Toumba tou Skourou

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The archaeological site Toumba tou Skourou is located in Cyprus on the banks of the Ovgos / Dar Dere near the town of Morfou . It is a late Bronze Age settlement that dates back to 1600 BC. BC and after 1350 BC Was abandoned. Possibly there was a political core area around Morfou in the northwest of the island, which existed independently of the dominant Alašija during the transition from the middle to the late Bronze Age in the southeast. The fortress Nitovikla on the Karpas peninsula could have been a border fortress, as well as Ayios Sozomenos and five fortresses in the area around Eylenja and Geri .

excavation

Excavations took place there between 1971 and 1974 by Harvard University and the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston . The head of the excavation was Emily T. Vermeule . There are other sites, like the nearby Neolithic Petra tou Limniti that from the Mycenaean up to the Roman period existing Soli , then Pentayia with its Bronze Age tombs, but also Agia Irini with its hippopotamus fossils , Bronze Age tombs and a Roman settlement, and finally the again Bronze Age tombs of Stefania and the sanctuary of Myrtou Pigades from the same period .

Periodization

Oldest settlement

Toumba tou Skourou lies with its northern part on an elongated hill, which is separated from a group of houses in the south by a gravel ramp. The house entrances looked out onto a road parallel to the river, while the tombs were to the east.

The first settlers may have come from nearby Lapethos in the Kyrenia area . They erected a massive terrace wall with a length of about 30 m. A water channel was found in the eastern part, which is interpreted as an indication of a swampy landscape from which the artificial village hill rose like an island.

Probably, many of the houses workshops, which were divided by low walls, which in turn contributed benches with plates of laminated plaster were occupied. In addition to the large number of ceramic vessels, a long row of vessels along a wall also indicates the workshop character. A considerable selection of clay species was available to the craftsmen, which probably came from the Ovgos river bed.

The oldest grave at the site is grave 5. It dates from the founding period at the end of the Middle Bronze Age. Imported vessels from Tell el Yehudiyeh , but also imitations of imported goods , were found in the grave goods.

New establishment (around 1550 BC)

Around 1550 BC The settlement was abandoned , perhaps after an earthquake . The site was backfilled and rebuilt 2 m above the previous level. New floors, walls, benches and kilns were also built. On the southern flank of the hill an enormous facility for processing the clay was built; their building was 2 m high and measured 14.5 * 6 m. Its floor is made of crushed watertight stone and contains a series of connected pools and two large storage pithoi sunk into the ground .

The large circular pit of grave I is dated around 1550–1525 BC. And is located below the hill. The grave consists of 13 niches for children's burials and three chambers for burial of about 36 adults. The burial site was used for at least a century and is the largest of its kind in the Morfou area. The grave goods consist of every type of pottery from this era, as they were until the end of the 15th century BC. Was common. In addition to around 800 vases, objects made of gold, silver, bronze and ivory, jewelry and cylinder seals were found. Imported vases from Tell el Yehudieh, two-tone vases from Palestine and fragments of Minoan vessels were also found here.

Metalworking, mass production (around 1400 BC)

Around 1400 BC A strong change can be seen. New brick walls and systems were built, for example for metal processing. Three rectangular buildings near the river and south of the ramp received new floors and walls as well as fountains. House B consists of six rooms with paving and tiled floors. In the largest room there were a considerable number of pithoi, some of which are around 2 m high. Possibly it was some kind of sales room. There was apparently spinning and weaving in the open courtyard next to it. The building existed until around 1220 BC. Chr.

Cypriot two-tone goods

The youngest grave 2, chamber 4, was dated to the Amarna period , around 1350 BC. A young woman was buried there in an existing family grave. She was surrounded by rich grave goods made of ivory, glass and lapis lazuli .

Late phase (up to around 700 BC)

The remains of the Mycenaean settlement were scattered around the hill. The next settlement phase is assigned to Zypro-geometric III (850–750 BC) and extends to around 700 BC. The pieces from this period are extremely fragmentary.

literature

  • Emily Vermeule : Toumba tou Skourou. The Mound of Darkness. A Bronze Age Town on Morphou Bay in Cyprus , Cambridge 1974.
  • Emily Vermeule, Florence Zundell Wolsky: Toumba tou Skourou. A Bronze Age Potter's Quarter on Morphou Bay in Cyprus , Boston 1990.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Michael Gareth Brown: Landscapes of Settlement in South-east Cyprus. The Late Bronze Age Origins of a Phoenician Polity. Incorporating the results of fieldwork by the author at Pyla-Kokkinokremos 2007-2009 , thesis, University of Edinburgh, 2011, pp. 42-45.