Kition: Department of Antiquities Rescue Work in the Town and Cemeteries

Team

• Kyriakos Nicolaou
• A. Christodoulou
• Michael Loulloupis
• Emilia Masson

• Department of AntiquitiesSponsor
• Larnaca District MuseumPartner
• Cyprus MuseumPartner

1. 1953

   Forty-one tightly packed tombs located, ten excavated and eight others sampled; mostly 7th-5th c. with bottle-jugs and Syro-Palestinian jars; a Fikellura lekythos and a Phoenician-inscribed pot. Four intercommunicating chambers cleared after discovery in cultivation: cremations in White Painted II-III amphorae and a 6th-c. burial over a Cypro-Geometric III one with sword, knives and gold leaf-shaped frontlets.

   [1]

2. 1958

   Six rock-cut tombs of the 9th to 5th c. BCE explored after levelling: White Painted I-III and Bichrome III vases and a gold band in the earliest, Bichrome and a bronze ring in Archaic tombs, Egyptian faience amulets in a Classical one; goods in Larnaca Museum.

   [2]

3. 1959

   Stratigraphic sherds collected at several house foundations: foundations with Classical to Roman sherds and two bottle-shaped cisterns near the old stadium, the reputed gymnasium area; ruins NW of Bamboula over 8th/7th-century sherds including Samaria ware.

   [4]

4. 1960

   A CG I tomb with White Painted I at Ptochokomion (1960); a Turabi Tekke rock-cut tomb (1961) with a red-figure lekythos of Oedipus and the Sphinx by the Achilles Painter; a CG II tomb at Kaminia with White Painted II, Bichrome II and Black Slip II. New intact tomb found early 1960 while sinking a well in the Public Assistance courtyard: two White Painted I hydriai, a bucchero amphora and a stirrup jar; Cypro-Geometric I, about 1000 BC. Building works exposed a fine wall with Classical and Hellenistic sherds: pointed amphorae, black-glazed Attic ware and two skyphoi bases with the same incised monogram.

   [5], [6]

5. 1961

   Chance-found double rock-cut tomb with two gypsum sarcophagi; Attic red-figure lekythos by the Achilles Painter (Oedipus and the Sphinx), alabaster vases and a marble pyxis; Cypro-Classical.

   Directed by K. Nicolaou[7]

6. 1962

   New Cypro-Archaic II tomb in the large Tourabi cemetery: seven mushroom-lip Bichrome IV jugs, a plain jar, an iron riveted knife and an Egyptian faience-paste amulet (Bes?). New tomb in the early Geometric cemetery with two White Painted I hydriai (one bichrome), a twisted-handle amphora and small conical-footed cups; linked to early Geometric settlement remains found at Chrysopolitissa.

   [8]

7. 1964

   New tomb found in a trench on a building plot, chamber damaged but contents saved: Black Slip I-II jugs, White Painted I-II plates and bowls, two Bichrome I plates and two White Painted II amphorae; a rare Cypro-Geometric II tomb in a mostly CG I cemetery.

   [9]

8. 1966

   Large rectangular vaulted chamber with two burials (Cypro-Archaic I and II): Plain White pottery, a shell-shaped Plain White jar and a Red Slip/Black-on-Red jug of probable Phoenician type, a bronze torque and a scarab. Accidentally found chamber tomb with long stepped dromos: Phoenician sack-shaped jar, two Plain White V torpedo jars, one with an ink Phoenician inscription (read by Avigad as the name Sidqa), saucer lamps, East Greek skyphos sherds, bronze earrings and torque, steatite scarab, glass beads.

   [10]

9. 1967

   In a known necropole: looted Cypro-Archaic II tombs 36 and 41 with Egyptian amulets (Bes, Isis), faience, glass and carnelian beads; large tomb 38 with over twenty-five skeletons, vaulted chamber, limestone sarcophagus, Phoenician amphorae, Samaria-ware plates.

   [11]

10. 1968

    Tomb found by chance in building works, partly looted: Cypro-Archaic I White Painted IV, Bichrome IV, Black-on-Red II, Red Slip II, Plain Ware and cooking pots, with a 'Samaria' bowl and a Bichrome IV jug.

    [12]

11. 1972

    Large built chamber tomb with gypsum slab walls, frieze and five gypsum sarcophagi, robbed for gold but yielding glass, pottery, lamps, coins and bronze mirrors; a small limestone sarcophagus held an intact girl burial with gold earrings and ring. Used from late Classical/Hellenistic to the 11th century AD; site acquired for the Department.

    [13]

12. 1973

    Trenching for houses south of the Kition acropolis yielded many sherds, a dea gravida terracotta and Attic red-figure bell-krater fragments; a white marble frieze fragment with four horses (quadriga) was found by chance in Larnaca.

    [14]

13. 1978

    Five tombs of the known Tourabi cemetery with plain gypsum sarcophagi and ordinary pottery; Bichrome V amphora imitating an Aegean type shown.

    [15]

14. 1981

    Five tombs at the known Tourabi cemetery (Plain White Canaanite and Phoenician amphorae, an Attic lekythos, marble stelae), plus a half-looted Cypro-Geometric I-II tomb at Pervolia excavated in 1980 with a restored amphora.

    [16]

1. 1.A. H. S. Megaw, 1954, Archaeology in Cyprus, 1953, Journal of Hellenic Studies 74.
2. 2.V. Karageorghis, 1973, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1972, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 97.
3. 3.V. Karageorghis, 1959, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1958, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 83.
4. 4.V. Karageorghis, 1961, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1960, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 85.
5. 5.V. Karageorghis, 1962, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1961, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 86.
6. 6.V. Karageorghis, 1967, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1966, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 91.
7. 7.V. Karageorghis, 1968, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1967, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 92.
8. 8.V. Karageorghis, 1969, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1968, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 93.
9. 9.V. Karageorghis, 1982, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1981, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 106.