Greece, Bronze Age (c.3000-c.1100 BC): Cycladic Civilisation

During the Early Bronze Age (c.3000-c.2100 BC) three distinct civilisations emerged bordering the Aegean Sea: the Cycladic, Minoan (Crete) and Helladic (mainland). 

Cycladic Civilisation (Cyclades, c.3000-c.1100 BC)

Although Melian obsidian has been found in Upper Palaeolithic levels of the Franchthi Cave in Argolis, none of the Cycladic islands show evidence of settlement until Neolithic peoples arrived there c.5000 BC, probably from Asia Minor, the Dodecanese Islands in the east and the Cyclades in the central/south Aegean would have formed a natural and relatively safe route for peoples migrating from Asia and Europe.

Early Cycladic-I (c.3000-c.2800 BC) was a formative period on the islands of Amorgos, Antiparos, Melos, Naxos, Paros and Thera; ECII (c.2800-c.2300 BC) was the height of the culture on Amorgas, Naxos, Syros, Thera and perhaps Melos; and ECIII (c.2300-c.2000 BC) was the decline of the culture and the start of Minoan influence on Melos, Paros and Thera.

ECI settlements are generally small and unfortified, and the phase is characterised by a series of fine bowls and figurines made out of the local marble. ECII settlements seem to have been located in locations chosen for defence; and they gained fortifications. From the middle of the third millennium BC the Cycladic culture began to influence mainland sites.

Bronze metallurgy came from the Near East to the Cyclades and then to mainland Greece. The scarcity value of bronze, whose component metals tin and copper were seldom found in one region, caused long-distance trade to begin in earnest. Galley ships capable of long sea voyages were developed by the Cycladites to export their own commodities, metals and marble, to Asia Minor and Greece, and to transport goods between those two regions. Cycladic settlements thus developed in coastal locations and during the Middle Bronze Age (c.2000-c.1700 BC) became true ports and towns, e.g. Akrotiri on Thera. From the MBA the influence of Minoan and the subsequent Mycenaean civilisation increased. After these early civilisations disappeared the Cyclades were absorbed in the wider Mediterranean cultural world and lost their earlier distinctiveness.