Ayia Varvara-Almyras: discovery survey and rescue, 1982

On 26 July 1982 Walter Fasnacht found remains on the hill of Ayia Varvara-Almyras, about 3 km south of the village of Ayia Varvara, during a walking survey that formed part of an archaeometallurgical inspection under the auspices of John Coleman and Cornell University¹. The survey looked for traces of Bronze Age mining, smelting and melting, possibly connected with the Bronze Age settlement Coleman's team investigated near Alambra¹. It met slag and furnaces, and surface pottery and a small clay figurine pointed to activity beyond the Bronze Age; Peege reports that the furnaces were dated to the first millennium BC, between Cypro-Archaic II and Late Hellenistic¹. With permission from Vassos Karageorghis, Director of the Department of Antiquities, Fasnacht carried out a three-day rescue excavation on 16 to 19 August of furnace 1, which was badly damaged, recording its structure and building materials and seeking to establish its function¹. Peege distinguishes this rescue from the regular investigation of the site, which began in 1988¹, under the Swiss mission.