Greater than forty archaeological websites in Cyprus courting probably way back to the Bronze Age that had been thought misplaced to historical past have been relocated by College of Leicester scientists working for the Ministry of Defence.
A small crew of archaeologists from College of Leicester Archaeological Providers, funded by the DIO Abroad Stewardship Venture, undertook a ‘walkover survey’ — a scientific surveying and recording of seen archaeological stays — of the Jap Sovereign Base Space at Dhekelia (ESBA) on the south coast of the island. The work, licensed by Cyprus’ Division of Antiquities in Nicosia, is to tell website administration by the DIO, which is the custodian of the UK and abroad Defence property.
Dhekelia is about 30km south-east of Nicosia, and 80km north-east of the Western Sovereign Base Space (WSBA) at Akrotiri the place the College of Leicester has been working since 2015.
The duty of the walkover was to relocate round 60 attainable archaeological websites that had been recorded within the early Sixties previous to the event of the garrison inside the Dhekelia base, and the laying out of the Kingsfield Airstrip on the western finish of the world.
In preparation of the survey a Geographic Data System (GIS) report was compiled that included all of the identified data, and from that co-ordinate factors for the attainable websites had been exported to straightforward handheld GPS items. Archaeologists then visited every website and looked for the proof that had been beforehand recorded. When efficiently discovered, every website would then be photographed, GPS positioned, and recorded on professional forma sheets.
In whole, 51 websites together with 5 historic buildings had been positioned. Some data survived for 47 of the websites, however an extra 4 had been identified solely from labels on a 1:25,000 scale plan. Though the courting of many of the websites is presently unknown, they’re prone to span from the Bronze Age which began c.2500 BC to the Byzantine interval which ended within the 12th Century AD, and to incorporate websites from the Hellenistic interval (312 — 58 BC) and Roman intervals (58 BC — 395 AD).
Explicit highlights included three coastal quarries the place stone was being taken off low spits operating out into the ocean. One quarry had somewhat ramp that seemed prefer it was used for loading slabs of quarried rock into boats tied in deep water alongside, and one other had dozens of very clear round grinding stone removals which, the place instantly adjoining to one another, left behind distinct clover leaf shapes within the mattress rock.
Giant areas of rock reduce tomb prolonged over a number of hectares in a single a part of the inland plateau. Most of those tombs had been in a really poor state and a few bore clear indicators of looting within the type of adjoining mounds of earth. Many tombs have been used as handy areas for fly tipping. One tomb, a part of a considerable cemetery surrounding a monastery to the west of Xylotymbou village was getting used for caging cats.
Matt Beamish from College of Leicester Archaeological Providers, who led the survey, mentioned:
“Our GIS and survey strategies had labored properly when used for the same survey of the Akrotiri peninsula in 2019. Lots of the websites we had been planning to survey had been final visited over 20 years in the past, and in lots of situations had been reported as now not current or being unfindable. On reflection this had extra to do with insufficient mapping, lack of preparation and lack of satellite tv for pc location applied sciences: we discovered that most of the websites could possibly be re-found with somewhat little bit of endurance.
“There have been undoubtedly issues with a few of the archive data which was incomplete and had been inaccurately redrawn during the previous. Some websites had clearly been misplaced to the following growth of roads and buildings.”
The Dhekelia Sovereign base is round 20km broad and 7km deep and sits on the east aspect of Larnaca Bay. The topography is diversified together with a flat coastal strip assembly steep limestone cliffs and hills, with a broadly flat plateau on the inside which incorporates extra areas of rocky outcrop and is bisected by rivers that are usually dry beds beneath cultivation. The coastal strip and plateau embody areas of agriculture and horticulture, and areas of olive and citrus grove and scrub. Within the north of the world there are massive dairy and livestock farms.
Cyprus’ place on Mediterranean sea routes has led to a wealthy and various cultural heritage, and it’s famed for the preservation of many archaeological websites from the Bronze Age, Hellenistic/Iron Age, Roman, and Byzantine or medieval intervals. On the western finish of the Dhekelia space this occupation is represented in a big archaeological panorama comprising a big Bronze Age defended hilltop settlement at Kokkinokremnos and an adjoining Iron Age hillfort at Vikla, each sitting above the Roman harbour city of Koutsopetria: all these protected websites are topic to current analysis excavations. The Roman harbour is all now infilled, probably stemming from a catastrophic tsunami occasion.
A lot of the identified archaeology throughout Dhekelia is funerary, and this largely contains rock reduce tombs, a few of which had been constructed into the limestone caves (usually Hellenistic/Iron Age), and rock reduce shaft graves (usually Byzantine/Roman-Medieval).
Matt Beamish added: “The survey was very profitable with the identification of serious archaeological areas. We all know that many extra archaeological websites will exist which aren’t apparent to the bare eye. A lot of the world has seen no systematic archaeological survey, and the appliance of distant sensing or aerial survey maybe utilizing LiDAR would allow a wider image of earlier human exercise to be drawn. The knowledge will allow the DIO to higher handle the archaeological websites inside the Sovereign Base Administration Space, and permit a wider understanding of Dhekelia’s archaeological heritage.”
Alex Sotheran, Archaeology Advisor, DIO, praised the survey and the outcomes:
“The work carried out by Matt and the crew has actually improved our data and understanding of the archaeology throughout the Dhekelia space and can permit for an improved system of administration of those very important and vital heritage property going ahead.”
The info created through the survey has been entered into DIO’s Historic Buildings, Websites and Monuments Document, which in flip is significant for serving to to guard the historic atmosphere throughout the Ministry of Defence’s UK and abroad property.
Moreover, the archaeological information has been shared with the Republic of Cyprus Division of Antiquities (DoA) as a part of a Protocol for Collaboration between British Forces Cyprus and the Republic of Cyprus DoA. The protocol will make sure that potential impacts on archaeology can be actively thought of alongside navy coaching actions and infrastructure work throughout the Sovereign Base Areas of Akrotiri and Dhekelia. It additionally units out procedures for managing any archaeological stays uncovered throughout development initiatives.
