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The Cyclades, from the Greek
Κυκλάδες, ("circular," modern Greek Kikládhes) is the name of an island group south-east of the mainland of Greece. It
is a part of the vast number of islands which constitute the Greek
archipelago in the Aegean
Sea. The name was originally used to indicate those islands that formed a rough circle around the sacred island of Delos (map)
The Cyclades are comprised of around 220 islands, with the major ones being Amorgos, Anafi, Ándros, Antiparos,
Delos, Ios, Kéa,
Kimolos, Kithnos, Mílos, Mykonos, Náxos, Páros, Pholegandros, Serifos, Sifnos, Sikinos, Síros, Tínos and Santorini (Thira).
Ermoupolis, on Síros, is the chief
town and administrative center of the group.
The islands are peaks of a submerged mountainous terrain, with the exception of two volcanic islands, Melos and Santorini (Thera). The climate is generally dry and mild, but with the exception of Naxos the soil is not very fertile: agricultural
produce includes wine, fruit, wheat, olive oil, and tobacco.
The significant Early Bronze Age Cycladic culture is best known for its schematic female idols carved out of
the islands' pure white marble centuries before the great Middle Bronze Age ("Minoan")
culture arose in Crete, to the south. Each of the small Cycladic islands could support no more than a few thousand people, and
when the highly organized palace-culture of Crete arose, the islands faded into insignificance, with the exception of Delos,
which retained its archaic reputation as a sanctuary through the period of Classical Greek civilization.
The first archaeological excavations of the 1880s were followed by systematic work by the British School at Athens and by
Christos Tsountas, who investigated burial sites on several islands in 1898-99 and coined the term "Cycladic civilization"
Interest lagged, then picked up in the mid-20th century, as collectors competed for the modern-looking figures that seemed so
similar to sculpture by Jean Arp or Constantine Brancusi.
Sites were looted and a brisk trade in forgeries arose, but more accurate archaeology revealed the broad outlines of a farming
and seafaring culture that had immigrated from Asia Minor ca 5000 BCE. Early Cycladic culture evolved in three phases, between ca 3300 - 2000
BCE, when it was increasingly swamped in the rising influence of Minoan Crete.
In recent decades the Cyclades islands have become extremely popular with European
and other tourists, and as a result there have been problems with erosion, pollution, and water shortages.
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