Newsroom
The 2026 archaeological season at Erimi-Laonin tou Porakou has concluded with significant new findings on the organisation, architecture and burial customs of the Middle Bronze Age community that once occupied the site.
The excavations, carried out between July 27 and August 21, brought together archaeologists, specialists and students from Cyprus and Italy as part of the Erimi Italian Archaeological Mission, directed by Professor Luca Bombardieri of the University of Siena.
The project is conducted in cooperation with Cyprus’ Department of Antiquities and Italy’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and International Cooperation.
This year's work concentrated on the settlement's hilltop, including a substantial structure known as the Central Building, as well as part of a southern burial area outside the settlement.
Archaeologists fully uncovered the southern section of the Central Building, which covers approximately 250 square metres and lies next to a previously excavated textile workshop complex. Its imposing perimeter walls enclose a central courtyard surrounded by six rooms arranged in eastern and western wings.
Access to the complex appears to have followed a carefully designed route. A narrow entrance corridor, fitted with two entrances and large stone thresholds, led visitors into the courtyard through an angled passage.
One room in the eastern wing produced a particularly unusual feature. Small cavities cut into a large stone threshold form a pattern resembling an ancient board used for the senet game. The same room also contained a large underground storage deposit with an estimated capacity of around 2.8 cubic metres.
Excavations along the southern side of the complex also revealed traces of an older building beneath or incorporated into the later structure. The earlier construction had massive supporting walls and followed a different orientation. Parts of these existing structures were subsequently adapted during the construction of the Central Building, including an area associated with a staircase that may have led to an upper level.
Investigations east of the main complex showed that the building stood independently on that side, beside a relatively large open space. Rows of postholes suggest that lighter, possibly temporary wooden structures once occupied part of the area.
Further east, archaeologists identified covered spaces and the remains of at least one rectangular building that may have had a domestic function.
Work also continued at the southern cemetery, where three chamber tombs were completely excavated. The tombs, accessed through vertical passageways, contained evidence of repeated burials and accompanying funerary deposits dating to the community's later phase during the final period of the Middle Bronze Age.
One of the tombs proved particularly important for understanding local funerary architecture. The large burial chamber included a broad vertical entrance passage, a bench along the rear wall and an internal connection to a second chamber extending westward.
The latest discoveries add substantially to archaeologists' understanding of daily life, building practices and burial traditions at Erimi during the Middle Bronze Age, while also revealing evidence of architectural activity that predates the settlement's prominent Central Building.
