In the beginning of the Middle Cycladic period the ceramic production includes wheelmade fine vases with red, brown and black burnished surfaces. Spouted bowls and egg-shaped pithoi constitute pure Cycladic shapes of this category while the bowls with a high stem imitate the respective shape of the Minyan pottery of mainland Greece. The rim or body of the vases is decorated with white, brown or scarsely black paint. Basic decorative motifs are the linear patterns (lines, semicircles, spirals), while at the end of the Middle Cycladic period leaf-shaped designs as well as bird representations appear. The vases with parallel grooves constitute a particular ceramic ware.

The most typical ceramic category of the Middle Cycladic period are the so-called white vases made of extremely pure clay, thin walls, opaque or yellowish surface and painted matt brownish black decoration. From the middle of this period and particularly from its end, the painted decoration of the white vases is enrichened with red burnished themes consisting the so-called Black and Red style. Bowls, simple or beak-spouted jugs, bird jugs and pithoi are decorated with abstract curvilinear or floral themes which suggest the Cretan vases of the Middle Minoan II-III periods as far as their themes and disposition are concerned. Less frequently iconographic themes such as birds, dolphins, lions, etc. are painted. At the end of the Middle Cycladic period the so-called later regional pottery is manufactured at Phylakopi on Melos. Its characteristic vase is the semiglobular cup. This category is related to the white vases and is a sign of the Late Cycladic I pottery of Melos.