“Aceramic” is an alternative term used for “Pre-pottery” and it is the long Period preceding the Ceramic Neolithic Period, where pottery in Cyprus was manufactured for the first time. The Aceramic Neolithic Period in Cyprus is divided into the Early Aceramic Neolithic Period [10th mil.-7,000 BC] and the Late Aceramic Neolithic Period [7,000-5,500 BC] [Ian Todd, 1989].
Architecture during the Aceramic Neolithic Period in Cyprus
Despite marked variations in the architecture of the three main excavated Late Aceramic Neolithic Period (Parekklishia-Shillourokambos, Kalavasos-Tenta, Khirokitia), according to Todd, certain features are standard: all the domestic structures are circular or at least curvilinear, and built of mudbrick and/or [unshaped] stone [limestone or/and diabase]; in some cases double or even treble walls betray “a lack of confidence in the strength of the building”. Todd assumes that both domed and flat roofs were employed in Tenta and Khirokitia. “The curvature clearly visible on some walls is almost certainly intentional, strongly suggesting that some buildings bore domed roofs”. Single or double rectilinear piers occur frequently within the buildings, and in the view of Ian Todd, these were used to support a partial upper wooden floor [Ian Todd, 1989].
Common artefacts encountered during the Aceramic Neolithic Period in Cyprus
According to Todd, the artefacts employed by the inhabitants of the Aceramic Neolithic villages display a certain degree of standardization: The use of metals was completely unknown and pottery was not generally in use. A sophisticated range of stone vessels was in use. Axes and various domestic grinding and pounding tools, formed of the local hard stones [diabese, picrolite] occur in quantities inside and outside the buildings. Various types of stone were also used for small items of jewellery, and simple tools were made of animal bone. Locally available chert was extensively used for the making of blades, scrapers and other tools; obsidian was imported from Anatolia in smaller quantities than before [Ian Todd, 1989].
Common plants utilized in Cyprus during the Aceramic Neolithic Period
According to Hansen, common plants that were utilized by the prehistoric Cypriots in Aceramic Neolithic Period were primarily the following: einkorn, emmer, barley, lentil, vetch, fig, pistachio and ryegrass [Julie Hansen, 2001].
Common animals used for their meat in Cyprus during the Aceramic Neolithic Period
As we read from Vigne, Carrere, Briois and Guilaine, generally during the Aceramic Neolithic Period the inhabitants of Cyprus ate the meat of fallow deers, small wild boars, sheep, goats and cattle [Jean-Denis Vigne, Isabelle Carrere, Francois Briois, JeanGuilaine, 2011].
Ayios Tychonas-Klimonas [9,200 – 8,600 BC], the oldest village of Cyprus
This is the earliest known village in Cyprus. The buildings are situated around a circular, 10-meter communal building, that building dates to between 11,200 and 10,600 years BP (before present). The surveys and excavations have shown that the village would have covered an area of at least half a hectare. The Ayios Tychonas-Klimonas villagers were hunter-cultivators who did not produce pottery [Cyprus Department of Antiquities].
This is the earliest manifestation of an agricultural and village way of life known to date, worldwide. Ayios Tychonas-Klimonas has demonstrated that, even though Cyprus was separated from the continent by more than 70 km of sea, the island was part of broader Near Eastern Neolithic developments. The organization of the village, its architecture, the stone tools and the presence of agriculture and hunting are elements that are very similar to those that have already been identified in the early Pre-Pottery Neolithic Levant, between 11,500 and 10,500 years Before Present [Cyprus Department of Antiquities].
Architecture of Agios Tychonas-Klimonas village
According to the Cyprus Department of Antiquities, more than 20 round buildings were recovered, with a diameter of between 3 and 6 meters. The buildings were constructed on small terraces, notched into a gentle slope facing the sea. The walls were built with earth and strengthened with wooden poles and the floors were often plastered. In most buildings large hearths were discovered, sometimes accompanied by a 30-50 kg millstone. These buildings were probably frequently reconstructed, as seen by the multiple layers of remains that were found, one above the other, on the terraces [Cyprus Department of Antiquities].
Artefacts
Large quantities of stone tools, stone vessels, stone and shell beads or pendants, were also found [Cyprus Department of Antiquities].
Fauna and flora
The animal bones indicate that domestic dogs and cats were already introduced to Cyprus and that the villagers hunted a small Cypriot wild boar and birds. Intensive sieving provided strong evidence for the cultivation of emmer wheat: a primitive cereal introduced from the continent [Cyprus Department of Antiquities].
Ayia Varvara-Asprokremnos [8,800 – 8,600 BC]
This site is located 3 km southeast of the village of Ayia Varvara of Nicosia and it is at the moment the second earliest village discovered in Cyprus. Ayia Varvara-Asprokremnos provides evidence of intensive resource procurement and manufacturing activity at a relatively small but extensively occupied campsite. The site provides early prehistoric archaeological remains dated to the early Holocene when the transition from hunting to farming economies was taking place throughout the Middle East. The character of both the structure and its unique assemblage of finds provide significant parallels to other Early Neolithic sites across the Near East, establishing important links between Cyprus and the Levant during the 9th-millennium cal BC and crucial evidence concerning the development of the Neolithic both on Cyprus and across the Near East [Cyprus Department of Antiquities].
The earliest complete human figurine currently known on Cyprus
Among the important discoveries in the site was a collection of four igneous stone objects including two flat cobbles, one with an extensive red ochre reside, a perfectly pecked stone sphere and a complete female statuette. This cache of artefacts was used to mark the abandonment of the structure and provides the earliest complete human figurine currently known on Cyprus [Cyprus Department of Antiquities].
Other artefacts unearthed
Evidence of significant manufacturing activity associated with the production of lithic tools including beautifully made arrowheads and a large array of ground stone tools used for the processing of ochre pigment and the likely processing of plants for subsistence were unearthed from the site. The tools produced, indicate a subsistence focus on hunting and tools including burins, notches and scrapers were used to manufacture other tools and objects. In addition, unique stone vessels, a carefully engraved teardrop-shaped picrolite pendant, and chipped stone waste amounting to well over half a metric ton in weight were found [Cyprus Department of Antiquities].
Parekklishia-Shillourokambos [8,200 – late 8th mil. BC]
Five kilometres north of the coast is found the earliest known large Aceramic Neolithic site on Cyprus [Jean-Denis Vigne, 2001], that of Parekklishia-Shillourokambos, which according to Guilaine and Briois has two main periods of occupation: “The Early Phases A and B (8200–7500 B.C.E.) are characterized by deep wells, large wooden enclosures probably for livestock, the gradual evolution from wattle and daub to the use of stone and mud, the choice of translucent chert for projectile points and elements in sickles, as well as quantities of imported Anatolian obsidian. The Middle and Late Phases (from 7500 B.C.E.) show considerable evolution and the appearance of typically Cypriot cultural traits, such as the use of local opaque chert, the production of robust blades, the development of harvesting knives that replace the multiple elements for sickles, and a paucity of obsidian. A large depression contained a contracted burial and a range of artefacts, and the building tradition is characterized by massive circular structures of canonical Khirokitia Culture type. The site is reoccupied during the Ceramic Neolithic Sotira Culture or the Early Chalcolithic”. The site chosen for Shillourokambos was a plateau rising slightly above the surrounding plain which trends gently south [Jean Guilaine, François Briois, 2001].
Shillourokambos’s association with the mainland
According to Todd predates the sites of Kalavasos-Tenta and Khirokitia. We learn from Todd that the architecture is represented by post holes and slots cut in the bedrock, and no circular stone structures had been encountered; the types of the chipped stone tools and techniques of manufacture show a greater degree of similarity with those of the surrounding mainland, and there is a greater use of obsidian – a black volcanic glass-like material imported from central Minor Asia – in the early phase. Moreover, “closer contacts with the mainland would seem to be supported by the reported occurrence of cattle on the site; cattle are known in contemporary contexts in Anatolia (Turkey) and the Levant, but they have not been found on Cypriot sites before the Early Bronze Age [circa 2,300]. These closer connections with the mainland would seem to suggest a time nearer to the initial colonization of the island, following which mainland traits became progressively less visible; the use of obsidian declined, cattle died out and circular architecture of a particularly Cypriot variety became widespread” [Ian Todd, 1989].
The oldest evidence of cat taming in the world was found at Shillourokambos
The discovery of an 8 months’ cat buried with what could be its master in a shallow grave suggests domestication of cats had begun at least since 7,500 BC. The complete cat skeleton was found about 40cm from a human burial. The similar states of preservation and positions of the burials in the ground suggest the person and the cat were buried together. The cat specimen is large and best resembles the African wildcat (Felis silvestris lybica), rather than present-day domestic cats. It seems the eight-month-old cat in the Cypriot burial was killed in order to be buried with the person. The person, who was about 30 years of age and was regarded of high status, was buried with rich offerings such as polished stone, axes, flint tools and ochre pigment [Paul Rincon, 2004].
The fauna of Aceramic Neolithic Shillourokambos
Vigne claims that cat (Felis silvestris lybica), domestic pig (Sus scrofa, dominant in Phase A), Mesopotamian fallow deer (sufficient amounts of deer bones suggest that animals were killed and butchered far from the site), “predomestic” sheep and goat (Ovis orientalis and Capra aegagrus, both species seem to have been killed near or on the site) and cattle (Bos primigenius/taurus – slaughtered and butchered on-site or nearby), of which bones were found in the site “were introduced to the island at that time” and consequently did not pre-exist in Cyprus. “Dog (Canis familiaris) and the European fox (Canis familiaris) are attested from Early Phase B” and “cattle are very scarce in the Middle Phase and are absent from the Late Phase” [Jean-Denis Vigne, 2001]. Prior to the excavations at Shillourokambos none of the previously known Aceramic Neolithic settlements had provided evidence for cattle, which were present at Shillourokambos, but for unknown reasons, the species died out in the 8th millennium BC [Jean Guilaine, François Briois, 2001]. Burnt cat bones from the site, attest to the fact that humans did eat the animals on certain occasions [Paul Rincon, 2004]. According to Vigne, shell, fish, bird and small mammal remains were very rare, which “probably indicates that marine resources and small game were of lesser importance to the subsistence economy”. He also adds that “there are absolutely no remains attributed to, or even suggesting the presence of the Cyprus autochthonous endemic mammal species of the dwarf hippopotamus, pygmy elephants and the genet” [Jean-Denis Vigne, 2001].
Kalavasos-Tenta [7,560 – 3,200 BC]
According to Ian Todd (1989), the site of Tenta is located on a small hill overlooking the Vasilikos river valley from its west side, and it provides a clear picture of an Aceramic Neolithic village with well-preserved circular stone and mudbrick buildings surrounded, “at least in an early phase of its existence by an outer settlement wall and a ditch”. The Tenta site comprises a small village with circular or curvilinear densely built-up houses, and a building or complex of structures of unusually large size or elaborate plan, clustered around the upper part of a small hill. It has been estimated that the settlement may have grown from an area of circa 1,600 m² or more, early in its life, to 2,500-3,000 m² in the latter part of its existence. The settlement within the boundary wall “consisted of approximately 40-45 building” and “the adult population of Tenta never exceeded about 150 persons” [Ian Todd, 1989].
Todd argues that it seems more likely that villages such as Kalavasos-Tenta and might have been founded by a population already resident on the island [and not migrated from Syria, but this can not be certain]. Also, the reasons for the demise of the Aceramic Neolithic settlements are as well unknown; no evidence of widespread destruction has been found, and the villages seem to have been abandoned for whatever reasons in peaceful conditions, as both Kalavasos-Tenta and Khirokitia were reused in the Ceramic Neolithic Period, “probably after a long gap, and a new wave of colonists has been postulated to account for the resumption of life on these sites” [Ian Todd, 1989].
The defensive nature of Kalavasos-Tenta
According to Todd, Tenta was a flourishing settlement, with substantial mudbrick and stone architecture. The site for this settlement was carefully chosen with strategic considerations in mind. The hill is itself naturally defensible. It was surrounded by a stone outer settlement wall and a ditch was cut in the natural limestone outside the wall at Tenta. Although the nature of the dangers facing these early settlers is unknown, the desire for security was a very real concern [Ian Todd, 1989].
The architecture of the Kalavasos-Tenta settlement
Limestone and diabase (from the Vasilikos river) stones were also locally available for the construction of the houses (and for the manufacture of many of the stone tools). Domestic structures may be built entirely of (unshaped) stone, entirely of mudbrick, of mudbrick on a stone footing, or they may consist at least in part of a double wall composed of both stone and mudbrick. The diameter of the domestic structures varies from 2.40 m to 3.60 m. Single or double rectilinear piers often occur in the medium-sized and larger structures of Tenta, as “they most likely they were used to support an upper wooden floor, which would have increased the floor space of the building to an appreciable extent”. According to Todd, “most likely that the many of the structure at Tenta would have had flat roofs”, but other buildings which inward inclination “could have had domed”. Windows, doorways and niches were found in the walls of a number of structures. Internal features such as hearths, benches and platforms occur in some of the buildings but much of the cooking was done out of doors. Nearby gypsum was used for small areas of floor paving and for the manufacture of floor and wall plaster. The floors of the buildings varied from finely rendered plaster surfaces to beaten earth. Red ochre, used as a colouring material, was available in the more northern reaches of the valley. The threshold was raised above the exterior ground level. All of the architecture visible today at Tenta belongs to the Later Aceramic Neolithic Period [Ian Todd, 1989].
Burial practices in the Kalavasos-Tenta settlement
The 18 individuals found were either buried below the floors of houses in economically-sized pits and at Tenta or interred in the open spaces between domestic buildings. The bodies were contracted to fit into the limited space provided, especially the ones of the adults. The skeletons were usually contracted on their sides or their backs. Five burials were found under a single structure (two adults, two young children and a newborn infant). Grave goods were very rarely deposited with the dead and only one artefact was recovered within a grave. A decree of artificial cranial deformation was practised and approximately 11% of the skeletons provide evidence of occipital flattening. The average adult stature attained by males is circa 163 cm and 154 for females. The skeletal remains offer evidence that the Tenta inhabitants suffered from thalassaemia or sicklemia and/or iron deficiency anaemia [Ian Todd, 1989].
Important artefacts unearthed from the site
According to Todd, a sophisticated range of stone vessels was in use. Highly polished axes, pestles, grinders and querns formed of the local hard stones (diabase, picrolite) were unearthed. Various types of stone were also used for small items of jewellery (dress-pins, pendants, rings, beads and others), and simple tools were made of animal bone. Locally available chert was largely used for the making of blades, flakes, scrapers, awls and other tools; small amounts of chalcedony, jasper, quartz and a very small quantity of (imported) obsidian was used. It is essential that Todd notes “the quantity of domestic tools found in situ on the floors of buildings at Tenta is generally small, and most serviceable tools must have been removed when the site was abandoned” [Ian Todd, 1989].
Dietary habits (Flora and Fauna) of the Kalavasos-Tenta inhabitants
According to Todd, regarding the flora, analysis of the excavated plant remains revealed the presence of cultivated emmer and einkorn wheat, barley and lentils. Traces of fig, pistachio, grape, olive and plum were also recovered. Regarding the fauna, 99.7% of the findings conclude the consumption of fallow deer (presumably non-domestic, now extinct from the island), pig, sheep and goat (presumably all three domestic). The rest of the remains derived from cat, fox, rodent, bird and fish [Ian Todd, 1989].
The most ancient wall-painting recovered in Cyprus
The first intelligible early prehistoric wall painting in Cyprus was discovered by Todd’s crew in Tenta. The red ochre painting represents two human figures side by side with their arms upraised and it is now on display in the Nicosia Museum [Ian Todd, 1989].
Kissonerga-Mylouthkia [from circa 7,300 BC]
The Kissonerga-Mylouthkia settlement was according to Peltenburg inhabited in several periods of which Period 1A from ca 7,300-6,200 BC, Period 1B from ca 6,200-4,800. It covers an area of 235 x > 350 metres [Edgar Peltenburg, 2003].
The location of the Mylouthkia settlement
According to Gomez and Pease (1992), the coast at that time could have been circa 1.5-2.5 km further out than it is presently and the offshore western islands of Petra you Limniti and Yeronisos would have been part of the mainland. Peltenburg notes that “since the earliest inhabitants’ exploitation of marine resources was significant, we assume here that Mylouthkia was a coastal site in prehistory”. The nearest source of fresh surficial water is the Apis torrent to the north and a spring near the base of the seacliff some 150 metres from the site but it is not known whether the torrent was perennial or the spring existed in antiquity [Edgar Peltenburg, 2003].
Artefacts
According to Peltenburg, “plentiful obsidian” was unearthed [which was an imported product from Anatolia] and according to McCartney and Gratuze several chipped stones, such as blades, flakes, tools and others were found (a total of 140 items); according to Jackson axes, hammerstones, grinders, pounders, rubbing stones, polishers, cupped stones, anvils, a perforated disc, a macehead, grooved stones and 400 bowls’ fragments [chalk (87.8%), reef limestone (6.5%), calcarenite (4.5%), diabase (0.7%), gabbro (0.2%)] were unearthed. Generally speaking, the tools excluding the chipped stones were primarily made from chalk, then reef limestone and to a lesser extent from calcarenite [Edgar Peltenburg, 2003].
Fauna and Flora of Aceramic Neolithic Mylouthkia
According to Croft, during the A1 & A2 bones from pigs, sheep, goats, deers, a pigeon, crabs, several fish and thousands of limpet shells were found in two wells where they were thrown, and there was as well evidence that molluscs were consumed by the inhabitants of Mylouthkia. A fish hook made on a sliver of pig tusk from a wet sieved sample from basal fill provides further evidence for marine-related activities here. Non-food animal remains included an owl, cats, frogs, toads, snakes, mice, shrews, lizards and others. From a pit, a bone of fox was found. Regarding flora, according to Murray, evidence was found that the inhabitants of Mylouthkia during the Aceramic Neolithic Period consumed [at least] einkorn wheat, emmer wheat, hulled barley, lentil, linseed, figs, pistachio and unknown nuts and roots/tubers [Edgar Peltenburg, 2003].
Khirokitia-Vounoi [from 6,800 BC]
Khirokitia is situated about 6 km from the southern coast of the island. The Neolithic settlement covers an area of approximately one and a half hectares on the slope of a hill. According to Le Brun, Khirokitia differs in many respects from Shillourokambos: by its location, its massive architecture, its chipped and ground stone industries, the scarcity of obsidian, and its faunal assemblage [Alain Le Brun, 2001].
Defence
We learn from Le Brun that ”the hill chosen for the Neolithic settlement lies within a sharp bend of the river, which protects it on the north, east and southeast. When the site was occupied, the river had a more substantial rate of flow than at present”. Also, “this natural protection, however, does not exist to the west where the village is open to the neighbouring hills. In place of such natural defences, a long, linear stone structure was built, crossing the settlement from north to south, providing artificial protection – When the settlement spread to the west onto previously unoccupied land, the same pattern was repeated and the development was accompanied by the simultaneous building of a new boundary in the form of an impressive stone wall” [Alain Le Brun, 2001].
Architecture
According to Le Brun, “the architecture at the site is always substantial”. For the creation of domestic and public buildings, the inhabitants were using “stone and mud in the form of mudbricks”. For domestic architecture, “the basic architectural unit is a structure with a circular ground plan and not a rectangular one as seen in most contemporaneous villages in the Near East. This cultural choice remains constant throughout the occupation of the site and buildings are round from the earliest level to the latest. The exterior diameters of structures vary from between 2.3 m for the smallest and 9.8 m for the largest. Before construction began, the ground surface was roughly prepared to support the walls, which were then built directly onto the underlying deposits, usually without a foundation trench. Floors were covered with mud plaster also placed directly on the underlying deposits, or more rarely, on a layer of stones. The mud plaster was worked from the floor up against the interior face of the wall where it also served as a base for painted mural decoration [Alain Le Brun, 2001]. Remains of a flat roof were found at Khirokitia collapsed in a building that had been burnt [Ian Todd, 1989] implying that the roofs were flat, something that Le Brun agrees with. Domestic installations such as fireplaces, pits, or basins are found [Alain Le Brun, 2001].
Burial practices
According to Todd, all the dead were buried under the structures’ floors. A decree of artificial cranial deformation was practised, as in Kalavasos-Tenta [Ian Todd, 1989].
Dietary habits (Flora and Fauna)
According to Hansen, common plants that were utilized by the prehistoric Cypriots in Aceramic Neolithic Khirokitia were primarily the following: einkorn, emmer, barley, lentil, vetch, fig, olive, pistachio and ryegrass [Julie Hansen, 2001]. According to Todd, regarding the fauna, the findings conclude the consumption of primarily sheep and goat (66%), fallow deer (19%) and pigs (15%). Caprines (sheep and goat) are thus twice as frequent at Khirokitia compared with Tenta. It is possible according to Todd that the considerably greater population at Khirokitia necessitated a distinctly greater reliance on domestic animals rather than wild acquired by hunting [Ian Todd, 1989].
Unknown reason for its destruction
According to Todd (1989), the reasons for the demise of the Aceramic Neolithic settlement of Khirokitia is unknown; no evidence of widespread destruction has been found, and the village seems to have been abandoned for whatever reasons in peaceful conditions, as it was reused in the Ceramic Neolithic Period, “probably after a long gap, and a new wave of colonists has been postulated to account for the resumption of life on these sites” [Ian Todd, 1989].
Cape Andreas-Kastros [6th Millenium BC]
It lied at the north-easternmost tip of the Karpasia Peninsula (Cape Apostolos Andreas), about 4 km north of Apostolos Andreas Monastery. The settlement was situated on a little plateau at the steep flank of the limestone promontory, about halfway between the main plateau of the peninsula and the sea in a very inaccessible situation. Between 1970-1973 three campaigns of excavations have been conducted by a French team headed by Alain Le Brun. The excavation was interrupted by the 1974 war in Cyprus [Wikipedia]. The Neolithic site of Apostolos Andreas-Kastros dates to ca 6th millennium BC. It is the only coastal site, probably a fishing village, belonging to the Aceramic Neolithic period which exemplifies the adaptation of the material culture of the period to the coastal environment and resources. The site was bulldozed and levelled by the Turkish army in 2005, and where there were once archaeological remains now stand the flag poles of Turkey and the pseudo-state. Further destruction to the ruins came with the creation of a road opened in order to give access to the flags [Cyprus Department of Antiquities].
Architecture
The settlement consisted of small round or roundish houses. Their diameter was between 2.5 and 2.8 m, which gave a living surface of between 5 and 6.8 m². The houses contained a hearth and sometimes container bins on the floor. The walls were thin, composed of a single course of dry stone walling. The houses contain querns. Only one house had a more substantial wall (1.70 m thick) and the excavator thinks it might have had a function different from the rest of the structures [Wikipedia].
Burials
One burial was discovered in a shallow trapezoidal pit measuring 0.75×0.45 m. The body laid on the back, with flexed legs, the head to the northeast, the face turned to the southeast. This type of burial is known from Khirokitia as well. The burial was situated near a house, but at the outside, in contrast to Khirokitia, where all burials are situated inside the houses. The grave contained four small shells with drilled holes and one dentalium shell [Wikipedia].
Flora
According to Hansen, common plants that were utilized by the prehistoric Cypriots in Aceramic Neolithic Period were primarily the following: einkorn, emmer, barley, lentil, vetch, fig, olive, pistachio, pea and ryegrass [Julie Hansen, 2001].
Kholetria-Ortos
Kholetria-Ortos was excavated between 1983-1986. According to Todd (1989), remains of the Aceramic Neolithic Period have been found in Kholetria-Ortos, but no architecture was revealed by excavation [Ian Todd, 1989]. Ortos is steeply sloped and bounded on the northwest to the southwest by a bend in the Xeros torrent. The hilltop provides a commanding view down the valley towards the Mediterranean sea [William Fox, 1988].
Artefacts recovered on the Ortos hill and the surrounding territory
Numerous chert blade tools, flakes, stone axes, hammerstones, igneous stone and chalk bowl fragments, a worked picrolite fragment and several incised cobles were among the artefacts found [William Fox, 1988].
Flora and Fauna
According to Hansen, common plants that were utilized by the prehistoric Cypriots in Aceramic Neolithic Period were primarily the following: einkorn, emmer, barley, lentil, vetch, fig, pistachio and ryegrass [Julie Hansen, 2001]. According to Croft, the faunal assemblage consists of caprines (about half, including both sheep and goat in the ratio 3:1), pig and deer (about a quarter each) with fox and cat also present. The absence of cattle from Ortos suggests that cattle keeping may have died out even in the west of Cyprus by this time [Edgar Peltenburg, 2003].
Mari-Mesovouni
According to Todd, Mari-Mesovouni is located 1.5 km southeast of Mari village and it comprises a village settlement on a steep-sided, flat-topped hill in a strategic position overlooking the coast at a distance of 1 km away from it. Artefacts found on the surface of the site included fragments of stone vessels, one with incised lozenge patterns, and an enigmatic stone figurine of a quadruped. The site has been destroyed and the hill quarried away [Ian Todd, 1989].
Ora-Klitari
According to Todd, Ora-Klitari lies on a gently sloping spur overlooking the Vasilikos valley just below the abandoned village of Drapia. The location is not strategic but it does command a good view over much of the surrounding area and has ready access to good arable land. Fragments of stone vessels and other domestic equipment were found on the surface of the site. The lack of pottery sherds suggests that the site was not preoccupied in the Ceramic Neolithic Period [Ian Todd, 1989].
Other settlements of this era
Other sites of this era include Dali-Agridi; Troulli; Petra tou Limniti and many more.