Lemba-Lakkous: the Lemba Archaeological Project

Under a broken jar in a room of a round building at Lemba-Lakkous lay a limestone figurine of a cruciform type, the one later called the Lemba Lady, found in 1976 in Sector I.^1,2 The excavation that found her was the first of seven campaigns that Edgar J. Peltenburg directed at Lemba-Lakkous between 1976 and 1983, for the University of Glasgow and later the University of Edinburgh.^1,3

Aims and campaigns

Peltenburg wrote that the project set out to learn about the colonisation of western Cyprus in the Chalcolithic, the earliest use of metal, and the transition to the Early Bronze Age, combining excavation and survey in the Kissonerga and Ktima lowlands.¹ For the 1978 season permission came from V. Karageorghis as Director of the Department of Antiquities, and Hadjisavvas of the Department had found the site during his intensive exploration of the area.^1,4 Hood writes that Peltenburg, prevented by the Turkish invasion of 1974 from further work at Ayios Epiktitos Vrysi, now in the occupied north, turned to the south-west, where a concentration of stone cross-shaped figurines reflected Chalcolithic occupation about which little else was known.⁵ The 1976 soundings were laid out in two areas to test what the different pottery types in the surface collection implied, and building H3 in Sector II yielded a copper chisel and a hoard of adzes.¹

The Chronique names Glasgow as sponsor in 1976 and 1978, both universities for 1979, and Edinburgh from 1980.^1,6,7,8 The 1982 report calls itself the sixth season, and no campaign took place in 1981.⁹ In 1977 Lakkous was one of three work areas, with Kissonerga-Mylouthkia and Mosphilia, and nine circular stone-founded buildings and twenty graves were excavated over 500 sq m.¹⁰ The 1978 season lasted seven weeks and extended both areas to about 400 sq m each, bringing the buildings to eleven.^4,6 In 1979 the work was selective at Lakkous, and A. Sheen led a surface survey at Miliou Rhodaeos.^7,11

Peltenburg wrote that by 1980 only a concerted effort at Lakkous could resolve the plan and phases of the settlement, so the survey was cut back.¹² Heavy winter rains that year produced colour differences in the soil not seen before; Peltenburg reported that shallow, eroded stratigraphy meant most units could not be linked, and that relative chronology increasingly rested on non-stratigraphic methods such as pottery.¹² In 1982 Peltenburg reported that one further season was planned to resolve outstanding stratigraphic problems.⁹ It ran for twelve weeks, from 13 June to 2 September 1983, and the Chronique describes it as the last season of the 1976–83 programme at Lemba.³

Two areas, 100 m apart

The excavation concentrated on two areas about 100 m apart, with peripheral trenches added in 1982.^5,9 Area I held small circular buildings; in 1980 it reached 435 sq m, and its earliest phase was closely grouped small buildings with Combed ware sherds.^8,10,12 Hood, reviewing the final volume, reads Area I as in general earlier than Area II, which lies up the slope inland, and thinks the shift in settlement reflects a shift in springs.⁵

Area II had larger stone buildings with hard lime-plaster floors and central platforms.^4,6 In 1978 it gave the first Chalcolithic settlement plan: five contemporary buildings in an arc, one of them (B7) with plastered basins.⁴ An earlier zone of 50 sq m had up to 38 post and stake holes per sq m, taken as evidence of timber buildings.⁴ In 1979 a limestone figurine of a pregnant woman, 0.168 m high, was found at the edge of a collapsed storage jar in that zone.^7,11

The 1982 season exposed 600 sq m of Area II with four satellite trenches and reached bedrock; B19 lay beneath B10 as the earliest structure in the area.⁹ In 1983 a study of the original north-south profile showed the settlement sat in a hollow about 20 m wide below a small terrace, and the outlying Building 20 was cleared, with 162 vessels, mostly simply painted with a band below the rim.³ The platforms of B9 and B15 in Area I, first read as post settings, were reinterpreted in 1982 as hearths, and Peltenburg argued that the persistence of this central hearth type and its standard position inside structures supported continuity between Sotira and Erimi communities.^7,9

The cemetery and the Lemba Lady

The graves were pit graves with capstones.⁴ A part of the cemetery under the Sector II buildings was reserved for children.¹⁰ The preliminary report for 1978 counts 30 graves, and the 1982 report gives 51.^4,9 The Chronique for the same season gives 53.¹³ In 1982 two child burials were found with offerings, a dentalium necklace and a picrolite pendant, the first graves to include funerary goods.⁹ In Grave 47 the child's torso was missing, so the goods had been deposited rather than worn.⁹

Karageorghis suggests that the compartment where the Lemba Lady lay, with its thick plaster floor, may be regarded as a sacred area. Winkelmann argues that the context does not reveal the figurine's primary function.^2,14 The figurine, catalogued by Winkelmann as C 48, is 36.0 cm high and is in the Cyprus Museum, Nicosia, as LL 54.² Where the rest of the finds are held is not recorded.

Dating and publication

Two radiocarbon determinations from Lemba deposits, BM-1353 and BM-1354, gave 1938 ± 49 and 2016 ± 44 BC (uncorrected).¹⁰ Reade dated the destruction horizon of the Area II building complex to about 2800–2500 BC, and Peltenburg described the buildings of Areas I and II as Erimi tradition, c. 3500–2500 B.C.^9,15 Hood reads the calibrated dates for the latest of three occupation periods as suggesting c. 2700–2400 B.C. and questions the long gaps the report postulates between the periods.⁵

The final report is Lemba Archaeological Project I: Excavations at Lemba-Lakkous, 1976–1983 (Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 70:1, 1985).¹⁶ Hood praises it for the quality of the excavation and its prompt and full publication, while finding it hard to follow with 14 contributors.⁵