Vretsia/Ag. Ioannis-Roudias (Troodos Mountains): Aristotle University of Thessaloniki

Cyprus Department of Antiquities

The Department of Antiquities, Ministry of Communications and Works, announces the successful completion of the 2014 archaeological investigations, conducted by the Department of History and Archaeology of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki (AUT), at the early Epipalaeolithic site of Vretsia/Ayios Ioannis – Roudias in the Troodos mountains (Pafos District). The project, was carried out under the direction of Professor Nikolaos Efstratiou by a small team of archaeology students and the mission’s associate Mr. Demetris Kyriakou. The importance of this site with regards to the island’s early prehistory has already been established in international bibliography, thus creating an interesting dynamic, which the field investigations strive to maintain, regardless of the financial limitations that are unfortunately a reality each year.

The aims of the 2014 season were twofold: firstly, to investigate the extent of this Epipalaeolithic site, mainly through revealing the modes of construction of the features as well as the function of the large ‘stone feature’ that is, over the last few years, being gradually revealed and which covers a substantial area. Secondly, to confirm the site’s stratigraphy that measures over 120cm in height and especially to closely examine the deeper layers that had been revealed in 2013 and had dated with OSL (Optically Stimulated Luminescence) to the 11th-10th millennia BC. It should be noted here that the identification of an early lithics technology in undisturbed layers of the early Holocene has occurred perhaps for the first time in Cyprus, and records a multifaceted dynamic both from a chronological and a cultural point of view. This dynamism needed to be investigated and its basic characteristics verified. The excavation results greatly contributed towards this direction.

More: http://www.mcw.gov.cy/