Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-x4r87 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-25T08:21:14.729Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The oldest maritime sanctuary? Dating the sanctuary at Keros and the Cycladic Early Bronze Age

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 February 2012

Colin Renfrew ,
Michael Boyd  and
Christopher Bronk Ramsey
Colin Renfrew
Affiliation:
1McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK (Email: acr10@cam.ac.uk; mjb235@cam.ac.uk)
Michael Boyd
Affiliation:
1McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, University of Cambridge, Downing Street, Cambridge CB2 3ER, UK (Email: acr10@cam.ac.uk; mjb235@cam.ac.uk)
Christopher Bronk Ramsey
Affiliation:
2Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History of Art, University of Oxford, Dyson Perrins Building, South Parks Road, Oxford OX1 3QY, UK (Email: christopher.ramsey@rlaha.ox.ac.uk)
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The sanctuary on the island of Keros takes the form of deposits of broken marble vessels and figurines, probably brought severally for deposition from elsewhere in the Cyclades. These acts of devotion have now been accurately dated, thanks to Bayesian analyses of the contemporary stratigraphic sequence on the neighbouring islet of Dhaskalio. The period of use—from 2750 to 2300 cal BC—precedes any identified worship of gods in the Aegean and the site is among the earliest ritual destinations only accessible by sea. The authors offer some preliminary thoughts on the definition of these precocious acts of pilgrimage.

Keywords

AegeanCycladesKerosBronze Agefigurinessanctuarypilgrimagecongregationreligion
Type
Research article
Information
Antiquity , Volume 86 , Issue 331 , March 2012 , pp. 144 - 160
Copyright
Copyright © Antiquity Publications Ltd 2012

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Bloch, M. 2010. Is there religion at ç atalhöyúk … or are there just houses?, in Hodder, I. (ed.) Religion in the emergence of civilisation: çatalhöyük as a case study: 146–62. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C. 2009. Bayesian analysis of radiocarbon dates. Radiocarbon 51.1: 337–60.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C., Higham, T.F.G., Owen, D. C., G.|Pike, A.W., & Hedges, R.E.M.. 2002. Radiocarbon dates from the Oxford AMS System: Datelist 31. Archaeometry 44(3 Suppl. 1): 1–149.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C., Higham, T.F.G. & Leach, P.. 2004. Towards high-precision AMS: progress and limitations. Radiocarbon 46.1: 17–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bronk Ramsey, C., Renfrew, C. & Boyd, M. J.. Forthcoming. The radiocarbon determinations, in Renfrew, C., Philaniotou, O., Brodie, N. J., Gavalas, G. & Boyd, M. J. (ed.) The sanctuary at Keros and the origins of Aegean ritual practice: excavations at Dhaskalio and Dhaskalio Kavos, Keros 2006-2008. Volume I. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Broodbank, C. 2000. An island archaeology of the early Cyclades. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Doumas, C. 1964. . Archaiologikon Deltion 19: 409–412.Google Scholar
Dümmler, F. 1886. Mitteilungen von den griechischen Inseln. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts (Athenische Abteilung) 2: 15–46.Google Scholar
Hodder, I. (ed.) 2010. Religion in the emergence of civilisation: çatalhöyük as a case study. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Manning, S. W. 1995. The absolute chronology of the Aegean Early Bronze Age: archaeology, history and radiocarbon (Monographs in Mediterranean Archaeology 1). Sheffield: Sheffield Academic Press.Google Scholar
Manning, S. W. 2008. Some initial wobbly steps towards a Late Neolithic to Early Bronze III radiocarbon chronology for the Cyclades, in Brodie, N., Doole, J., Gavalas, G. & Renfrew, C. (ed.) Horizon. A colloquium on the prehistory of the Cyclades. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Manning, S. W. 2010. Chronology and terminology, in Cline, E. H. (ed.) The Oxford handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3000-1000 BC): 11–28. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Marcus, J. & Flannery, K. V.. 1996. Zapotec civilization. London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Ntinou, M.Forthcoming. The vegetation and the use of timber at the Early Cycladic settlement of Dhaskalio, Kavos: the wood charcoal analysis, in Renfrew, C., Philaniotou, O., Brodie, N. J., Gavalas, G. & Boyd, M. J. (ed.) The sanctuary at Keros and the origins of Aegean ritual practice: excavations at Dhaskalio and Dhaskalio Kavos, Keros 2006-2008. Volume I. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Reimer, P. J., Baillie, M.G.L., Bard, E., Bayliss, A., Beck, J.W., Blackwell, P. G., Bronk Ramsey, C., Buck, C. E., Burr, G. S., Edwards, R. L., Friedrich, M., Grootes, P. M., Guilderson, T. P., Hajdas, I., Heaton, T.J., Hogg, A. G., Hughen, K. A., Kaiser, K. F., Kromer, B., Mccormac, F. G., Manning, S. W., Reimer, R. W., Richards, D. A., Southon, J. R., Talamo, S., Turney, C.S.M., Van Der Plicht, J. & Weyhenmeyer, C.E.. 2009. Intcal09 and Marine09 radiocarbon age calibration curves, 0-50,000 years cal BP. Radiocarbon 51.4: 1111–%50.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1972. The emergence of civilisation: the Cyclades and the Aegean in the third millennium BC. London: Methuen.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1985. The archaeology of cult: the sanctuary at Phylakopi (British School at Athens Supplementary Volumes 18). London: Thames & Hudson.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C. 1994. The archaeology of religion, in Renfrew, C. & Zubrow, E. B. W. (ed.) The ancient mind: 47–54. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, C. 2001. Production and consumption in a sacred economy: the material correlates of high devotional expression at Chaco Canyon. American Antiquity 66 (1): 14–25.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, C. 2007. Appendix C. Radiocarbon dates and absolute chronology, in Renfrew, C., Doumas, C., Marangou, L. & Gavalas, G. (ed.) Keros Dhaskalio Kavos the investigations of 1987-88. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C., Housley, R. & Manning, S.. 2006. The absolute dating of the settlement, in Marangou, L., Renfrew, C., Doumas, C. & Gavalas, G. (ed.) Markiani, Amorgos an Early Bronze Age fortified settlement overview of the 1985-1991 investigations: 71–80. London: British School at Athens.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C., Doumas, C., Marangou, L. & Gavalas, G. (ed.). 2007a. Keros Dhaskalio Kavos the investigations of 1987-88. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Renfrew, C., Philaniotou, O., Brodie, N. & Gavalas, G., Margaritis, E., French, C. & Sotirakopoulou, P.. 2007b. Keros: Dhaskalio and Kavos, Early Cycladic stronghold and ritual centre. Preliminary report of the 2006 and 2007 excavation seasons. Annual of the British School at Athens 102: 103–136.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Renfrew, C., Philaniotou, O., Brodie, N. & Gavalas, G.. 2009. The Early Cycladic settlement at Dhaskalio, Keros: preliminary report of the 2008 excavation season. Annual of the British School at Athens 104: 27–47.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Research Horizons. Island of broken figurines. June 2011: 26–27. Available at: http://www.cam.ac.uk/research/features/island-ofbroken-figurines/ (accessed 8 July 2011).Google Scholar
Rutter, J. 1983. Some observations on the Cyclades in the later third and early second millennia. American Journal of Archaeology 87: 69–76.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rutter, J. 1984. The Early Cycladic III gap: what it is and how to go about filling it without making it go away, in Macgillivray, J. A. & Barber, R. L. N. (ed.) Prehistoric Cyclades: contributions to a workshop on Cycladic chronology: 95–107. Edinburgh: Department of Archaeology, University of Edinburgh.Google Scholar
Schmidt, K. 2007. Göbekli Tepe, in Badisches Landesmusuem Karlsruhe, Die ältesten Monumente der Menschheit: 74–77. Stuttgart: Theiss.Google Scholar
Shady, R., Haas, J. & Cramer, W.. 2001. Dating Caral, a preceramic site in the Supe Valley on the central coast of Peru. Science 292: 723–26.Google Scholar
Shady, R. & Kleihege, C.. 2008. Caral. Lima: Universidad de San Martin de Porres.Google Scholar
Sotirakopoulou, P. 1993. The chronology of the ‘Kastri group’ reconsidered. Annual of the British School at Athens 88: 5–20.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sotirakopoulou, P. Forthcoming. The pottery from Dhaskalio, in Renfrew, C., Philaniotou, O., Brodie, N. J., Gavalas, G. & Boyd, M. J. (ed.) The sanctuary at Keros and the origins of Aegean ritual practice: excavations at Dhaskalio and Dhaskalio Kavos, Keros 2006-2008. Volume IV. Cambridge: McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.Google Scholar
Suess, H. E. 1967. Bristlecone Pine calibration of the radiocarbon timescale from 4100 BC to 1500 BC, in Radioactive dating and methods of low level counting: 143. Vienna: International Atomic Energy Agency.Google Scholar
Wild, E. M., Gauß, W., Forstenpointner, G., Lindblom, M., Smetana, R., Steier, P., Thanheiser, U. & Weninger, F.. 2010. 14C dating of the Early to Late Bronze Age stratigraphic sequence of Aegina Kolonna, Greece. Nuclear Instruments and Methods in Physics Research B 268: 1013–1021.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Zapheiropoulou, P. 1968a. Archaiologikon Deltion 23: 381–83.Google Scholar
Zapheiropoulou, P. 1968b. Cycladic finds from Keros. Athens Annals of Archaeology 1: 97–100.Google Scholar