Pyla-Steno: rescue excavation of the Dhekelia rifle-range tombs

Levelling for a rifle range at Steno, in Pyla, exposed four Late Cypriot II tombs in 1956¹. Porphyrios Dikaios and Vassos Karageorghis excavated them with military cooperation and help from I. M. G. Williams, Commissioner of Larnaca¹. One tomb had three burial layers and another at least 19 burials; the finds included three-handled piriform jars, other Mycenaean IIIA vases, bronze bowls and knives, cylinder seals and ivory plaques¹. A contemporary tomb at Koukouphkiaoudhkia, about half a mile nearer the sea, held a Mycenaean IIIA amphoroid crater and Base Ring I jugs; the report dates its local pottery to around 1400 B.C. by the Swedish chronology¹. All the finds were placed in Larnaca Museum¹. Brown writes that a substantial structure was also excavated at Steno and that neither it nor the four tombs has been published in detail; Steno now lies beneath the Pyla firing range².