SurveyForeign missions

Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project (PKAP)

Name: Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project (PKAP)
Start: 2003

2003–today · Pyla-Koutsopetria

Also known as PKAP; Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project

The Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project: survey of a Late Roman coastal town from 2004, then soundings and excavation at Vigla, a fortified early Hellenistic site, and at Kokkinokremmos.

Map of Cyprus

Where the work took place

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

Sites

1Pyla-Koutsopetria (approx.)
2Pyla-Kokkinokremos

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

The project

Fieldwalking over 100 ha of the coastal plain at Pyla-Koutsopetria found a dense Late Roman settlement: Late Roman material covered 330 units, 71% of the surveyed area, and Caraher, Moore and Pettegrew date most of it to the mid-fifth to seventh century AD, concentrated in the sixth¹. William Caraher, R. Scott Moore and David K. Pettegrew walked transects over the plain in a three-day reconnaissance in the summer of 2003¹. Maria Hadjicosti, then a senior officer of the Department of Antiquities, gave permission to work at the site, which lies partly inside the Dhekelia Sovereign Base Area¹. The survey was run in five short seasons of 2004–2008, and survey finds were processed at the Larnaca District Museum¹.

From 2007 the project added aerial photography and geophysical prospecting, and from 2008 small trial excavations¹. The 2008 report takes figurines from the survey to suggest a Cypro-Archaic to Classical shrine on the coastal plateau². Soundings at Vigla found a fortified settlement with a ring wall, and two soundings at Kokkinokremmos on the neighbouring ridge found Late Bronze Age wall². The 2009 season, with a staff of 30, opened six small trenches at Vigla, Kokkinokremmos and the Early Christian basilica annex room, and used ground penetrating radar for ten days with Beverly Chiarulli³.

Larger seasons at Vigla followed in 2018 and 2019, after a trial excavation in 2012 that exposed a 2.8 m wide stretch of the northern fortification wall⁴. The plateau of about 1.6 ha was fortified by a wall 1.5 to 2.8 m thick, with a rock-cut fosse on the north; two early Hellenistic floors lay within, and complete vessels, coins and weapons lay on the second under mudbrick collapse⁴. Of sixteen coins, eleven are of Alexander and three of Evagoras II⁴. Olson, Moore, Landvatter and Stephens argue that Vigla was a fortified garrison built by either Ptolemy or Antigonus in the Diadochoi wars⁴. The survey was published as Pyla-Koutsopetria I (2014)¹; a second volume on geophysics and excavation is forthcoming⁵.

Directors and team

Directed by

William Caraher2003–2018
R. Scott Moore2003–2018
David K. Pettegrew2003–2018
B. Olson
M. Godsey
T. Landvatter

Team

Institutions

University of North DakotaSponsor
Indiana University of PennsylvaniaSponsor
Messiah CollegeSponsor
Institute of Aegean PrehistoryFunder
Cyprus American Archaeological Research InstitutePartner
Department of Antiquities of CyprusPartner
PKAPPartner
Metropolitan State University of DenverPartner
Trinity UniversityPartner
Reed CollegePartner
ASORPartner

Seasons

7 seasons

2006
Pyla-Vigla pedestrian survey 2006–2007
200815 May-25 June 2008
Listed among the foreign missions of 2008 as working at the Pyla-Koutsopetria. Intensive survey completed; figurines suggest a Cypro-Archaic/Classical shrine on the coastal plateau; soundings on Vigla found a fortified Cypro-Archaic to Hellenistic settlement with a ring wall; two soundings at Kokkinokremmos found Late Bronze Age wall outside the known occupation area.
Directed by W. Caraher[4]
20095 weeks, 2009
Six small trenches: Hellenistic fortified settlement at Vigla, Late Bronze Age perimeter wall sections at Kokkinokremmos, annex room at the Early Christian basilica at Koutsopetria; 10 days of GPR survey.
Directed by William Caraher, R. Scott Moore, David K. Pettegrew[5]
2012
Soundings on Vigla plateau
2018ended 8 June
14th season; sounding at Vigla found a rock-cut fortification, mudbrick wall, sling bullet and catapult bolt
2024
Domestic areas; two new trenches; 18th season, domestic areas on the Vigla plateau with several architectural phases; sling bullets, arrowheads, iron daggers, bronze coins, 5th-century BC female figurine
2025June-July
Fortification, weapons, domestic buildings; 19th season at Vigla

What was found

Periods

Features and finds

Vigla fortification wall; Kokkinokremmos wall; basilica; fortification wall.

Publications

2 items

Annual reports of the Department of Antiquities

References

1.William Caraher, R. Scott Moore and David K. Pettegrew, 2014, Pyla-Koutsopetria I: Archaeological Survey of an Ancient Coastal Town, ASOR Archaeological Reports 21.
2.Pavlos Flourentzos, 2010, Annual Report of the Department of Antiquities for the year 2008.
3.Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 2010, Annual Report of the Department of Antiquities for the year 2009.
4.Brandon R. Olson, R. Scott Moore, Thomas Landvatter and Justin Stephens, 2021, Pyla-Vigla: A Case Study Assessing the Imperial Strategies of the Hellenistic Diadochoi in Cyprus, Études et Travaux 34.
5.M. Hadjicosti, W. Caraher, R. S. Moore, D. Pettegrew, forthcoming, Pyla-Koutsopetria II: Archaeological Survey of an Ancient Coastal Town, ASOR Archaeological Reports.

Sources

1.Crossroads and Boundaries: The Archaeology of Past and Present in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus, p. 363.
2.Cyprus and the Balance of Empires: Art and Archaeology from Justinian I to the Coeur de Lion, p. 24.
3.Cyprus: Crossroads of civilizations, p. 250.
4.Annual Report of the Department of Antiquities for the year 2008, p. 13; p. 52.
5.Annual Report of the Department of Antiquities for the year 2009, pp. 59–60.
6.An Early Christian Baptistery on the South Coast of Cyprus, p. 124.