The excavations, including those of the last five years, of the flourishing Early Cycladic II settlement, Skarkos II, on the island of Ios, have provided valuable evidence for the craft activities of the Early Cycladic communities. They have recovered a) several obsidian workshops; b) two marble workshops seen for the first time in the EBA Cyclades, for the most part producing figurines and marble vessels, respectively; and c) a metal workshop the first known as early as the Keros-Syros culture period.
Skarkos II, being excavated over a wide extent, shows that some buildings served as the combined workshops and residences in the Early Cycladic II period: most likely of the craftsmen themselves and their families. Furthermore, it is also noticeable that two or perhaps more such buildings – each manufacturing different product – were set in specific areas within the densely built settlements, that thereby facilitated their operation. There was, therefore, from early on in the Cyclades a deliberate arrangement of the working spaces, which shows how the community organized these matters within the fabric of the settlement.
With the excavations of important Early Cycladic settlements, such as Skarkos, Kastri, and Dhaskalio, currently in progress, a world is unfolding before our eyes whose complexity we had not envisaged before. Although the authority and power structures of that world were quite different from those of the later palace societies of Crete, one could easily use the same terms for the workshops and workshop areas in the thriving Early Cycladic centers, that is ‘house workshops’ and ‘artisans’ quarters’.
Wednesday, December 11 at 12 pm Eastern Time/7 pm in Greece, Zoom format
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