Amathus: Department and Limassol Museum necropolis rescues, 1988–2005

Directed by

• Eleni Procopiou1992

• Department of Antiquities of CyprusSponsor
• Limassol District MuseumHost

1. 1988

   Several tombs of the Eastern necropolis of Amathonte, found during construction works and excavated by the Department of Antiquities. Finds include a Bichrome III jug, an Eastern Greek skyphos, a Bichrome IV lid, a White Painted bowl, bronze and iron objects, a silver Apis pendant, faience amulets, an Egyptian alabaster and a terracotta figurine. Material deposited at Limassol Regional Museum. Tombs 542, 544, 545 and 546 with figurines, ivory masks, bowls, jars, jugs, a bronze mirror, a faience scarab and an inscribed jar (figure captions only; text on p. 804 ...

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2. 1989

   Numerous tombs excavated, as in the previous fifteen years; the furnishings were deposited in the Limassol Regional Museum. Significant objects include gold earrings, ivory rings, a scarab, bronze arrowheads, Red Slip jugs, an albastron, a faience bowl and a Bichrome V amphoriskos. Figure captions list finds with Am. inventory numbers: bronze arrowhead, earrings, terracotta lamp, faience objects, Red Slip and Bichrome V vessels, alabaster vase, terracotta alabastron, faience bowl.

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3. 1991

   52 new tombs (nos 595–646) discovered in 1991 because of continuing tourist development in the Western and Eastern necropoleis; most had been looted, but many objects from Chypro-Geometric III to Roman times were found, including terracottas, stone, metal objects, and faience scarabs or amulets. Illustrations of tomb objects from Amathonte tombs 602, 603, 604, 605, 617, 646, 607 and 619 (figs 17–29). Tomb groups from Amathonte: bronze fibulae, a silver ring with white-paste bezel, bone tubular objects and pin, numerous faience scarabs and Egyptianizing amulets, from tombs numbered 601 to ...

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4. 1992

   Rescue excavation in the East Necropolis, prompted by tourist development. Most tombs had been looted, but offerings from Cypro-Geometric to Roman times were found, including a terracotta mask (tomb 649/19 + 20) and a fragmentary naiskos model (tomb 649/39), and further material from tombs 650/44, 650/45, 651/19, 651/73 and 651/76. Objects found in the East Necropolis at Kaokalla, near the shore, in a tomb described as unusual for Cyprus: a Red Slip dinos with its bowl lid, a Bichrome IV crater containing child bones, a White Painted IV amphorisque and ... Rescue excavation of a large cremation-urn cemetery damaged by illegal construction. Hundreds of funerary vases (dinoi and amphorae), calcined bones, scarabs, alabaster vases, silver, bronze and iron objects (fibulae, earrings, rings, horse blinkers). Pre-study dating: late Cypro-Geometric to early Cypro-Archaic; some Phoenician ceramics. Finds from tombs 650/44, 650/45, 651/19, 651/76 and 651/73: a faience bowl or dish with rosette, a Bichrome VII jug with bull's head relief, a gold earring, a gold ring and a gold snake-shaped hair-ring. Objects from an unusual tomb near the shore: Red Slip II (IV) dinos with bowl used as its lid, a Bichrome IV crater containing child bones, a White Painted IV amphorisque, a clay support with a tubular arm-shaped projection, a stone mortar and a White Painted IV jug.

   Directed by Eléni Prokopiou[4]

5. 1993

   Eleven new tombs (nos 656–666) excavated in 1993 in the Western necropolis; large quantity of material from Cypro-Geometric I to the Roman period. Tomb 656 (LM 1537) yielded a White Painted amphora (656/7) and a moulded glass amphoriskos (656/65), both Hellenistic.

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6. 1994

   Twenty-six new tombs (nos 667–692) excavated in 1994 in the Amathonte necropolis. Tombs looted but yielded much material from the Cypro-Geometric to the Roman period. Illustrated: Bichrome IV jug (LM 1612/20), Bichrome IV amphorisque (LM 1613/1), terracotta horse and rider (LM 1618/5), terracotta model of a woman bathing a baby (LM 1618/9), faience Bes pendant (1619/22). Emergency excavation named among those in the Limassol region in 1994; no further details given in this passage.

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7. 2001Summer 2001

   Emergency excavation of many tombs, most already looted; yielded local and imported (Near Eastern and Aegean) objects dated Cypro-Geometric to Roman. Listed finds include Euboean skyphos, terracotta figurines, Bichrome and White Painted vessels, Phoenician flasks, faience Bes amulet. Emergency excavation of many tombs, mostly looted, with local and imported objects; material dated from the Cypro-Archaic to the Roman period. No individual objects are listed for this hill. Catalogue of objects with museum numbers AM. T. 722, 730, 752, 773, 790, 805, 703, 708, 712, 716, 728 (Cypro-Geometric to Cypro-Classical figurines, vessels, a gold plaquette, a faience amulet, a Phoenician composite vase and a warship model). Each entry gives an A.M. registration year from 1946 to 2066 (the year of the registration number, not a fieldwork year).

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8. 2005

   Tombs 779, 792, 793 and 773 were excavated during widening of the seafront road and were looted. Finds mentioned: a jug with spout of the 'Amathonte style' (779), a glass alabastron (792), a White Painted I kalathos with three handles of the early Geometric period (793), and a jug with pinched mouth decorated with lotus (773). Tomb 777 discovered during construction of buildings near the Western necropolis; besides ordinary Cypriot pottery it yielded an Ionian cup (T. 777/32 [2]; h. 8.6 cm; diam. 13.8 cm).

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