Maritime communication and trade

The discovery of obsidian on Melos island, in the cave of Frachthi in Argolida, confirms that people were traveling between islands in the Aegean as early as 11000 BC. Some of the earliest known depictions of ships have been found in the Cyclades, and are mainly found as engravings on vases, as petroglyphs in Neolithic settlements, and as three-dimensional clay or lead models.

One of the types of vessels that bear these representations are the so-called “frying-pans,” from the Early Cycladic cemetery of Chalandriani on Syros island. There is no doubt that  the  representations on these vessels are able to tell us something about the long history of shipbuilding and navigation in the Aegean. The typical seafaring vessels were paddled longboats with a high bow (or stern, according to others), usually crowned by a fish.

Obsidian tools from Melos island, on the coast and the hinterland of Asia Minor, Macedonia, and Crete, as well as types of vases from the Cyclades in the wider Aegean region, testify to an extensive network of contacts between the islanders and the many distant regions of the archipelago.

Of great importance in this study was the discovery of a marble figurine’s head of the canonical type, Dokathismata variety, made of Naxian marble, in Miletus. It is confirmed that this product was imported, and its presence in Miletus (at a great distance from the place it was exported from) possibly indicates that it had great social and symbolic value. A very characteristic example  is the case of the settlement on Dhaskalio (a promontory of Keros island), which was built from 10000 tonnes of imported marble from Naxos, indicative of the maritime capabilities of island societies.

Cycladic products were widely circulated in the Aegean, such as the obsidian of Melos, the copper of Kythnos, and the lead and silver of Sifnos island. The popularity of the Cycladic figurines was so significant that they were copied in Crete, creating a local version that scholars refer to as the Koumasa variety. The search for mineral resources and the development of shipbuilding led to the creation of capable vessels that traveled the archipelago as early as the 3rd millennium. The way was now open for cross-cultural contacts, interactions, and the wide-ranging movement of people and ideas.