Salamis: the Cambridge underwater survey of the coast and harbour

In 1974 an underwater survey off Salamis recorded submerged stone features that Nicholas C. Flemming called roads, and E. M. Davies later argued that one of them is a stone jetty. The work was done by the Underwater Exploration Group of the University of Cambridge under Flemming in 1973 and 1974^1,2.

Accounts of the 1973 work differ. One describes it as an investigation of the coastline's geomorphology, another as a harbour survey that updated the unpublished survey of 1971 by Linder and Raban^1,2. In 1974 a preliminary underwater survey, which Davies describes as lasting six weeks, covered the area from south of the headland to north of it, measuring and describing the submerged features³.

North of the headland Flemming recorded a diagonal feature extending more than 100 m from the modern shoreline toward the older shoreline, and a north-south feature parallel to the shore for about 170 m; he described both as roads³. South of the headland, according to Davies, Flemming identified an early harbour at the mouth of the Pedieos, whose natural arm had been extended and strengthened with laid ashlar blocks³. Davies considers it highly likely that the diagonal feature is a stone jetty, now largely covered with sand, and says that proof would need a short stretch excavated and cleared of sand to establish to establish its construction and depth³. Flemming's preliminary report appeared in the Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus for 1974, pp. 163 to 173⁴.