Aphendrika: Kiessel's non-invasive survey

At Aphendrika on the north coast of the Karpas, in the area occupied by Turkey since 1974, the survey of Marko Kiessel and his co-authors recorded a natural harbour bay with a possible quay, 23 Late Roman Amphora 1 rims from the shores and surroundings, and, at Exarkhos, 72 different statuette fragments from the surface^1,2. Kiessel first made observations around the abandoned hamlet in 2011³. In summer 2015 a multi-day heritage-recording workshop covered chamber tombs 1 and 2 at Spilious, where students of Cyprus International University made the drawn documentation under his direction, with no test pits dug³. The prospection in the Aphendrika and Exarkhos plots began in summer 2016, and the main fieldwork ran from 2016 to 2019^1,3. Ahmet M. Saymanlıer and Meray Taluğ are co-authors of the harbour article¹. The work was non-invasive: ground and aerial survey, aerial photography, manual measurement and GPRS measuring, with surface pottery collected, including material from the shallow parts of the bay¹. No excavation was done: Kiessel states that the unresolved political status of North Cyprus makes excavating ancient sites inopportune, and he could not consult the archive of the Republic of Cyprus Department of Antiquities³. The fieldwork took place in occupied territory, without the permission of the Republic of Cyprus. Kiessel names Dr. F. Caner of the Turkish Cypriot antiquities authority in the occupied north, which he calls the Department of Antiquities of North Cyprus, as granting permission for the investigation of 2015–16³. The harbour article lists as partner the Department of Antiquities and Museums of the "Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus" ("TRNC"), an entity recognised only by Turkey¹.

Chamber tombs 1 and 2 at Aphendrika were empty of finds and had been reused for dwelling, with a fireplace in tomb 2; Kiessel reads tomb 1 as a Hellenistic chamber cut over an older Cypro-Geometric or Archaic cave tomb³. In the harbour area the survey documented a possible quay, underground remains that may include a warehouse, a wall considered a possible fortification, and rock-cut grooves possibly associated with hauling ships, though the authors say some identifications and dates remain uncertain¹. They propose an Early Byzantine date for the quay, and assign the majority of 19 of the Late Roman Amphora 1 rims to later forms of the sixth and seventh centuries¹. The authors read eight weight stones, two press beds and three crushing basins as evidence for substantial olive-oil and/or wine production, and interpret Aphendrika as a maritime gateway (emporion)¹. At Exarkhos, most of the sculpture fragments were found in 2017, and Kiessel concludes that the evidence allows a sanctuary of a female deity, probably Astarte-Aphrodite, occupied in Cypro-Archaic II, while noting that surface survey cannot give absolutely reliable results².

Collected sherds from the harbour bay, shallow water and nearby area were transferred to an archaeological depot¹. The harbour article, published in OLBA in 2024, states that a full monograph covering the harbour and all finds, including pre-Byzantine material, is planned¹.