Archaeology in Cyprus, 1949–1950

Extract

The identification of more Neolithic sites, two on the North coast, six and seven miles east of Kyrenia, throws light on the distribution, and is suggestive of the origin, of the first known settlers on the island.

The publication of the results of the excavations in the Vounous cemetery sponsored by the British School at Athens (E. and J. Stewart, Vounous, 1937–1938. Lund, 1950) offers a wealth of material from the first stage of the Early Bronze Age, which is a valuable complement to that excavated by P. Dikaios and Dr. C. F. A. Schaeffer in the later section of the cemetery.

Several LCII tombs, accidentally discovered at Kalavassos (site Mavrovouni) were excavated by the Antiquities Department. Two of them produced white slip vases of fine quality, which with the other contents are in the Larnaca Museum.

Further campaigns by both Schaeffer and Dikaios carried forward the joint-excavation of the late Bronze Age town site at Enkomi. The grid plan of the street system is beginning to take shape and a new section of the town wall has been laid bare. But both excavators in their 1950 campaigns were mainly occupied with the further investigation of the two impressive buildings, mainly of ashlar construction, previously discovered. Schaeffer recovered evidence of re-use, after a fire, evidently in the twelfth century; and of this period found two seated bronze statuettes, one of them on a throne.