Thematic tours

The thematic tour Life in the Cyclades 5,000 Years Ago presents Cycladic civilization through a group of objects of remarkable aesthetic quality and technical refinement, dating primarily to the 3rd millennium BC.

Central to the tour are the marble anthropomorphic figurines, mostly female forms—sometimes highly stylized, sometimes more naturalistic, or rendered with idealized proportions—as well as finely crafted marble and clay vessels for everyday and ritual use. Bronze tools and weapons testify to the systematic exploitation of metals and the significant changes in the way of life of island communities during the Early Bronze Age (3200–2000 BC).

Through the creations of the civilization itself, the tour sheds light on the social organization, occupations, natural environment, technical knowledge, as well as the beliefs and cult practices of the inhabitants of the Cyclades.

The thematic tour Wine: The Gift of Dionysus highlights wine as a timeless symbol of civilization, closely associated with pleasure, social cohesion, and status. The origins of viticulture date back to the Neolithic period (5th millennium BC), while from the Bronze Age onward, the presence of numerous related vessels in the Aegean testifies not only to its systematic consumption, but also provides information about production, circulation, and social organization.

In Classical times, the symposium became established as an institution of sociability, playing a central role in shaping social relationships and hierarchies. At the same time, the production and trade of wine became a means of economic power, while its connection to religious practices and cults made wine an integral element of ritual life, a constant companion to human existence from antiquity to the present day.

Keros is today a barren and uninhabited island between Amorgos and Koufonisia. During the 3rd millennium BC, however, it was one of the most important centres in the Aegean. The “Keros Hoard” refers to an enigmatic group of objects from the Early Cycladic culture, comprising at least 350 fragments of marble figurines, along with a small number of marble and clay vessels, obsidian blades, and small objects dating to the Early Cycladic II period (2700–2400/2300 BC). A large part of this material was illicitly trafficked abroad during the 1950s and 1960s; however, 81 fragments have since been repatriated and are now on display at the Museum of Cycladic Art. Their study, combined with excavation data, confirmed their provenance from Keros.

Research at the site of Kavos, beginning in 1963 and carried out systematically from 1987 onwards, showed that this was a place of particular significance, where island communities of the Early Bronze Age deliberately deposited intentionally fragmented objects, as the fragmentation itself took place in antiquity. The discovery of a second, undisturbed deposit strengthened the view that these were ritual, primary deposits rather than burial practices. Combined with the large settlement and metallurgical activity on the neighbouring islet of Daskalio, this led to the interpretation that Kavos functioned as a pan-Cycladic sanctuary, at the centre of a wider network of activity in the Aegean during the 3rd millennium BC.