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- Ελληνικά
The Department of Antiquities of the State Ministry of Culture announces the end of the 2023 excavation period of the Italian archaeological mission in Erie, where a team of archaeologists, researchers and students from Italy, Cyprus and Greece, under the direction of Professor Luca Bombardieri, investigated between August 2 and 28 the Middle Bronze Age settlement and necropolis at the site of Erimi - Laonin of Porakos, between August 2 and 28. The research is supported by the University of Siena and is carried out with the ongoing support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Department of Antiquities.
In parallel, a new research project was launched in 2023, aiming at a larger-scale analysis of the ancient topography of the Curis River valley. The interdisciplinary project Topography, Identity, Networks in the Kouris Valley (LINK) consists of an archaeological and geomorphological survey of the upper valley, aiming to better understand the hinterland of the site during the Bronze Age, exploring the interaction that the natural landscape would have had with the strategic development of the settlement over the years. Three field teams collaborated for this project, performing (a) archaeological systematic excavation (University of Siena), (b) archaeological survey and topography (University of Salento, Catholic University of Milan) and (c) geomorphological survey (University of Genoa).
Conservation work was also carried out, which allowed the complete repair and 3D reconstruction of the large pithoi vessels excavated in 2021 in the settlement section. The pithoi were conserved thanks to the collaboration with the Venaria Reale School of Conservation in Turin and the participation of selected students from the European Union's Erasmus traineeship programme.
The investigations in the laboratory complex at the top of the hill confirmed that the workshop, which was mainly used for the production of dyed textiles, would have played an important role in the prehistoric community. Extending the survey area to the southern and north-western part of the complex revealed a series of five new rooms. The identification of these new bounded and roofed rooms suggests that the SA V laboratory shrine excavated in 2022 would only have been accessible from the eastern side of the complex, confirming that there would have been a predetermined route to the shrine through the laboratory complex.
During this year's investigations, a rescue excavation was carried out in the adjacent necropolis to the south (Area E), in an ancient tomb consisting of multiple chambers. Tomb T682, which appears to have been partially sealed, was uncovered and fully investigated revealing interesting grave goods and burial practices chronologically consistent with the last phase of the community at the end of the Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1600 BC).
(NΓ/EXP)
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