Lecture 3: The Cyclades
Additional Resources
Dartmouth's Prehistoric Archaeology of the Aegean contains in-depth lectures on Cycladic history, architecture, and art.
The Goulandris Foundation Museum of Cycladic Art houses an extensive collection of Cycladic figures and other artifacts from the Cyclades.
The article discussed in class by David Gill and Christopher Chippindale, "Material and intellectual consequences of esteem for Cycladic figures," American Journal of Archaeology 97(1993): 602—673, is avaliable on-line here.
The Thera Foundation offers a virtual tour of the frescoes excavated from the site of Akrotiri.
The Wikipedia article on the Theran eruption contains an excellent overview (with detailed references) of the latest developments in the the dating of the eruption, and the implications for our understanding of Minoan history. Likewise, the Wikipedia article on Minoan Chronology is very helpful. It contains a chart that compares the various chronological systems that have been developed to describe Minoan history and archaeological remains, and contains links to other similar charts on the web. As helpful as these charts are, however, they have almost certainly been made obsolete by the latest scientific research, published in the journal Science in 2006. For the latest on these exciting developments, see the e-companion to Sturt W. Manning, A test of time: the volcano of Thera and the chronology and history of the Aegean and east Mediterranean in the mid second millennium BC (Oxford: Oxbow Books, 1999).
Texts of Plato's Timaeus and Critias can be found on the Perseus Project.
Also discussed in class: Sarah Morris's article, "A Tale of Two Cities: The Miniature Fresoes From Thera and the Origins of Greek Poetry," American Journal of Archaeology 93 (1989): 511-535.
