Rescue excavationDepartment of Antiquities

Limassol: Department of Antiquities and Limassol Museum rescue excavations (1976–1986)

Name: Limassol: Department of Antiquities and Limassol Museum rescue excavations (1976–1986)
Start: 1976
End: 1986

1976–1986 · Limassol

Rescue excavations at Limassol from 1976 to 1986: a second sanctuary at Komissarialo, 17 chamber tombs in the Katholiki cemetery, and Cypro-Archaic to Roman tombs registered in the Limassol Museum.

Map of Cyprus

Where the work took place

Main site
Also worked at
Ground above 200, 500, 1,000 m

Sites

1Limassol (approx.)
2Limassol-Kapsalos (approx.)
3Limassol-Katholiki (approx.)
4Limassol-Koutsoulia (approx.)
5Ayia Phyla (approx.)
6Limassol-Ayios Nikolaos (approx.)
7Limassol-Tsiflikoudia (approx.)
8Limassol-Ayios Athanasios (approx.)

Modern coastline (OpenStreetMap) and relief (Copernicus DEM).

The project

In July 1976 building work at Komissarialo, a quarter of Limassol, exposed what appeared to be a small constructed niche beneath a slab. It held three bell-shaped raised-arms figurines, two zoomorphic vessels, a clay boat model, shallow bowls and a miniature Canaanite-type amphora¹. The report suggests the context may have been a sanctuary or sanctuary favissa of the 11th century BC, and identifies it as a second sanctuary, about 400 m south-west of the sanctuary excavated in 1953; the urgency of the emergency work prevented more extensive investigation¹. Late Cypriot I-II sherds lay in the thick deposit below the niche, and the raised-arms figurines and a zoomorphic vessel carry Limassol Museum numbers 580/4, 580/5, 580/7 and 580/8¹.

In 1977 levelling in the Katholiki cemetery led to the rescue of 17 chamber tombs, numbered Limassol 128–144, which the report dates between the Middle Bronze Age and Late Cypriot I and III and describes as unusual in form². The report credits the Museum technicians with great care in the rescue². Grave goods included Middle Bronze regional pottery, spindle whorls, bronzes, a stone-bead necklace and steatite pendants, and White Slip I and Base Ring I vessels from the Late Cypriot I tombs². Tomb 177, in the north-east of town, was reported for 1981 as used repeatedly from Cypro-Archaic II to the Roman period; a stepped rectangular cavity in its floor may have served as an ossuary³.

Later seasons recorded Tomb 186 in the Ayios Nicolaos quarter, Cypro-Classical I, with female and bird terracottas and silver bucket-type earrings (1983), and Tombs 187, 189 and 190 (Hellenistic-Roman, Roman and Cypro-Archaic I), with bronze mirrors, a miniature gold amphora and sigillata among the finds (1984)^4,5. In 1986 tombs 197–203 in the Evangelistrias street quarter were dated Classical to Roman⁶. Levelling in the refugee camp at Ayios Athanasios exposed two Late Cypriot I tombs: Tomb 8 held the bones of six people and Tomb 9 those of two, and they were registered at the Limassol Museum as 1016 and 1017⁶.

Institutions

Department of Antiquities of CyprusSponsor
Limassol District MuseumHost

Seasons

6 seasons

1976July 1976
Urgent rescue in July 1976 after building work exposed a second sanctuary c. 400 m SW of the one dug in 1953: in a small built niche three bell-shaped raised-arms figurines (Proto-White Painted and White Painted I, 11th c. BC), two zoomorphic vases, a clay boat model, shallow bowls and a Canaanite-type miniature amphora; probable sanctuary favissa over LC I-II sherds. Late Cypriot II tomb group: a faience flask with white glaze and black painted geometric pattern, a White Slip I spouted bowl, Base Ring I vessels, a Mycenaean stirrup vase, an ivory disc lid and fragmentary silver mace-headed pin. Half-looted tomb with Red Polished III and IV pottery, dated Middle Cypriot; a Red Polished IV amphora with incised and pricked decoration illustrated.
[1]
1977
Seventeen chamber tombs (Limassol tombs 128–144) rescued during levelling: Middle Bronze regional pottery, spindle whorls, bronzes, stone-bead necklace, steatite pendants; LC I White Slip I and Base Ring I vessels. Classical tomb with many Plain White vases and some painted: a Bichrome V jug with two fish and a Plain White jug with a figurine holding a jug on the shoulder. Shallow pits near the 1976 tomb held secondary deposits of LC I-II material from emptied tombs: White Slip, Base Ring, Red Lustrous and Grey Lustrous wheelmade pottery, a Late Minoan IB cup, Mycenaean IIIA:2 jars, bull rhyton, alabaster jug, silver pin, gold earrings, cylinder seal.
[2]
1981
One tomb used from Cypro-Archaic II to Roman times with a stepped ossuary pit; a White Painted V jug in Amathus style with two peacocks, an Astarte-type terracotta and a Hellenistic Tanagra figurine.
[3]
1983
Tombs in Limassol: CA II-CC I tomb on the east edge (T. 6); CC I tomb (T. 186) in a known cemetery with an Amathus-type female figurine, a bird figurine, a perforated jug and silver bucket-type earrings; seven Roman tombs (T. 179–185) with a carnelian ring stone and bronze mirror.
[4]
1984
Tomb 187 Hellenistic-Roman with bronze mirrors, silver pins, gold miniature amphora; T. 189 Roman with sigillata and glass; T. 190 Cypro-Archaic I with Black-on-Red II amphora and bowl, feeding-bottles, faience beads, a bronze fibula and Ionian-type skyphoi.
[5]
1986
Two Late Cypriot I tombs (8 and 9; Limassol Museum 1016–1017) found during levelling: six burials in T. 8, two in T. 9; Black Slip III, Base Ring I with relief snakes, White Slip I, Black Lustrous Wheelmade, bronze dagger and rings, a composite triple jug, beads. One Cypro-Archaic II-Classical I tomb (T. 196) with Bichrome V jug and amphoriskos, Ionian alabastron, moulded polos-wearing figurine, silver spirals and an amber bead. Tombs 197–203, Classical to Roman: T. 198 yielded a jug in the form of a Black woman's head, gold granulated beads and an animal-headed gold earring; T. 200 a Hellenistic jug incised with a name and an Astarte-type figurine.
[6]

What was found

Periods

Tombs

Tombs 128–144, T. 129, T. 131, T. 139, T. 134, T. 128, T. 177, T. 6, T. 186, T. 179–185, T. 187, T. 189, T. 190, T. 8, T. 9, T. 196, T. 197–203, T. 198, T. 200

Publications

6 items

Chronique des fouilles (Bulletin de correspondance hellénique)

Other fieldwork at Limassol · 6

References

1.V. Karageorghis, 1977, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1976, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 101.
2.V. Karageorghis, 1978, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1977, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 102.
3.V. Karageorghis, 1982, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1981, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 106.
4.V. Karageorghis, 1984, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1983, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 108.
5.V. Karageorghis, 1985, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1984, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 109.
6.V. Karageorghis, 1987, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1986, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 111.

Sources

1.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1976, pp. 13–15; p. 13; pp. 9–11.
2.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1977, pp. 11–13; p. 16; pp. 11–16.
3.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1981, p. 20.
4.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1983, p. 19.
5.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1984, pp. 16–19.
6.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1986, p. 64; pp. 61–64.