Cycladic islands

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. 

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). 

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.

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. 

In a description of natural colours, Vitruvius (first century BC) states that Paraetonium white gets its name from the place where it is dug up. The same is the case with melinum [ Melian white ], because there is said to be a mine of it in Melos, one of the islands of the Cyclades. Phny (77 AD) states that melinum came from Melos and that a similar material was found in Samos but was not used by painters because it was too greasy . 

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