The Department of Antiquities, Deputy Ministry of Culture, announces the completion of the first excavation season at the site of Amathous-West Terrace. The excavation (a collaboration of the French School at Athens, the French Ministry of Foreign Affairs &the Laboratoire HiSoMA, MOM, Lyon), was directed by Dr Anna Cannavò (HiSoMA, MOM, Lyon).
The Mission had previously carried out a limited excavation on the western slope of the Acropolis in 1976-1977, following discoveries by the Department of Antiquities in the 1960s (1960, 1961 and 1963) of limestone and terracotta figurines as well as inscribed pottery fragments in this sector. The two-year excavation conducted by Jean-Paul Thalmann (1976-1977, squares LY-LZ 265-266 of the general grid established by the French mission) brought to light an impressive wall, built with well-squared limestone blocks of good quality, interpreted as a terrace or fortification wall, and two substantial deposits of material (sherds and figurines, including a large quantity of imported Greek pottery, but also local “Amathus-style” pottery).
The aim of the new project launched in April 2025 was to study the flat, narrow and long terrace overlooking the wall (West Terrace), to assess its nature and the possible presence of a built structure from which the two deposits uncovered in the 1970s could originate. Two test trenches were opened: one to the north, corresponding to square MB-277 (“sondage 1”), and one to the south, corresponding to square MB-281 (“sondage 2”). The trenches are located in the central part of the area where a preliminary geomagnetic survey carried out by Christophe Benech and Khaldoun Rajab (Archéorient, MOM, Lyon) indicated the presence of possible built structures.
In Trench 1, beneath a surface layer of about 30 cm containing abundant and mixed material from the Archaic to the Late Antique periods, a collapse layer was uncovered, composed of medium and large stones, some of them reused from neighbouring buildings, mixed with numerous fragments of tiles and transport amphorae. Below this layer, a complete series of collapsed roof tiles was discovered in a particularly well-preserved state: 40 tiles were numbered and removed, possibly dating to the Late Roman period. To the west, the extension of the excavated area revealed a north-south oriented wall, of which only the eastern side was uncovered.
In Trench 2, a collapse layer of soft earth, small and medium coarse stones and numerous pottery fragments was exposed beneath the surface layer in the central part of the trench. This can be interpreted as the collapse of a dry-stone wall (xerolithia), as many such walls exist on the acropolis of Amathous, some still visible overlooking the West Terrace. Below this collapse level, a deep layer of light brown earth and small stones was excavated to a depth of more than 1 m, without reaching the level of the natural rock. This layer yielded many fragments of pottery dating from the Archaic to the Late Antique periods, several fragments of glass vessels and, particularly in its upper levels, terracotta figurines, mainly of Archaic and Classical types, which are also abundant in the surface layers of Trench 1.
These findings allow for some preliminary conclusions, and, at the same time, highlight the need to fully expose the collapsed structure in Trench 1 to determine its nature and architecture. While the West Terrace was certainly inhabited during LateAntiquity, it is also possible that more ancient structures lie beneath the Late Antique levels, as the natural rock level appears to be quite deep according to the stratigraphy exposed in Trench 2. The abundance of Iron Age material, particularly the numerous terracotta figurines, is also possibly suggestive of a first-millennium BC occupation of the terrace.
