Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou: the Erimi Archaeological Project

On a hill above the Kouris valley, the Italian mission at Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou uncovered a hilltop workshop of deep rock-cut basins linked by channels¹. The excavators regard the workshop complex as presumably devoted to textile production². The site was found in the 2007–2008 Kouris valley survey, which combined surface material with satellite and aerial photographs¹. Luca Bombardieri, of the University of Florence in 2009, directed the investigation of the site that began in 2008, and the Department of Antiquities licensed the work each year^1,3. A 2017 radiocarbon article dates systematic excavation from 2009 and names the University of Torino as co-sponsor².

The first season, in 2008, found a double circuit wall around the settlement, with ramps and entrances, and three rock-cut tombs with small dromoi in Area E¹. In 2009 the team worked in Areas A, B and E from 17 August to 8 September. Area A produced the workshop and a 27 sq m storage area with sunk pithoi; Area B, a probably domestic terrace, had stone foundations and a floor fireplace; Area E gave two unlooted rock-cut tombs¹. The workshop complex covers about 25 x 25 m in 12 units². Marialucia Amadio suggests that mineralised Boraginaceae nutlets from the double basin area were possibly deliberately processed for dye extraction⁴. Bombardieri and Muti argue that the workshop complex shows textile activities including dyeing³.

Sampling for radiocarbon dating began in 2010, with charcoal and bone sampled in 2010 and 2011². Radiocarbon dates cited by Amadio place the first settlement at c. 1960 BC and the abandonment before Late Cypriot IA, c. 1650 BC⁴. The southern cemetery covers about 2.5 ha, and eleven rock-cut tombs were excavated there in 2008–2014; Affanni counts nine after four campaigns^2,5. Bombardieri's 2017 monograph, Erimi Laonin tou Porakou. A Middle Bronze Age Community in Cyprus. Excavations 2008–2014, appeared as Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 145. In July 2024 the news agency ANSA reported a small sacred space about 4000 years old in the craft workshop⁶.