Geronisos (Yeronisos): the Department's exploration and soundings

On the islet of Geronisos, also written Yeronisos, Sophocles Hadjisavvas of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus found Chalcolithic pottery and the remains of a Hellenistic temple, towers and cistern in 1982. The work was an exploration and sounding, and its stated aim was a general investigation of the whole surface of the islet, about 10,000 m², with trenches dug in several areas¹.

The trenches produced numerous prehistoric sherds and stone tools, which the report dates to the Chalcolithic, about 3000 BCE; it says it found no evidence for continuous occupation between the Chalcolithic and the Hellenistic period¹. Across the islet the report records isolated rooms, a cistern for collecting rainwater, rectangular towers, the ruins of a Hellenistic temple and traces of a defensive wall that originally surrounded the island. It describes inscribed Greek pottery, imported pottery and coins of Cleopatra VII, dated by the report to 50 to 32 BCE¹. The report says the islet continued as a military camp in the Roman and Early Christian periods and describes it as a natural fortress protecting the flourishing coastal town opposite; it suggests that lack of water and the isolation of the site were reasons for abandonment¹.

D. J. Symons's survey of archaeology in Cyprus for 1981 to 1985 summarises the exploration in the same terms, describing the island as a military base in the Hellenistic, Roman and Early Christian periods that would have protected the town on the mainland². Hadjisavvas's own report, "An Archaeological survey and Trial Excavations on the Small Island 'Yeronisos', off the Paphos Coast", appeared in the Report of the Director of Antiquities of Cyprus in 1983³.