Cyclades

Arsenical copper alloys were widely used in antiquity, and arsenical copper finds have been reported in such places, among others, as the Dead Sea area in Israel, the Cyclades Islands in the Aegean Sea, and South America (Renfrew 1967 Lechtman and Klein 1999). The compositions of some arsenical coppers are listed in Table 47. 

Renfrew, C. (1967), Cycladic metallurgy and the Aegean early Bronze Age, Am. ]. Archaeol. 71,1-20. 

Renfrew, C. (1972). The Emergence of Civilisation the Cyclades and the Aegean in the Third Millennium BC. Methuen, London. 

Chabas, A. and Lefevre, R. A. (2000). Chemistry and microscopy of atmospheric particulates at Delos (Cyclades-Greece). Atmospheric Environment 34 225-238. 

Apart from the Minoans and, later, the Mycenaeans, the Early Cycladic people played an important part in the development of Mediterranean metallurgy. In fact, the Cycladic islands of the central Aegean came into extraordinary prominence in the third millennium B.C. The islands were the home of a flourishing culture with prominent settlements, a rather abundant population, well-developed pottery, and striking achievements in marble sculpture. Production of silver, lead (5), and copper from their ores was developed early, along with a rather vigorous trade. 

Early Bronze Age. Our work on the Early Bronze Age metal sources started as an investigation of the sources of lead and silver for the Early Cycladic people (5). The result of this work, as shown in Figure 5, was proof that the dominant source of silver and lead for the Early Bronze Age Cyclades was the Cycladic island of Siphnos, and that in the later part of the Early Bronze Age the Laurion lead-silver deposits also provided these metals (16). 

Figures 6 and 7 show the lead isotope data for the Kythnos Hoard, a hoard of Early Cycladic tools now held in the British Museum (48), and Early Cycladic daggers from the Ashmoleum Museum collection. All tools from the Kythnos Hoard and 12 out of 17 daggers from Amorgos were consistent with the lead isotope ratio characteristic for Kythnian slag and ore, as seen by comparing Figures 6 and 7.

Accidental smelting of arsenical copper was likely wherever copper was smelted and the ores used happened to contain some arsenic. The widespread early use of arsenical copper could possibly be the result of accidental independent invention in many different copper-producing centers. So far, there is no evidence that copper was produced on Kythnos before or after Early Cycladic II times. 

Turning to another important Cycladic site, the settlement of Kastri on Syros, first excavated by Tsountas (49) and systematically excavated later by Bossert (50), occupies the uppermost part of a barren tongue-shaped hill, surrounded by deep ravines. Across a very steep ravine from Kastri lies the... 

Figure 5. Lead isotope compositions of Early Cycladic lead and silver artifacts.

Many authors have referred to the occurrence of Early Cycladic tin bronze artifacts (e.g. 48, 52), but a closer examination shows that the only tin bronze objects from proven Early Cycladic contexts are those from Kastri on Syros (6, pp. 41-42). Tin bronze was not found at all in our analyses of 31 Early Cycladic objects from Amorgos, Paros, Kythnos, and Chalandriani on Syros (53). 

Figure 6. Lead isotope compositions for the Kythnos Hoard and Early Cycladic copper-based alloy artifacts from Amorgos.

Figure 9. Lead isotope compositions for Early Bronze Age copper-based alloy artifacts from Troy II and artifacts from Kastri and Chalandriani on Cycladic island of Syros. The lead isotope fields indicated by broken lines are approximate. Model ages calculated in millions of years on the basis of Cummings and Richards (1975) model Jit are indicated for each grouping of lead isotope data. (Reproduced with permission from ref. 6. Copyright 1984 Basil Blackwell...

Figure 17. Lead isotope compositions for Late Bronze Age copper alloy objects from Aghia Irini on the Cycladic island of Keos.

Figure 18. Lead isotope composition of the Late Bronze Age objects from the Cycladic island of Thera.

ECIIIA Early Cycladic IIIA LMIIIA2 Late Minoan IIIA2... 

Doumas, C. Early Bronze Age Burial Habits in the Cyclades (SIMA XLVII) Paul Astroms Goteborg, 1972. 

Papathanassopoulous, G. Neolithic and Cycladic Civilisation Melissa Athens, 1981 pp 124-125. 

Sterflinger K, de Baer R, de Hoog GS, de Wachter R, Krumbein WE, Haase G Coniosporium perforans and C. appollinis, two new rock inhabiting fungi isolated from marble in the Sanctuary of Delos (Cyclades, Greece). Antonie Van Leeuwenhoek 1997 72 349-363. 

Brbcker M. and Enders M. (2001) Unusual bulk-rock compositions in eclogite-facies rocks from Syros and Tinos (Cyclades, Greece) implications for U-Pb zircon geochronology. Chem. Geol. 175, 581-603. 

BrockerM., Kreuzer H., Matthews A., and OkruschM. (1993) " Ar/ Ar and oxygen isotope studies of polymetamorphism from Tinos Island, Cycladic blueschist belt, Greece. J. Metamorph. Geol. 11, 223-240. 

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