Michael Boyd

• University of Cambridge

This article aims to summarise the results of three periods of fieldwork carried out since 2006. These are the Cambridge Keros Project of 2006–2008, the Keros Island Survey of 2012–2013, and the Keros-Naxos Seaways Project of 2015–2018. Taken together, these form a coherent, large-scale project that aimed to study a maritime landscape in some depth...

Cycladic architecture has been the focus of archaeological, ethnographic and architectural studies, which have produced significant knowledge about the islands’ built environment. Despite the number of published studies, there is little archaeological evidence related to the parts of buildings, such as roofs and second storeys made of degradable ma...

Keros, in the heart of the Cyclades, was the seafaring center of a regional network in the Early Bronze Age. It drew in participants from far and wide in rituals of deposition at its “Special Deposits” and boasted the largest planned and monumental architecture of the period, where early metallurgy was practiced.

This article presents a holistic and reflexive process for archaeological fieldwork from inception to publication. The opportunities afforded by maturing digital techniques allowed fundamental rethinking of field and laboratory practice paradigms. A number of normally unquestioned aspects of archaeological praxis were examined with the goal of reor...

Keros, in the heart of the Cyclades, was the seafaring center of a regional network in the Early Bronze Age. It drew in participants from far and wide in rituals of deposition at its “Special Deposits,” and boasted the largest planned and monumental architecture of the period, where early metallurgy was practiced.

First investigated archaeologically in 1963, it is only with the recent publication of the 2006–2008 excavations that the nature of the Early Bronze Age sanctuary and settlement on Keros is becoming clear. Further investigations – a survey in 2012–2013 and excavations in 2016–2018 – have expanded our knowledge of the sanctuary. This paper sets out...

The origins of religion and ritual in humans have been the focus of centuries of thought in archaeology, anthropology, theology, evolutionary psychology and more. Play and ritual have many aspects in common, and ritual is a key component of the early cult practices that underlie the religious systems of societies in all parts of the world. This boo...

Modern archaeology has amassed considerable evidence for the disposal of the dead through burials, cemeteries and other monuments. Drawing on this body of evidence, this book offers fresh insight into how early human societies conceived of death and the afterlife. The twenty-seven essays in this volume consider the rituals and responses to death in...

Michael J. Boyd. " The Development of the Bronze Age Funerary Landscape of Nichoria". Chapter 15 of "KE-RA-ME-JA: Studies Presented to Cynthia W. Shelmerdine", (Edited by Dimitri Nakassis, Joann Gulizio and Sarah James). INSTAP Academic Press. Prehistory Monographs 46. 28 November 2014. ISBN 13: 9781931534765.

The performance of funerary ritual is one of the hallmarks of the Mycenaean period. The materiality and performative aspects have often been lost in typologies and classificatory approaches concerned with the identity and status of the dead. This paper focuses on the roles of material culture in the spectacle of performance of funerary rites. Strat...

The Settlement at Dhaskalio is the first volume in the series The Sanctuary on Keros: Excavations at Dhaskalio and Dhaskalio Kavos, 2006-2008, edited by Colin Renfrew, Olga Philaniotou, Neil Brodie, Giorgos Gavalas and Michael Boyd. Here the findings are presented from the well-stratified settlement of Dhaskalio, today an islet near the Cycladic is...

The sanctuary on the island of Keros takes the form of deposits of broken marble vessels and figurines, probably brought severally for deposition from elsewhere in the Cyclades. These acts of devotion have now been accurately dated, thanks to Bayesian analyses of the contemporary stratigraphic sequence on the neighbouring islet of Dhaskalio. The pe...

A geophysical survey conducted between 2005 and 2009 at Plataiai in Boiotia has provided valuable information about the plan of the town as a whole, as well as many of its public and private buildings. Important elements of the urban center have been located, including the agora, sanctuaries, a theater, a gymnasium, a water conduit, and possibly a...

Surface and geophysical surveys at Plataiai elucidate the development of the settlement through nearly five millennia. Pottery distribution patterns show that the site was first occupied in the Neolithic and continued in use through the Bronze Age, with a possible hiatus during the Dark Age. The settlement recovered in Archaic and Early Classical t...

Une troisième campagne de prospection géophysique électrique menée à Philippes en septembre 2001 a ajouté 9 ha à la surface déjà couverte. L'interprétation des résultats dans la partie Ouest de la ville montre qu'elle y était organisée en trois rangées d'îlots de même module (environ 27 x 83 m). La première rangée, sur le côté Sud de l'axe directeu...

Une troisieme campagne de prospection geophysique electrique menee a Philippes en septembre 2001 a ajoute 9 ha a la surface deja couverte. L'interpretation des resultats dans la partie Ouest de la ville montre qu'elle y etait organisee en trois rangees d'ilots de meme module (environ 27 x 83 m). La premiere rangee, sur le cote Sud de l'axe directeu...