Cycladic Folded Arm Figurine

Cyclidic female figure with folded arms. Reproduction.,

The ancient Cycladic culture flourished in the islands of the Aegean Sea from c. 3300 to 1100 BCE.[1] Along with the Minoan civilization and Mycenaean Greece, the Cycladic people are counted among the three major Aegean cultures.

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(ine)". 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.