The "Keros Hoard": Myth or Reality? Searching for the Lost Pieces of a Puzzle

Peggy Sotirakopoulou

Keros, a small, now-deserted island in the southeast Cyclades, became well known in the 1950s and early 1960s after a series of clandestine excavations―concentrated on the site of Kavos―took place. These lootings resulted in the illegal export from Greece of a large number of Early Cycladic objects that flooded the international antiquities market under the general name the "Keros Hoard." The cache was said to have included at least 350 objects, now widely dispersed.

This study features a review of the archaeological investigations on Keros and a catalogue of the objects identified as coming from the hoard. Also included are comparisons of the fragments in the Museum of Cycladic Art, Athens, and those discovered at Kavos during official excavations; and the results of the laboratory analyses of samples taken from the fragments in the Museum of Cycladic Art and in the Getty Museum.

Peggy Sotirakopoulou is a curator at the Museum of Cycladic Art.

456 pages
8 1/4 x 11 inches
350 b/w illustrations
78 tables
3 maps, 1 diagram
ISBN 978-0-89236-837-2
paperback

Getty Publications
Imprint: J. Paul Getty Museum

2006