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The Department of Antiquities of the Ministry of Transport, Communications and Works, announces the end of the 2023 excavations at the site of Dromolaxia-Vyzakia (Hala Sultan Tekke). The investigations were carried out in May and June 2023 by an international team of researchers, under the direction of Professor Peter M. Fischer (University of Gothenburg, Sweden), assisted by Dr. Rainer Feldbacher. The site at Dromolaxia-Vizakia was a Late Bronze Age port city of at least 25 hectares. The settlement, which flourished from about 1630 to 1150 BC, lies along the shores of the Larnaca Salt Lake, near the Hala Sultan Tekke mosque and the Larnaca airport.
Alongside the excavations and after their completion, other members of the Swedish team worked under the guidance of Dr. Teresa Bürge. The team studied the findings of previous excavation periods which are kept in the storerooms of the Larnaca District Archaeological Museum. Bioarchaeologist Yuko Miyauchi, a PhD student of Professor Kirsi Lorentz and Professor Sorin Hermon and his team from the Cyprus Institute participated in the research. The teams from the Cyprus Institute supported both the excavation research and the mapping of the skeletal remains, the 2D and 3D recording of the finds and the analysis of the material.
Based on the results of the previous geophysical investigations, the excavations focused on Area A, the cemetery of the settlement. Specifically, three chamber tombs were discovered, tentatively dated to the 14th century BC. One of the tombs had been confiscated in the 19th century and, although grave robbers had largely destroyed the grave goods and skeletal remains it contained, some artefacts were nevertheless preserved and the remaining skeletal remains were collected. The grave goods include jewellery and imported pottery (mainly in fragments) from the Aegean area but also from Egypt and Anatolia.
Two tombs in the same area were found uncontacted, although the roof of their chamber had collapsed in antiquity. The tombs contained a large number of particularly impressive grave goods including locally produced pottery and jewellery, as well as objects imported from the Aegean region, Anatolia, Egypt, the Eastern Mediterranean and from cultures further east and north. For example, objects made of electrum (amber) were found, probably from the Baltic Sea, lapis lazuli from Afghanistan and deep red carnelian from India. Among the grave goods are elaborate jewellery made of precious metals, such as diadems, manuals (knives), spearheads and a mirror (mirror) made of copper alloy. Objects made of ivory and faience were imported from Egypt during the famous 18th Dynasty, the period of the pharaohs Tuthmosis III, Akhenaten and his wife Nefertiti. Neonates, children, youths and adults have been recorded, all buried with a large number of grave goods.
The wealth of the city at the site of Dromolaxia-Vyzakia (Hala Sultan Tekke) seems to have been derived from the production and trade of copper, which ended up in nearby and more distant areas. The rich funerary offerings suggest that the individuals buried in the tombs came from the upper echelons of society who would have been active in copper export and overseas trade in general.
(MB/SX)
Fig: Large Minoan crater with painted representations of an octopus
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