Logo Ancient copper production on Cyprus

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Deutsche Version
Excavation: The Site The Production Line Significance Images

The Site

Agia Varvara-ALMYRAS is situated about one kilometre southeast of Agia Varvara Village, district of Nicosia, Cyprus. As a site of primary extractive copper metallurgy, ALMYRAS allows for the complete investigation of the technology of copper production in the the Iron Age. Agia Varvara-ALMYRAS was discovered by Walter Fasnacht, the present director of the project, in 1982 during an archaeometallurgical survey for the Cornell University project at Alambra, Cyprus. Excavations were initiated in 1988 and fifteen excavating seasons have taken place since.

The copper working evidence, as well as traces of domestic and religious activity, has been dated with the help of pottery finds and radiocarbon dating to:
Cypro-Archaic II (ca. 600 BC)
Cypro-Classical (around 400 BC)
Cypro-Hellenistic II (ca. 150 BC).