This presentation will examine the emergence of Cycladic marble sculpting traditions, long-range voyaging culture and the rituals centre of Dhaskalio-Kavos on the island of Keros. Since the Upper Palaeolithic and the first evidence of seafaring for Melian obsidian, the geology and maritime environments of the Cyclades have shaped unique patterns of cultural identity and behaviour. During the Neolithic, Naxos and Paros were among the first Cycladic islands to be permanently settled. It is during the period circa 7000 years before present that we see the first signs of a unique relationship with marble beginning to develop. Over the course of 3000 years, marble sculpting became entwined with the organisation of early Cycladic society, and marble artefacts helped to mediate transformation in ecology, settlement dynamics, and identity. A political economy of marble sculpting and artefact circulation helped to coordinate Cycladic society, culminating in a culture of long-range voyaging that connected the Aegean world and helped to catalyse the technological and societal transformations of the Early Bronze Age. This talk will explore how marble sculpting traditions shaped the development of Cycladic cognition and helped to bind together communities of the prehistoric Aegean through ritual practices and monumental construction centred on the island of Keros.

Alexander Aston has been a researcher and lecturer in Cognitive Archaeology at the University of Oxford for nearly a decade. His doctoral thesis, supervised by Lambros Malafouris and examined by Cyprian Broodbank and Chris Gosden, analysed the relationship between Early Cycladic marble sculpting, social cognition and the political economy of the Keros Confederacy. He has excavated on Dhaskalio under the directorship of Colin Renfrew and Michael Boyd, and has published numerous articles on the Prehistoric Cyclades, as well as early hominin evolution and modern history. Alex also has extensive experience as a stone mason, artist and activist focused on issues of community resilience and alternative education.