Le Nord : revue internationale des Pays de Nord - 01.06.1944, Page 89

SWEDISH EXCAVATIONS
79
small settlement on the rocky island of Petra tou Limniti off
the north-west coast of Cyprus. Here foundation walls of houses
of quite irregular forms were found. Among the finds may be
noted vessels, beads, axes, and a couple of interesting idols of
stone, but no pottery.
Plakes~° A later stage of the Stone Age is represented by an
excavation at Plakes near the village of Lapithos. Here two stages
of development could be disinguished, an early one with splendid
pottery with painted geometrical patterns, and a late one charac-
terized by a Red Polished ware. A fairly large house in the form
of a prompt box belonged to the late stage, probably the transi-
tion to the Copper Age.
Kythrea.20 A Stone Age village with fine round houses and be-
longing to this late period was excavated also at Kythrea in
the interior of the island. The whole of this richly developed and
very changing Stone Age in Cyprus was completely unknown
before the Swedish excavations. The picture of the Cypriote
Stone Age has later through the excavations of native archae-
ologists been further elucidated.
Vrysi tou Barha at Lapithos27 In his doctor’s thesis28 Gjerstad
on the analogy of the established division of the Greek Bronze
Age, divides the Cypriote Bronze Age into three main periods,
each of which is subdivided into three divisions. The first two
of these main periods, the Early and the Middle Cypriote Bronze
Age, are elucidated by the excavations at Lapithos, where a large,
previously known necropolis at Vrysi tou Barba was examined
in detail. The tombs were hewn into the rock and contained a very
large number of the characteristic Cypriote weapons and jewelry
of copper besides interesting samples of Red Polished pottery of
the Early and Middle Bronze Age. These tombs have contributed
to estabíishing the chronology and the Cypriote commercial re-
lations of this period.
Paleoskoutella.29 Among the excavations in the Carpass, the
28 Swed. Cyp. Exp. I, p. 13.
28 Swed. Cyp. Exp. I, p. 277.
17 Swed. Cyp. Exp. I, p. 33.
28 Studies on Prehistoric Cyprus.
29 Swed. Cyp. Exp. I, p. 416.