Agia Varvara-Almyras: An Iron Age Copper Smelting Site in Cyprus

Foreword: Agia Varvara-Almyras, an Exceptional Case Study ;



Part I - Archaeological Situation, Stratigraphy, and Chronology ;


1. Introduction ;


2. Extractive Copper Metallurgy in Cyprus: A Concise Retrospective on Methods and Approaches ;


3. Archaeological Research in Agia Varvara-Almyras ;


4. Stratigraphy ;


5. Age Determination ;


6. The Features ;


7. Spatial Organization ;


8. Conclusions and Outlook ;


9. Lists ;



Part II - Materials and Processes ;


1. Geology and Mineralogy of Agia Varvara-Almyras - Iphigenia Gavriel ;


2. Agia Varvara-Almyras Ceramics Report - Robert Morris ;


3. Classification of Ore Beneficiation Stone Tools from Agia Varvara-Almyras - Anne Carey ;


4. Furnace Lining - Aleksandra Mistireki ;


5. Considerations on the Process Flow of Copper Production - Walter Fasnacht ;


6. Technology of Copper Smelting at Agia Varvara-Almyras - Martina Renzi, Myrto Georgakopoulou, Christina Peege, Walter Fasnacht and Thilo Rehren

Christina Peege graduated at the Department of Classical Archaeology at the University of Zurich. She started her academic career as a research assistant at the Chair of Ancient History in Zurich, and as a scientific collaborator at the Mint Cabinet in the City of Winterthur. After having participated in archaeological excavations conducted by cantonal archaeology services in Switzerland, she started as a trench supervisor under the auspices of Walter Fasnacht at the excavation of Agia Varvara-Almyras. She completed her doctoral studies with this comprehensive publication of the excavation results at the University of Zurich in January 2017. ;



Philippe Della Casa graduated in Roman Provincial Archaeology before taking his PhD with a thesis on the Bronze Age necropolis of Velika Gruda, Montenegro in 1994. He then engaged in a series of large Adriatic and Alpine projects on settlement survey and excavation, landscape history, as well as social and economic archaeology including mining archaeology. Since 2002, he has held the Chair of Prehistoric Archaeology at the University of Zurich as a full professor. ;



Walter Fasnacht graduated in primary and secondary teaching before the award of his master's degree in Prehistoric Archaeology and Geology at the University of Zurich. He is the director of the Almyras Excavation Cyprus. He has been lecturer in archaeometallurgy at the Universities of Fribourg and Zurich, curator of archaeology at the Swiss National Museum, researcher at the Swiss Federal Laboratories for Materials Testing and Research as well as a member of the Swiss School of Archaeology in Eretria, Greece. He founded the Swiss Association of Experimental Archaeology and is an active teacher and educator.