Keros, Dhaskalio Kavos: the investigations of 1987–88

Edited by Colin Renfrew, Christos Doumas, Lila Marangou and Giorgos Gavalas

The site of Dhaskalio Kavos, on the remote Cycladic island of Keros, was extensively looted in the late 1950s and early 1960s. Investigations starting in 1963 then revealed large quantities of fractured marble bowls, broken marble figures and smashed pottery of the Early Cycladic period from around 2500 BC. This report of the subsequent survey and rescue excavations of 1987–88 reveals the extraordinary richness of the site, now confirmed as one of the most prolific in elite goods of the entire Aegean Early Bronze Age. Was it an unprecedentedly rich Early Cycladic cemetery, recently wrecked by looters? Or was the damage deliberately produced during Early Bronze Age times in some procedure of ritual breakage and ceremonial deposition? Here the survey of the site and the rescue excavations undertaken within the looted area are documented in detail, with a full account of the finds. Alternative explanations for this extraordinary deposit are explored. What has been termed ‘the Keros Enigma’, in the light of the finds at the site, can now be reconsidered with the full documentation which this volume offers.

• Complete volume – Keros, Dhaskalio Kavos: the investigations of 1987–88
• Chapter 1 – Introduction
• Chapter 2 – Keros and the Neighbouring Islands
• Chapter 3 – Earlier Work
• Chapter 4 – The Objectives and Methods of the 1987 Surface Survey at Dhaskalio Kavos
• Chapter 5 – Trenches Excavated in the Disturbed Area of the Special Deposit
• Chapter 6 – The Pottery
• Chapter 7 – The Figurine Fragments
• Chapter 8 – The Stone Vessels
• Chapter 9 – Other Finds of Stone
• Chapter 10 – Other Finds of Clay
• Chapter 11 – The Metal Finds
• Chapter 12 – Thraumatology
• Chapter 13 – Dhaskalio Kavos as Symbolic Attractor
• References