Excavations at Athienou, Cyprus, 1971-1972
The excavation at Athienou, Cyprus, was conducted as a study dig by the Institute of Archaeology of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Its goal was to clarify the connections between Canaan and Cyprus in the Late Bronze-Iron Ages. This small inland site was an extremely important and rich settlement whose main strata span the 15th-12th centuries BCE. Athienou is outstanding in the variety of its finds, which testify to its close connections with the coastal centers of Cyprus and through them with the cities of the Aegean and the eastern Mediterranean. The dominant feature of the excavation was the discovery of heaps containing thousands of votive vessels. This is the largest concentration of such vessels ever found in Cyprus and a clear-cut indicator of the cultic nature of the site. Moreover, the large amounts of ore and slag found together with copper-working installations point to the site's importance as a metal-working center. This symbiosis of cult and metal industry follows a well-known pattern in Cyprus.