The Grotta-Pelos culture ( el, Γρόττα-Πηλός) refers to a "cultural" dating system used for part of the early
Bronze Age
The Bronze Age is a historic period, lasting approximately from 3300 BC to 1200 BC, characterized by the use of bronze, the presence of writing in some areas, and other early features of urban civilization. The Bronze Age is the second pri ...
in
Greece
Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...
.
[Eric H. Cline (ed.), ''The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean'', , Jan. 2012.] Specifically, it is the period that marks the beginning of the so-called
Cycladic culture
Cycladic culture (also known as Cycladic civilisation or, chronologically, as Cycladic chronology) was a Bronze Age culture (c. 3200–c. 1050 BC) found throughout the islands of the Cyclades in the Aegean Sea. In chronological terms, it is a re ...
and spans the
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several parts ...
period in the late
4th millennium BC
The 4th millennium BC spanned the years 4000 BC to 3001 BC. Some of the major changes in human culture during this time included the beginning of the Bronze Age and the invention of writing, which played a major role in starting recorded history. ...
(ca. 3300 BC), continuing in the Bronze Age to about 2700 BC.
The term was coined by
Colin Renfrew, who named it after the sites of Grotta and Pelos on the
Cycladic
The Cyclades (; el, Κυκλάδες, ) are an island group in the Aegean Sea, southeast of mainland Greece and a former administrative prefecture of Greece. They are one of the island groups which constitute the Aegean archipelago. The nam ...
islands of
Naxos
Naxos (; el, Νάξος, ) is a Greek island and the largest of the Cyclades. It was the centre of archaic Cycladic culture. The island is famous as a source of emery, a rock rich in corundum, which until modern times was one of the best abr ...
and
Milos
Milos or Melos (; el, label=Modern Greek, Μήλος, Mílos, ; grc, Μῆλος, Mêlos) is a volcanic Greek island in the Aegean Sea, just north of the Sea of Crete. Milos is the southwesternmost island in the Cyclades group.
The ''Venus d ...
, respectively. Other archaeologists prefer a
"chronological" dating system and refer to this period as the Early Cycladic I (ECI).
See also
*
Keros-Syros culture
The Keros-Syros culture is named after two islands in the Cyclades: Keros and Syros. This culture flourished during the Early Cycladic II period (ca 2700-2300 BC) of the Cycladic civilization. The trade relations of this culture spread far and ...
*
Kastri culture
The Kastri culture ( el, Καστρί) refers to a "cultural" dating system used for the Cycladic culture that flourished during the early Bronze Age in Greece.Eric H. Cline (ed.), ''The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean'', , Jan. 2012. It ...
*
Phylakopi I culture
The Phylakopi I culture ( el, Φυλακωπή, ) refers to a "cultural" dating system used for the Cycladic culture that flourished during the early Bronze Age in Greece.Eric H. Cline (ed.), ''The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean'', , Jan. ...
*
History of the Cyclades
The Cyclades (Greek: Κυκλάδες ''Kykládes'') are Greek islands located in the southern part of the Aegean Sea. The archipelago contains some 2,200 islands, islets and rocks; just 33 islands are inhabited. For the ancients, they formed a ci ...
*
Cycladic art
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 therefo ...
External links
The Chronology and Terminology of Aegean Prehistory, Dartmouth Aegean prehistoric archaeology
References
Cyclades
Cycladic civilization
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