One of the Broken Cycladic Idols from Keros - Mysterious Ancient Rituals- Museum Reproduction - Ceramic Artifact

Details:
Condition: New, Handmade in Greece.
Height: 14 cm - 5,5 inches
Width: 9,5 cm - 3,7 inches
Length: 4,5 cm - 1,8 inches
Weight: 310 g
A number of intriguing finds alleged to be from the region around Keros. Most impressive among them were broken pieces of marble female figurines, of the type sometimes found in prehistoric graves excavated on the Cyclades.
Bleached white and abstract in form, these carved objects became highly prized among art collectors. Their stark simplicity was venerated by the avant-garde artists of post-war Europe, including Brancusi, Modigliani and Picasso, who called them “magical objects.”
The archaeological site consists of two parts: a large “ritual deposit” of figurines and other objects on a hillside known as Kavos on the west coast of Keros, and a sizable settlement dating to the same period on the tiny island of Dhaskalio, just off the west of Keros.
The two sites were once connected by a narrow strip of land and recent excavations have uncovered the remains of a staircase once added to this crossing. The finds date mainly to 2750-2550 BC, the period known as the Early Bronze Age.
On Dhaskalio, at Kavos, the excavations have recovered more than 500 figurine parts and 2,500 fragments of marble basins, as well as large numbers of drinking cups. The most fascinating aspect of the objects found in the “ritual deposit” is that they were all in pieces. More specifically, single, non-matching fragments of each object: heads of figurines without matching bodies, headless feet or torsos, remnants of stone basins and vases without a single joining piece – and dozens of drinking cups.
Archaeologists are now suggesting that the two areas of the site formed a kind of sanctuary, where offerings were made as part of a ritual which also involved drinking.
Some have been tempted to draw parallels between the figurines and the votive offerings, known in Greek as “tamata”, dedicated to Christian saints or Classical Age deities to pray for healing. This suggests a kind of pilgrimage, and indeed Renfrew imagines visitors spending the night on Dhaskalio after traveling there to participate in the rituals, much as pilgrims would do in more recent times.
There are also comparisons with the famous classical-era sanctuary on Delos, another unlikely island hub, which played host to dramatic religious and geopolitical developments during the Golden Age of Athens as the center of the so-called “Delian League” of Greek cities.
Other features of the Bronze Age goings-on on Keros are less understood: no-one really understands the significance of the female figures, which range from palm-sized to the height of a small child, or why only fragments of them were left there, apparently deliberately broken elsewhere.
The latest discoveries on Keros will add depth to an already colorful picture of island society, more than 1,000 years before the great palaces of Knossos and Mycenae were erected, and over two millennia before the Parthenon was built.
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