The Department of Antiquities announced the completion of the 2025 excavation season of the French archaeological mission conducted at Kition-Bamboula. Archeologists unearthed room and contents that date back to the Cypro-Archaic period.
The excavation concentrated on trench to the northwest of the site, where they had exposed in the previous campaigns a large pit.
The latter was dug and filled-in in the late Classical period (4th century BCE). The main aim of the current mission was for the archeologists to extend the exploration both in depth and in width, in order to evaluate the extent and impact of the massive earthworks which occurred in the Classical period (pits and levelling works), and continue to expose the remains of earlier occupation in the sector.
Extension of the excavation towards the south revealed the existence of another looter’s trench. Both trenches were long and deep and they cut into previous structures.The lower courses of the latter, however, were preserved under the bottom of the pit. Moreover, to the south, the upper structure of the wall (possibly a late refection), made of a layer of mudbricks supporting pebbles was preserved.
The press release by the Antiquities Department also says that in the centre of the excavated area, between the two large looter’s trenches, floor levels of the Classical period were partially preserved and several phases were identified.
A nice floor level was evidenced, which experienced various raisings.
Excavation did not reach levels earlier than the Classical period in the central part of the trench. On the contrary, Archaic floor levels and walls were found to the east and north. The mission exposed a room whose southern limit has been cut by the looter’s trench.
Its eastern and northern limits were, however, well preserved. They are embodied by walls of stone supporting a mudbrick elevation.
The archeologists retrieved several ceramic containers (imported Phoenician commercial amphoras and locally made Plain White amphora and jug), as well as a Bichrome barrel-jug.
The layout of the containers is remarkable: three were found lying against the northern wall of the room; three were standing against the eastern wall.
Among the latter, the two Phoenician amphoras were set upside down, with their bottom and upper parts missing. The room and its contents can be confidently dated to the Cypro- Archaic period (8th-7th centuries BCE). They represent the most ancient remains found to date in the sector, the press release reads.