Kountoura Trachonia: Swedish Cyprus Expedition

The necropolis at Kountoura Trachonia, east of the Fortress of Nitovikla on the eastern Karpaz, yielded fifteen rock-cut tombs, fourteen of them intact, with bronze coins among the grave goods¹. The Swedish Cyprus Expedition began work there in the autumn of 1929, after its fieldwork at Nitovikla and Paleoskoutella, under the overall direction of E. Gjerstad^1,2. E. Sjöqvist was responsible for the archaeological work at the site, and the necropolis report is signed E. S.^1,2. Göransson also gives 1929³; Carstens gives 1928⁴.

The tombs were rock-cut and approached by dromoi. Several held repeated burials, commonly with the body extended on its back; Tomb 7 contained eight skeletons, and Tomb 2 had two skeletons in situ from its later use¹. The graves held pottery, bronze coins, terracotta lamps and a bronze finger-ring¹. Tomb 15, beneath a tumulus, had been looted before excavation, and the report says the looters had disturbed the tumulus tombs; it was excavated to obtain a complete plan and in the hope of finding datable sherds¹. The report records plans, sections, dimensions, stratification and object registers for the tombs¹.

Coins came from four tombs (Tombs 2, 7, 10 and 12), among them issues attributed to Demetrius Poliorcetes, Ptolemy II, Ptolemy III and Seleucus II; Tomb 10 held nineteen coins, several identifiable¹. On this evidence Gjerstad and his co-authors date the cemetery to the later half of the third century BC, with 246 BC, the accession of Seleucus II, as the terminus post quem, and caution that coins do not date individual burials¹. Carstens gives a fourth-century BC date⁴. The expedition's preface says finds were divided between the Cyprus Museum and the excavators². The necropolis account is in volume III of The Swedish Cyprus Expedition: Finds and Results of the Excavations in Cyprus 1927–1931, pp. 439–460¹.