Ormidhia and Xylotymbou: Alessandro Palma di Cesnola's explorations (1876)

Of the vases and glass that Alessandro Palma di Cesnola collected at Timbo, Ormidia and other villages in October and November 1876, he does not say which came from which place¹. Maria Hadjicosti describes the work as his exploration of the Ormideia and Xylotymbou area². Cesnola says he meant to secure one or two specimens of every shape of vase and glass used by the ancient Cypriotes, and that he assembled twenty skilled workmen in Larnaka and Dali for the purpose¹. His usual system was to divide the diggers into small parties of three or four¹.

The findspots of the material attributed to him are uncertain. Hadjicosti names Lacsha tou Solomou as the only area that more or less coincides with his "burying-ground"; no tombs are recorded there, but scattered surface sherds indicate a cemetery, and she treats the identification as uncertain². She discusses Cypro-Geometric and Cypro-Archaic pottery and terracottas that Cesnola attributed to Ormideia, among them decorated vessels and two terracottas of human figures holding or wearing masks, and she questions whether he assigned the ceramic material to the Ormideia area correctly^2,3. From parallels and from material excavated in a stratified context at Idalion, she argues that some amphoriskoi attributed to Ormideia were most probably mixed with material from Idalion².

By the end of 1876 Cesnola had returned to Larnaka for the winter and begun packing the relics unearthed so far for Edwin H. Lawrence in England. His first cargo was six large cases, sent in an Austrian Lloyd's steamer¹.