page_title: Cycladic art
section_title: Pottery
hierarchical_section_title: Cycladic art / Pottery
caption_attribution_description: English: Artistic terracotta objects, Museum of Cycladic Culture, Akrotiri excavation artifacts, Santorini, Cyclides, Hellas (Greece)
context_page_description: The ancient Cycladic culture flourished in the islands of the Aegean Sea from c. 3300 to 1100 BCE. Along with the Minoan civilization and Mycenaean Greece, the Cycladic people are counted among the three major Aegean cultures. Cycladic art therefore comprises one of the three main branches of Aegean art.
  The best known type of artwork that has survived is the marble figurine, most commonly a single full-length female figure with arms folded across the front. The type is known to archaeologists as a "FAF" for "folded-arm figure". Apart from a sharply-defined nose, the faces are a smooth blank, although there is evidence on some that they were originally painted. Considerable numbers of these are known, though unfortunately most were removed illicitly from their unrecorded archaeological context, which seems usually to be a burial.
context_section_description: The local clay proved difficult for artists to work with, and the pottery, plates, and vases of this period are seldom above mediocre.  Of some importance are the so-called 'frying pans', which emerged on the island of Syros during the EC II phase.  These are round decorated disks, which were not used for cooking, but perhaps as fertility charms or mirrors. Some zoological figurines and pieces depicting ships have also been found.
  Besides these, other forms of functional pottery have been found. All pottery of early Cycladic civilization was made by hand, and typically was a black or reddish color, though pottery of a pale buff has also been found. The most common shapes are cylindrical boxes, known as pyxides, and collared jars. They are crude in construction, with thick walls and crumbling imperfections, but sometimes feature naturalistic designs reminiscent of the sea-based culture of the Aegean islands.  There are also figurines of animals.
caption: Early terracotta figurines from Santorini (c. 2100 BCE; Museum of Cycladic Culture)
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