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Trial Excavations at Sotira, site Teppes on behalf of the Pennsylvania University Museum Expedition, Curium. __________
The site of Sotira, called Teppes, lies 5 miles north west of Curium and is an independent hill standing in the middle of a vast depression surrounded by hills of an average height of 1000 feet above sea-level. It holds therefore a commanding position and forms a prominent feature easily identified from all directions (fig. 1 ). The modern village lies in the immediate neighbourhood of the ancient site and is reached by a road branching off from Episkopi-Mallia-Platres highway a little beyond Kandou.
There exist two springs of perennial water, one within the modern village and another rising from an impressive cave a few hundred yards south of the ancient site. In fact the southern slopes of the site end at a ravine at the head of which is the cave-spring.
From the crest of the hill one has a comprehensive view of the vast and impressive basin in which the hill lies and of the surrounding hills, while on the south the coast of Cyprus, the Curium hills and the Akrotiri peninsula with its graceful outlines are clearly visible.
The commanding and naturally defended position of the hill as well as the existence in the close neighbourhood of two perennial springs must account for its choice as a place to settle The slopes chosen for this purpose are the south and south eastern ones while the northern and western ones, being abrupt, remained uninhabited. They were however strengthened with a massive wall (see below).
The importance of the Sotira site in the cultural evolution of the fourth millenium lies in the fact that it yields combed ware which appears also in the last stages of the Khirokitia neolithic settlement. The same ware occurs also at Kalavassos where it is associated with a kind of a habitation partly sunk in the soft rock. It was therefore important to find out what kind of habitation prevailed at Sotira, whether of the Kalavassos or the Khirokitia (tholos) type. In other words would Sotira also show a departure from the traditional tholos type of habitation as did Kalavassos or show that the tholos went on being used following the introduction of pottery during the last stages of Khirokitia? As it will be seen later on in this Report the results of the preliminary investigation show that the prevailing type of habitation at Sotira is the tholos and that therefore there is no break in the island culture following the introduction of pottery (Red lustrous and combed) at the end of the Khirokitia culture. The discovery of the tholos type of habitation in the Erimi settlement which chronologically should be placed after Sotira, shows that despite the new elements the island culture follows a profoundly local tradition. However the problem of the type of habitation occurring at Kalavassos remains unsolved although it is possible that this type may be connected with the people who first introduced pottery into the Island. (1)
The Pennsylvania Expedition showed keen interest in Sotira and decided to grant to the Antiquities Department funds towards a preliminary investigation of the site with the ultimate intention to subsidize large scale excavations in case the site proved interesting. The Department of Antiquities
/accepted
(1) For an account of the 4th millenium cultures in Cyprus, see "Iraq" 1940, p.69 ff.
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