Archaeologists excavating at Kition-Bamboula have uncovered an intact room from the 8th to 7th centuries BCE, with ceramic vessels still positioned against its walls exactly as they were left nearly 2,700 years ago.
The discovery marks the oldest remains yet found in this sector of the ancient Cypriot site, where a French archaeological mission completed its 2025 field season in October, according to the Department of Antiquities.
The team found the Archaic-period room north of a large looter’s trench that had cut away its southern wall. Its eastern and northern walls survived intact, built of stone supporting mudbrick upper sections. One wall still bears white plaster coating on its western face, and the collapse of the mudbrick preserved the room’s furnishings in their original positions.
Six ceramic containers lay where they were placed: three against the northern wall, three standing against the eastern wall. The collection included imported Phoenician commercial amphoras, locally made Plain White amphora and jug, and a Bichrome barrel-jug. Two Phoenician amphoras had been set upside down with their tops and bottoms removed.
This season’s excavations extended beyond a large pit that dominated previous field work. That pit, dug and filled during the 4th century BCE, yielded more than 100 fragments of Phoenician ostraca representing around 75 different texts now under study.
Digging deeper and wider, archaeologists exposed two parallel looter’s trenches dating to the Classical period. The trenches cut through earlier structures, destroying some walls whilst damaging others. Between them, excavators found partially preserved floor levels showing multiple phases of use during the Classical period.
A small deposit containing two vases and a pebble emerged beneath one of these floors. The presence of a cooking pot suggests it may have been a foundation deposit, similar to examples found at the palace of Amathous.
Whilst excavation in the central area stopped at Classical-period levels, Archaic floor levels and walls emerged to the east and north, with the intact room representing the most significant find.
The French mission worked in a trench to the northwest of Kition-Bamboula, extending exploration from previous campaigns that had focused on clearing the large Classical-period pit containing the Phoenician texts.