Keros (; anciently, Keria or Kereia ()) is an uninhabited and unpopulated

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

island An island or isle is a piece of land, distinct from a continent, completely surrounded by water. There are continental islands, which were formed by being split from a continent by plate tectonics, and oceanic islands, which have never been ...

in the

Cyclades The CYCLADES computer network () was a French research network created in the early 1970s. It was one of the pioneering networks experimenting with the concept of packet switching and, unlike the ARPANET, was explicitly designed to facilitate i ...

about southeast of

Naxos Naxos (; , ) is a Greek island belonging to the Cyclades island group. It is the largest island in the group. It was an important centre during the Bronze Age Cycladic Culture and in the Ancient Greek Archaic Period. The island is famous as ...

. Administratively it is part of the

community A community is a social unit (a group of people) with a shared socially-significant characteristic, such as place, set of norms, culture, religion, values, customs, or identity. Communities may share a sense of place situated in a given g ...

of Koufonisia. It has an area of and its highest point is . It was an important site to the Cycladic civilization that flourished around 2500 BC. It is now forbidden to land on Keros.

Keros hoard

The "Keros Hoard" is a very large deposit of Cycladic figurines that was found on the island of Keros. In 2006–2008, the Cambridge Keros Project, co-directed by

Colin Renfrew Andrew Colin Renfrew, Baron Renfrew of Kaimsthorn, (25 July 1937 – 24 November 2024) was a British archaeologist, paleolinguist and Conservative peer noted for his work on radiocarbon dating, the prehistory of languages, archaeogenetics, ...

with others, conducted excavations at Kavos on the west coast of the island. This general area is believed to be the source of the so-called "Keros Hoard" of fragmentary Cycladic figurines. The material excavated in 2006–2008 includes Cycladic figurines, vessels and other objects made of marble, all broken prior to deposition and most likely broken elsewhere and brought to Kavos for deposition. The lack of joining fragments shows that only a part of the broken material was deposited here, while ongoing studies of the pottery and other material show that material was brought from multiple sources for deposition here.

Daskalio

In 2007–2008, the same project identified and excavated a substantial Cycladic period settlement on the nearby island of Daskalio that was once attached to Keros, but is now a tiny islet because of

sea level rise The sea level has been rising from the end of the last ice age, which was around 20,000 years ago. Between 1901 and 2018, the average sea level rose by , with an increase of per year since the 1970s. This was faster than the sea level had e ...

. A large area has been excavated, revealing a substantial building 16 metres long and 4 metres wide — the largest from this period in the Cyclades — within which was discovered the 'Daskalio hoard' comprising a chisel, an axe-adze and a shaft-hole axe of copper or bronze. In addition to excavation, survey of the islet showed that most of its surface — a total of 7000 square meters — was occupied during the Early Bronze Age, making this the largest site in the Cyclades. Specialist studies for the geomorphology, geology, petrology, ceramic petrology, metallurgy and environmental aspects (botanical and faunal remains, phytoliths) ensued. In 2012, the activities at this site were dated 2750 to 2300 BC, which precedes any identified worship of gods in the Aegean. In 2018, excavations revealed the remains of massive

terraced walls A terraced wall, also a terrace wall, or a terraced retaining wall is a wall that is divided into sections ( terraces) over a slope. Such designs are useful when building on a steep grade. Terraced walls may be built with many different materi ...

and giant gleaming structures on the islet. The structures were built using 1,000 tons of stone, turning the headland, which measures just across, into a single, giant "

step pyramid A step pyramid or stepped pyramid is an architectural structure that uses flat platforms, or steps, receding from the ground up, to achieve a completed shape similar to a geometric pyramid. Step pyramids – typically large and made of several la ...

". Researchers found evidence of complex drainage tunnels and traces of advanced metalworking. The researchers say the remains make the island one of the most impressive archaeological sites of the Aegean Sea during the Early Bronze Age. The excavations show that the headland of Dhaskalio was almost entirely covered by remarkable monuments. Archaeologists believe that ancient Greeks embarked on at least 3,500 maritime voyages to transport between 7,000 and 10,000 tonnes of white marble among islands, in order to construct the aforementioned pyramid. Researchers said that " e island is naturally pyramid-shaped, but one should not refer to the island as a pyramid — a pyramid is a completely artificial construction."4,600-Year-Old Greek 'Pyramid' Found in the Aegean Sea … Is Not a Pyramid at All
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Keros-Syros culture

Keros-Syros culture is named after the two islands in the Cyclades—Keros and

Syros Syros ( ), also known as Siros or Syra, is a Greece, Greek island in the Cyclades, in the Aegean Sea. It is south-east of Athens. The area of the island is and at the 2021 census it had 21,124 inhabitants. The largest towns are Ermoupoli, Ano S ...

. This culture flourished during the Early Cycladic II period (ca 2700-2300 BC). Some of the best preserved sites of this culture are at

Kea The kea ( ; ; ''Nestor notabilis'') is a species of large parrot in the Family (biology), family Strigopidae that is endemic to the forested and alpine regions of the South Island of New Zealand. About long, it is mostly olive-green, with br ...

and

Ios Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

, located not far from Keros. Some of the important artifacts of this culture are the so-called frying pans – shallow circular vessels or bowls with a decorated base. The use of metal became widespread during this period.

References

Bibliography

*Cyprian Broodbank: ''An Island Archaeology of the Early Cyclades''. Cambridge University Press, 2002, *Mariya Ivanova: ''Befestigte Siedlungen auf dem Balkan, in der Ägäis und in Westanatolien, ca. 5000-2000 v. Chr..'' Waxmann Verlag, 2008, * Colin Renfrew, Christos Doumas, Lila Marangou, Giorgos Gavelas: ''Dhaskalio icKavos, Keros: The Investigations of 1987–88''. In: N. J. Brodie, J. Doole, G. Gavalas, C. Renfrew (Hrsg.): ''Horizon – a colloquium on the prehistory of the Cyclades''. Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2008, , S. 107–113 * Panayiota Sotorakopoulou: ''Dhaskalio icKavos, Keros: The pottery from the Investigations of the 1960s''. In: N. J. Brodie, J. Doole, G. Gavalas, C. Renfrew (Hrsg.): ''Horizon – a colloquium on the prehistory of the Cyclades''. Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2008, , S. 115–120 * Colin Renfrew et al.: ''Keros – Dhaskelion icand Kavos, Early Cycladic Stronghold and Ritual Center. Preliminary Report of the 2006 and 2007 Excavation Seasons.'' In: '' The Annual of the British School at Athens'' 102, 2007, S. 103–136 (1. Teil der Vorberichte zum Cambridge Keros Project) * Colin Renfrew et al.: ''The Early Cycladic Settlement at Dhaskalio ic Keros – Preliminary Report of the 2008 Excavation Season.'' In: ''The Annual of the British School at Athens,'' 104, 2009, S. 27–47 (2. Teil der Vorberichte zum Cambridge Keros Project)

External links