Keros and Daskalio

Keros is an uninhabited Greek island in the Cyclades about 10 km (6 mi) southeast of Naxos. Administratively it is part of the community of Koufonisia.It was an important site to the Cycladic civilization that flourished around 2500 BC. It is now forbidden to land in Keros.

Keros is especially noted for the flat-faced Cycladic marble statues which later inspired the work of Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore.

The “Keros Hoard” is a very large deposit of Cycladic figurines that was found on the island of Keros.

In 2006-2008, the Cambridge Keros Project, co-directed by Colin Renfrew with others, conducted excavations at Kavos on the west coast of the island. This general area is believed to be the source of the so-called “Keros Hoard” of fragmentary Cycladic figurines.
In 2007-2008, the same project identified and excavated a substantial Cycladic period settlement on the nearby island of Daskalio. A large area has been excavated, revealing a substantial building 16 metres long and 4 metres wide — the largest from this period in the Cyclades — within which was discovered the ‘Daskalio hoard’ comprising a chisel, an axe-adze and a shaft-hole axe of copper or bronze. In addition to excavation, survey of the islet showed that most of its surface — a total of 7000 m2 — was occupied during the Early Bronze Age, making this the largest site in the Cyclades.
Complex engineering and metal-work discovered beneath ancient Greek ‘pyramid’
Latest find on Cyclades’ Keros includes evidence of metal-working and suggests the beginnings of an urban centre, say archaeologists (Guardian)