Archaeologists working in the Peristerona River valley wrapped up their 2025 field season after uncovering an Iron Age sanctuary and a complex Roman‑period water system linked to copper‑production landscapes, Cyprus’ Department of Antiquities has said.
The campaign, led by the Universities of Copenhagen and Uppsala with support from the Cyprus Institute, is part of the Life at the Furnace project, which examines how Roman‑era copper smelting shaped communities in the northwestern Troodos foothills.
Survey teams identified an Iron Age sanctuary on a plateau above Agia Marina Xyliatou, marked by fragments of terracotta figurines — handmade horses, a bull, large human figures and a mouldmade Astarte. The site later shifted into a Hellenistic and Roman settlement, where scattered slag points to copper‑working activity.
Researchers also mapped the setting of the Chalcolithic site of Stavros tou Kounti at a river crossing between Kato Moni and Orounta.
Excavation on the nearby Mavrovouni knoll revealed a three‑tiered water‑management system — basins, cisterns and plastered hydraulic installations — filled with material dating from the Late Hellenistic to Middle Roman period.
The team has not yet determined how the system relates to smelting operations in the valley.
The project is funded by the Carlsberg Foundation and the Enboms Foundation.