Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Archaeologist

C. Vita-Finzi

fl. 1968–2021

C. Vita-Finzi collected stone tools at Zygi in 1968 and in 1973 published them as possible Middle Palaeolithic finds, a claim a 1977 paper in Levant did not accept.

Biography

In 1968, on a brief visit to Cyprus, C. Vita-Finzi collected a small assemblage of stone tools from a fossil beach near the mouth of the Maroni River at Zygi, in Larnaca District1.

He published the pieces in 1973 as "Palaeolithic finds from Cyprus?" in the Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society, assigning them to the Middle Palaeolithic on typo-technological and geological grounds1,2. A 1977 paper in Levant did not accept this: it judged that his flints, surface finds with little context, did not meet the criteria of Pleistocene date or context4.

In 2016 he was a co-author, with T. F. Strasser and C. Runnels, of a note in Antiquity on a possible Palaeolithic hand axe from Cyprus1,3.

Life and work

  1. 1968
    On a brief visit to Cyprus collected a small assemblage of lithic artefacts from a fossil beach near the mouth of the Maroni River, Zygi (Larnaca District).

    ZygiMoutsiou 2021, p. 5

  2. 1973
    Published the Zygi finds as 'Palaeolithic finds from Cyprus?' (Proc. Prehist. Soc. 39, 453-454), assigning them to the Middle Palaeolithic on typo-technological and geological grounds.

    Moutsiou 2021, pp. 5

  3. 1977
    His 1973 flints were judged not to meet the criteria of Pleistocene date or context in a 1977 Levant paper, as surface finds with little context.

  4. 2016
    Co-authored 'A possible Palaeolithic hand axe from Cyprus' (Antiquity 90, 350) with T. F. Strasser and C. Runnels.

    Moutsiou 2021, p. 13

Discussed in documents

Sources

  1. 1.T. Moutsiou (2021). “Climate, environment and cognition in the colonisation of the Eastern Mediterranean islands during the Pleistocene”. Quaternary International 577, 1-14.
  2. 2.C. Vita-Finzi (1973). “Palaeolithic finds from Cyprus?”. Proceedings of the Prehistoric Society 39, 453-454.
  3. 3.T. F. Strasser; C. Runnels; C. Vita-Finzi (2016). “A possible Palaeolithic hand axe from Cyprus”. Antiquity 90, 350.
  4. 4. (1977). Levant 9, 66-.