Rescue excavationDepartment of Antiquities
Akaki-Trounalli: Department tomb rescues
1959–1969 · Akaki
Department of Antiquities rescues of Late Cypriot tombs at Trounalli, Akaki, in 1959 and 1969, including a tomb with two steatite cylinder seals and a Base Ring II pyxis.
Map of Cyprus
Where the work took place
- Ground above 200, 500, 1,000 m
Site
- 1Akaki (approx.)
The project
Two rescues by the Department of Antiquities at Trounalli, Akaki, followed land levelling, in 1959 and 19691,2. The 1959 tomb, an approximately circular chamber, was intact and held four skeletons with Late Cypriot III grave goods, after earlier use in Late Cypriot I and II; its objects are in the Cyprus Museum1. In 1969 two partly looted tombs were recorded. CS. 1572 held local material from Late Cypriot I to III; CS. 1754 held a Base Ring II pyxis and two steatite cylinder seals, which Porada's commentary places around the fourteenth century BCE2. Smith reports that both seals were recarved and that the looted context makes close dating of the recarvings difficult3. Keswani and Knapp argue that the combined tomb material indicates exchange between Akaki, the Troodos mining district and the north-west coast4.
Institutions
Seasons
2 seasons- 1959
Intact LC III chamber tomb found during levelling; four skeletons with four bronze bowls, a miniature clay bathtub, two bucchero jugs, plain jugs and bowls; the chamber had earlier LC I-II use; five earlier tombs already in museum.
- 1969
Two half-looted Late Cypriot tombs levelled up: one with local LC I-III pottery; the other with a Base Ring II pyxis and two Cypriot cylinder seals (lions with robed figure, one with a Cypro-Minoan sign), discussed by Porada.
What was found
Features and finds
inv. 1959/V-12/1; cylinder seals.
Tombs
CS 1572, CS 1754
Publications
2 itemsChronique des fouilles (Bulletin de correspondance hellénique)
References
- 1.V. Karageorghis, 1960, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1959, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 84.
- 2.V. Karageorghis, 1970, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1969, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 94.
- 3.J. S. Smith, 2014, Histories of Cypriot Art through Seal Carving, Critical Approaches to Ancient Near Eastern Art.
- 4.P. S. Keswani, A. B. Knapp, 2003, Bronze Age boundaries and social exchange in north-west Cyprus, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 22.