Kolossi: the medieval sugar mill excavations (1994-)

Directed by

• Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou1994–2012

Team

• Doria Nicolaou
• A. Tavelis
• Makri-Chamberlain
• Mary Chamberlain

• Department of Antiquities of CyprusSponsor

1. 1994The year of the first campaign is not stated; the text describes it in the past tense.

   Part of a building south of a medieval stone aqueduct: mill of two main rooms (N-S) with three auxiliary rooms; underground vaulted room reached by an eleven-step stair, with openings for the water-wheel; fragments of wooden wheel with diagonal notches; Ottoman clay pipes and coins. First campaign on the medieval sugar mill of Kolossi, belonging to the Knights of the Hospital (xivth century). Excavated part of the building south of a medieval stone aqueduct: two main north-south rooms and three auxiliary rooms; an underground room reached by an 11-step staircase, ...

   [1]

2. 19952 October - 3 November 1995

   Aim: clear the large vaulted underground chamber found the previous year, full of rubbish. The chamber, well preserved, housed a horizontal wooden wheel driven by water from a nearby aqueduct to turn millstones crushing sugar cane. Finds include a large part of the wooden wheel (now at the Cyprus Museum laboratory for treatment), a rectangular marble plaque with two relief coats of arms (88 x 41 cm, thickness 17.5 cm) apparently linked to the castle founder Louis de Magnac, and a fair number of clay tobacco pipes of the Ottoman ...

   Directed by M. Ieronymidou[3]

3. 1996cette année

   Aim announced for the medieval sugar mill of Kolossi (Knights of St John): completion of the clearance of the vaulted underground wheel hall and probable location of the sugar-boiling space inside the large vaulted building south of the mill. Continued excavation of the western sector of the modern debris at the Cornaro family sugar mill; exposed foundations of a wall 3 m long, other walls of modern appearance and a medieval wall beneath one of them, belonging to the boiling space.

   Directed by M. Iéonymidou[4]

4. 1997

   Continued excavation inside and outside the vaulted refinery south of the mill. Three more heating chambers found, bringing the total to five (estimated six). A later narrow wall of 45 cm, probably from the British period, cuts the chambers. A narrow sounding (2.10 x 2.60 m) outside the east wall. Finds: sugar refinery vessel fragments, many baked tiles, large stones used as fill.

   Directed by M. Solomidou-Ieonymidou[5]

5. 1998

   Continued excavation of the vaulted refinery hall of the medieval sugar mill: the sixth and last furnace/heating chamber along the east wall; a stone channel along the hall and its south outlet; a cistern in the SW corner full of refinery vessels; a second stone basin north of the hall; excavation down to bedrock at the entrances of the first two heating chambers east of the hall. Finds mainly sugar-refining vessels and numerous Ottoman clay pipes. Small trench west of the ruined building adjoining the quadrangular building of the kastro revealed substantial remains of a wall running along the whole building; two reused columns in the masonry suggest it belongs to the first kastro, dated to the early 13th century. A circular tower's foundations, in the SW corner of the ruined building, were excavated to bedrock.

   Directed by M. Solomidou-Ieronymidou[6]

6. 1999

   Excavation of the medieval sugar mill at Kolossi: extension of the stone channel through the refinery, a large rectangular basin, two further heating chambers (eight in total), a northward extension of the refinery, a filled vessel-containing chamber, and a channel from the water-wheel room. Many sugar-refining vessels and a few Ottoman clay pipes were found.

   Directed by M. Ieronymidou[7]

7. 2000

   Excavation of the medieval sugar mill at Kolossi in three areas: rock-cut water installations linked to the aqueduct, with intact sugar-refining vases, a 16th-century incised terracotta hand grenade, a bronze cup and Turkish clay pipes; a row of sugar-refining vases of the smallest module west of the ruined building; and the entrances of the two external furnace chambers east of the vaulted hall.

   Directed by M. Solomidou-Ieronymidou[8]

8. 2002

   Excavation to the west of the mill rooms and west of the kastro. Continued south wall of the mill (2.60 m long) separating the cane-crushing room from the stair room; ends at a rock-cut cavity (diam. 2 m). West of the kastro, extension of foundations of a wall reinforced with Roman columns, possibly the first architectural phase of the 13th century; 8 m northward extension gives the original wall a total length of 31 m. Finds include Ottoman clay pipes and sugar-refining vessel sherds. West of the mill rooms, the ...

   Directed by M. Solomidou-Iéronymidou[9]

9. 2004

   Excavation west of the sugar-crushing room, slow because of tree roots. A rock-cut cavity (depth 63–90 cm) from the previous campaign was defined; it had a drainage outlet and three post holes to the south, so it was roofed; its use is not yet determined. Finds: Ottoman clay pipes, a undecorated vessel for refining sugar, other fragments of this type, and two bronze coins, one Lusignan and one Ottoman. A more restricted excavation was also conducted west of the kastro of Kolossi. No results are given.

   Directed by M. Solomidou-Ieronymidou[10]

10. 2005

    Eleventh and twelfth campaigns of excavation on the medieval sugar mill of Kolossi, in the area west of the mill chambers (cut in the bedrock) and west of the castle. Finds range from Cypro-Classical to Ottoman: sugar-loaf mould fragments, Ottoman clay pipes, a probably Ottoman bronze coin, an ivory handle fragment and a Sgraffito sherd with an anthropomorphic monster/serpent.

    Directed by Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou[11]

11. 2008

    Area north of the circular structure extended; E-W wall and stone-paved floor, an elliptical stone structure with charcoal layer and a heap of broken sugar vessels (cone and flat-bottomed), a later wall removed from the rock-cut channel to the mill chamber, an Ottoman clay pipe.

    Directed by M. Solomidou-Ieronymidou[12]

12. 20097 September - 9 October 2009

    Completed the area north of the circular construction and extended 2.5 m south: a buttress wall, an earlier east-west wall, the westernmost mill wall now 16 m long; sugar-processing pottery and Lapethos-type glazed sherds.

    Directed by Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou[13]

1. 1.Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou, 2015, Medieval Cyprus. A Place of Cultural Encounter, Medieval Cyprus. A Place of Cultural Encounter.
2. 2.Pavlos Flourentzos, 2010, Annual Report of the Department of Antiquities for the year 2008.
3. 3.Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 2010, Annual Report of the Department of Antiquities for the year 2009.