Kissonerga-Skalia: the University of Manchester excavations

At Kissonerga-Skalia, a University of Manchester team led by Lindy Crewe uncovered a building complex dated by pottery to MC III to LC IA1, c. 1650–1600 BC, which by the end of the 2015 season had a plan extending over 1100 m2^1,2. The 2014 notice calls it the only known large-scale building of that date found southwest of the Troodos³.

Test trenches and a curving wall

Work began with test trenches in 2007, which revealed preserved Early to Middle Cypriot houses and other structures. The first preliminary report was by Crewe, P. Croft, L. Graham and A. McCarthy^4,5. The team worked at Kissonerga-Skalia, about 300 m from the sea and 7 km north of Paphos, next to Mosphilia at Kissonerga, the ground of the Lemba Archaeological Project⁵. The 2008 season extended the trenches to expose more of the settlement, and the Department of Antiquities report calls the project the first research project to extend prehistoric Kissonerga into the Bronze Age⁴.

In 2008 the trenches exposed a 1.2 m wide curving rubble wall with a plastered circular pit, a free-standing furnace-like structure and rectilinear house footings. Finds included copper fragments, spindle whorls, a loom weight, querns, fauna, and grape and lentil remains⁴. In 2009 the furnace-like structure, about 2 x 2.5 m, was fully uncovered with an upright storage jar in its ashy base, and the report calls it the only example of its kind from the period. A domestic rectilinear building yielded a copper fish hook, copper slag was found, and the curving wall was exposed for about 17 m⁶. The report listed three questions: when the site was founded in the Early Bronze Age, why it was abandoned on the threshold of the Late Bronze Age, and why a coastal rather than inland site was chosen⁶.

The final complex

From 2007 the excavations concentrated on the architecture of the latest occupation, within a single plot, Plot 199^1,5. The complex measured over 550 m2 in the account by Crewe and I. Hill, and about 700 m2 in the notice for July 2012, with walls up to 1.2 m wide and 35 m long, a plastered courtyard with plastered pits, and two sunken storage jars^1,7. In 2013 it stood at about 750 m2, with a wall over 45 m long whose function is uncertain. Finds that year included fine Drab Polished and Red Polished pottery, spindle whorls, gaming stones, and copper chisels and beads⁸. The 2014 season exposed a large MC III to LC IA building over 900 m2, with a floor and, in the south, Philia-phase pits below it. Part of the site was destroyed by machine terracing in the 1970s^3,4. The 2014 notice gives surviving deposits as 0.40 m deep in the north and 0.90 m in the south³.

In the Area B courtyard, Feature 33 is an oval domed installation 2.5 by 1.9 m at the south end. Crewe and Hill argue that it was a drying kiln used in beer production, and they admit that their paper cannot provide concrete evidence for beer production¹. All secure deposits were floated, but the archaeobotanical yield was limited, with a large quantity of fig seeds in the ashy fills of the installation¹. A field school replicated the kiln experimentally, drying malted barley, smoking meat and making beer-like drinks⁷. Crewe notes that the Area B courtyard is one of the largest built spaces known from MC III to LC IA¹.

In Area G2, Feature 699, a 3.1 by 2.4 m built feature with extensive fire-related use, had a miniature bull figurine, KS480, lying on its base beside a damaged ground-stone pestle. The figurine is of hard-fired clay, 45 mm high as preserved and 66 mm long, and Crewe states that its extremities were deliberately broken before deposition². An enclosed room in Area B2 with low benches held dumped fine ware vessels and two sets of deer antlers still attached to cranium². Another find, KS71, is a barrel-shaped chalk object 129 mm high whose function is described as enigmatic¹.

Earlier houses and the 2017 graves

South-east of the complex, Area D has domestic structures dated about EC III to MC II, c. 2100–1800 BC¹. The start of the settlement is dated differently: the 2008 report gives 2400 BC, Crewe 2015 c. 2500 BC, with a flourishing of about 900 years^2,4. In 2012 and 2013 the authors were still awaiting radiocarbon determinations^1,5. Crewe, M. Dalton, Hill and C. Valance reported on the seasons of 2008 to 2010⁵.

The 2017 season found four pit graves in the north, without grave goods and probably Middle Chalcolithic on the sherds. Area P/B2 was explored over 55 m2, and the upper part of a probably Middle Cypriot terracotta figurine with Kissonerga-style impressed decoration, an elaborate hat and triple pierced ears was recovered. The complex then covered over 1,200 m2⁹.