Polis-Pyrgos Archaeological Project

By 1999 the Polis-Pyrgos Archaeological Project had recorded over ninety sites in north-western Cyprus: settlements, cemeteries of about three hundred tombs and a quarry, over twenty of them Bronze Age¹. Dariusz Maliszewski directed the survey, which covered the area between the western bank of the Chrysochou River and Kato Pyrgos, in field campaigns of 1992 to 1994, 1996 to 1997 and 1999^2,3. Louise Steel reported in 1997 that the survey had been set up in 1992 and had identified over 50 sites, with Late Cypriot occupation near Pelathousa².

Maliszewski describes the survey as extensive and non-systematic: units were chosen on 1:5000 maps, features were recorded and mapped, and diagnostic pottery and stone artefacts were collected; the survey license did not allow excavation of cemeteries. Since no architectural remains were recorded, he notes, pottery and ground stone are the data³. In September 1999 teams of six to eight walked systematically six hours a day for three weeks over about 15.4 km², to complete coverage of the Potamos tis Stenis valley and to re-investigate the Potamos tis Chrysochous valley¹. The recorded sites include a cemetery of twenty-nine tombs at Ayios Isidhoros-Lourka / Steni-Paliambelon (PAP.99–3), observed on the surface, and a Late Chalcolithic site that gave about half of a bowl c. 37 cm across, which Maliszewski calls a unique find for western Cyprus and perhaps for the entire island¹.

An important goal of the 1999 to 2001 seasons was the documentation and study of the ceramics and stone tools; the fifth preliminary report, by Maliszewski, Nancy Serwint, Joanna S. Smith and Bethany J. Walker, covers them¹. Volume 1 of the final publication presents the most diagnostic 800 of 2,420 recovered items, including 679 pottery sherds and 106 ground-stone objects, and notes that two Bronze Age Senet gaming boards had been published separately³. Numerous large saddle querns were excluded from the study because of limited space at the project store house³.