Idalion Survey Project

The Idalion Survey Project walked an 8 km2 zone around Idalion, from the Yialias alluvium through the chalk zone to the pillow lavas, and recorded nine or ten chert sources and two probable Aceramic Neolithic lithic sites^1,2. It was directed by Margaret Morden of the University of Michigan and Sarah Stewart³. Steel records two seasons, 1995 and 1997; Stewart's later accounts give the span as 1995 to 2002^1,3,4.

The project aimed to identify Cypro-Archaic shrine and sanctuary sites previously recorded by Ohnefalsch-Richter, and to locate chert sources and relate them to prehistoric lithic assemblages and to the historic dhoukani (threshing sledge) industry³. Stewart says she hoped the chert finds would be a preliminary to understanding relations with the Aceramic Neolithic and dhoukani lithic industries, and that the project also served as a training programme¹. By her account the survey was limited and pedestrian: crews generally walked 100 m wide transects in quadrats of 1 km, 0.5 km or 0.25 km in about six hours^1,4. Local informants, including some in Alambra village, were interviewed about the dhoukani industry¹.

Stewart reports ten chert sources in 2007, all primary outcrops of Lefkara (Lapithos) opaque or translucent chert on the pillow lava and sedimentary boundary; her 2004 chapter says nine^1,2. A source south of Alambra supplied the village dhoukani industry until the mid 1970s, and the survey found evidence of dhoukani manufacture there, including an in-situ knapping floor². The two probable Aceramic Neolithic sites are a scatter of chert tools and debitage at Perachorio-Moutti, where 72 pieces were collected, and a cave and quarry area at Alambra-Spileos probably used mainly for extraction and tool production; Stewart identified both as Aceramic from blade and core characteristics². The survey also found a number of small prehistoric lithic scatters beside rivers, at lookouts and at chert sources, which cannot be tied conclusively to the Aceramic Neolithic².