The History and Archaeology Department of the Aristotle University of Thessalonica (AUT), continuing its long research presence in Cyprus, initiated in November 2008 a five-year Prehistoric Research Program.
According to a press release issued here, the scientific aim of AUT program is to search and locate installations of the early prehistory of the island (pre-Neolithic period) through an archaeological surface survey on part of Troodos.
Troodos has not been surveyed yet and as a result the research interest is confined to the south lower regions of Pafos, Lemesos, Ammochostos and the central part of the island. The first hunter-gatherers on the island and their material remains, which have been found until now in the above regions have been dated to around 10000 BC.
The study of these remains is maybe the most interesting research field during the last years. The dating of the arrival of the first inhabitants to the island and their settlement choices is an open archaeological issue, which awaits archaeologically founded answers.
The research team of AUT History and Archaeology Department was headed by Nicos Efstratiou, Professor of Prehistoric Archaeology and consisted of Professor Paolo Biagi of Venice University, the Cypriot archaeologist and teacher Dimitris Kyriakou and the student Eleni Mloukie.
The team, after the results of its research on mountain Pindos in Greece, decided to investigate in a systematic way the possibility that the Troodos range could have been as well inhabited from the earliest period.
With the permission of the Director of the Department of Antiquities Pavlos Flourentzos, and the help of the Forest Department, the team started the systematic surface survey of regions of southern Troodos, specifically the upper parts of the rivers Xeros and Diarizos.
The results of these first investigations, although preliminary, are judged as completely satisfactory, as important archaeological indications for the presence of pre-Neolithic groups of hunter and gatherers (10000 BC) were found in the hinterland and mountainous parts of the island. These first indications, when confirmed, will open an important new chapter in the archaeological research of the island, since they will incorporate the archaeology of Troodos region into the developments of the earliest human presence on the island.
