Statues offer clues to Greek isle's past

[Dover]

Statues offer clues to Greek isle's past
Some experts think islanders' religion probably built around fertility cult


Petros Giannakouris / AP file
The Cup-Bearer, a Cycladic figurine of unknown provenance dating between 2800-2200 B.C., is displayed at the N. P. Goulandris Foundation-Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens. A new discovery of smashed marble figurines on an uninhabited Aegean Sea islet has shed new light on the mysterious Cycladic civilization, whose strikingly modern figurines are prized exhibits in museums and collections worldwide.

By Nicholas Paphitis
Updated: 7:25 p.m. CT Jan 2, 2007

ATHENS, Greece - Unlike its larger, postcard-perfect neighbors in the Aegean Sea, Keros is a tiny rocky dump inhabited by a single goatherd. But the barren islet was of major importance to the mysterious Cycladic people, a sophisticated pre-Greek civilization with no written language that flourished 4,500 years ago and produced strikingly modern-looking artwork.

A few miles from the resorts of Mykonos and Santorini, Keros is a repository of art from the seafaring culture whose flat-faced marble statues inspired the work of 20th century masters Pablo Picasso and Henry Moore.

Indeed, more than half of all documented Cycladic figurines in museums and collections worldwide were found on Keros. Now, excavations by a Greek-British archaeology team have unearthed a cache of prehistoric statues — all deliberately broken — that they hope will help solve the Keros riddle..>

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/16418552/

[Dover]

1. I think these two articles and threads should be linked

Vincas of "Old Europe"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=228&topic_id=25936&mesg_id=25936