Nicolas Kress

The aim of the joint Saudi Arabian-Belgian Al-Ghat field project was three-fold: the study of the iconographical and textual material incised on rocks, a survey and study project looking for early human activity in the area, and the topographical documentation of significant sites. The rich textual and iconographic material in the Wadi Markh area adds to the importance of the Al-Ghat region for the ancient history of Saudi Arabia. In bringing forward evidence of prehistoric cultural connections to Africa as well as the Levant, the project contributes to the unravelling of the early expansion history of
our species in a landscape different from today.

A fifth joint excavation campaign between the Universities of Ghent, Louvain and the Mediterranean Archaeological Society took place at Pyla-Kokkinokremos from the 27th of March until the 26th of May.
The site of Pyla-Kokkinokremos represents a singularly short-lived settlement in the island’s Late Bronze Age history. Established only a generation or so prior to its eventual abandonment in the early 12th century BC, the site provides important evidence relating to the crucial period at the end of the 13th and the beginning of the 12th century BC. Former excavations suggest the entire plateau of ca. 7 ha to have been densely occupied. Excavated parts on the plateau were laid-out regularly within a perimeter ‘casemate’ wall. During the 2018 season excavations continued both on the west and east lobe in an effort to better understand the layout, organisation and functional specialisation of the settlement.

The site of Pyla-Kokkinokremos, located in Larnaka Bay in south-eastern Cyprus, was explored on different occasions but continues to be of archaeological interest, in part because it is one of the few settlements that was occupied for a relatively short period during what are called the ‘Crisis Years’ of the Eastern Mediterranean (ca. 1200 BCE). The ethnic mix of its material culture is also astonishing, with imports from Mycenaean Greece, Minoan Crete, Nuragic Sardinia, Hittite Anatolia, the Levant, and Egypt—a variety unparalleled at other contemporary Cypriot settlements. Since 2014, an international team consisting of members of the University of Ghent and Louvain in Belgium and of the Mediterranean Archaeological Society in Heraklion, Crete, has continued its exploration, concentrating on different areas of the 7-hectare hill. The aim of the new excavations is to obtain a better understanding of the social structure and internal organization of the site and of its importance for the continuing discussions on migration, interaction, and acculturation, which typify the late 13th and early 12th centuries BCE in the Eastern Mediterranean. The volume is a detailed but preliminary account of the first six excavation campaigns (2014–2019) with a presentation of the archaeological material found in the different sectors of the hill. It also includes the first analyses of the different ceramic categories encountered and a report on the topographical work executed.