AYIOS Epiktetos-Vrysi in the occupied north is a national treasure and a prize possession in the heritage of Cyprus, according to an expert tasked with compiling excavation records from the site pre-1974.
Professor Edgar Peltenburg handed over his records to the Antiquities Department in a special ceremony on Friday night in Nicosia.
In 1969 the Department of Antiquities, under the directorship of Dr Vassos Karageorghis, issued a license for the University of Birmingham, to undertake excavations at the Neolithic village, located in the Kyrenia district somewhere over 6,000 year ago people chose to live on a coastal headland between two beaches.
The excavations were conducted each summer from 1969 to 1973. A team was in place to start the next season in 1974 but it was overtaken by the Turkish invasion in July 1974. So members of the team had to take shelter in a house in Kyrenia during the bombing.
Peltenburg said that since “that dark time” it has not been possible to resume investigations.
He said the Neolithic village flourished for half a millennium, from 4,500 to 4,000 BC It is a gem of information regarding the heritage of Cyprus, he said because the Neolithic villagers had the unusual custom of deliberately burying many of their possessions inside their houses with when they needed to build new ones, instead of just taking them with them.
Peltenburg noted that archaeologists are usually able to publish only a small per cent of their discoveries, so the handover provided future researchers and all who are interested with a wealth of information in a complete archive.
It includes over 1,000 photos and drawings of unpublished objects, plans and sections, graphically demonstrating the development of a society.
The archive has already been used by Interpol to bring to justice those who illegally took stored objects from the excavations to sell abroad, the Professor added.
”Ayios Epiktetos-Vrysi is a national treasure, it is a prize possession of the heritage of Cyprus, and so I welcome this opportunity to help inform and preserve that heritage by submitting the records of discovery to the government of Cyprus,” he noted.
