Thinking back over my early years in Cyprus working in Cypriot Archaeology, one of the standout moments happened when I literally stumbled upon a unique artifact: a fist-sized stone with incised diagonal decoration on one side and the clear sculpted features of a human face on the other. It was a stone head carved out …
All human beings are all animals, right? (Well, okay, each one of us knows certain individuals who might better be labled as “vegetables” but…) If somebody asked you to list some important characteristics that differentiate humans from all other animals, including other primates, there are many obvious choices. However, here is one that probably did …
Roundabout 1979, it was announced in Cyprus that a new motorway would be constructed between the capital Nicosia (okay, “Lefkosia” if you must) and Limassol. First reactions to this news were almost universally positive: no longer would it take a grueling 1.5 hours to drive between these two major towns, but instead, once completed, the …
A couple of years after starting to excavate in the fields next to the highway, we encountered a massive square-shaped stone towards the northern side of “Building X” at Ayios Dhimitrios. It was found lying just under the top soil, entirely within the plow zone, and rested over a pit-like depression in a plaster floor. …
From my own personal perspective, some of the most memorable and rewarding experiences came working during the 1980s on Alison South’s excavation project at the Late Bronze Age settlement of Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios (K-AD). It is now more than thirty years later, so more than a few details are lost in the blur of time passed …
Looking-Down Syndrome Always look at the ground you walk over: That’s what I habitually do, a natural condition resulting from doing archaeological survey for several years in the 1980s. Survey archaeology does not often involve excavation. It’s all about surface reconnaissance: walking over the landscape, ideally over freshly plowed, cultivated fieds, but often just over …
This is a rare example of a burial deposit dating to the earliest phase of the Late Bronze Age (Late Cypriot IA). Excavations took place adjacent to the Mosque near the village centre in September 1984 during the rescue operations connected to the installation of underground telephone cables along the village streets. (For more …
One of the great stories hovering over southern Cyprus concerns the legend of St Helena and the Holy Cross. According to all versions of the local legend, some of the events recounted in the story happened in and around the Vasilikos River, one of the great historic river valleys of the island’s South Coast. …
