The University of Leicester has announced that over 50 archaeological sites possibly dating back to the Bronze Age have been unearthed at a British military base in Cyprus. The survey, done in collaboration with the Ministry of Defence, occurred at the Eastern Sovereign Base Area (ESBA) at Dhekelia, on the island nation’s southern coast.
The “walkover survey” was led by Matt Beamish of the University of Leicester Archaeological Services and had been active since 2015. It involved the team documenting all visible archaeological remains that had been documented before the development of both the garrison within the ESBA and the Kingsfield Airstrip to the west.
In the 1960s, some 60 possible sites had been recorded. Of that total, 51 were located in a 12-mile-wide area, 47 of which had surviving records. The most notable sites were three coastal quarries, four churches, the remains of a watchtower and several tombs, with one located in a cemetery surrounding a monastery west of Xylotymbou village.
It’s believed the majority of the sites date back to the Bronze Age, from around 2500 BC to the end of the 12th Century AD. Given Cyprus’ location along the Mediterranean, the Middle Eastern country has several archaeological sites dating back to the Roman, Byzantine and medieval eras, as well as the Bronze and Iron Ages.
In a new release by the University of Leicester, Beamish said:
“Our GIS and survey methods had worked well when used for a similar survey of the Akrotiri peninsula in 2019. Many of the sites we were planning to survey had been last visited over 20 years ago, and in many instances had been reported as no longer existing or being unfindable. On reflection this had more to do with inadequate mapping, lack of preparation and lack of satellite location technologies: we found that many of the sites could be re-found with a little bit of patience.
“There were undoubtedly problems with some of the archive information which was incomplete and had been inaccurately redrawn at some stage in the past. Some sites had clearly been lost to the subsequent development of roads and buildings.”
The British overseas military base in the region is located on the east side of Larnaca Bay. While Cyprus gained its independence from Britain in 1960, the latter retained control over two sovereign base areas, Akrotiri and Dhekelia.
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The data collected during the survey has been entered into the Defense Infrastructure Organisation’s (DIO) Historic Buildings, Sites and Monuments Record, to aid in their preservation.