SoundingDepartment of Antiquities
Dhiorios-Mersineri: Department soundings (1958)
1958 · Dhiorios
H. W. Catling's three-week Department of Antiquities rescue excavation at Mersineri, Dhiorios, in July 1958, which located a pottery factory and its kilns; Catling published it in 1972 as an Early Byzantine factory.
Map of Cyprus
Where the work took place
- Ground above 200, 500, 1,000 m
Site
- 1Dhiorios (approx.)
The project
In July 1958 Hector W. Catling directed a three-week rescue excavation for the Department of Antiquities at Mersineri, between Dhiorios and Ayia Irini, ahead of threatened land clearance1. Exploratory trenches at three points, Areas I to III, exposed buildings, kiln debris and occupation deposits, and nearly 400 sets of sherds were sorted in Nicosia1. Catling describes late Hellenistic and early Roman Imperial fills, then abandonment, then a pottery-factory settlement; in Area I a main room held a deposit of kiln-made cooking pots, casseroles and lids, which he took for the factory's final standard products1. He tentatively suggested that the factory ended around 750 CE and began around 650 CE at the latest1. The 1959 annual account reports traces of at least twelve kilns2. Catling published the excavation in 1972 as "An Early Byzantine pottery factory at Dhiorios in Cyprus" in Levant 41.
Directors and team
Directed by
Institutions
Seasons
1 season- 1958
Soundings before land clearance: settlement first occupied late 1st c. BCE, abandoned, reoccupied after at least four centuries with a thriving pottery industry (at least twelve kilns) until the mid-8th c. CE; stored pottery stock found.
Directed by H. W. Catling[1]
Reported at the time
1 reportThe project as the official records of the time reported it: the colonial Annual Reports, the Cyprus Gazette and the press releases of the Press and Information Office.
- 1958
Trial excavations at a threatened early Christian settlement near Dhiorios recorded a pottery industry with at least twelve kilns, in use as late as the mid-eighth century.
What was found
Periods
- Roman
- Late Antique
Features and finds
12 kilns; pottery store.
Publications
1 itemChronique des fouilles (Bulletin de correspondance hellénique)
Related
Other fieldwork at Dhiorios · 1
References
- 1.H. W. Catling, 1972, An Early Byzantine pottery factory at Dhiorios in Cyprus, Levant 4.
- 2.V. Karageorghis, 1959, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1958, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 83.
Sources
- 1.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1958, p. 26.
- 2.Dioskouroi: Studies presented to W.G. Cavanagh and C.B. Mee on the anniversary of their 30-year joint contribution to Aegean Archaeology, p. 204.
- 3.Levant: Journal of the British School of Archaeology in Jerusalem, Volume IV, p. 1.
- 4.Cyprus: Reports for the Years 1956, 1957 and 1958, Report for 1958, p. 87.
Mentioned in
7 mentionsSites · 1
- Dhiorios
1958
Karageorghis 1959, p. 26; Gallou et al. 2008, p. 204
- Documents · 4listed under Publications
- People · 1listed under Directors and team
- Institutions · 1listed under Institutions
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