Filenews 12 September 2022
The Minister of Transport, Communications and Works, Giannis Karousos, visited the Archaeological Site of Kalavasos-Tenta on Friday, having the opportunity to see up close the Neolithic settlement, one of the earliest places of permanent settlement of populations on the island during the Acerameian Neolithic period (about 9000-5500 BC).
He was accompanied by the director of the Department of Antiquities Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou.
The village was inhabited from the middle of the 9th to the middle of the 6th millennium BC. Successive phases covered each other, with the result that today the last phases of habitation of the settlement are visible during the 7th and 6th millennium BC. The buildings were with stone foundations and clay superstructure, while the floors and walls were covered with coating.
Interestingly, the only fresco of this period that has survived to this day and which represents two human figures with raised hands, adorned the central pillar of a building of this settlement.
The village was abandoned suddenly and for unknown reasons at the end of the Aceramian Neolithic period (about 5500 BC). It was located in the 1940s by the then Curator of the Cyprus Museum Porphyry Dikaios and excavated by an American expedition under the direction of Professor Ian Todd. In 1994, a conical canopy was constructed over the settlement, for protection from the weather conditions.
The Archaeological Site of Kalavasos-Tentas is open to the public from Monday to Friday, 8:30-16:00 during the winter hours (16/9-15/4) and 9:30-17:00 during the summer hours (16/4-15/9). It is located 38 km from Larnaca and about 45 km from Nicosia, very close to the also important archaeological site of the area, the Neolithic settlement of Choirokoitia. It is easily accessible from the Nicosia-Limassol highway.
