Sentence:  Though the spread of this type of decoration in the <WSD>Aegean</WSD> has not yet been precisely determined , it seems to appear first in the Cyclades , which were among the leading exporters of pottery throughout the century . 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  an arm of the Mediterranean between Greece and Turkey; a main trade route for the ancient civilizations of Crete and Greece and Rome and Persia