The Archaeological Work of the University of Cyprus, 2016 (Part 1)

This video, given in Greek, presents the opening addresses and the first two academic sessions of the second annual conference of the Archaeological Research Unit on the archaeological work of the University of Cyprus in 2016. Vasiliki Kassianidou opens the event by reviewing the unit's research grants, infrastructure upgrades, and the donation of Glafcos Clerides' antiquities collection by Kate Clerides, followed by welcomes from Rector Constantinos Christofides and Department of Antiquities Director Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou.

Maria Iacovou presents the 2016 fieldwork of the Palaepaphos Urban Landscape Project at Palaepaphos (Hadjiabdullah and Laona). Focusing on the western complex at Hadjiabdullah, she describes the excavation of storage and industrial workshops along the acropolis wall, archaeobotanical sampling with the Wiener Laboratory, evidence for purple-dye production from murex shells, and imported Aegean amphorae showing that the complex remained in use down to the late 2nd century BC. Stella Diakou then explains how the project records and analyses this material using a renewed FileMaker Pro database and three-scale GIS mapping developed with Athos Agapiou, using the 5th- to 2nd-century BC amphorae from Room 1, studied with Antigone Marangou, as a case study.

Athanasios Vionis reports on the third season of the Settled and Sacred Landscapes of Cyprus survey around Kofinou, Ayios Theodoros, Alaminos, and Menogeia. Using pedestrian transects, ArcPad recording, and 3D modelling, the team identified major settlements around Panagia Kofinou and in the Alaminos valley alongside smaller satellite sites, which Vionis interprets through settlement-chamber theory, focusing on land use in the Late Antique period. Ourania Kouka follows with the university's excavations at the Heraion of Samos, presenting Middle Bronze Age architectural phases, flood defences, and Minoan and Cycladic ceramic imports that show the settlement's role in Aegean trade networks.

After the break, Solomidou-Ieronymidou and Vassos Karageorghis briefly discuss tomb looting at Kouklia and police operations. George Papasavvas then examines Cypriot four-sided bronze stands and amphoroid kraters in Early Iron Age Aegean burials, focusing on a fragmentary Cypriot stand from Tomb 201 in the North Cemetery of Knossos and comparable finds from Lefkandi. By calculating the missing weight and analysing heat damage and mechanical breakage, he argues that the stand was deliberately broken before cremation and that parts of such objects were retained by families for other burials. Kassianidou next investigates copper metallurgy in the Cypro-Archaic and Cypro-Classical kingdom of Kition, comparing casting waste from the sanctuaries of Bamboula and Kathari with smelting slag at Troulloi and in the Troodos, and arguing that Iron Age copper production expanded to meet demand for weapons and warship rams after Levantine centres at Feynan and Timna declined. Finally, Andreas Charalambous presents chemical analyses of silver and gold coins from the Larnaca and Vouni hoards, detailing issues of Marion and Kition before the video ends mid-paper.