The Early Cycladic Culture

The branch of land of the Mediterranean between Greece and Turkey gave way to the Aegean Sea, which in time became the site to a legendary war and its aftermath at Troy. “The Cycladic culture was named for the islands forming an irregular circle north of Crete…. The culture on the mainland is called Helladic from the Greek Hellas the name of a legendary ancestor.” The chronology of the Aegean bronze age is a cause for debate, therefore archeologists often prefer relative dates.
Frying Pan from Chalandriani, Syros. Early Cycladic II. Ca. 2500-2200. The frying pan is from the Early Cycladic period, one of the few remaining artifacts from that time. “Only a limited range of objects survive, but this record indicates that wealth accumulated on the Cycladic islands early in the

Starting in 2800 BCE the islanders began to bury their dead in “stone lined pits sealed with stone slabs known as cist graves.” Alongside drinking and eating implements were items produced by potters, now referred to as “frying pans”, due to their shape. The name comes from, “their shape spirals and circles”. The decorations on the “frying pans” were sometimes abstract renderings of ships. Frying pans may have been “palettes for mixing cosmetics or once polished, they may have been served as an early kind of mirror.” In the late Minoan period marine motifs became even more popular. “A vivid example of this ‘marine style’ is a stirrup jar, which has two round handles flanking its narrow spout, decorated with a wide-eyed black octopus with swirling tentacles, contrasted against the