Prehistory

According to archaeologists, man began his settlement in the Cycladic islands in the early  Late Neolithic Period, which began about 5,300 years ago. The oldest known settlement in the Cyclades was found on the islet  Saliagos, which is 500 meters from the village of Antiparos and is 100 meters long (from north to south) and 50 meters wide (from east to west). However, since at  Neolithic Period  the sea level was at least 6 meters lower than today, then Saliagos was a low isthmus peninsula that connected Paros with Antiparos.

THE  settlement of Saliagos, traces of which were first identified in 1961 by the curator of antiquities Nikolaos  Zafeiropoulos  brought to light in 1964 by English archaeologists John Evans and Colin Renfriou, covers the entire island and dates back to at least the end of the 5th millennium BC. about. It consisted of rectangular houses with stone foundations, surrounded by a wall. The work of building a defensive wall requires a coordinated collective effort, which proves that in the Cyclades those processes had already begun that would lead later, during the  Early Bronze Age,  in the founding of cities. The inhabitants of the settlement made their tools and the tips of their arrows from obsidian. In fact, it seems that the processing of obsidian was done to a much greater extent than would be justified by local needs, a fact that shows that the settlement of Saliagos was a center of processing and marketing of obsidian of Milos. Its inhabitants were also engaged in fishing, animal husbandry, cereals, pottery and basket weaving. Spoons of mussels, several pickaxes and bone tools, pottery and figurines were also found in Saliago. Of the vessels found in Saliago, most look like fruit bowls. They are made of dark clay and white linear decoration, open, with a straight outline, curved or angular, and have a flat base or, more often, a high leg. Among the figurines found in Saliago is the  "Obese lady of Saliago", the oldest marble figurine ever found in the Cyclades. Samples of these artifacts can be admired at the Museum of Paros. They testify that, although the Neolithic civilization of the Cyclades presents similarities with its contemporaries, especially that of the Peloponnese, it shows a special character in its art.

Unfortunately, very few other sites of the so-called Snake Culture have been rescued. Very little is known about both the society and the religious beliefs of these people and their origins.

Later, during the Early Bronze Age, the culture of the Cyclades acquired a much more intense island character. In the 3rd millennium BC. The great development of culture begins in Paros, Antiparos, but also in  Despotic. Tombs dating back to the period 3000-2500 BC. first discovered in Antiparos in 1883 by an English archaeologist  Bend  and brothers  Swan, who made excavations at the sites of Apantima, Soros and Petalides. Finds from these excavations are exhibited in the Archaeological Museum of Athens. Christos Tsountas also carried out excavations at Despotiko, where he discovered two Early Cycladic cemeteries at Livadi and Zoumbaria and identified the remains of a prehistoric settlement at the site.  Hand mills. He claimed that on these two islands, during the 3rd BC. millennium, the population lived in small settlements located relatively far from each other. Newer excavations were carried out on the island in 1959 by the Archaeological Service, under the director of antiquities Nikolaos Zafeiropoulos. The researches confirmed the size of the Early Cycladic settlements and, in addition, brought to light architectural relics of archaic and Roman times. At the site of Mandra, a Doric-style temple of the historical period was found from white marble, which was studied in 1980. Nevertheless, the existing data for the residence of the Despotic during the historical period are few. That is why the discovered parts of a kouros and the half-finished marble head of a small statuette of the third quarter of the 6th century BC are of great importance. century which is already on display at the Museum of Cycladic and Ancient Greek Art in Athens.