More than 20 round buildings were excavated in recent archaeological digs that are believed to be the ruins of Cyprus’ earliest known village that is said to date back to the 9th century BC. The excavations were headed by Francois Briois from France’s School of Advanced Studies in Social Sciences and Jean-Denis Vigne from France’s National Center for Scientific Research-National Museum of Natural History. The buildings had built-in fireplaces, while another finding including a 30-50kg millstone.
Archaeologists also found stone tools, stone vessels and shell beads or pendants in the area. The buildings had a diameter of between three and six meters (10 and 20 feet) and included a circular 10-meter communal building. They were built using earth and strengthened with wooden poles. Floors were plastered.
There is strong evidence that the people who created the settlement cultivated emmer wheat, an early form of cereal that had been brought to the region from the continent. It was also found that dogs and cats had been domesticated.
The archaeologists state that the village’s organization, architecture and evidence of agriculture and hunting were like the ones identified in the early pre-pottery neolithic levant from 11,500 to 10,500 years ago. The findings at Agios Tychonas-Klimonas demonstrate that even though Cyprus was separated from the continent by more than 70 kilometers of sea, the island was part of broader Near Eastern Neolithic developments.
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