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Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project: Recent Work at the Site of Pyla-Vigla William Caraher and R. Scott Moore Delivered at the 2011 Annual Meeting of the American Schools of Oriental Research November 16-20, 2011 San Francisco, California Over the past eight field and study seasons the Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project has systematically investigated the coastal zone of Pyla Village to document the evidence for human activity in this dynamic micro-region of Larnaka Bay. The PKAP study area has compassed 101 ha extending inland from the coastal plain to the UN buffer zone around Pyla Village and the modern coastal highway. The dominant topographical features of the area are two abrupt coastal heights, Vigla and Kokkinokremos, which form the plateau known locally as Mavrospilos or Kazamas. The narrow coastal plain extending from the base of these heights to the foreshore is known as Koutsopetria and the eastern part of this coastline is an infilled ancient embayment.1 My paper today will focus on the site of Pyla-Vigla which we documented through intensive pedestrian survey (2006 and 2007), geophysical work (2007 and 2008), and excavation (2008 and 2009). The prominent coastal height is immediately visible to any traveler driving along the coastal road east from Larnaka at the border of the Dhekleia Sovereign Base Area. The steep slopes on the southern, western, and eastern sides of the hill emphasize the dramatic elevation (55 masl) of the plateau which offered an easily fortified coastal exposure. The Vigla plateau connects to the larger Mavrospilos / Kazamas plateau by a relatively narrow isthmus. The top of the plateau itself slopes gently toward the southern side with the higher northern side possibly a result of collapsed buildings.
1

Caraher et al. The Pyla-Koutsopetria Archaeological Project: First Preliminary Report (2003-2004 Seasons), RDAC (2005), 248; V. Karageorghis and M . Demas, Pyla-Kokkinokremos: A Late 13th Century Fortified Settlement in Cyprus (Nicosia 1984), ##.

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Views from the height encompass the entire Larnaka Bay from Cape Kiti to Cape Pyla, which may account for the modern toponym of the site Vigla, the watch post. It is possible that this height is the place called Dades in Ptolemy the Geographers description of Cyprus and located to the east of Kition, alluding to the use of torches to communicate the approach of ships from lookout positions along the coast.2 The strategic location of the height is suitable for a military installation, and a published a collection of inscribed lead sling pellets found by looters would seem to confirm this.3 Our work at the site has produced evidence for a fortification wall and settlement of Hellenistic date that is most likely associated with a garrison. The initial research method used to document the archaeological remains from the Pyla region was intensive pedestrian survey.4 The field walking at Vigla produced exceptionally high artifact densities between 11,000 and 15,000 artifacts per ha.(fig. 2). The assemblage from the survey was also exceedingly diverse with our sample of 1,000 artifacts representing over 50 different types of ceramics (chronotypes) spanning 16 periods. Abundant Hellenistic material in the surface of Vigla points to occupation during the important transition between the independent cities of the Cypro-Classical period and Roman control of the island. Vigla presented a robust and diverse assemblage of material that included large quantities of kitchen wares as well as fine wares, amphoras, and medium coarse and coarse utility wares. The topography of Vigla and dense carpet of artifacts made the plateau an ideal location for geophysical survey. In 2007, 2008, and 2009, the PKAP team used electrical resistivity and ground penetrating radar at the site. The geophysical work produced evidence for a number of
2 3

Ptol. Geog. 5.14 I. Nicolaou, Inscriptiones Cypriae Alphadeticae XVI, RDAC (1977), 209-216; I. Nicolaou, Inscriptiones Cypriae Alphadeticae XVIII, 1978, RDAC (1979), 344-351;I. Nicolaou, Inscriptiones Cypriae Alphadeticae XIX, 1979, RDAC (1980), 261-262. 4 We have documented our methods extensively in our preliminary reports. See Caraher et al. in RDAC 2005 and

2007. 2

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perpendicular lines running both north to south and at least two strong lines running east to west across the height (fig. 3). These lines suggested the possibility of a monumental east-west oriented structure on the hill. In 2008 and 2009, PKAP received permission from the Cyprus Department of Antiquities to conduct limited soundings on the height of Vigla in order to ground truth the results produced by geophysical work and intensive pedestrian survey. Over these two seasons, we excavated four trenches on the plateau over the course of two seasons: Excavation Unit 1, 2, 5, and 8 (fig. 4, fig. 5, fig. 6). While all of these trenches were limited in extent, they provided significant information about the nature and phases of habitation at the site, and allowed us to move toward a cohesive site history for Vigla. Excavations clearly articulated two substantial phases of occupation. The first occupation of the site (Phase 1) occurred in the Hellenistic period. This phase was documented in all four trenches and represents an extensive use of the plateau. The earliest inhabitants of Vigla removed the thin and uneven layer of soil covering the plateau and constructed dry-stacked stone wall sockles directly on the exposed bedrock. The floors of these modest structures were packed earth without mortar or lime. The total absence of roof tiles from the trenches most likely indicate that the roofs were made of thatch and mud. The artifacts associated with Phase 1 represent a varied assemblage that points to occupation and settlement. Excavations revealed significant amounts of utility and coarse wares, storage vessels (amphorae, pithoi), kitchen wares for food preparation, fine black-glazed and color-coated table ware for dining, kitchen ware, lamps, animal bone, and various implements, tools, and weapons (iron spit, lead plume, lead sling bullets). The occupants of the height

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evidently abandoned their homes rapidly, for artifacts like coins and pottery are found in situ on the floor of the rooms. Fire ultimately destroyed the Phase 1 occupation and left evidence of ash, charcoal, and burnt soils and artifacts in the different units. The presence of spear points in several units (EU 1 and EU 2) on Phase 1 floors above bedrock either point to the weapons by which the settlement was attacked, or weapons abandoned by fleeing residents. The second phase of the site (Phase 2) involved a new phase of construction at Vigla during the Hellenistic era. The remains show that the inhabitants refurbished existing buildings, leveled out earlier destruction debris, added new walls and repaired older ones. The walls were mudbrick and, as in the first phase, the roofs must have been timber as there is no evidence for tile construction. The most significant innovation present in the architecture from the second phase is the use of lime-based beddings for floors and in some cases floor slabs set atop dense beds of rubble from the earlier phase. The construction continued to lack any monumental pretensions and functioned mainly to serve the needs of a modest local community. Like the earliest settlement, Phase 2 occupation represents settlement debris that includes a full range of pottery types (utility and storage vessels, stamped amphoras, kitchen ware, blackglazed and color-coated fine wares, lamps), floor fragments (plaster), weapons (arrows), metal implements (iron, bronze, and lead), agricultural processing equipment (pestles and grinders), stone bowls, animal bone, figurines, and coins (fig. 8). The similarity of the assemblages of Phase 1 and Phase 2 suggest that the reoccupation of the site occurred not longer after the destruction of Phase 1. The good preservation of Phase 2 artifacts on the floors of the buildings again points to a rapid abandonment or destruction, sealed by ash and burned materials from a violent conflagration.

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During the course of intensive survey and geophysical work on Vigla, the team discovered extensive remains of a fortification wall. The fortification wall encompassed an area of just under 10,000 sq. meters (fig. 9). While today little of the wall stands more than one course above the level of the surrounding surface, it was nevertheless possible to trace the wall for over 100 meters along the southern slope of the plateau. Where both faces of the wall were visible, we measured a width of 1.7-1.8 meters. Throughout its course, the wall consisted of two faces of locally-quarried, roughly-dress blocks averaging generally less than 0.5 m in length with a rubble core. There is little evidence for mortar. On the western, southern, and eastern sides of the plateau, the wall followed the natural contour of the slope. To the north, the wall followed the course of a 18-20 m wide rock cut fosse separating the Vigla promontory from the main body of the coastal plateau. This imposing feature probably combined the practical contingency of local quarrying with the tactical advantage of providing defenders of additional height from which to assault attackers approaching the fortification from the north Soundings at the northwestern corner of Vigla exposed a 5 m long stretch of wall and revealed that the fortification underwent repair. The walls northwestern corner relied on significant quantities of gypsum-based mortar to face a substantial rubble core. It seems likely that this represents the remains of a tower designed to protect an entrance to the enceinte at the northwestern corner. The excavation of this sounding also produced at least two phases of fortification: the mortared northern wall that ran west-east was overlapped by a rubble western wall running north-south. The mortared northern wall was built directly on the bedrock, with no sign of a foundation trench or any ceramic material associated with its construction. The western wall, on the other hand, was partially built atop a section of the mortared northern wall providing definite evidence for the two phases of construction. Since the western wall overlaps the

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northern wall, it was certainly constructed earlier, but since the northern wall was founded on the bedrock, we were not able to assign a date based on stratigraphy alone We also excavated a small sounding along the wall on the eastern side of Vigla. It brought to light at least three phases of construction, the latest of which was the substantial fortification wall visible today on the eastern side of the hill: a plastered mudbrick wall built directly on the bedrock and running perpendicular to the slope of the hill, a later rough stone wall that cut the mudbrick wall and ran parallel to the contour of the hill, and the more substantial eastern fortification wall. All three phases appear to date to the Hellenistic period and they appear to have been building and modified in rapid succession. While none of these phases can be certainly related to the phases present in the center of the plateau, it is tempting to see the fortification wall here as contemporary with the Phase 2 rebuilding of the site in the interior. Perhaps a garrison fortified the steep eastern slope only after the first settlement was sacked. There have been efforts elsewhere in the Mediterranean to associate rural fortification with particular historical situations,5 and it is tempting to understand the fortification and settlement on Vigla in a similar way. After all, the historical situation in Cyprus from the 4th to 2nd century BC was often unsettled politically and militarily.6 It is possible that the last dynastic kings of Kition fortified Vigla in the late 4th century, perhaps with Antigonid encouragement, to forestall a Ptolemaic conquest.7 If the fortification was an Antigonid effort to defend the independence of Kition, it was unsuccessful. By 312 the Ptolemaic forces had executed the last king of that city

W. Caraher, D. K. Pettegrew, and S. James, Towers and Fortifications at Vayia in the Southeast Corinthia, Hesperia 79 (2010), 385-415; W. Caraher and T. E. Gregory, Fortifications of Mount Oneion, Corinthia, Hesperia 75, 327-356; M. H. Munn, The Defense of Attica: The Dema Wall and the Boiotian Ware of 378-375 B.C. (Berkeley 1993); J. Ober, Fortress Attica: Defense of the Athenian Land Frontier, 404-322 (Leiden 1985); McRedie, Fortified Camps. 6 For a good summary, see A. Avraamides, Studies in Hellenistic Cyprus 323-380 B.C. diss. University of Minnesota, Minneapolis 1971, 5-39; G. Hill, A History of Cyprus. Vol. 1 (Cambridge 1940), 164-211. 7 Balandier, The Defensive Network, 326-330.

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and, despite some initial military success following the siege of Salamis in 315, the Antigonid efforts to secure control of the island receded in the early 3rd century.8 The 3rd-century suppression of local dynasties and the rise of Ptolemaic power shifted the institutional structure of the military presence on the island. Bagnall and Mitford have attempted to reconstruct the changing military and political administration of the island over the course of the 3rd and 2nd centuries.9 While the entire island fell under the command of a strategos who were supported locally by military officers called hegemones.10 There is evidence for a hegemon at Kition including an inscription referring to the office from around Ormidhia.11 Perhaps the administrative reorganization prompted the construction of fortifications across the island designed to accommodate garrisons and mercenaries under the command of newly created military officers.12 The presence of domestic quarters in the center of the plateau and the evidence for repairs to the walls are consistent with sustained military presence at the site. The repairs to the Vigla fortifications some point after the beginning of the Hellenistic era indicate that the fortification was not a single-use construction but was maintained for some time. There is some evidence that sites initially fortified under the Antigonids, such as Paleokastro on the Kormakiti peninsula, saw renewed activity in the 3rd or 2nd century,13 and it seems possible that Vigla also followed this pattern. The continued strategic importance of this coastline allowed the fortifications to continue to play a role in the defense of the island throughout the second century. It is difficult to imagine that the fortification remained in use and was maintained during the Roman period, and the presence of numerous cut blocks on the
8 9

Avraamides, Studies, 14; Diod. 19.56-57. R. Bagnall, The Administration of the Ptolemaic Possessions outside of Egypt (Leiden 1976), 38-79; T. B. Mitford, Seleucus and Theodorus, Op. Ath. 1 (1953), 130-171. 10 Bagnall, Administration, 49-57. 11 SEG 6.823; Bagnall, Administration, 52. 12 Balandier The Defensive Network, 333. 13 Balandier, Defensive Network.

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Koutsopetria plain below suggests that the fortifications were quarried for building material. It is uncertain from our limited investigations whether the gypsum-mortared repairs to the walls date to a final phase of antiquity when the island of Cyprus again played a strategic role in the military activities of the eastern Mediterranean. Figure List Figure 1: Map of Study Area (W. Caraher) Figure 2: Vigla Survey Area (W. Caraher) Figure 3: Vigla Geophys (W. Caraher) Figure 4: Trenches on Vigla (W. Caraher) Figure 5: Final Plans of Trenches on Vigla (W. Caraher) Figure 6: EU 2 and EU 9 from east Figure 7: EU 2 Figure 8: Trench photo Figure 9: Fortification Map