Publication Phase Report

I. Brief History of the Project.
The Vasilikos river valley and the village of Kalavasos lie approximately equidistant between the towns of Limassol and Larnaca in the southern coastal zone of Cyprus. The valley is one of a series which runs down to the southern coast from the eastern end of the Troodos mountain range. The village of Kalavasos is strategically situated between the copper mines to the north and the Mediterranean coast 5 km. to the south. The environment is characteristically coastal Mediterranean.

The fieldwork of the Vasilikos Valley Project was begun in the area of Kalavasos village, Larnaca District, in 1976, and has been continued each year since then. In addition to an extensive field survey and various geographical and environmental studies of the region, excavations have been undertaken at four major sites: the Neolithic site of Kalavasos-Tenta, the Chalcolithic site of Kalavasos-Ayious, the Middle-Late Bronze Age cemetery site within Kalavasos village and the Late Bronze Age settlement and cemetery at Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios. Small scale excavations have also been undertaken recently at the Late Bronze Age ceramic manufacturing site at Sanidha in the Troodos foothills, NW of Kalavasos. Small-scale, sometimes rescue, excavations have also been undertaken at a number of other sites.

The present focus of excavation and study and subject of this report is the large 14th-13th century B.C. site of Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios. Excavation began in 1979 when construction of a new highway was about to destroy part of the site, and for the first few seasons was confined to the affected areas, where a variety of mostly domestic buildings and considerable evidence of metalworking (in copper from the nearby mining area) were found. For the past several years work at the site has been almost entirely concentrated in the North-East Area of the ca. 10 hectare settlement, where a large, ashlar administrative building (Building X) surrounded by industrial and storage areas has been uncovered. Much of the large-scale storage and production facilities were devoted to olive oil, demonstrating control of produce and means of production in the hands of an elite. Literacy and economic control are also suggested by the presence of stamp seals, and multi-line inscriptions (as opposed to simple "pot marks" which also occur) in the undeciphered Cypro-Minoan script. Imported ceramics (Canaanite jars and other Levantine wares, fine Mycenaean table wares and closed vessels) are much more common in this area than in the domestic areas previously excavated, and a series of rich tombs shows that the elite received a generous supply of luxury and imported goods including much gold and silver jewellery, elephant and hippo ivory, glass, faience, alabaster, etc. as well as imported ceramics as mentioned above. Overall, this area provides much evidence for the economy and organization of Cypriot society and its international connections. While most of the extant architectural remains belong to the 13th century B.C. (Late Cypriot IIC), and during earlier work it was believed that little or no trace of earlier remains had survived the activities of the 13th century builders, recent seasons revealed that substantial traces of preceding phases do survive in certain areas. Excavation, and now study, of these was an important focus of this study season.

II. The 1996 Publication Phase Report.

Background
The only final publication of research at Ayios Dhimitrios to have appeared so far is a volume concerning material from the earlier, emergency excavations (South et al. 1989). Concerning the North-east Area, there is always a temptation to wait yet another couple of years to "complete more of the plan" of the industrial areas around Building X, but as it is not known how far these may extend this might take many years. We plan to publish within about two years a "final" volume describing the architecture, stratigraphy and finds from Building X and those parts of the surroundings of which the excavation is substantially complete (the areas within the enclosure wall E and N of Building X, the street to the W, Building XI with its olive oil production facilities, probably Buildings XV and XIII if their excavation can be completed in 1997). Studies towards this end have already been in progress in previous seasons, and this year's work, as planned, has brought us to a stage where only one more study and writing season will be necessary. In parallel to the Building X volume, we are preparing another on the series of rich tombs found in the street W of Building X; the report on Tomb 11 (excavated in 1984), which has long been in a near-complete state, will be updated and joined to those on the more recently excavated tombs. These two volumes, in the same way as previous volumes of the Vasilikos Valley Project, will be published without cost to the project (other than the provision of camera-ready copy) in the series Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology edited by Paul strm in Gteborg.

Schedule
Ian Todd and Alison South reside in Cyprus year-round and are able to work on publication business for much of the time. During early June to late August 1996, several of the most important contributors to the publication (computer programmer, ceramicist, Late Bronze Age economy, illustrator, etc.) were resident in Kalavasos (where all the project records are housed) for varying periods of time. Before and after this, various other specialist contributors worked on their reports at their home bases, and some visited Cyprus for study and consultation. Although the season was planned for study only, some emergency excavation was carried out. After the end of last summer's excavation season, a tomb was found accidentally when a tractor collapsed its roof, and this (Tomb 18) was excavated last September (1995) with the help of local volunteers. The dromos (entrance) was not cleared, and work resumed on a small scale in late June 1996, in the expectation that only 2-3 days' work would be necessary. However, it turned out that another large tomb (Tomb 19) lay at the other end of the dromos, so its excavation had to be completed as it lies very close to the surface in an unfenced area of the site and would have risked being looted.

Results
The backbone of the season's work was the completion and double-checking of all data- entry (of deposits, pottery counts, object registers, etc.), together with classification of all deposits (by types and periods), detailed study of pottery and re-assessment of some deposits in light of the newly-revealed early phases, and most importantly extensive consultations between the directors and the specialists studying these matters. Complete catalogue descriptions of objects, and draft descriptions of architecture and deposits, were already done before this season started.

The completion this year of computer entry of all pottery counts (including those back to 1982 before the project possessed a computer) enables us to begin manipulating the data, comprising 38,000 sherds from the NE Area (excluding some of Priscilla Keswani's counts of pithoi which will be sent to Bill Andreas shortly). The overall totals alone are quite informative. Imported Aegean total 759, a much greater amount than occurs in other, domestic areas, but many of these may derive from tombs, the re-use or looting of which tends to scatter sherds around the nearby deposits (sherds from within tombs were not included in these totals). Rather surprisingly to us, Canaanite jar sherds total over 800, being better represented than we had appreciated during the course of excavation, as they are mostly body sherds with few which are worth drawing or registration. They occur in the areas around B.X, but not inside the building, and might have been used for international transport of the oil produced in the industrial areas. The ceramics from the areas where the early phases are well preserved will form an important sequence for this S coast area, where these periods (Late Cypriot IIA-B) are not well represented: sites of which the ceramics have so far been published in a useful way are mostly in more distant regions (e.g. Enkomi, Myrtou-Pigadhes, Nitovikla. Louise Steel's study of the sequence at Ayios Dhimitrios shows that we cannot place much reliance on the more attractive "fine wares". Mycenaean pottery, the usual dating criterion in Cyprus, occurs extremely rarely in the pre-LC IIC phases (except in tombs), and when it does occur, may be from looting of earlier tombs. White Slip II "normal" continues in very much the same form over a long period of time. More indicative are the Monochrome and Cooking wares, which do show some chronological variation, and the increase in Red and Black Slip in earlier levels. Because of the lack of Mycenaean, it is not easy to tie our sequence to absolute chronology, but it certainly covers the whole of the LC IIB - IIC periods. Louise Steel completed a first draft of a report concerning the ceramic chronology, revised her already completed drafts on the pottery of Tombs 12-17, and fully studied and complied detailed notes on the material of Tombs 18-20.

Various specialists progressed with their studies during this year and during the study season. Pamela Russell, in Cyprus in April, consulted concerning her study of the rich ceramic deposit replete with Mycenaean shallow bowls from Area 173. Michael Sugarman discussed our Canaanite jars and collected samples in Larnaca Museum as part of his widely-based analysis project. Nicolle Hirschfeld, in Cyprus for several months, updated her study of all the "pot marks" from Ayios Dhimitrios, and during the season had detailed discussions with the directors concerning the contexts of all these inscribed objects. Priscilla Keswani was with us for three weeks, gathering material for her study of the olive oil industry and its role in the Late Bronze Age economy of the Valley. Elizabeth Goring is in Cyprus (September 1996) and has studied the few gold jewellery items from Tombs 18 and 19. Jack Moyer, the project's osteologist, will visit in November to update his study of skeletal material from recently excavated tombs. Paul Croft, who resides in Cyprus, is continuing study of the animal bones. Further pithos samples wil be sent to Richard Evershed in Bristol for Gas Chromatography analyses.

Drawing of ceramics and objects by Bettina Heinrichs continued, although administrative hitches in Larnaca Museum meant that some material was not available, and will have to be completed next year.

Brief outline of final publications:

• Introduction and History of Excavation, South
• Description of Architecture and Stratigraphy, South
• Discussion of Stratigraphy and Phasing South, Steel and Andreas
• Units of Measurement Andreas
• Discussion of Architecture and Significance of the Building, South
• Catalogue of Finds, South et al.
• Discussion of Objects, South
• Discussion of Ceramics Steel and Keswani
• Faunal Remains, Croft
• Botanical Remains, Hansen
• Archaic Ceramics, Turner
• Roman ceramics and glass from robbers' Trenches, McClellan
• Geological Report, Xenophontos
• Tombs 12-17 excavation and description:
  Skeletal Remains, Moyer & Sherry Fox Leonard
  Ceramics, Steel
  Faience, Peltenburg
  Jewelry, Goring
• Olive Industry and General Discussion of Late Bronze Age Economy of the Vasilikos Valley, Keswani and South
• Discussion and Conclusions, South and Todd
  

III. Future Plans.
For 1997 we plan further study and writing in May-June, with a small-scale excavation in July-August only to fill a few gaps in the record for those areas to be published (not to extend the plan indefinitely!). Thereafter we hope that the volumes now in preparation will be completed by about the end of 1997. Once this is achieved, about three more seasons of larger- scale excavation will probably be planned at Ayios Dhimitrios, for further investigation of the administrative/industrial area, but also testing other areas of the site.

IV. For additional reading:

South, A.K., Russell, P. and Keswani, P.S. 1989
Vasilikos Valley Project 3: Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios II. Ceramics, Objects, Tombs, Specialist Studies (SIMA LXXI:3), Goteborg.

South, A.K. 1992
Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios 1991, Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 133-46.

Todd, I.A. & South, A.K. 1992 The Late Bronze Age in the Vasilikos Valley: Recent Research, in Ioannides, G.C. ed., Studies in Honour of Vassos Karageorghis, Nicosia, 191-204.

Steel, L. 1994
Representations of a Shrine on a Mycenaean Chariot Krater from Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios, Cyprus, Annual of the British School at Athens 89, 201-11.

Todd, I.A. 1996
The Vasilikos Valley: Its Place in Cypriot and Near Eastern Prehistory, in Coleson, J.E. and Matthews, V.H. eds., Go to the Land I Will Show You: Studies in Honor of Dwight W. Young, Winona Lake, 317-51.