Daskalio

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Daskalio (Δασκαλειό)
Waters Mediterranean Sea
Archipelago Cyclades
Geographical location 36 ° 53 '  N , 25 ° 36'  E Coordinates: 36 ° 53 '  N , 25 ° 36'  E
Daskalio (Greece)
Daskalio
length 200 m
width 120 m
surface 0.015 km²dep1
Highest elevation 30  m
Residents uninhabited

Daskalio ( Greek Δασκαλειό or Δασκαλιό [ ðaskaˈljɔ ] ( n. Sg. )) Is a now uninhabited small Greek island off Keros in the municipality of Koufonisia in the municipality of Naxos and the Little Cyclades and belongs to the Lesser Cyclades archipelago . In the early Bronze Age in the 3rd millennium BC One of the most important centers of the Cycladic culture was located on the island .

geography

The sparsely vegetated islet is only 80 m west of Keros . It consists of a cone that slopes steeply on all sides.

history

Around 2800 to 2300 BC One of the most important centers of the early period of the Keros-Syros culture from the beginning of the Bronze Age Cycladic culture , Kavos Daskaleio , was located on Daskalio and the neighboring island of Keros . A geoarchaeological study concluded that the coastal level of this area in the early Bronze Age was between 2.5 and 5 m below what it is today, suggesting that Daskalio was associated with keros at that time. During the Kastri phase around 2500 to 2200 BC The inhabitants of Kavos moved to the island of Daskalio because of the more favorable location for the defense. The complete manufacturing process of obsidian blades, the marble processing and the copper smelting have been proven in Kavos Daskaleio . An estimated 100 to 200 people lived in the place. It is considered certain that Kavos Daskaleio belonged to one of the villages specializing in sea trade, as more people lived here than the island of Keros could supply.

In the middle of the 19th century it is mentioned that there are medieval ruins on Daskalio.

In connection with the excavations on Keros in 1963, the archaeologist Christos Doumas swam to Daskalio to explore the islands for a day. He discovered the foundations of a medieval chapel on the tip of the island, which probably dates from the 13th century and was used until the 18th century, as well as some house foundations and a fortification wall. Apart from the chapel, he was able to find few medieval traces, but found numerous early Bronze Age pottery from the 3rd millennium BC. Of the Keros-Syros type .

In the autumn of 1963, Doumas and the then doctoral student Colin Renfrew carried out an inspection , during which surface discoveries were made.In the summer of 1967, on the occasion of the rescue excavations by Photeini Zapheiropoulou in the Kavos field of Keros, an albeit superficial investigation of the tip of the island was undertaken.

Cambridge Keros Project

With the prize money of the 2004 Balzan Prize and with the support of the University of Cambridge and various institutes, foundations and associations, Colin Renfrew, who had already been involved in the first excavation in Kavos as a student in 1963, was able to carry out the most extensive excavation to date in 1987/88 of the Kavos field, organized a large excavation of Daskalio and the site of Kavos on the opposite coast of Keros between 2006 and 2008.

The settlement begins with the Keros-Syros culture , the previous Grotta-Pelos culture cannot be found. The investigations could prove that the objects are of different origins. The findings confirmed the extension of the settlement with an area of ​​0.7 hectares , making it the largest known settlement of the Early Bronze Age on the Cyclades. The central building on the tip of the island, measuring 16 × 4 m, is also the largest building of that time. The building materials are marble and slate , which are suitable for smooth, straight masonry. Both rocks do not occur on Daskalio and Keros, they were probably imported from the islands of Naxos or Schinoussa . In the ceramic shards of the Keros-Syros period, small amounts of ceramics from the Kastri culture mix in a higher discovery horizon . However, their share never exceeds 1%; these are probably not local goods, but imports. A third phase corresponds to finds from the end of the early Cycladic period in Phylakopi on Melos . This is probably also an import product, the material indicates the island of Santorini . Shards of large storage containers (almost 50% of all shards), smaller vessels for liquids, pyxides , vases, bowls, pans and basins were found.

This finding with three continuous phases from the Keros-Syros culture to the end of the early Cycladic period contradicts the previous knowledge about the Cycladic cultures. In other settlements, an interruption in settlement continuity after the Kastri culture was found. Only after around 200 years without any finds did settlement activity start again, with the rise of Phylakopi.

Renfrew published two preliminary reports on the excavation project in 2007 and 2009 in the Annual of the British School at Athens .

literature

  • Cyprian Broodbank: An Island Archeology of the Early Cyclades . Cambridge University Press, 2002, ISBN 0-521-52844-5 . (English)
  • Mariya Ivanova: Fortified settlements in the Balkans, in the Aegean Sea and in Western Anatolia, approx. 5000–2000 BC Chr. Waxmann Verlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8309-1937-7 .
  • Colin Renfrew, Christos Doumas, Lila Marangou, Giorgos Gavelas: Dhaskalio Kavos, Keros: The Investigations of 1987-88. In: NJ Brodie, J. Doole, G. Gavalas, C. Renfrew (Eds.): Horizon - a colloquium on the prehistory of the Cyclades . Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2008, ISBN 978-1-902937-36-6 , pp. 107-113.
  • Panayiota Sotorakopoulou: Dhaskalio Kavos, Keros: The pottery from the Investigations of the 1960s. In: NJ Brodie, J. Doole, G. Gavalas, C. Renfrew (Eds.): Horizon - a colloquium on the prehistory of the Cyclades . Cambridge, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, 2008, ISBN 978-1-902937-36-6 , pp. 115-120.
  • Colin Renfrew et al. a .: Keros - Dhaskelion and Kavos, Early Cycladic Stronghold and Ritual Center. Preliminary Report of the 2006 and 2007 Excavation Seasons. In: The Annual of the British School at Athens . Volume 102 (2007), pp. 103-136 (1st part of the preliminary reports on the Cambridge Keros Project)
  • Colin Renfrew et al. a .: The Early Cycladic Settlement at Dhaskalio, Keros - Preliminary Report of the 2008 Excavation Season. In: The Annual of the British School at Athens. Volume 104 (2009), pp. 27–47 (2nd part of the preliminary reports on the Cambridge Keros Project)

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ H. Hurston, L. Voith, J. Bonanno, J. Foufopoulos, P. Pafilis, E. Valakos, N. Anthony: Effects of fragmentation on genetic diversity in island populations of the Aegean wall lizard Podarcis erhardii (Lacertidae, Reptilia) . In: Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution . No. 52 . Elsevier, 2009, p. 395-405 .
  2. ↑ Ludwig Ross: Travels on the Greek islands of the Aegean Sea . 1843. books.google.de , p. 38, German
  3. ^ Conrad Bursian: Geography of Greece . 1862. books.google.de , pp. 511f, German
  4. ↑ Renfrew 2009, p. 37.