The Cyprus Institute and British School at Athens Cycladic Field School
Join us for the 2025 season of excavations on Keros, the largest settlement and earliest maritime sanctuary of the Early Bronze Age (2800-2200 BC) in the Cyclades, Greece, and receive training in up-to-the minute micro-excavation techniques and digital recording technologies.
Background of excavations: Until recently, the island of Keros and the adjacent islet of Dhaskalio were the centre of a Bronze Age mystery. Looting in the 1950s and excavations in the 1960s revealed a strange site where broken Early Cycladic marble figurines and other prestige items had been found. Only in very recent years have we begun to understand the nature of this completely unique site.
In 2006-2008, excavations led by Prof Colin Renfrew of the University of Cambridge, defined the nature of the sanctuary and settlement, which feature large and imposing buildings. In 2012-2013, the Keros Island Survey helped us understand the occupation of the rest of the island of Keros and the 2015 survey on the nearby island of Naxos the nature of the wider maritime networks within which Keros was situated. Meanwhile, excavations on Dhaskalio in 2016-2018 revealed extensive monumental walling, an entrance stairway into the site, and extensive metal working.
The construction operation on Dhaskalio would have required a controlled master plan, involving the coordination of a substantial workforce operating under some form of authority. The scale and complexity of the construction project, such as the building of terrace walls and other architectural features, suggest the involvement of at least some skilled labourers and the need for organizational oversight. Given the challenges posed by the rugged terrain and limited resources on the island, the successful execution of such a project would have demanded careful planning, efficient resource management, and coordination among various labour teams. Moreover, the presence of elaborate architectural structures and infrastructure, as evidenced by the terrace walls and other built features, indicates a level of engineering expertise and sophisticated construction techniques. The existence of a some sort of authority overseeing the construction efforts is implied by the cohesive and systematic nature of the building operations. Such an authority would have been responsible for devising the master plan, allocating resources, directing labour teams, and ensuring the co-ordinated completion of construction tasks.
Renfrew first defined the importance of metalworking for understanding what he termed ‘the emergence of civilisation’ in the Aegean in the third millennium BCE. The importance of Keros for metalworking had been apparent for some time, after the analysis of slags collected on the Kavos Promontory in 1987, north of the Special Deposit North. Surprisingly, these slags turned out to be the product of two different smelting processes: ore had been brought from wherever it had been mined (presumably in the western Cyclades) and smelted on Kavos Promontory. This is the only known smelting site in the Cyclades located at a significant distance from ore sources: the normal practice was to smelt near the mines, thus reducing considerably the volume of material, from raw ore to smelted metal. That this was done on Kavos Promontory, in an open area suitable for people to gather, which suggests a public performance of the metalsmiths’ skill. Interestingly, Kavos Promontory was also the location of production of obsidian blades, also potentially in a public act, linking the production of obsidian and metal as resources imported mainly from the western Cyclades). The evidence for metallurgy and obsidian working on Kavos Promontory further emphasised the highly connected nature of the site and its dependence on external resources for its principal functions.
The site can act as a time capsule and an island laboratory for the inception of urbanization in Europe. Due to its importance the project has been the focus of two documentaries (one in the National TV of Greece and one produced by the National Geographic) and various media. Here are some useful links:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdQpvPnnFqo&t=3175s
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2JLdiQUp_MU
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jan/18/complex-engineering-and-metal-work-discovered-beneath-ancient-greek-pyramid
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2011/jun/10/archaeology-mystery-keros-island-greece
Selected bibliography
Renfrew, C., Philaniotou, O., Brodie, N., Gavalas, G. and Boyd, M.J. (eds.) (2013) The Sanctuary on Keros and the Origins of Aegean Ritual Practice, Vol. I: The Settlement at Dhaskalio. Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
Renfrew, C., Philaniotou, O., Brodie, N., Gavalas, G. and Boyd, M.J. (eds.) (2015) The Sanctuary on Keros and the Origins of Aegean Ritual Practice, Vol. II: Kavos and the Special Deposits. Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.
Georgakopoulou, M. (2016) Mobility and Early Bronze Age southern Aegean metal production. In Kiriatzi, E. and Knappett, C. (eds.) Human Mobility and Technological Transfer in the Prehistoric Mediterranean, 46–67. Cambridge, Cambridge University Press.
Georgakopoulou, M. (2023) Different scales of archaeometallurgical research at the sites of Dhaskalio and Kavos on Keros: site survey, excavations, and island‑wide survey. In Nerantzis, N. (ed.) Forging Values: Metals Technologies in the Aegean and beyond from the 4th to the 1st Millennium BCE, 23-39. Bruxelles: CReA-Patrimonie.
Renfrew, C, Boyd, M and Margaritis, E. 2018. Interdisciplinary approaches to the prehistory of Keros, Archaeological Reports 2017-2018, 67-84
Gkouma, M., Tsartsidou, G., Boyd, M.J., Margaritis E., Moutafi I., Renfrew C., 2022. Tracing the missing fragments of Cycladic architecture: a geoethnoarchaeological study on the degradable architectural elements of the Cyclades. Archaeol Anthropol Sci 14, 198. https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-022-01665-5.
Boyd, M.J., R. Doonan, C. Douglas, G. Gavalas, M. Gkouma, C. Halley, B. Hartzler, J. Herbst, H. Indgjerd, A. Krijnen, I. Legaki, E. Margaritis, N. Meyer, I. Moutafi, N. Pirée Iliou, D. Wylie, C. Renfrew, 2021. Open area, open data: advances in reflexive archaeological practice. Journal of Field Archaeology 46.2, 62-80
Current programme of research: In 2025 we begin a new, five-year programme of research, where we will use the latest micro-archaeological excavation techniques and all-digital recording, including dGPS, digital recording on tablets, lidar and digital photogrammetry. We aim to understand how all the different parts of the island were utilised in the Early Bronze Age and develop our understanding of the overall structure, function and date of the site.
The new programme will formally be a co-operative project between the Greek Ministry of Culture (Ephorate of Antiquities of Cyclades - EfAKyk) and the British School at Athens (BSA), with the close collaboration of The Cyprus Institute (CyI). The directors will be Michael Boyd (BSA/CyI), Evi Margaritis (CyI) and Demetris Athanasoulis (EfAKyk). Colin Renfrew has given his enthusiastic support to the project and will continue to advise us as Director Emeritus.
Where։ Keros, Cyclades, Greece [
Download Google Earth kmz file]. All participants will be staying in rented, en suite accommodation at the project base on the nearby island of Kouphonisi.
Length of stay։ 27th April – 7th June 2025
Cost։ The cost of €5,000 will cover programme fees (room and board for 6 weeks, and daily transport costs from project base to the site), instruction fees and tuition fees. The cost for a 3-week stay will be €2,500. For students who require academic credit, an additional amount will apply.
Academic credit: For information on the academic accreditation offered read the
Course Curriculum.
