Kastros is an early
Neolithic
The Neolithic period, or New Stone Age, is an Old World archaeological period and the final division of the Stone Age. It saw the Neolithic Revolution, a wide-ranging set of developments that appear to have arisen independently in several p ...
settlement in
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
.
Location
It lies at the north-easternmost tip of the
Karpasia Peninsula (
Cape Apostolos Andreas), about 4 km north of
Apostolos Andreas Monastery
Apostolos Andreas Monastery ( el, Απόστολος Ανδρέας; tr, Apostolos Andreas Manastırı) is a monastery situated just south of Cape Apostolos Andreas, the north-easternmost point of the island of Cyprus, in Rizokarpaso in the K ...
. The settlement is situated on a little plateau at the steep flank of the limestone promontory, about halfway between the main plateau of the peninsula and the sea in a very inaccessible situation.
History of excavations
Between 1970 and 1973 three campaigns of excavations have been conducted by a French team headed by
Alain Le Brun.
The excavation was interrupted by the 1974 war in Cyprus. Today, the structures remain open to the sky and are slowly eroding.
Houses
The settlement consists of small round or roundish houses. Their diameter is between 2.5 and 2.8 m, which gives a living surface of between 5 and 6.8 m
2. The houses contain a hearth and sometimes container-bins in the floor. The walls are thin, composed of a single course of dry stone walling. Sometimes several of these are arranged around a common courtyard or stand on small platforms levelled into the hillside.
Only one house has a more substantial wall (1.70 m thick) and the excavator thinks it might have had a function different from the rest of the structures.
Other structures
There are some small pits filled with charcoal and burned stones. It is believed they may have been used to prepare food or to smoke meat, in the manner of the
Polynesian pit ovens or the Irish
fulachtaí fia.
Burials
One burial was discovered in a shallow trapezoidal pit measuring 0.75x0.45 m. The body lay on the back, with flexed legs, the head to the northeast, the face turned to the southeast. This type of burial is known from
Khirokitia
Khirokitia (sometimes spelled Choirokoitia; el, Χοιροκοιτία , suggested meaning ''Pig-cradle'', from 'pig, boar' + 'place of origin, cradle'; tr, Hirokitya) is an archaeological site on the island of Cyprus dating from the Neolit ...
as well (group II). The burial was situated near a house, but at the outside, in contrast to Khirokitia, were all burials are situated inside the houses.
The grave contained four small shells with drilled holes and one
dentalium shell.
Dating
The site belongs to the
aceramic Aceramic is defined as "not producing pottery". In archaeology, the term means "without pottery".
Aceramic societies usually used bark, basketry, gourds and leather for containers. It is sometimes used to refer to a specific early Neolithic perio ...
Neolithic (
PPN B) and dates to the 6th Millennium BC.
There are three
radiocarbon dates from the site (uncalibrated):
Finds
The houses contain querns. Further finds include stone-vessels (shallow bowls and pots) and flint tools made from local flint from the
Pentadaktylos mountains.
Economy
The carbonised remains of
einkorn
Einkorn wheat (from German ''Einkorn'', literally "single grain") can refer either to a wild species of wheat (''Triticum'') or to its domesticated form. The wild form is '' T. boeoticum'' (syn. ''T. m.'' ssp. ''boeoticum''), the domesticated ...
,
emmer
Emmer wheat or hulled wheat is a type of awned wheat. Emmer is a tetraploid (4''n'' = 4''x'' = 28 chromosomes). The domesticated types are ''Triticum turgidum'' subsp. ''dicoccum'' and ''Triticum turgidum ''conv.'' durum''. The wild plant is ...
and some
barley
Barley (''Hordeum vulgare''), a member of the grass family, is a major cereal grain grown in temperate climates globally. It was one of the first cultivated grains, particularly in Eurasia as early as 10,000 years ago. Globally 70% of barley p ...
have been found. The relatively high proportion of
rye-grass
''Lolium'' is a genus of tufted grasses in the bluegrass subfamily (Pooideae). It is often called ryegrass, but this term is sometimes used to refer to grasses in other genera.
They are characterized by bunch-like growth habits. ''Lolium'' is ...
(''Lolium'' sp.) has led van Zeist to suppose that it might not have been a weed, but grown as a crop. Among the pulses,
lentils
The lentil (''Lens culinaris'' or ''Lens esculenta'') is an edible legume. It is an annual plant known for its lens-shaped seeds. It is about tall, and the seeds grow in pods, usually with two seeds in each. As a food crop, the largest produ ...
dominate, but
peas
The pea is most commonly the small spherical seed or the seed-pod of the flowering plant species ''Pisum sativum''. Each pod contains several peas, which can be green or yellow. Botanically, pea pods are fruit, since they contain seeds and d ...
,
vetch
''Vicia'' is a genus of over 240 species of flowering plants that are part of the legume family (Fabaceae), and which are commonly known as vetches. Member species are native to Europe, North America, South America, Asia and Africa. Some other ...
and
bitter vetch Bitter vetch is a common name for several plants and may refer to:
* ''Vicia ervilia'', called bitter vetch or ervil, an ancient grain legume crop of the Mediterranean region.
*'' Vicia orobus'', called wood-bitter vetch, a legume found in Atlantic ...
are represented as well.
Pistachio,
fig
The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...
s and
olives
The olive, botanical name ''Olea europaea'', meaning 'European olive' in Latin, is a species of small tree or shrub in the family Oleaceae, found traditionally in the Mediterranean Basin. When in shrub form, it is known as ''Olea europaea'' 'M ...
, all of them wild forms, were part of the nutrition too.
Sources
*A. Le Brun, Cap Andreas – Kastros (Chypre). "Quelques resultats de la campagne de 1973." Paléorient 3, 1975/77, 305–310.
* Julie Hansen, "Ancient Neolithic plant remains in Cyprus: Clues to their origins?" In: S. Swiny, ''The earliest prehistory of Cyprus. From Colonization to exploitation.'' Cyprus American archaeological research institute Monograph Series 2 (Boston American School of oriental research 2001), 119–128.
{{coord missing, Cyprus
Archaeological sites in Cyprus
Former populated places in Cyprus