Heeey wait...you've got to be kidding me here! So Dhaskalio is actually a semi-natural ziggurat?! Haha!😃
See, I've been writing a book about the Minoans, and one of my conjectures there is that there must be a ziggurat on Thira/Santorini buried sonewhere under the volcanic layers. A Cycladic proto-version would fit my conjecture very well indeed!!!
Reason why: an ancient astronomy researcher called Howard Crowhust (you can find him on YT) did some great work analyzing the Tas Tepeler civilization - the one that spawned all others - in SE Turkey. He found something really intriguing: both Harran and Ur in Mesopotamia are located at specially chosen latitudes. Remember Eratosthenes and his Hellenistic-era use of the height of shadow of a pillar at noon on solstice in two different locations in Egypt to obtain a very good approximation of the Earth's circumference? Well, turns out he merely followed in the footsteps of the Tas Tepeler and early Mesopotamian astronomers from 7-10 millennia earlier. Harran and Ur are both at the latitudes they are for a very good reason: in both places, the height of a pillar and the length of its shadow at solstice noon are whole numbers! It seems inconceivable that a people as ingenious as the Minoans would not have maintained this knowledge. But there is a glaring problem of geography: Crete is simply at the wrong latitude for such calculations. The only place in Greece at the right latitude for that are the Cyclades, conspicouously including both Dhaskalio and Thera/Santorini...
Re: methodically cut figures. You may find it of interest that the Ancient Egyptians used to magically "inactivate" their own statuary once it was no longer in use, in the exact same manner.
(Have been fascinated with Cycladic art ever since first glimpsing an example in a school textbook long ago. Biggest surprise: sets of 3 pairs of eyes on pieces where the paint survived...)
Far as the early figurines, am struck yet again as to just how closely they resemble artifacts from Megalithic Malta; even the Maltese temple layout closely resembles the early female figurines you discuss here.
A "curse" that the early Cycladians labored under: arsenical bronze. Mechanically useful yet beyond toxic. Is seldom mentioned, unclear to me as to why.
One more thing: the measures of the Dhaskalio Pyramid are very interesting (provided the AI I consulted did not hallucinate...) Six steps overall, about 6 steps wide. Well, the oldest Egyptian Pyramid of them all, the Djoser Step Pyramid in Saqqara, happens to also have 6 steps overall; the width of the steps was approx. 3-5 m, but the entire pyramid was originally clad in long since gone polished limestone, just like the ones at Giza! That means it could have been 6 meters overall in both places... (Unfortunately, the 3D reconstruction of the Dhaskalio semi-pyramid is not publicly available so I could not compare directly!) Sure sounds too similar to the measures and marble cladding of the Dhaskalio pyramid. If so, this could well mean that the Cyclades and Egypt were interacting significantly even before the construction of the Pyramids at Giza (Step Pyramid of Saqqara is 1st half of 27th century BCE.) Just sayin'!!!
Heeey wait...you've got to be kidding me here! So Dhaskalio is actually a semi-natural ziggurat?! Haha!😃
See, I've been writing a book about the Minoans, and one of my conjectures there is that there must be a ziggurat on Thira/Santorini buried sonewhere under the volcanic layers. A Cycladic proto-version would fit my conjecture very well indeed!!!
Reason why: an ancient astronomy researcher called Howard Crowhust (you can find him on YT) did some great work analyzing the Tas Tepeler civilization - the one that spawned all others - in SE Turkey. He found something really intriguing: both Harran and Ur in Mesopotamia are located at specially chosen latitudes. Remember Eratosthenes and his Hellenistic-era use of the height of shadow of a pillar at noon on solstice in two different locations in Egypt to obtain a very good approximation of the Earth's circumference? Well, turns out he merely followed in the footsteps of the Tas Tepeler and early Mesopotamian astronomers from 7-10 millennia earlier. Harran and Ur are both at the latitudes they are for a very good reason: in both places, the height of a pillar and the length of its shadow at solstice noon are whole numbers! It seems inconceivable that a people as ingenious as the Minoans would not have maintained this knowledge. But there is a glaring problem of geography: Crete is simply at the wrong latitude for such calculations. The only place in Greece at the right latitude for that are the Cyclades, conspicouously including both Dhaskalio and Thera/Santorini...
Re: methodically cut figures. You may find it of interest that the Ancient Egyptians used to magically "inactivate" their own statuary once it was no longer in use, in the exact same manner.
(Have been fascinated with Cycladic art ever since first glimpsing an example in a school textbook long ago. Biggest surprise: sets of 3 pairs of eyes on pieces where the paint survived...)
Far as the early figurines, am struck yet again as to just how closely they resemble artifacts from Megalithic Malta; even the Maltese temple layout closely resembles the early female figurines you discuss here.
A "curse" that the early Cycladians labored under: arsenical bronze. Mechanically useful yet beyond toxic. Is seldom mentioned, unclear to me as to why.
One more thing: the measures of the Dhaskalio Pyramid are very interesting (provided the AI I consulted did not hallucinate...) Six steps overall, about 6 steps wide. Well, the oldest Egyptian Pyramid of them all, the Djoser Step Pyramid in Saqqara, happens to also have 6 steps overall; the width of the steps was approx. 3-5 m, but the entire pyramid was originally clad in long since gone polished limestone, just like the ones at Giza! That means it could have been 6 meters overall in both places... (Unfortunately, the 3D reconstruction of the Dhaskalio semi-pyramid is not publicly available so I could not compare directly!) Sure sounds too similar to the measures and marble cladding of the Dhaskalio pyramid. If so, this could well mean that the Cyclades and Egypt were interacting significantly even before the construction of the Pyramids at Giza (Step Pyramid of Saqqara is 1st half of 27th century BCE.) Just sayin'!!!