minutes distant from the place of excavation, and at Nikolidhes the locality Glyka Vrysi close by the ancient settlement is significant enough. On this island, where fresh water is very scarce, a continuous supply of the same is of the greatest importance, and such places as those just mentioned attracted settlers more than others. By settling on elevated ground the disadvantage of the violent and heavy winter rains was avoided, as the water ran off easily and rapidly, and on the other hand during the summer heat the fresh air and refreshing winds could be enjoyed. At the same time the arable area down in the valleys was spared for agriculture. That also military reasons influenced the settling on the hillocks is very likely, but we still know too little about the defensive system of the settlements to be able to appreciate the intentions in this respect. Further excavations will yield us information on this subject. From the Early Cypriote to the Late Cypriote period there is no change to be observed as to place of settlement. The Late Cypriote settlements are situated in the same geographical milieu as the Middle and Early Cypriote, and we may therefore infer that on the whole, in spite of later modifications, there was no serious break in the economic foundations, and that the prehistoric people of Cyprus, during the entire Bronze Age remained the agricultural and pastoral low-landers, which also their cultural remains prove them to be.

II. ARCHITECTURE.

From the prehistoric period in Cyprus only tombs have hitherto been excavated and explored, and the places where man lived his daily life have been untouched by the archeologist's spade. This fact is responsible not only for the entire lack of knowledge concerning the type and construction of the prehistoric house, but also for the uncertain and vague chronology, as it has not been possible to build up the chronology on stratifications of the material, above all the potsherds. With the aid of data secured from the small excavations which I carried out in 1924, I therefore intended, by digging in prehistoric settlements, to partially supply both these wants. That under these circumstances the chapter on the architecture becomes mainly an excavation report on the unearthed buildings is a matter of course and needs no justification.

I. EARLY CYPRIOTE.

In Alambra a house from Early Cypriote III was dug out. The house consists of two rooms with an enclosed court surrounding it on the north-west and south. To the east lies an open place, without enclosing wall.

The rooms are roughly rectangular, but the walls do not meet each other at exactly right angles, the angles varying between 88° and 95°. The rooms join each other in such a way that the short side of the southern room joins the northern room at its eastern end, the rooms thus forming together a shaped figure. There is, however, no direct communication between them, each room having its separate entrance from the court.

The walls are built of rather small irregular rubble-stones with still smaller stones as filling in the interstices. Their thickness

varies: the eastern outer wall is the thickest, 0,85 m.; the northern outer wall has about the same thickness, 0,80 m.; the southern outer wall is 0,65 m., and the other walls 0,60 m. thick. They are built on the rock, which consists of very soft sandstone. Their height also varies, owing to the inclination of the rock, which slopes from east to west. The eastern walls are only 0,30 m. in height, while the western walls are about 0.80 m., but in order to get an even floor-level the rock in the eastern part of the house has been cut down about. 0,50 m., so that the eastern wall is 0,80 m. high at the inside, consisting of 0.50 m. of the natural rock-wall and 0.30 m. of the artificial stone wall. The remains of the walls are only foundations; the upper walls, which were made of sun-dried bricks, being now entirely destroyed. All that remains of them is a layer of hard clay, practically destitute of potsherds above the house-floor. The inside of the walls was covered with a cement of lime and fine-grained gravel; also the rock-wall in the eastern part of the house was covered with this cement. No trace of such cement can be found on the outside of the walls, but as only the foundations are left it is of course very possible that the upper brick wall was covered with it, thus being protected against rain and storm. In the modern Cypriote village houses, which in construction are almost identical with their prehistoric prototypes, a common practice is to cover the outside of the brick wall with limeplaster. The construction of the roof is, of course, to a great extent a matter of conjecture. That beams were employed to form a roof-truss is a priori most probable, and is supported by the fact that irregular, rather thick (up to 0,10 m.) layers of carbonized matter sporadically occur in the hard clay layer of the crumbled brick walls. These layers of charcoal are to be explained as arising from fallen-in burnt roof-beams. No roof- tiles of baked clay were found. The roof, therefore, most probably was covered with straw and a stopping layer of clay, in the same way as the roofs of the modern Cypriote village houses. Finds of hard lumps of clay with impressions of straw give evidence of this. Further, by inference from the tomb-roofs, which are either flat or beehive-shaped, we may consider it as most probable that the roofs were flat, also in agreement with the modern peasant's house. At the edge of the roof were placed plates of baked clay with a raised edge, to avoid drip from the eaves. A few such plates were

1 See section fig. 2, p. 23.

2 See section loc. cit.

found at a place a short distance from this house where a shaft was dug being for the purpose of studying the stratification.

The northern room measures 5,60×3,40 m. The entrance is at the right end of the western short side, and measures 0,90 m. in width. A threshold bench of lime-concrete, 0,35 m. wide and 0,25 m. high, occupies 0,72 m. of the opening; the remaining 0,18 m. being taken up by three small stones 0,20 m. below the top of the threshold, forming the base for the pivot. Thus the door, when opened, was turned along the south wall of the room. Over the leveled house-floor is laid a layer of slaked lime about 3 cm. thick, of the same character as that of the threshold.

1,25 m. from the entrance is a conical-shaped hole cut in the rock, 0,60 m. in diam. at the top, and 0,38 m. deep. Close to the edge of the hole was found an oval stone of hard limestone, broken at both ends, with a round shallow cavity cut in the centre. Most probably it is not a corn-rubber and differs considerably from the usual saddlequern type of these implements. The hole seems to be best explained as an oil reservoir and the stone might have been used for pressing olives. Along the north wall of the room runs a bench of hard clay 1.00 m. wide and 0.45 m. high, from the first floor-level to a point 3,50 m. from the west wall. Since nothing was found on this bench it is not likely that it was used as a depository for household utensils, like the clay bench in the southern room, which was occupied by broken jars and other objects. Most probably it was used as a seat, or perhaps as a bed.

1

3,50 m. from the western wall of the room the bench becomes narrower, and for the remainder of the distance to the western wall has a width of 0,55 m. This bench is built of the same hard clay, but is covered with lime-plaster of the same kind as used on the inside of the walls, and the edge is bordered by a row of flat stones. Fragments of many domestic vessels were found on this bench, which evidently is a kind of sideboard.

There are two hearths in the room, but they belong to different periods of inhabitation, and have not been used at the same time, as will be shown presently.

The hearth of the first inhabitation is placed 1,40 m. from the southern wall, 1,25 m. from the northern wall, 1,25 m. from the eastern wall, and 3,60 m. from the western wall, and consequently is placed

1 Cp. below.