Finds in Bronze Age city in Cyprus confirm long-distance trade

Excavation of a well in Hala Sultan Tekke. Photo: Peter Fischer.

May 12, 2016. The Bronze Age city Hala Sultan Tekke (about 1600−1100 BC) in Cyprus is much larger than previously thought, and new finds suggest that its inhabitants were involved in trade reaching far beyond its immediate neighbours. Last summer, a Swedish archaeological expedition from the University of Gothenburg continued its excavations, and Cypriot authorities recently presented some interesting findings.

‘The city may have been up to 50 hectares in size, which would make it one of the largest Bronze Age cities, maybe even the largest, in the eastern Mediterranean region,’ says Peter Fischer, professor of Cypriote archaeology at the University of Gothenburg who since 2010 has been in charge of the excavations.

Hala Sultan Tekke is located near the airport in Larnaca. The city bloomed during the period 1300−1150 BC and was subsequently destroyed and abandoned for unknown reasons. The so-called Sea Peoples may have invaded the island and contributed to its demise. [...] University of Gothenburg / Link 2 


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Here are gold necklaces, pearls and earrings as well as several hundred handsome ceramic vessels from the Bronze Age. The discovery testifies to a city which traded with much of its contemporary world...