ExcavationForeign missions

Hala Sultan Tekke: the Swedish Mission of Gothenburg University (1971–1987)

Name: Hala Sultan Tekke: the Swedish Mission of Gothenburg University (1971–1987)
Start: 1971
End: 1987

1971–1987 · Hala Sultan Tekke

Also known as Swedish mission, Hala Sultan Tekke; Mission suédoise de Hala Sultan Tekké

The University of Gothenburg's campaigns at Hala Sultan Tekke under Paul Åström, 1971 to 1987: a Late Bronze Age port town with ashlar buildings, a street with a central drain, wells, Tomb 23 and offshore stone anchors.

Map of Cyprus

Where the work took place

Ground above 200, 500, 1,000 m

Site

1Hala Sultan Tekke

Modern coastline (OpenStreetMap) and relief (Copernicus DEM).

The project

Between 1971 and 1987 the University of Gothenburg's mission under Paul Åström uncovered streets, ashlar buildings, wells and a rich burial in the Late Bronze Age port town at Hala Sultan Tekke, west of the mosque beside the Larnaca Salt Lake^1,2. The University of Gothenburg was the sponsor, and a magnetometer survey in 1972 was carried out by R. E. Linington of Fondazione Lerici³.

Soundings and the first campaigns

The mission began in June 1971 with soundings and a survey of the ground west of the mosque, to establish an archaeological survey of the site, using surface survey, aerial photographs and soil sampling¹. Trench 1 held a sherd deposit including Mycenaean IIIA:2, Trench 2 a house wall dated to LC IIC:1, and Trench 3 a well with copper slag, charcoal, bones and pottery of about 1200 BC¹. The same season studied and inventoried at the Cyprus Museum the material of the earlier British excavations¹.

The 1972 campaign, from 28 August to 30 September, dug at locations chosen after Linington's survey, which had flagged anomalies that might be courts, streets, houses, wells or hearths³. It found a large probable LC IIIA building with a paved room and a sculpted stone interpreted as a possible altar, and a well dated about 1375 with Mycenaean IIIA2a-b, Red Lustrous Wheel-made, Base Ring II and White Slip II pottery³. The 1972 report put the settlement at probably 20 to 40 hectares; Nicolaou's report of the same work gave 20 to 24^3,4. In 1973 a courtyard with an inner room was considered a possible sanctuary, and an inscribed clay ball carried four Cypro-Minoan signs⁵. The annual chronicle reports that the Swedish mission had to interrupt its 1974 campaign at the time of the Turkish invasion and leave the island, and that stores belonging to several foreign missions were looted, without saying which⁶.

In 1973 offshore exploration between Cape Kiti and Cape Greco recorded Late Bronze Age stone anchors, a Roman lead anchor, and jars assigned to Phoenician, Archaic, Late Classical, Hellenistic and Roman periods; a Byzantine settlement was located at Cape Kiti⁵.

Areas 6, 8 and 22

Fischer writes that Linington's results facilitated Åström's decision to concentrate on Area 8, where he excavated intermittently for almost four decades, mainly on the 12th-century BCE occupation⁷. Strandberg-Olofsson counted and weighed the sherds from the 1972 work, which gave 10,600 sherds weighing c. 233 kg from Area 8⁷. Trial trenches in the northern part of Area 6 in 1972, 1976 and 1977 gave small finds and hardly any interpretable structures⁷. In Area 6 a destruction deposit of ash was dated in the 1977 report to the end of LC IIIA1, about 1175 BC⁸.

The campaign of 1975 further excavated a large building dated about 1200 BC, with a paved room with sandstone orthostats and a half-square well holding drinking cups, seeds and fish bones⁹. Two LC II chamber tombs, previously plundered according to the report, yielded pottery and a hematite cylinder seal⁹. In Area 22 the 1976 work excavated rooms with ash, bronze tools, faience and carnelian beads and Canaanite jars, and a Mycenaean IIIA:2 sherd showing an acrobat on a bull; one well was 15.15 m deep¹⁰. Area 22 gave at least eleven rooms dated LC IIIA1 (1190 to 1175 BC)⁸. In Area 8 in 1977 a large courtyard, rooms and wells were found, the floor partly covered with crushed purple shells, and a faience papyrus-shaped sceptre head with the cartouche of Horemheb lay in a room with an ivory comb⁸. A hoard found near the surface in 1978 held 24 objects of gold, bronze, agate, carnelian, steatite and faience, including gold pendants with incised figures¹¹. Two pendant plaques from that excavation carry the inventory numbers N1157j and N1157k¹².

In 1979 the campaign exposed a courtyard with four rooms, dated to the beginning of the 12th century BC and separated from the rest of the town by a street and a long wall¹³. Outside the houses lay a rich burial with jewellery, a bronze dagger and arrowheads, bronze vessels, an 86 cm bronze trident and a large ivory box, which the report dates to the first half of the 12th century BC and does not number¹³. Tomb 23, an undisturbed intramural LC III shaft tomb with rich gifts for a single male aged 30 to 40, was found in 1979 by Peter M. Fischer through electromagnetic prospecting; Karin Niklasson excavated it and dated it to LC IIIA¹⁴. Karageorghis reports it as dated to the transition between LC IIIA1 and LC IIIA2, about 1175 BC¹⁵.

The 1980 campaign revealed a north-south street about 4 m wide with a central drain, houses and wells, and an ashlar wall thought to belong to a public building; finds included a gilded bronze bull's head and a Hittite-style cuneiform seal¹⁶. Underground-detection radar located walls and traced the street for about 50 m, a use the annual report calls the first in the Mediterranean¹⁶. Fischer reports that the radar survey found older structures beneath the latest settlement in Area 8^7,17. In 1981 the mission investigated a new quarter west of a wide street, where an ashlar house held a silver cup with an alphabetic cuneiform inscription and a gold ring¹⁸. Niklasson and Åström directed the 1982 and 1983 campaigns^19,20. They exposed a four-room building with ashlar masonry and three lead ingots in a wall, then storerooms and a vessel fragment imported from Troy^19,20.

The last campaigns and the publications

The 1986 season was a study season for publication, not excavation²¹. In April 1987 a campaign dug west of central sector 8 to find the town's western extent; stratigraphic soundings in a courtyard found no construction earlier than LC IIIA1 at that spot, though Middle and Late Cypriot sherds were recovered².

Fischer, who directs the later expedition, writes of the significance of the SIMA publications on Hala Sultan Tekke⁷. The results were published as Hala Sultan Tekke 1 to 9 in Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 45, from Hala Sultan Tekke 1: Excavations 1897–1971 (1976) to Hala Sultan Tekke 9: Trenches 1972–1987 with an Index for Volumes 1–9 (1989)^22,23,24.

Directors and team

Directed by

Paul Åström1971–1987
Karin Niklasson1982–1983
R. E. Linington (magnetometer survey)1972

Team

Peter M. Fischer1977
Lena Söderhjelm1979

Institutions

University of GothenburgSponsor
Fondazione LericiFunder

Seasons

15 seasons

1971June 1971
Soundings and survey: Trench 1 a sherd heap with Myc. IIIA:2; Trench 2 a house wall of LC IIC:1; Trench 3 a well full of workshop debris with copper slag, c. 1200 BC; tombs, wells and a stone anchor noted; town wall conjectured; samples taken; the old British excavation material inventoried at the Cyprus Museum.
Directed by Paul Åström[5]
197228 August - 30 September 1972
Site shown to be occupied into the 12th century BC; two ash layers (c. 1190 and c. 1175) suggest destructions; a large LC IIIA building with a sculpted altar stone; a well of c. 1375 with Mycenaean IIIA2, Base Ring II and White Slip II; magnetometer survey; underwater search found Classical-Byzantine sherds and Bronze Age stone anchors.
Directed by P. Astrom[11]
197316 July - 11 August 1973
Continued the sector dug in 1971–72: a courtyard with inner room possibly a sanctuary, Canaanite jars, incised stelae, a well with LC IIC pottery and human bones, a Cypro-Minoan inscribed clay ball, and two ash layers linked to early 11th century destructions. Continued the 1972 exploration of the sea off the Tekke: Late Bronze Age stone anchors, a Roman lead anchor and Phoenician, Archaic, Late Classical, Hellenistic and Roman jars; a Byzantine settlement was located at Cape Kiti.
Directed by P. Åström[19]
1974
Swedish, American and French missions at these four sites had to break off their campaign at the moment of the invasion and leave the island; other missions due to dig in autumn could not. Stores of several foreign missions were looted, which will make publication very difficult.
[20]
197516 June - 1 August 1975
Fifth campaign: large building c. 1200 BC with paved room and sandstone orthostats, half-square well with drinking cups and fish bones, courtyard with votive anchor, store and kitchen rooms, Cretan-type bathtub; two plundered LC II chamber tombs with a hematite cylinder seal; wells with two ash layers; stone arrowhead mould, two jars with Cypro-Minoan signs.
Directed by Paul Astrom[21]
197615 June-2 July 1976
Sixth campaign: new rooms in sector 22 (bronze shovel, needle, faience and carnelian beads, Canaanite jars, LC III ash layer, stepped base block, Mycenaean IIIA:2 sherd with acrobat on a bull); LC III ash layer in sector 6 re-explored (bull figurine, painted sherds); several wells up to 15.15 m deep with LC IIC-IIIA pottery; underwater survey off Cape Kiti lighthouse found stone anchors and possible ship outlines.
Directed by P. Astrom[9]
1977
LC IIIA1 destruction c. 1175 BCE; eleven rooms in sector 22, Minoan IIIB stirrup jar, krater fragment with a bull-leaper, inscribed Cypro-Minoan weight; sector 8 court with purple-shell floor, bronze pruning-hook, ivory comb and a faience papyrus sceptre head with Horemheb's cartouche.
Directed by P. Åström[12]
1978
Ash layer in a room east of Area 8 with LC IIIA1 pottery (c. 1190–1175 BCE) and later Proto-White Painted reoccupation; a hoard of 24 gold, bronze, agate, carnelian, steatite and faience objects including gold leaf pendants with incised figures (c. 1500 BCE); further work in Area 22: Mycenaean IIIA krater fragment with bull-leaper, rhytons, imported alabaster bowl, lead sling bullets.
Directed by P. Åström[23]
1979
Early 12th-century BC court building with four rooms, Canaanite jars, lamp, faience scarab, sling bullets; a rich burial outside the houses with lapis, agate and gold beads, bronze dagger, arrowheads, bronze cup, jug and pan, a 86 cm bronze trident and an ivory box.
Directed by P. Åström[25]
1980
Tenth campaign: 4 m wide north-south street with central drain, houses with a well and a sunk jar, ashlar wall of a public building; finds include gilded bronze bull's head, steatite seal, faience scarab, a Hittite-style cuneiform 'scribe' seal. Ground-penetrating radar used for the first time in the Mediterranean.
Directed by P. Åström[26]
1981
New town quarter west of a wide street: ashlar house with courtyard, Canaanite jars, a palm-and-animal amphora, lead objects, Late Minoan vase; silver cup with alphabetic cuneiform inscription, gold ring, stone seat and conical stone vessel.
Directed by P. Åström[29]
1982
A fine four-room building with courtyard, ashlar masonry, lead used in metalworking, Egyptian gaming pieces and scarab, Canaanite jars and a sherd with horse, dolphin and bird; early 12th century BC.
Directed by P. Åström, K. Niklasson[31]
1983
Thirteenth campaign on the Late Bronze Age port town near the Salt Lake: fine ashlar walls, storerooms of the early 12th century BC with Canaanite jars, a main N-S street, water channels, stepped bases, a vase imported from Troy and a krater with double axe and hippocamps.
Directed by P. Åström, K. Niklasson[32]
1984
Listed among the missions that dug in 1984, with no entry in the body: the Swedish mission of Goteborg University at Hala Sultan Tekke, and the Ecole francaise d'Athenes underwater campaign in the ancient harbour of Amathus.
Directed by P. Astrom, J.-Y. Empereur[33]
1987April 1987
West of central sector 8: building complexes, one with stone pier bases, lentoid flasks and pilgrim flasks, Canaanite jars; stratigraphic soundings in a court found nothing before LC IIIA1 but Middle and Late Cypriot sherds, an Egyptian scarab, a Mycenaean chariot-krater fragment and a breast-shaped bronze weight.
Directed by P. Åström[34]

What was found

Periods

Features and finds

Trench 1; Trench 2; Trench 3 well; LC IIIA building; altar stone; courtyard sanctuary; well; inscribed clay ball; large building c. 1200 BC; wells; chamber tombs; sector 22; sector 6; sector 8; Area 8; Area 22; hoard of 24 objects; court building; burial with trident; street; ashlar wall; ground radar survey.

Publications

16 items

Annual reports of the Department of Antiquities

Archaeology in Cyprus 1987–1997

Chronique des fouilles (Bulletin de correspondance hellénique)

Other projects of the Swedish Cyprus Expedition · 22

10 more

Other fieldwork at Hala Sultan Tekke · 9

References

1.V. Karageorghis, 1972, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1971, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 96.
2.V. Karageorghis, 1988, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1987, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 112.
3.V. Karageorghis, 1973, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1972, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 97.
4.Kyriakos Nicolaou, 1973, Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1972, American Journal of Archaeology 77.
5.V. Karageorghis, 1974, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1973, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 98.
6.V. Karageorghis, 1975, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1974, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 99.
7.Peter M. Fischer, 2012, SIMA and the new Swedish Cyprus Expedition at Hala Sultan Tekke, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 137 (Webb and Frankel eds), Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology: Fifty Years On.
8.V. Karageorghis, 1978, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1977, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 102.
9.V. Karageorghis, 1976, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1975, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 100.
10.V. Karageorghis, 1977, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1976, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 101.
11.V. Karageorghis, 1979, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1978, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 103.
12.Margarita Kontomichali, 2002, Les plaquettes métalliques à décor figuré. Origines, iconographie et destination, Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 32.
13.V. Karageorghis, 1980, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1979, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 104.
14.Peter M. Fischer, Teresa Bürge, 2017, Tombs and Offering Pits at the Late Bronze Age Metropolis of Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus, Journal of Field Archaeology.
15.Vassos Karageorghis, 2000, Cultural Innovations in Cyprus Relating to the Sea Peoples, The Sea Peoples and Their World.
16.V. Karageorghis, 1981, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1980, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 105.
17.Kyriakos Nicolaou, 1981, Archaeology in Cyprus, 1976–80.
18.V. Karageorghis, 1982, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1981, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 106.
19.V. Karageorghis, 1983, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1982, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 107.
20.V. Karageorghis, 1984, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1983, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 108.
21.V. Karageorghis, 1987, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1986, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 111.
22.P. Åström, D. M. Bailey, V. Karageorghis, 1976, Hala Sultan Tekke 1: Excavations 1897–1971, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 45:1.
23.P. Åström, 1989, Hala Sultan Tekke 9: Trenches 1972–1987 with an Index for Volumes 1–9, Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 45:9.
24.Eric M. Meyers, 1997, The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East.

Sources

1.An Aegean Mirror from Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus, p. 153.
2.The New Swedish Cyprus Expedition 2020 (The Söderberg Expedition): Excavations in the Cemetery of Hala Sultan Tekke, p. 98.
3.The Aegean and Cyprus: Interaction Between Two Distinct Cultural Mediterranean Areas from the Third Millennium to ca. 1200 BC, p. 200; p. 424.
4.Tombs and Offering Pits at the Late Bronze Age Metropolis of Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus, p. 163.
5.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1971, p. 63; p. 1066.
6.Deutschland und das antike Zypern. Beiträge zur Geschichte einer archäologischen Disziplin.
7.Cypriot Material Culture Studies from Picrolite Carving to Proskynitaria Analysis. Proceedings of the 8th Annual Postgraduate Cypriot Archaeology Conference (POCA 2008, Brussels), p. XVI.
8.Handmade burnished wares of the Late Bronze Age in Cyprus, p. 144.
9.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1976, p. 753; p. 48.
10.Greek and Cypriot Pottery: A Review of Scientific Studies, p. 618.
11.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1972, p. 659; pp. 60–61.
12.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1977, p. 879; p. 36.
13.Paleo-environmental evolution of the Larnaca Salt Lakes (Cyprus) and the relationship to second millennium BC settlement, p. 1.
14.View from the Bronze Age: Mycenaean and Phoenician Discoveries at Kition, p. 14.
15.Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1972, p. 427.
16.Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1973, p. 129.
17.The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, p. 462.
18.The Swedish Cyprus Expedition: The Cyprus collections in Stockholm and the Swedish excavations after the SCE, p. 419.
19.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1973, pp. 51–52; p. 52; p. 870.
20.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1974, p. 2.
21.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1975, p. 46; p. 883.
22.SIMA and the New Swedish Cyprus Expedition at Hala Sultan Tekke, p. 6.
23.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1978, p. 29.
24.Les plaquettes métalliques à décor figuré. Origines, iconographie et destination, p. 196.
25.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1979, p. 24.
26.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1980, pp. 24–25; p. 967.
27.Archaeology in Cyprus, 1976–80, p. 53.
28.Archaeology in Cyprus, p. 323.
29.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1981, p. 718; p. 35.
30.Recent developments in Cypriot prehistoric archaeology, p. 46.
31.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1982, p. 21; p. 924.
32.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1983, p. 53; p. 944.
33.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1984, p. 2.
34.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1987, pp. 33–35.
35.Archaeology in Cyprus 1987–1997, p. 7; p. 142.
36.Chronique d'archéologie chypriote, p. 49.
37.Archaeology in Cyprus, 1981–85, p. 70.
38.Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1977–1978, p. 66.
39.1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed, p. 135.
40.Compte rendu et réflexions sur le colloque international "Cypriote Stone Sculpture" tenu à Liège et Bruxelles du 17 au 19 mai 1993, p. 43.
41.The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment, p. 265.
42.Prehistoric Cypriot Skulls: A medico-anthropological, archaeological and micro-analytical investigation, p. 51.
43.Ugarit, Zypern und Ägäis: Kulturbeziehungen im zweiten Jahrtausend v.Chr., p. 351.
44.Late Bronze Age news from Cyprus, 1971–1973, p. 165.
45.Cultural Innovations in Cyprus Relating to the Sea Peoples, p. 265.