Ancient Cypriot inscriptions found on recovered stones –

Excavations this season at the ancient site of Kouklia-Mateselo in Palepafos, western Cyprus, have unearthed a rare fragment of Cypriot syllabic writing. It was carved into a stone and later reused in the construction of city walls during the Cypriot-Archaic period from 750 to 480 BC This syllabic script is thought to be a descendant of the Minoan Linear A writing system, active from the 11th to the 4th century BC, after which it was abandoned and replaced by the Greek alphabet.

Palapaphos was built in the late Bronze Age, before the arrival of the Achaeans from Peloponnese Greece, and is associated with the sanctuary of the local Great Goddess, a goddess of fertility, whose worship in Cyprus can be traced to the Chalcolithic Age (3900-2500 BC). When the Greeks (the Achaeans in 1200 BC, followed by the Dorian Greeks in 1100 BC) colonized the island, they adopted the local goddess worship, eventually transforming it into a cult of Aphrodite of worship. Palaipaphos flourished as an urban center and religious site, becoming the largest city in western Cyprus from the Geometric Period (900 BC) to the end of the 4th century BC. In the 4th century, the city declined.

It regained some regional importance during the Middle Ages and today the village of Kuklia stands on this ancient site. The archaeological remains of Palapaphos came to the attention of looters as early as the 16th century, but archaeologists did not begin systematic excavations of the site until 1950.

This year marks the fourth excavation of the site, funded by the Department of History and Archeology of the National University of Athens and Kapodistria (EKPA) and conducted by a team of undergraduate, graduate and doctoral students led by the university’s Archeology Professor Constant Din Copanias. The team’s mission this year is to continue investigating a more than 550-foot-long memorial wall that was first discovered during excavations before the 20th century.

The walls were built in several stages, with the earliest construction beginning in the late Third Period of Cyprus (13th century BC), but the timeline is complex and unclear. The 2024 excavation is intended to date various construction phases, with particular emphasis on tunneling through the wall at a depth of approximately 7.5 feet. Excavation of the tunnel revealed more information about the stratigraphy, confirming that the walls were restored during the Archaic and Classical periods of Cyprus. The purpose of these tunnels remains a mystery.

This year’s excavations also investigated a building north of the city walls facing the sea. Shaped like a capital pi (Π), it was previously thought to be part of the site’s fortifications, possibly a tower through which the defenders could monitor any approaching ships. Excavations revealed that this assumption was wrong and that the structure was not connected to the city wall at all and was more likely to have had a sacrificial function.

Currently available excavation data indicate that it was built in strata from the late Cypriot Tertiary Period (12th-11th century BC), abandoned during the Cyprian Geometric Period, and later restored during the Archaic Period (6th century BC). In 2023, two carved depictions of ships were discovered on the outside of this mysterious structure, similar to similar depictions of ships at Kition. In 2024, another depiction of a ship was discovered, but it was not completed.