Book excerpt: Late Neolithic and Early Bronze Age Cycladic culture is best known for its flat female idols carved out of the islands' pure white marble. This beautiful illustrated book explores these periods in Cycladic culture and how the natural environment of the islands shaped its art. It also addresses the settlements of these periods and the artifacts produced by their potters, marble-carvers, and metalworkers. Maps are interspersed throughout the text, along with a chronological table, plans of known settlements, cemeteries, and individual tombs, as well as photographs of archaeological digs and landscapes by well-known photographers. Items from the Museum's Collection are also presented, followed by commentary and comprehensive text that venture at the items' probable significance and functions.