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Lookup NU author(s): Dr Kirsi Lorentz
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The Souskiou complex near Kouklia in the southwest of the island has long been regarded as an exceptional focus of late 4th millennium BC activities because of its anomalous cemeteries and the richness of its funerary goods, many of them allegedly looted from this location. Souskiou differs from the few other known pre-Bronze Age cemeteries by virtue of multiple interments in spacious deep pits, secondary treatments of the dead and several other features that were elaborated many centuries later, in the Bronze Age. Following a preliminary assessment in 1992, the Lemba Archaeological Research Centre initiated a programme of investigations of the entire complex in 2001 in order to evaluate its role in prehistoric society, specifically to test the hypothesis that it may have served as a centre which helped to define the wider community of the Erimi Culture. Support for this role comes from the sheer concentration of tombs in discrete cemeteries around a small settlement, the richness of the funerary inventories and the boundary location of the complex. Here we report on the results of four seasons work on one component of the complex, the Laona cemetery. Contrary to expectations, severe looting proved extremely haphazard and as a consequence there exists an abundance of human remains that permit detailed research on treatments of the dead. This part of our project aims at an integrated study of osteological remains, burial assemblages and mortuary practices. We advocate enhanced recording, retrieval and storage policies for human remains as part of archaeological heritage management on Cyprus.
Author(s): Crewe L, Lorentz KO, Peltenburg E, Spanou S
Publication type: Article
Publication status: Published
Journal: Reports of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus (RDAC)
Year: 2005
Pages: 41-67
ISSN (print): 0070-2374
Publisher: Cyprus. Department of Antiquities
