ARCHAEOLOGICAL SITE OF CHIROKITIA

This site (Αρχαιολογικός Χώρος Χοιροκοιτίας/Archeologikós Choros Chirokitias) has been a Unesco World Heritage Site since 1988. It is home to some of the most important Neolithic remains in the eastern Mediterranean. It is a fortified village that was occupied from the ^7th to the ^4th millennium B.C. It was discovered by Porphyrios Dikaios (1904-1971), the same archaeologist who discovered the Kalavasos-Tenta site. But it wasn't until 1976 that systematic excavations began, led by a French mission led by Alain Le Brun of the CNRS. The village covered an estimated 1.5 ha in the Maroni valley. The site had been chosen for its defensive qualities, on rugged terrain in the last foothills of the Troodos massif. Natural protection was supplemented to the west by a stone wall which, as the site expanded, eventually reached 180 m in length. Inhabitants lived from hunting, cereal-growing and animal husbandry (sheep, pigs).

Circular structures. The remains unearthed consist of a multitude of small circular dwellings, the foundations of which remain. This was a typical feature of Cypriot architecture in the Neolithic period, whereas elsewhere in the eastern Mediterranean, rectangular constructions were the rule. Tightly packed together, they are organized around a "courtyard". Replicas of five dwellings in the eastern part of the site give an idea of the village's appearance. Built of stone, cob and dried mud brick, with flat roofs, these structures are in fact "rooms" in a larger domestic ensemble, constituting a "house", with an open space at the center housing a grain-grinding facility. Burials have been discovered in the floor of the dwellings: the deceased was most often laid in a foetal position and, once the pit was filled in, the dwelling returned to its domestic function. Inhabitants did not hesitate to dig on several levels. A total of 26 graves were found in eight successive layers. Most of the site's artefacts are on display at the National Museum in Nicosia and the Larnaka Archaeological Museum: anthropomorphic stone figurines, vessels in stone, limestone or diabase (soft green stone), bone tools for perforating, basketry or weaving.