Preliminary excavations at Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou

Luca Bombardieri, Oliva Menozzi, Domenico Fossataro & Anna Margherita Jasink Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 2009 [2010]: 131-162.

Abstract (from the Introduction)

The excavations on Site 10 (i.e. the most northern site which was surveyed last year on the eastern side of the Kouris), allow us to hypothesize the presence of a system of structures dating back to the Middle Bronze Age, as confirmed by the ceramic evidence: from all the excavated trenches the Red Polished wares are the most widely attested production within the pottery assemblage. A complex system of a double terrace wall has been identified. The trenches carried out in the A and B areas (A1 and B1) revealed a sequence of two phases: the first one possibly dates back to the Middle Bronze Age, the second (on a quite different circuit) dates to the Hellenistic-Roman period. For the reconstruction of these phases of the walling system, both a topographic plan by total station and an aerial photographic documentation have been used. A larger trench on the hilltop (Trench A2) cleared the presence of a large workshop area, possibly devoted to the processing of leather or textiles, as could be suggested by a series of interconnected basins and channels in the bedrock. The spindle-whorls and loom-weights coming from this workshop area also point to this specific activity.

In a small cemetery area in the third lower terrace (Area E), a series of three rock-cut tombs have been excavated (Tombs 228-230). Among the grave-goods found inside two of these tombs were a large repertoire of vessels of Red Polished ware and some small objects (decorated spindle-whorls, picrolite ornamental disks). We can interpret the similarity of the finds from the contemporary funerary and workshop contexts as part of a craftsman’s equipment. The anthropological analysis of the human bones remains from Tombs 228 and 230 has revealed, respectively, a multiple inhumation of three individuals (a man, a woman and a child) and a single inhumation of a woman.