Dhenia: the La Trobe excavations at Kafkalla and Mali

At Deneia a survey documented 1286 tomb shafts in three localities, Kafkalla, Kafkalla tis Malis and Mali; the authors judge the original number two to three times higher, many tombs having been destroyed by housing or covered by agriculture¹. The project was directed by David Frankel and Jennifer M. Webb of La Trobe University, with Maria Iacovou of the University of Cyprus^1,2.

The intensive surface survey was carried out in 2003; a Department of Antiquities report by Frankel, Iacovou and Webb on the preliminary survey is titled 2002–2003^1,3. Tomb shafts were located with high-precision GPS, and all visible features and associated ceramics were recorded¹. The directors wanted to trace the size, structure and growth of the cemeteries as indicators of changes in population and in relationships, and they regarded looting as a taphonomic process, akin to those that build the settlement record¹. Because of the number of tombs and the quantity of sherds left in each, a second stage in 2004 sampled both tombs and areas within tombs at Kafkalla¹. Two weeks of sampling produced over 22,000 sherds and partial vessels from 17 tomb chambers, and 1100 diagnostic items were documented in a digital archive¹. Within a fortnight of starting, half the team fell ill with murine typhus; the season was cut short and later work cancelled¹.

At least 764 tombs were cut in the Middle Bronze Age, and none were cut at Kafkalla after that period, though several stayed in use; Mali was the main Late Bronze Age cemetery until the early twelfth century BC¹. The 2004 sample included a small quantity of Late Helladic pottery and a faience cylinder seal of Syrian origin¹. Human bone from Tomb 789 gave a minimum of 46 individuals, 62 per cent of them aged 12 or under¹. Webb and Frankel argue that natural increase alone cannot explain the growth of the cemeteries from the Early to the Middle Bronze Age, and propose a major influx of people early in the Middle Bronze Age¹. The final report is The Bronze Age Cemeteries at Deneia in Cyprus (SIMA 135, 2007)⁴.