Akrotiri-Katalymmata ton Plakoton: the Department excavation of the Early Byzantine church

At Katalymmata ton Plakoton on the Akrotiri peninsula, the Department of Antiquities uncovered a transept basilica measuring 36 m by 29 m, whose south apse held an undisturbed burial in a larnax¹. The site had been located by the 1954 survey of Last and Polykarpou under Megaw; after a 1996 initiative with the British Base authorities, excavations, surveys and legal actions for protection were undertaken with the Department². Excavation began at the western edge of the complex in 2007 under Eleni Procopiou, with the Akrotiri Community Council as a partner and the Graduate European Archaeological Skills Exchange (GrEASE), a Leonardo da Vinci programme, as funder in 2008^2,3. Mary Chamberlain was draughtsman, Elisavet Charalambous supervised the Department's conservation team and Doria Nicolaou was among the Cypriot PhD students^3,4.

The 2008 report described Pi-shaped porticoes, protruding apses and a raised central area, with 20 mosaic panels, mainly geometric, among them a deer composition³. In 2009 the report recorded two transepts, funerary apses, 26 mosaic patterns and a panel of two deer flanking a vessel; the larnax lid had a cross in relief, and the burial held two bronze fibulae, five coins and burnt organic beads⁴. Procopiou dates the burial coins to the first decade of Heraclius' reign, most probably before 617, and a half follis from a foundation trench to 616; she places construction after 616, around 617, and coins from the 2012 season indicate use up to 641^1,2. She interprets Building A as a martyrion, while stressing that only part of the complex was exposed and that any interpretation is tentative^1,2.

In 2013 the team found the atrium and the west part of a second church to its east, Building B, divided into at least three aisles, about 20 m wide and more than 47 m long, though Procopiou calls the plan provisional². Procopiou reported a second atrium, related to the eastern wing, in 2017⁵. A December 2018 announcement of the twelfth season describes new mosaic panels with a Greek inscription, and chancel screens, in the eastern church⁶. The excavations through 2014 are published in Procopiou's chapter in Medieval Cyprus: A Place of Cultural Encounter².