Shedding light on the cypriot rural landscape: Investigations of the Athienou Archaeological Project in the Malloura valley, Cyprus, 2011-2013

Abstract

Since its inception in 1990, the Athienou Archaeological Project (AAP) has focused on diachronic patterns of rural land use within the Malloura Valley located along the edges of Cyprus's fertile Mesaoria plain. Employing careful field methods of excavation and recording, members of AAP have sought to reconstruct ancient life in this understudied region by charting local responses to regional and pan-Mediterranean networks of exchange. The present contribution reports on the results of excavations (2011-2013) in the Geometric to Roman period rural sanctuary and of limited pedestrian survey (2013) in light of the project's research goals, while highlighting AAP's effective implementation of a mobile computing platform that streamlined field recording through an increased reliance on born-digital data. For a discussion of AAP's mobile computing platform in the context of our fieldwork in Cyprus, please see our online supplementary article on the JFA website (http://www.maneyonline.com/doi/suppl/10.1179/0093469015Z.000000000112).