History of the Cyclades read certain authors who say that the islands’ population is, of all the regions of Greece, the only original one, and has not been subjected to external admixtures. However, the Cyclades have very often known different destinies. Their natural resources and their potential role as trade-route stopovers has allowed them to be peopled since the Neolithic. Thanks to these assets, they experienced a brilliant cultural flowering in the 3rd millennium BC: the Cycladic civilisation. The proto-historical powers, the Minoans and then the Mycenaeans, made their influence known there. The Cyclades had a new zenith in the Archaic period (8th –
Kea (island) Kea (island) Kea (), also known as Tzia () and in antiquity Keos (, ), is a Greek island in the Cyclades archipelago in the Aegean Sea. Kea is part of the Kea-Kythnos regional unit. The Cyclades Islands are usually defined by laid-back Naxos and Paros, the more bohemian Mykonos and Ios and the picture perfect Santorini. Yet not many have heard of Kea – the closest Cyclades getaway to the mainland, but one that feels much, much further away. It is the island of the Cyclades complex that is closest to Attica (about 1 hour by ferry from Lavrio)