The New Swedish Cyprus Expedition (The Söderberg Expedition): Excavations at Hala Sultan Tekke 2020 and 2021. Preliminary results

Abstract

In 2020 and 2021, the eleventh and twelfth seasons of excavations at the Late Bronze Age city of Hala Sultan Tekke were carried out in the cemetery of Area A. Based on indications provided by a large-scale magnetometer survey, two tombs exposed by intensive farming were located, Tombs RR and SS. The excavation of Tomb RR, which had started in 2018, was concluded. The total minimum number (MNI) of skeletons in this tomb, of which most were incomplete and disarticulated, is estimated at 137. In addition to clay figurines, seals and scarabs, objects of ivory, as well as jewellery of gold, silver, bronze, faience and carnelian, the inhumations are associated with more than 100 intact or complete ceramic vessels, many of them imported from the Mycenaean, Minoan, Hittite and Levantine spheres of culture. The pottery indicates a LC II(A/)B–C1 date of the inhumations, i.e., covering the 14th and the beginning of the 13th centuries BC. The excavations of the adjacent Tomb SS began in 2020 and has been concluded in May 2022. It contained a minimum of eleven inhumations, most of them (almost) complete and articulated, and large deposits of Cypriot and imported pottery, in total over 300 vessels mainly from the LC (I–)IIB, i.e., from the 16th/15th to mainly the 14th centuries BC. These contexts not only offer an insight into the complex Late Cypriot mortuary practices and funerary rituals but also reflect the urban élites with far-reaching inter-cultural connections.