The Marble Finds from Kavos and the Archaeology of Ritual

During the 1960s large numbers of Early Cycladic sculptures of marble, often broken, appeared on the illicit market. These were usually of the strikingly simple form of the folded-arm figure of marble long-known from the Early Cycladic cemeteries. Excavations at Kavos on the island of Keros revealed a location later named the ‘Special Deposit North’, from which these had been looted. During the years 2006-2008 systematic excavations at a location 110m to the south revealed a hitherto undisturbed location, the Special Deposit South, from which hundreds more of these broken Cycladic figures were recovered. This volume describes in detail the marble sculptures and marble vessels, almost always broken in the course of ritual practice, which formed the key part of the systematic depositions undertaken at this time during the Early Bronze Age from ca. 2750-2300 BC. Details of the excavation were reported in Volume II. Here in Volume III the remarkable marble finds from the systematic excavation are fully described and illustrated. The volume offers a systematic discussion of the Special Deposits at Kavos in relation to the adjacent settlement at Dhaskalio, seen in their Aegean perspective at the conclusion of the excavations in 2008. The sanctuary on Keros is recognized as a key site for the emergence of ritual practice in the Aegean.