79-85

Some fragments from Keros

Σύμμεικτα

• Ζαφειροπούλου, Φωτεινή

After the transport of the Naxos Museum in the imposing 17th cent, building on the hilltop fort that crowns the city of Naxos and during the arrangement of the magazines a lot of EC fragments from Keros has come to light. Through the innumerable marble and clay fragments some painted sherds have been picked out as more noteworthy (figs. 1 - 5 ). Their decoration is characteristic for the EC II vases, the most typical of which are the sauceboat and the beaked jug. The hatched patterns are the commonest decoration on these vases and sometimes with the addition of one or two strokes the geometrical forms become animal ones as in the related repertory from Palaikastro in Crete or from Phylakopi.The fish too appear not uncommonly on similar vases as a familiar ornamental theme for a marine people.The vases of the Keros-Syros culture are generally dated to the EC II period ; the sherds from Keros with the thick hatched decoration system belong to the latest phase of the period as the lamp from Naxos, AD 17 ( 1961 /62 ) : Meletai, pi. 49a ; it has been found with a pear- shaped vessel, which illustrates the latestexamples of the series. So, it is probable that the clay vessels from Keros thought to be typical for the Keros-Syros culture are continued to the EC III period too. From the neighbouring islet of Daskalio come a duck-askos, characteristic form for the latest phase ; sherds of this same culture Keros-Syros have been found at Raphina in an EH III stratum ; at the not distant Amorgos the Keros-Syros culture occurs as a local variation up to the beginning of MC I period.It is also noteworthy to present here the EC steatite pyxis with the spiral decoration (fig. 8 ). The spiral found throughout the Keros-Syros culture, does not appear only on vessels but on slabs and rocks too, perhaps out of its hidden symbolism. The element of spiral occurs on every EC settlement at Naxos and its neighbouring islets always in connection with the East. It must be characteristically cited that not far from the cemetery of Aï-La at Naxos it has been shown to me a rectangular building with a spiral on the rock at every corner of it ; a path with spirals at distances led to it.

• History and Archaeology

• Αρχαιολογία
• Antiquities

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