Cyprus Digs Reveal First Settlements May Be Older Than Thought

July 22 (Bloomberg) -- Archaeologists in Cyprus found evidence that inhabitants of the Mediterranean island may have abandoned a nomadic lifestyle for agriculture-based settlements earlier than previously believed.

The excavations at the Politiko-Troullia site, near the capital Nicosia, unearthed a series of households around a communal courtyard, and proof of intensive animal husbandry and crop-processing, according to a statement today on the Web site of the Cypriot Interior Ministry’s Public Information Office.

The dig revealed copper metallurgy and sophisticated ceramic technology during the middle part of the Bronze Age, or between 4,000 and 3,500 years ago, the statement said. Archaeologists had previously believed that such settlements, which went on to evolve into cities, only began developing toward the end of the middle Bronze Age.

Cyprus, the third-largest island in the Mediterranean, is thought to have been first settled around 8,800 B.C., according to the British Museum. The findings of the digs, led by professors from Arizona State University and involving students from Cyprus, the U.S. and Canada, “open an archaeological window on the communities that provided the foundation for urbanized civilization on Cyprus” in the late Bronze Age, the statement said.

The fieldwork reveals extensive evidence of the Bronze Age community that was the predecessor to the ancient city of Tamassos, founded in the subsequent Iron Age, according to the statement. In contrast with other city-states in Cyprus, there were previously no precise details about the foundation of Tamassos as an important trade city.

To contact the reporter on this story: Paul Tugwell in Athens at ptugwell1@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: David Merritt at Dmerritt1@bloomberg.net, or Mark Beech at mbeech@bloomberg.net.