30th anniversary celebrates Cycladic life 5000 years ago

As part of its 30th anniversary, the Museum of Cycladic Art will open a new exhibition next month titled  "Cycladic Society: 5,000 years ago" which will explore aspects of day to day life, such as the structure of Proto-Cycladic societies, their beliefs, occupations, hierarchy and their natural environment.

According to museum director Prof. Nikos Stampolidis there are many things about that period in human history that still remains shrouded in mystery and a plethora of valuable information that can provide clues and be interpreted.

"For the museum's 30th anniversary, I proposed a teaching exhibition that shows what Protocycladic society was really like; it has been misunderstood because its art has been associated mainly with artists of the 20th and 21st century. This happens because until now we have no written reports, not from inscriptions, nor in documents. Only the Cycladic art stands as a silent witness, helping us read a writing that did not exist for their society," Stampolidis said.

The exhibition will include items from the museum's own collection, as well as 138 Cycladic antiquities on loan from the National Archaeological Museum, the Kanellopoulos Museum and the archaeological museums of Naxos, Apeiranthos, Paros and Syros, after the Central Archaeological Council gave the all clear.

In addition to the many Cycladic idols reflecting all periods and expressions of art in prehistoric island society, the Apeiranthos Museum will also contribute two rock paintings, one depicting a ceremonial dance and the second a hunt. The exhibition will be further enriched by ceramic and ceremonial vessels, animal figurines, pyxis (jewellery boxes), jewellery, bronze hooks, bone pins, shells and pottery spindles.

The exhibition will run until March 2017.

For more information visit:  www.cycladic.gr/