Pyla-Kokkinokremos. A Late 13th Century BC Fortified Settlement in Cyprus. Excavations 2010–2011

Vassos Karageorghis & Athanasia Kanta

City: Uppsala

Year: 2014

Publisher: Åströms Förlag

Series: Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 141

Description: Hardback, 260 p., 244 b/w figures, 8 colour & 22 b/w plates, 30,2x21,4 cm

Abstract

The volume presents a full report on excavations undertaken in 2010 and 2011 by Vassos Karageorghis and Athanasia Kanta at the 13th BC fortified settlement of Pyla-Kokkinokremos in the Larnaca Bay area of southern Cyprus; and an additional brief report on the 2012 excavations which uncovered two extremely important Cypro-Minoan clay tablets.

Chapters 1–3 discuss the stratigraphy and architecture of excavated rooms and complexes and present the site and its architecture in their historical setting. Chapter 4 includes an inventory of objects and diagnostic sherds and Chapter 5 presents a detailed commentary on the pottery, metal and other finds. The volume concludes with a discussion of Pyla-Kokkinokremos and the ‘Crisis Years’ in Cyprus and remarks on material culture and chronology. Nine appendices discuss Late Helladic IIIB and Late Minoan IIIB amphoroid craters (V. Karageorghis), pot marks (Hirschfeld), ‘Canaanite jars’ (Georgiou), a bronze plaque with a nude female figure (J. Karageorghis) and ground stone tools (McCaig) from the site, and report on the geology (Zomeni) and, variously, petrographic, chemical and Neutron Activation analyses of cooking pots and Minoan imports (Dikomitou-Eliadou, Kiriatzi and Vionis), a Late Helladic III bowl (Mommsen) and copper alloy artefacts (Charalambous and Kassianidou). The volume is richly illustrated, with over 200 in-text site photographs and architectural plans and line drawings and photographs of the finds arranged on nine colour and twenty-two black and white plates, and includes five large-scale plans and sections.

Contents

Contents [iii]
List of tables [ix]
List of figures [xi]
List of plates [xix]
Acknowledgments [xxi]
Preface [xxiii]
Abbreviations [xxv]

1. Athanasia Kanta, Pyla Kokkinokremos 2010, 2011. The excavation and architecture [1]

1.1. The excavations of 2010 and 2011 [1]
1.2. The complexes uncovered in 2010 and 2011 [1]
1.3. Stratigraphy and architecture  [2]
1.4. The excavated complexes and individual rooms [3]

2. Athanasia Kanta, Pyla-Kokkinokremos 2012 [103]

2.1. Problems needing clarification [103]
2.2. The excavations of 2012 [104]

3. Athanasia Kanta, The site and architecture of Pyla in their historical setting [113]

3.1. Location [113]
3.2 Advanced planning and complexes [113]
3.3. The hyposkafon technique and its origins [113]
3.4. Wall construction and lay-out of the site [114]
3.5. Entrances [115]
3.6. T-shaped walls [116]
3.7. The hearth [116]
3.8. Windows [116]
3.9. Courtyards [117]
3.10. Corridors [117]
3.11. Floors [117]
3.12. Cooking pots and cooking areas [118]
3.13. Water management and the implications for the lighting of interior rooms [118]
3.14. Postholes, stairs and ladders: evidence for the use of wood [119]
3.15. Casemate architecture [119]
3.16. Offsets [120]
3.17. Casemate rooms, corridors and roof function [120]
3.18. Communication within the site and access to it [121]
3.19. Summary [121]

4. Vassos Karageorghis & Artemis Georgiou, Inventory of objects, diagnostic sherds and sherd trays [123]

4.1. Objects [123]
4.2. Diagnostic sherds [132]
4.3. Sherd trays [139]

5. Vassos Karageorghis & Artemis Georgiou, Commentary on the objects [141]

5.1. Late Helladic III (V.K.) [141]
5.2. Late Minoan III (V.K.) [141]
5.3. Imported Levantine amphora (V.K.) [142]
5.4. White Painted Wheelmade III ware (V.K.) [142]
5.5. Unpainted carinated bowls or kylikes of Plain White Wheelmade ware (V.K.)  [143]
5.6. Base-ring ware (A.G.) [143]
5.7. White Slip ware (A.G.) [143]
5.8. White Shaved ware (A.G.) [144]
5.9. Handmade Burnished ware (V.K.) [144]
5.10. Plain White ware (A.G.) [145]
5.11. Terracotta wall brackets (V.K.) [146]
5.12. Black/Red Slip Wheelmade ware (A.G.) [146]
5.13. Pithoi (A.G.) [146]
5.14. Coarse ware cooking pots (A.G.) [150]
5.15. Coarse ware cooking dishes (V.K.) [151]
5.16. Coarse Monochrome ware (A.G.) [151]
5.17. Bronze objects (V.K.) [152]
5.18. Other artefacts (V.K.) [153]

6. Vassos Karageorghis, Summary and historical conclusions [155]

6.1. Pyla-Kokkinokremos and the ‘Crisis Years’ in Cyprus [155]
6.2. Remarks on the material culture of Pyla-Kokkinokremos  [160]
6.3. Chronology [162]

Appendix I. Vassos Karageorghis, Late Helladic IIIB and Late Minoan IIIB amphoroid kraters from Pyla-Kokkinokremos [163]

AI.1. Late Helladic IIIB amphoroid krater [163]
AI.2. Late Minoan amphoroid krater [165]

Appendix II. Nicolle Hirschfeld, Marked pottery at Pyla-Kokkinokremos, 2010-2011 [169]

AII.l. Plain White ware jugs [169]
AII.2. Canaanite jars [169]
AII.3. Minoan amphoroid krater (no. 75) [170]
ΑII.4. Mycenaean pictorial amphoroid krater (no. 76) [171]

Appendix III. Artemis Georgiou, The ‘Canaanite jars’ [175]

Appendix IV. Maria Dikomitou-Eliadou, Evangelia Kiriatzi & Athanasios K. Vionis, Petrographic analysis of Late Cypriote cooking pots and Late Minoan pottery from Pyla-Kokkinokremos [189]

AIV.l. Late Cypriote IIC-IIIA cooking pots from Pyla-Kokkinokremos [189]
AIV.2. Late Minoan III pottery from Pyla-Kokkinokremos [193]

Appendix V. Andreas Charalambous & Vasiliki Kassianidou, Chemical analyses of copper alloy artefacts from Pyla-Kokkinokremos using portable X-Ray Fluorescence [197]

AV.l . Introduction [197]
AV.2. Method of analysis [199]
AV.3. Results  [199]
AV.4. Conclusions [204]

Appendix VI. Jacqueline Karageorghis, A bronze plaque from Pyla-Kokkinokremos decorated with a nude female figure of the Qadesh type [205]

Appendix VII. Alison McCaig, Ground stone tools from Pyla-Kokkinokremos [211]

AVII.l. Catalogue [211]
AVII.2. Discussion [213]

Appendix VIII. Zomenia Zomeni, The Quaternary environment of the Pyla-Kokkinokremos area [215]

AVIII.l. Geological/geomorphological units [215]
AVIII.2. Geological evolution [216]

Appendix IX. Hans Mommsen, Neutron Activation Analysis of no. 60 [217]

Bibliography [219]
Colour plates [229]
Plates [238]
Plans [261]

Pyla-Kokkinokremos, ground plan of the old and new excavations
Pyla-Kokkinokremos, schematic rendering of the old and new excavations, including parts of the casemate walls
Pyla-Kokkinokremos, ground plan of the 2010 and 2011 excavations
Pyla-Kokkinokremos, schematic rendering of the 2010 and 2011 excavations
Pyla-Kokkinokremos, sections through ‘Rooms’ of the 2010 and 2011 excavations