Series·Swedish Cyprus Expedition

Petra tou Limniti

29 field photographs, 42 object photographs · 1929

Sites: Petra tou Limniti, Vouni

This series holds 71 photographs from Petra tou Limniti, a small rocky island off the north-west coast near Vouni. During the excavation of the palace at Vouni, members of the expedition swam across to the island and found the first remains of the Neolithic period known in Cyprus. Alfred Westholm excavated there for two weeks in the summer of 1929. The island is about 150 m long and 30 m wide, with steep north and west sides, and its top can be reached only from the east. On a small plateau he found huts with several phases of occupation, and tools, bowls and idols of flint, stone and bone. The site was published as the first chapter of the expedition's report; it is now dated to the pre-pottery Neolithic.

The 29 field photographs show the stones of the huts during excavation, the island from the west, and a boat with men at its foot. The 42 object photographs show the stone finds by PTL number, among them a mortar (P.T.L.12).

Westholm's notes on Petra tou Limniti are in the notebook DII:3c. See the excavation page and the Kythrea series.

Sources

Gjerstad, E., Lindros, J., Sjöqvist, E. and Westholm, A. 1934. The Swedish Cyprus Expedition: Finds and Results of the Excavations in Cyprus 1927–1931, vol. I. Stockholm, pp. 1–12.
Göransson, K. 2012. 'The Swedish Cyprus Expedition, the Cyprus collections in Stockholm and the Swedish excavations after the SCE'. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 42, p. 407.
Karageorghis, V. et al. 2003. The Cyprus Collections in the Medelhavsmuseet. Nicosia, p. 25.