Kissonerga-Ammoudhia: Department salvage of the plot 280 necropolis

Salvage excavation at plot 280 in Kissonerga-Ammoudhia began after two tombs were noticed during soil removal for building works, and recorded a necropolis of chamber tombs cut into hard havara soil¹. Angelos Papadopoulos directed the work for the Department of Antiquities from 14 August to 13 November 2008¹. It concentrated on the north-east of the plot, where a cluster of around 18 tombs lay at the north corner; the report records 35 tombs, most destroyed or disturbed by machinery¹. The 2009 report says 38 were recorded in 2008². Tombs were drawn and recorded with GPS, and the soil from tomb floors was sieved because beads and other finds were difficult to see; soil heaps from the foundation digging were examined as well¹. The report describes severe damage as the digger removed topsoil, notes that local farmers had earlier removed the upper layer, and records looting and clear evidence of illicit excavation in some monuments¹.

The finds included Drab Polished pottery, an intact tripod offering table, bronze daggers and pins, a picrolite pendant from Tomb 3b and beads, with 14 intact vessels and about seven trays of sherds collected from the soil heaps¹. The report assigns the pottery to the Early/Middle Bronze Age and says further research was needed¹.

Elena Meranou directed a further month in June 2009, aimed at completing the plot before construction of an apartment complex². The team excavated the southern and eastern areas and dug ten test trenches; no more tombs appeared in them at 1.50 m depth². Eight additional Middle Bronze Age tombs were reported, mostly round or oval, about 1.50 by 1.80 m, and between 10 cm and 1.20 m below the surface, with few complete vessels².

Lisa Graham took part in excavating two tombs in 2008 and later analysed ceramics from the 2008–09 work³. Her thesis, which also covers a separate excavation in 2000, argues that the cemetery was probably used from the very early Early Cypriot period through Middle Cypriot II-III³. Graham reports that a final report on the 2008 excavation, with stratigraphic analysis, was in production when she wrote³. She reports the study material held partly in the Archaeological Museum of Paphos and partly in the Cyprus Museum, Nicosia³.