LEICESTER, ENGLAND—According to a statement released by the University of Leicester, a survey conducted by Matt Beamish of the University of Leicester and his colleagues has rediscovered and recorded archaeological sites on the southern coast of Cyprus thought to have been lost to the development of a British military base at Dhekelia. Some 60 archaeological sites had been recorded in the region in the 1960s, prior to the development of an airstrip and garrison. Beamish and his team used this information to visit each site, which they then recorded with photography, GPS, and standardized forms. In all, the team members were able to relocate 51 of the sites, including five historic buildings, poorly preserved rock-cut tombs, and three ancient quarries where stone could be loaded onto boats. The sites range in age from the Bronze Age, beginning around 2500 B.C., through the Byzantine period, which ended in the twelfth century A.D. Beamish said that many of these sites were probably missed during a survey some 20 years ago because of inadequate record keeping and a lack of satellite location technologies. “We found that many of the sites could be re-found with a little bit of patience,” he concluded. To read about an ancient city on Cyprus that was a hub of the copper trade some 3,500 years ago, go to “In the Time of the Copper Kings.”
