Ambelikou-Aletri 2004 Overview

Final Report on Ambelikou-Aletri,Cyprus
Anne-E. Dunn-Vatori

The aim of this project is to publish the final report on Ambelikou-Aletri (Cyprus).

In 1942, the Department of Antiquities, carried out a number of trial excavations in the locality of Aletri west of the Ambelikou mine shafts, in the northern foothills of the Trodoos Massif (see Map). The most important evidence revealed by this early Middle Cypriote settlement is in connection with ancient copper mining in Cyprus. The excavations have brought to light a crucible with copper deposit, terracotta and stone moulds for copper objects, and most important of all, a copper workshop where slag was collected. In 1945, P. Dikaios, Director of the Department of Antiquities, published an account ("Archaeology in Cyprus, 1939-45", in Journal of Hellenic Studies, Vol. LXV, p. 104) but the report in extenso remains unpublished. Mining activities have been discovered in the local mines.

The site and the mines are now north of the "Green Line", in a non-accessible Turkish military area. The finds (about 200 objects) from Ambelikou-Aletri are stored in the Cyprus Museum (Nicosia).
In 1983, Dr. R. Merrillees undertook basic research on this site in order to produce a definitive account of the excavations. He published a preliminary report with the topography of the site, the history of the dig and the discoveries of the mines in the annual report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus (1984). Dr. R. Merrillees studied the material found at the site and instructed some of the finds to specialists (bones, stone artefacts, items connected with metal working). He made the documentation about the dig and the results of the different studies of the material available to the main applicant in order for her to prepare the final report.