Cambridge Keros Project (2009)

2009 was a period of intense study for the Cambridge Keros Project, which completed its excavation phase in 2008. In-field study of the pottery – which continued without break through the winter to completion in September 2009 – has clarified the ceramic phases of the excavation as well as the relationship between the two sites excavated – the ritual deposit of broken special material at Kavos and the settlement site at Dhaskalio. The latter can now be shown to have its floruit in the little-known final phase of the Cycladic Early Bronze Age, thus finally bringing this period to the forefront of research. Petrographical studies of the pottery and other material (such as the ubiquitous stone discs) is illuminating the wide contacts of the people of Dhaskalio, and environmental studies (led by Dr Evi Margaritis) have shown the use of the olive, most probably domesticated, at the site – the first clear confirmation at a stratified excavation of this key event in the emergence of Cycladic civilisation.