Bamboula Report to the Department of Antiquities, 1938

EXCAVATIONS AT KOURION THE BAMBOULA SECOND SEASON

The 1938 season on the Bamboula lasted from the 23d of March to the 11th of June. The season was divided between further work in the area begun in 1937 (lot 270) and soundings in the adjacent lot 256.

Work in trench 4 resulted in the establishment of the limits of rooms 51 and 4l (see A.J.A., 1938, P.263,fig.2) and of another room to the south of 51. This room contained a well built stone pit connecting with an oven; its purpose is not yet clear. We dug under the floor of room 4l. The potsherds show that it was built at the very beginning of Period I (loc.cit.,p.264f,266f,269f).

The northeastern part of trench 2 was extended to include the circuit wall. The wall was examined in detail, revealing a much longer history than was at first suspected. In the Early Bronze Age this area was occupied by a necropolis. At some time not later than the beginning of the L.C.II period there was extensive quarrying to prepare the ground for the circuit wall. The lowest part of one of the tombs escaped demolition; we found Red Polished pottery, a bead, and a few bones in a shallow depression running under the later wall.

The circuit wall was built in the L.C.II period and continued without change until the end of the L.C.III period. It was rebuilt at about 700 B.C., after a period of decay, and was further restored, perhaps during the Ionian Revolt, and in Hellenistic and Roman times. The area outside the wall was filled in in the third century A.D. or later. In all periods except the Roman the wall consisted of a fairly well built outer wall retaining a great mass of loose stones. A fairly well defined depression running down the middle of this stony area suggests a division, the outer half serving as foundation for a superstructure of mud brick, while the inner half was kept open for quick communication between the several parts of the fortress.

Digging below the remains discovered in 1937, but without removing the L.C.II period, we discovered the foundations of earlier houses of the L.C.II period. They had a different orientation from the houses which superseded them. Trench two has given a complete and detailed stratigraphical sequence from the early L.C.II through the L.C.III periods.

Excavations near the western edge of lot 270 brought to light the remains of a house of indeterminate date, Roman or medieval. Digging below these we found scanty traces of walls of the ninth century B.C.(Cypro-Geometric II).

We cleared two tombs on this slope of the Bamboula. One, in lot 270, contained three burial periods. At the bottom we found good Cypriote pottery of early L.C.II date. An intermediate level contained two pots of advanced L.C.II date. The top level, with two skeletons, had only a whetstone, an iron knife, and a bronze fibula of "Sub-myce-naean"type. A second tomb, in lot 256, was contemporary to Period I and a bronze fibula of the "Dovil ware" in trenches 2 and 4. It contained numerous examples of the White Slip and one Base Ring ware bowls.

A road was followed, leading from lot 270 along the top of 256, just below the summit of the Bamboula.

Extensive quarrying since antiquity has removed the top of the hill; there is therefore no hope of recovering the buildings which once may