Statues offer clues to Greek isle's past

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"We've got hundreds of marble bowl fragments and many dozens of figurine fragments, which don't seem to fit together," said Renfrew, an emeritus professor of archaeology at Cambridge University and former director of the McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research.

"You have a head here, a single foot here, a torso there, some thighs here — and all very deliberately broken. Pieces have been deliberately broken again into small pieces."

The Cycladic culture — a network of small, sometimes fortified farming and fishing settlements that traded with mainland Greece, Crete and Asia Minor — is best known for the elegant figurines: mostly naked, elongated figures with arms folded under their chests. It flourished in 3200-2000 B.C., then was eclipsed by Crete and Mycenaean Greece.

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A group of broken figurines like that found this year is known from private collections formed after the looting. But for the first time, experts can now try to piece a story together from the subtle clues that treasure hunters destroy.

The excavation disproves theories that the artifacts came from cemeteries — as no human bones were found — or were wantonly broken by modern vandals.

"We can say that the breakages are definitely old," Renfrew said. "(The figurines) weren't smashed there because (then) you'd find the bits together. And there's differential weathering, which suggests that not only were they broken elsewhere and brought there, but some of them became weathered elsewhere."

Renfrew believes the figurines — some originally up to a yard high — may have come from sanctuaries throughout the Cyclades. And pottery finds indicate the site could have attracted worshippers from as far away as mainland Greece.

"Maybe at some point in some life cycle, the figurines were ritually smashed and taken to Keros in some ceremony," he said. "It's going to take a while to sort out what's going on."

Experts agree the figurines, which initially had details painted in bright colors, were highly prized in the early bronze age Cyclades, but still don't understand what they were made for. Some 1,400 have survived, although only 40 percent are of known origin, since looters destroyed evidence on the rest.

The figurines were made following a pattern that changed little over 800 years. They have been variously interpreted as depicting gods or venerated ancestors, serving as replacements for human sacrifice, grave goods — even children's toys.

While Renfrew believes they should not be associated with the cemeteries many were found in, he concedes there is little evidence of how they were used in everyday life.

"So there's a lot we have yet to learn," he said. "We may be on the path towards learning now."

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