Jan Driessen

The site of Pyla-Kokkinokremos, located in Larnaka Bay in south-eastern Cyprus, was explored at different earlier occasions but continues to be of archaeological interest, in part because it is one of the few settlements that was occupied for a relatively short period during what are called the 'Crisis Years' of the Eastern Mediterranean (ca. 1200 BCE). The ethnic mix of its material culture is also astonishing with imports from Mycenaean Greece, Minoan Crete, Nuragic Sardinia, Hittite Anatolia, the Levant and Egypt, a variety unparalleled at other contemporary Cypriot settlements.
Since 2014, an international team consisting of members of the University of Ghent and Louvain in Belgium and of the Mediterranean Archaeological Society in Heraklion, Crete, has continued its exploration, concentrating on different areas of the 7 ha-large hill. The aim of the new excavations is to obtain a better understanding of the social structure and internal organization of the site, and of its importance for the continuing discussions on migration, interaction, and acculturation, which typifies the late 13th and early 12th c.
BCE in the Eastern Mediterranean. The volume is a detailed but preliminary account of the first six excavation campaigns (2014-2019) with a presentation of the archaeological material found in the different sectors of the hill. It also includes the first analyses of the different ceramic categories encountered and a report on the topographical work executed.