wing of the museum
Four Horses on the top of this large bowl. 750 BCE
Roosters!
Around 600 BCE the first coins that had a standard weight began to circulate. This one has the symbol of Athens
The rise of city-stated allowed the cities to mint their own coins
A dolphin symbol is on this standard weight. It is stamped H & E which denotes a hemi-starter or half of a starter. These standard weights came in many sizes and shapes.
A child's toy moveable arms and legs
A bronze bunny and bird. They could be standard weights or were intended to be attached to larger bronze pieces as decorations
Youth going into the wine jug to refill a serving jar
Pan is the man!
A gold scrunchie for holding the hair
The evolution of standard weights in Greece
The earliest pieces were from the Cycladic region 3200 - 2000 BCE
The evolution of the symbology
Figures from different periods
The Stargazer from 4000 - 3500 BCE is older than the Great Pyramids and Stonehenge
Someone broke into the piggy bank
One of the rarest pieces of Cycladic marble. It is thought to be a ceremonial bowl with birds, like the one seen at the bottom of the picture, were all in a line in the center of the bowl
The vast majority of the figures are female. The one here is a male figure because he is shown in an action pose. It is the only intact one in existance
Different male poses
This one was the largest one in the museum. It is 1.4 meter tall which dwarfs all the others
It has many details not seen on other pieces including ears and hair
So many unique pieces
More hair seen here
She has bangs
And braids
Some examples of the rare examples of extra adornments
As we were leaving a few folks were making a fuss over this black cat with one blue eye. We made it a half a block and saw this sign on the lamp post. We hurried back to show them the sign incase it was a lost cat sign. It turns out it was a found cat sign that the folks at the museum had put up.
It has been 1 year and 171 days since we began our Migration
