Hello all! It's time yet again for another travel blog. This year I'm participating in the Keros Survey project, which is run by Cambridge University.

Keros is one of the Cycladic islands off the coast of Greece. It's uninhabited now, but during the Bronze Age, it was the site of not only a major settlement, but also the most unusual deposit of high-status and possibly ritual objects from the Cyclades.

Back in the 60s, archaeologists noted a large deposit of broken Cycladic figurines on the island, at a site called Kavos, in addition to fine pottery and marble artifacts--all of which are goods that indicate high status. Interestingly, all of the artifacts seem to have been broken before they were deposited. In other words, the breaking was intentional, not the result of post-depositional geological processes.

For the past several years, Cambridge has done excavations on the adjacent islet of Dhaskalio, where the archaeologists discovered the largest Bronze Age settlement from this time period (beginning around 2750 BCE and continuing for several hundred years). They also continued excavations at Kavos, uncovering many more fragments of figurines and prestige goods.

Now, archaeologists believe that the deposits at Kavos represent the earliest maritime sanctuary/ritual deposit site in this region. The fact that early peoples were breaking the artifacts before they deposited them at the sanctuary indicates some sort of ritual "burial" of the artifacts. Often, this is done by important people to demonstrate their excess wealth and power. If they can destroy valuable artifacts, it shows everyone what they can afford to lose.

Since this seems to have been a site used by the broad region, including the Cycladic islands and possibly the mainland and Crete, and since the site is only accessible via boat, archaeologists believe this is indicative of the great importance of sailing and maritime culture during the Early Bronze Age in the Aegean. Being able to muster the resources and crew for sailing further indicated the high status of certain "big men" among the community.

Our goal for this project is to explore by pedestrian survey--which in a nutshell is walking in lines looking for artifacts on the ground--the rest of the island of Keros to see to what extent the island was in use during the past. This is the second year of this survey project, so we will be concentrating on the half of the island that wasn't covered last year. I'll keep you posted as the survey progresses!

The photo of this entry shows the islet of Dhaskalio from Keros. The two islands are separated by a narrow channel, which would have been even shallower in antiquity.