[1] The significant Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Cycladic culture is best known for its schematic flat female (and, rarely, male) figurines of uncertain purpose carved out of the islands' pure white marble.

[2] A distinctive Neolithic culture amalgamating Anatolian and mainland Greek elements arose in the western Aegean in the third millennium BC based on emmer and wild-type barley, sheep and goats, pigs, and tuna that were apparently speared from small boats (Rutter).

[citation needed] Excavated sites include Chalandriani, Phylakopi, Skarkos, Saliagos, Amorgos, Naxos and Kephala (on Kea), which showed signs of copper-working.

[4]Kea is the location of a Bronze Age settlement at the site now called Ayia Irini, which reached its height in the Late Minoan and Early Mycenaean eras (1600–1400 BC).

[citation needed] Exceptions to this were Kea, Naxos and Delos; the last of these retained its archaic reputation as a sanctuary through the period of Classical Greek civilization (see Delian League).

The initial archaeological excavations of the 1880s, undertaken by antiquaries such as Theodore Bent,[9] were followed by systematic work by the British School at Athens and by Christos Tsountas, who investigated burial sites on several islands in 1898–99 and coined the term "Cycladic civilization".

[7] While there are no discovered surviving boats from this time and place, other types of archaeological finds have helped historians piece together evidence of a rich seafaring practice in Cycladic culture.

The pan pictured in this section, as well as others that archaeologists have found, depicts a ship, which is indicative of the importance of seafaring to Cycladic peoples.

It has been suggested that around 90% of the figures we know of were looted or removed from their original locations in a unscientific manner, resulting in the loss of context with which to build a proper historical narrative.

This has helped archaeologists and scholars to properly identify forgeries with more accuracy, as well as to trace certain artifacts back to their original locations more accurately.