Kataliondas-Kourvellos: the University of Geneva excavations

At the foot of the Kourvellos rock knob, the University of Geneva found walls, basins and pits of the Cypro-Classical period that Julien Beck and Patrizia Birchler Emery argue were a rural sanctuary, not the military post first suspected because of the weapons¹. Beck directed two campaigns, in 2010 and 2011, combining excavation with geological and geomorphological exploration^2,3. Beck revisits the hypotheses drawn from the 1972 survey of Kataliondas-Kourvellos, which had suggested a large Neolithic settlement over more than 10 ha³.

In 2010 trenches A to F were opened on the slopes at the base of the knob, and a stone structure, a retaining wall, was found^1,4. In the southwest sector (trenches C and D) the excavators recorded a retaining wall over three metres long, rock-cut steps and circular pits, and rock-cut partition walls up to 50 cm high, with Cypro-Classical stone walls at right angles to them⁴. Under a layer of mixed sediment the walls, basins and pits stood on the bare rock or were cut into it¹. The sediment yielded mainly pottery and metal objects: bronze and iron arrowheads, iron spear or sigynna elements, lead sling bullets and one coin¹. The Cypro-Classical pottery included an Attic red-figure oinochoe and, by minimum vessel count, 47 jugs and 35 local transport amphorae¹. Beck and Birchler Emery attribute the coin to Pumayaton of Kition¹.

Beck and Birchler Emery place most of the Cypro-Classical material in the 4th century BCE, and a small amphora found broken on the floor of a basin in the northwest sector leads them to take the structures as made and used in that period¹. They add that the date of the sanctuary's closure is symptomatic of the passage of Cyprus under Ptolemaic control¹. Birchler Emery and colleagues leave open why a sanctuary stood there, naming the rock knob, the Tamassos-Idalion border and links with metal mining and smelting, the last judged most likely⁵.

The same sediment held hundreds of prehistoric objects, and Beck notes that the Cypro-Classical re-occupation may have disturbed earlier deposits^1,3. Beck dates the Neolithic occupation to the 8th millennium cal BCE, pending more precise dating³. He argues that the broad surface scatter is the product of erosion, and that without in situ levels short or repeated occupation cannot be decided³. The Department of Antiquities notice calls 2011 the second and last season⁴.