1984–1985

2

The sites discovered in 1980 which had slag heaps and/or mining shafts in the Lower Pillow Lava zone were revisited (i.e. Pano Panayia-Sarka [80-X-27], Pano Panayia-Kochinoyia [80-X-30], Ayios Nikolaos-Ayios Georgios [80-X-33] and Asproyia-Ayios Sozondas [80-E-54]). Further slag and ore samples have been analyzed at the Department of Metallurgy and Materials Sciences at the University of Toronto by Ms. Susan Zacharias and Professor Ursula M. Franklin. In brief, copper sulfide ores were smelted at these sites using a mature technology consistent with the later Roman/Byzantine date tentatively assigned to the sites based on ceramic evidence. It is not clear whether metallic copper was produced at these sites or only matte.6 Two additional copper refining sites were discovered in 1982 at Ayios Nikolaos-Toupiarki (82-D-2) and at Kato Platres-Kokkinovouno (82-K-1).7

Since many of the sites discovered in 1980 were related to the production of chert flake blades for the manufacture or repair of [handwritten: dhoukanes] or threshing sledges in the nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries A.D., Mr. Fox conducted a series of interviews with the assistance of Mr. David Pearlman as interpreter8 with elderly informants or athkiakadhes who had once made the dhoukanes. These interviews produced vital information on their chert core and flake blade production techniques and on the chert sources that they used.9 As a result of the interviews a number of chert sources were identified which may have been utilized in the prehistoric as well as historic periods.

In as much as southwestern Cyprus until 1974 had received only limited archaeological attention, a comprehensive list of the known sites in the Paphos District did not exist, nor did one for the CPSP study zone. To rectify this situation the author compiled a list of all of the sites and