Kalavasos-Kopetra: the University of Missouri survey and excavations

At Kopetra the University of Missouri project documented a settlement of about four hectares, occupied principally in the 6th and early 7th centuries, with six excavation sectors and three churches^1,2. Murray C. McClellan and Marcus Rautman directed five field seasons from 1987 to 1991 for the University of Missouri, with the University of Pennsylvania as co-sponsor^1,3. They set out to record a site threatened by increasing development and to explore questions of cultural change in rural habitation¹. In 1987 the team surveyed the topography and collected surface finds; excavation began in 1988 at Area I, Sirmata, where an eroding basilica stood¹. In 1989 and 1990 the team explored the south church in Area II at length, and in 1991 it made limited excavations in Areas IV, V and VI¹.

At Sirmata the team excavated a three-aisled basilica with an adjoining court and rooms, which Rautman interprets as a small monastery. A crypt beneath the narthex held two tombs³. Rautman dated the basilica to about 600¹. The south church, a three-aisled basilica measuring 9 x 18 m, had mosaics and moulded gypsum-plaster decoration, and a plaster relief of the seated Theotokos with the Christ child; Rautman dated its construction to near the middle of the 6th century^1,3. Area IV was a domestic quarter with evidence of agricultural processing and light industry, Area VI a larger residential building around a paved courtyard, and Area V the north church¹. Rautman and McClellan associated destruction and contraction at the settlement with a crisis around the middle of the 7th century, noting that without direct evidence of external attack the timing would coincide with Arab raids³.

The final report, published in 2003, records 33,230 pottery sherds from the five seasons¹. After study, the survey and excavation materials remaining in Kalavasos were submitted to the Department of Antiquities at the Larnaca District Archaeological Museum¹.