The Greek Goddess Aphrodite - 'Venus' to the Romans - was born out of the sea off Cyprus but her famous statue, the Venus de Milo, was discovered on the island of Melos. It was made about 2,500 years ago when civilisation on Melos was already 2,000 years old. Professor Colin Renfrew's ten-year excavation reveals the social mechanism whereby the island became a thriving commercial power and relates this mechanism to the development of Greek civilisation as a whole. Re-aired 18 November 1979