Ayia Varvara-Asprokremnos: University of Cyprus, Cornell University and Trent University

Cyprus, Department of Antiquities, 14-09-2011

The Ministry of Communications and Works, Department of Antiquities, announces the completion of the 2011 excavations at the 9th millennium site of Ayia Varvara-Asprokremnos. The investigations were directed by Dr. Carole McCartney of the Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus as part of the EENC (Elaborating Early Neolithic Cyprus) Project, an international collaboration between the Universities of Cyprus, Cornell University and the University of Toronto. Ayia Varvara-Asprokremnos, currently dated by radio-carbon to between c. 8,800-8,600 BC cal, was occupied at the start of the Neolithic period on Cyprus at a time when the transition from hunting to farming economies was beginning throughout the Middle East. Unlike the large early village settlements seen at this time on the adjacent mainland, Ayia Varvara-Asprokremnos provides evidence of intensive resource procurement and manufacturing activity at a relatively small but extensively occupied campsite. The campsite is dated to some 11,000 years before present, during the initial phase of the Cypriot Neolithic known as the Cypriot Pre-Pottery Neolithic A, predating the well know World Heritage site of Choirokoitia by some two and a half to three thousand years.

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