Nicosia: Cyprus has uncovered buildings dating back more than 11,000 years in what is thought to be the oldest village site so far discovered on the Mediterranean island, officials said Tuesday.
Its antiquities department said that more than 20 round buildings excavated at Klimonas, near the southern coastal city of Limassol, were "the earliest manifestation of an agricultural and village way of life known to date, worldwide."
The department said the structures were between 10,500 and 11,500 years old -- meaning they were built at least 2,000 years before Cyprus' next oldest known settlement, the UNESCO-listed Khirokitia, near Larnaca.
Animal bones, including those of cats and dogs, were also unearthed at the site, which archeologists believe would have covered around 5,000 square metres (54,000 square feet).
"The buildings were constructed on small terraces, notched into a gentle slope facing the sea," the antiquities department added.
The Klimonas area contained stone tools as well as hunting and agricultural artefacts similar to those already discovered in the Neolithic Levant, it said.
"Even though Cyprus was separated from the continent by more than 70 kilometres (45 miles) of sea, the island was part of broader Near Eastern Neolithic developments," according to a statement from the department.
Excavations were directed by French experts Francois Briois and Jean-Denis Vigne, it said, adding that Klimonas inhabitants were probably hunters of small birds and wild boar.
AFP
Nicosia: Cyprus has uncovered buildings dating back more than 11,000 years in what is thought to be the oldest village site so far discovered on the Mediterranean island, officials said Tuesday.
Its antiquities department said that more than 20 round buildings excavated at Klimonas, near the southern coastal city of Limassol, were "the earliest manifestation of an agricultural and village way of life known to date, worldwide."
The department said the structures were between 10,500 and 11,500 years old -- meaning they were built at least 2,000 years before Cyprus' next oldest known settlement, the UNESCO-listed Khirokitia, near Larnaca.
Animal bones, including those of cats and dogs, were also unearthed at the site, which archeologists believe would have covered around 5,000 square metres (54,000 square feet).
"The buildings were constructed on small terraces, notched into a gentle slope facing the sea," the antiquities department added.
The Klimonas area contained stone tools as well as hunting and agricultural artefacts similar to those already discovered in the Neolithic Levant, it said.
"Even though Cyprus was separated from the continent by more than 70 kilometres (45 miles) of sea, the island was part of broader Near Eastern Neolithic developments," according to a statement from the department.
Excavations were directed by French experts Francois Briois and Jean-Denis Vigne, it said, adding that Klimonas inhabitants were probably hunters of small birds and wild boar.
AFP
