Workshop Space Excavated at Bronze Age Cyprus Settlement

PAPHOS, CYPRUS—Kathimerini Cyprus reports that researchers led by Lindy Crewe of the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute (CAARI) are excavating a Bronze Age settlement at Kissonerga-Kalia in southwestern Cyprus. The site was first inhabited from around 2500 to 1600 B.C. Crewe and her team determined that by about 1750 B.C., the residents razed older buildings on the northern side of the settlement, pushed the debris down a slope, and reused it to create a platform measuring some 13,000 square feet. A system of massive walls and open courtyards was then built with mud and plaster on this terrace. The researchers think this structure was used as workshop space that included an L-shaped courtyard with two large, domed ovens. The larger of the two ovens contained discarded tools, plaster pieces, pottery fragments, and animal bones. But before it had been abandoned, it was likely used to prepare foods containing wheat and terebinth, based upon charred grains recovered from soil samples. The larger oven was eventually sealed beneath a new floor before the smaller oven was built. To read about evidence for brewing at Kissonerga-Skalia, go to "A Prehistoric Cocktail Party."