Yeroskipou-Agioi Pente: University of Cyprus excavation of the Early Christian basilica

At Agioi Pente in Yeroskipou, a basilica almost entirely destroyed before excavation began yielded two mosaic floors laid over burials, one with three medallions quoting Psalms, and four stone ossuaries that held nearly 900 coins^1,2. The remains were found in 2002 during the opening of a new road, and heavy machinery had bulldozed most of them¹. The Department of Antiquities investigated that year (2002), and the site was backfilled and levelled¹. The mayor, Tassos Kouzoupos, insisted on systematic investigation, and Demetrios Michaelides began the University of Cyprus excavation in 2003. The permit was granted by Sophocles Hadjisavvas and later renewed by Pavlos Flourentzos and Maria Hadjicosti, and the municipality helped fund the work².

Seasons lasted 30 to 50 days each summer, and much of the early time went on clearing debris¹. In 2003 the team collected the mosaic fragments and tesserae that strewed the area, and following fragments into a robber-pit led to the four ossuaries¹. Bones from the first three represented 21, 25 and 6 individuals of both sexes and all ages; the ossuaries had been looted, yet gold earrings, rings and buckles remained^1,2. The southern mosaic, about 5.25 by 2.65 m, covered a tomb sealed by two slabs, one pierced by a funnel-like hole, with 19 bronze coins under the hole². Michaelides lifted that mosaic to see what lay below and because the open site risked tomb robbers¹. Under the northern mosaic a sarcophagus held a woman over 45, with a silver ear scoop and three gold pendants, one a reliquary encolpion². In the 2007 season, Michaelides says, the last traces of the basilica were located: a three-aisled structure, perhaps with a south aisle¹. Coins from the whole site passed 1600 by 2007 and reached nearly 2000 by 2014, mostly of the 6th and 7th century².

Michaelides dates the remains mainly to the 5th to 7th century¹, while Fryni Hadjichristofi dates the basilica to the end of the sixth century³. Michaelides suggests the coins, the Psalm inscriptions, the funnel and the layout bring to mind a pilgrimage site, and finds no evidence linking it to the cult of the Five Martyrs^1,2. The lifted mosaic is stored at the Department of Antiquities in Paphos². Michaelides called the project still on-going in 2014².