Ayia Varvara-Asprokremnos: the EENC project

Excavation at Ayia Varvara-Asprokremnos produced radiocarbon dates that most probably place a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A occupation on Cyprus at about 8800–8630 cal BC¹. The Elaborating Early Neolithic Cyprus (EENC) project, directed in the field by Carole McCartney with Sturt W. Manning of Cornell University, began by investigating central Cyprus in 2005¹. A survey of the zone between the Troodos foothills and the central plain identified 23 sites with potentially early lithics, and Asprokremnos was chosen after survey and auger tests¹. Excavation followed in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2009, with a further season in 2011 directed by McCartney of the University of Cyprus^1,2. The project asked what happened on the island between about 10,000 and 8200 cal BC and whether it had a Pre-Pottery Neolithic A phase¹.

Trenches 02, 04, 06, 09 and 10 formed a continuous dump complex of primary and secondary refuse in natural hollows or channels, with at least three phases of activity recognised¹. The chipped stone includes unidirectional blades, microliths and over 100 complete and broken arrowheads; the ground stone includes grinders used for ochre and a stone vessel painted with ochre¹. In Trench 12, Feature 300 was a hollow shelter with a single posthole, described as probably the earliest architecture currently known on Cyprus¹. Pig dominates the fauna, and no charred plant remains were found, with little sign of plant domestication¹. Six charcoal samples from Trench 06 gave a modelled date of 8841–8686 cal BC at 95.4%¹.

The 2009 season exposed, at the northern end of the site, a semi-subterranean curvilinear structure over 5 m long. A mortar and two stone vessels lay on its floor, and a carved human figurine lay in the burnt soil of a destruction by fire; the report calls the figurine currently the earliest known example of human representation on Cyprus³. Manning, McCartney, Kromer and Stewart argue that the finds imply a forager-led rather than farmer-led process¹. Their synthesis appeared in Antiquity 84 in 2010¹.