In the 1960s the director of the American School of Classical Studies in Athens, John Caskey, excavated a mycaenean sanctuary at Ayia Irene, on the island of Keos (east of Attika). In the adyton (the most secret part of the sanctuary) he discovered fifty clay statues of standing women.

The Keos ladies were made between 1550 and 1450 BCE and they measure between 0.80 and 1.60 m. high. Their clothes were painted yellow, their bodies white and the lips of their mouths red. Although we do not know their exact function, it is certain that they were sacred to the worshipers of the sanctuary. Nowadays, most of them are preserved in pieces in the Keos museum.

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