Pera-Frangissa: relocation of the Apollo sanctuary, 2020

The sanctuary of Apollo at Frangissa, dug in 1885 by Max Ohnefalsch-Richter and then forgotten, was relocated in October 2020¹. Matthias Recke (Frankfurt University) and Philipp Kobusch (Kiel University) directed an intensive survey of a valley south of Pera Orinis, near ancient Tamassos, and ground-penetrating radar was run with the University of Cyprus under Apostolos Sarris¹. The survey found a concentrated scatter of sherds, ancient sculpture fragments and terracotta in a restricted area, and the Department of Antiquities announcement presents this with the radar results as confirming the sanctuary's location¹. The preliminary analysis reported use from the Iron Age through the Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic periods; the more eroded Roman and Byzantine finds were thought to come from a settlement further downstream¹. The announcement says the better-preserved earlier finds probably came from the debris of the 1885 excavation and had been overlooked then¹.