Excavations at Ayia Varvara Asprokremnos completed
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Classics and archaeology students work on a dig at Ayia Varvara Asprokremnos in central Cyprus [Credit: Cornell University] |
Excavations during 2013 continued to unearth evidence of significant manufacturing activity associated with the production of chipped stone tools, which together with a second resource, namely ochre, combine to explain the choice of site location adjacent to the Lefkara chalk belt and the sulfide deposits of Mathiati. The processing of multi-coloured pigments was facilitated by a large array of ground stone tools dominated by pounding tools and grinders that facilitated the processing of pigments as evidenced by significant numbers of tools with ochre residues. Such tools were cached in features dug into structure floors or placed in heaps along with other evidence of occupation including discarded chert tools and animal bones. One new artifact type associated with the processing of ochre is marked by a number of large chalk slabs exhibiting ochre residues in conjunction with clear cut marks on working surfaces that appear to have functioned as cutting boards.
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A selection of arrowhead/projectiles recovered from Ayia Varvara Asprokremnos [Credit: Cornell University] |
Excavations in 2013 unearthed two new structures constructed after Feature 300 was abandoned. The earlier one, Feature 848, appeared beneath the ochre processing area documented in the 2012 season in the centre of the site. Though only a quarter of the structure was excavated in 2013, Feature 848 shows a simplified method of construction in comparison to the earlier Feature 300, revealing a clear devolution of architectural form.
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The figuring found at the Ayia Varvara-Asprokremmos site [Credit: Cornell University] |
Feature 840 is a simple dish-shaped pit structure furnished with a single post-hole that could have supported only a comparatively light roof for its earliest curvilinear earth floor, with a cluster of small stake holes providing evidence of a similarly light super-structure during a later re-occupation of the building. Feature 840, though simple architecturally, revealed a substantial cache of river stones and ground stone tools placed on the floor and used for the processing of ochre throughout the life of the structure, implying the intensification of the ochre industry during this phase of occupation at the site.
Source: Republic of Cyprus, Ministry of Interior, Press and Information Office [September 19, 2013]
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