Crossword Genius

Like an ancient civilisation on fringes of Argive Greece, Anatolian? (6)

Ross

I believe the answer is:

aegean

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'fringes of argive greece anatolian?' is the definition.
Although both the answer and definition are singular nouns, I cannot understand how one could define the other.

'like an ancient civilisation on' is the wordplay.
'like' becomes 'eg' (I've seen this in other clues).
'an' becomes 'a'.
'ancient civilisation' becomes 'ean' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'on' indicates putting letters inside (as in clothing 'on' a person).
'a'+'ean'='aean'
'eg' inserted into 'aean' is 'AEGEAN'.

Can you help me to learn more?

(Other definitions for aegean that I've seen before include "Sea around Lesbos" , "Part of the Mediterranean Sea" , "area of sea" , "Greek-Turkish sea" , "Sea bordering 20 ac" .)

I've seen this clue in The Times.
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