Rescue excavationDepartment of Antiquities

Soli: Department rescue excavations in the Soloi district (1965–1972)

Name: Soli: Department rescue excavations in the Soloi district (1965–1972)
Start: 1965
End: 1972

1965–1972 · Soli

Department of Antiquities rescue work in the Soloi district between 1965 and 1972, ending with the emergency excavation of 28 tombs at the southeastern edge of Soloi.

Map of Cyprus

Where the work took place

Ground above 200, 500, 1,000 m

Site

1Soli

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

The project

In early 1972 levelling at Soli uncovered 28 tombs, which Karageorghis's chronicle for that year reports as mostly robbed, some damaged by a bulldozer¹. The Antiquities Service excavated them urgently under D. Christou, who was to publish them in detail¹. The finds ran from Mycenaean IIIB and Proto-White Painted material through Cypro-Geometric I-III to Cypro-Archaic I-II¹. Tomb 10 (CS 1869) had Black Slip I jugs and White Painted I bowls and cups; Tomb 1 (CS 1870) had an Ionian skyphos and a glass-paste amulet of Anubis; Tomb 16 (CS 1884) had a Corinthian aryballos¹. Karageorghis wrote that the finds filled gaps in the evidence for the Cypro-Geometric and Cypro-Archaic I periods at Soloi¹.

The earlier rescues in the district are recorded in Karageorghis's annual chronicles, which describe several of the tombs as looted. In 1965 a partly looted tomb at Ambelikou (Soloi Tomb 7) held an Ionian skyphos, Bichrome V and Black-on-Red pottery, and a White Painted jug with a figure-eight body². A large looted tomb at Galini (Soloi Tomb 6) contained finds from the second century BCE to the third century CE, among them gold earrings, a bronze strigil, mirrors, coins and a marble plaque with an elegiac epitaph². At Kournoutas, a rock-cut tomb (Soloi Tomb 5) had a long passage, six chambers on each side and two at the end, and was partly looted².

In 1967 levelling at Ayios Kournoutas exposed four tombs in a necropolis of Classical to Roman date; they yielded a Cypro-Classical II figurine of a draped woman with gold lion-head earrings, Hellenistic terracottas of a tragic actor, a Tanagra-style woman and a Silenus on a donkey, and Roman terra sigillata and glass³. In 1969 levelling on Galini land at the southwestern edge of Potamos tou Kambou uncovered three partly looted Cypro-Archaic II tombs (CS 1726, 1727 and 1729), among them a bird-shaped Bichrome IV askos⁴. Nearby, a rock-cut chamber with neatly arranged coarse wares and multi-nozzled lamps, ash and carbonised seeds seems to the chronicle to have been a rural sanctuary⁴.

Directors and team

Directed by

Demos Christou1972

Institutions

Department of Antiquities of CyprusSponsor
Cyprus MuseumSponsor

Seasons

4 seasons

1965
Earlier half-looted tomb, still holding an Ionian skyphos, Bichrome V and Black-on-Red pottery and an unusual figure-eight-bodied White Painted jug. Large looted tomb used from the 2nd century BCE to the 3rd CE: plain Hellenistic vases, glazed skyphoi, Pergamene cup, Roman lamps, glass, gold earrings, strigil, mirrors, coins Ptolemy X to Alexander Severus, and an inscribed marble plaque with an elegiac epitaph. Large rock-cut Hellenistic-Roman tomb with a long passage, six side chambers each side and two at the end; Pergamene and moulded bowls, glass, gold myrtle leaves, coins Ptolemy to Alexander Severus.
[1]
1967
Cypro-Archaic II tomb: two Bichrome V jugs, a Plain White V amphora and other vessels. Four new tombs exposed by levelling in a Classical to Roman necropole: Cypro-Classical II (draped woman figurine, gold lion-head earrings), Hellenistic (tragic actor, Tanagra figurines), Hellenistic (Silenus on donkey), Roman (terra sigillata, glass, bronze mirrors).
[2]
1969
Three half-looted Cypro-Archaic II tombs found by levelling: Bichrome Red, Black-on-Red and Bichrome IV-V pottery, notably a bird-shaped Bichrome IV askos. Rock-cut chamber 4 x 2.3 m holding a neatly arranged votive deposit of an early Classical rural sanctuary: eight footed censers, some fifteen bull figurines, twisted-handle amphoriskoi, multi-nozzled lamps; ash and carbonised seeds on the floor.
[3]
1972
Early 1972 levelling uncovered 28 tombs, many robbed: Mycenaean IIIB pyxis, Proto-White Painted, Cypro-Geometric I-III and Cypro-Archaic I-II material (Black Slip I jugs, Bichrome II dishes, Black-on-Red II, an Ionian skyphos, a thin-walled Bichrome IV phiale, a Corinthian aryballos), filling the gap in the site's early history and supporting identification of Soloi with Aipeia.
[4]

What was found

Periods

Features and finds

28 tombs.

Tombs

Soloi Tomb 7, Soloi Tomb 6, Soloi Tomb 5, CS 1726, CS 1727, CS 1729, T. 10 (CS 1869), T. 12 (CS 1880), T. 1 (CS 1870), T. 14 (CS 1882), T. 16 (CS 1884), T. 25 (CS 1893)

Publications

4 items

Chronique des fouilles (Bulletin de correspondance hellénique)

Other fieldwork at Soli · 6

References

1.V. Karageorghis, 1973, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1972, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 97.
2.V. Karageorghis, 1966, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1965, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 90.
3.V. Karageorghis, 1968, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1967, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 92.
4.V. Karageorghis, 1970, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1969, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 94.

Sources

1.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1965, p. 24; pp. 29–30; pp. 30–31.
2.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1967, p. 22; p. 24–26.
3.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1969, p. 18; pp. 22–27.
4.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1972, pp. 61–66.