Europe

[Visited: August 2020]

Setting out early, I arrive at the entrance of Choirokoitia just when they open. Like before, this means I will have the ruins of this neolithic settlement all to myself. The ticket seller briefly leaves his friends under the trees, puts on his mask, sells the ticket, and leaves again. I quickly find that there are many signboards, and they are trilingual, as the French have played a role in excavations. I start by visiting a section of Choirokoitia, where I find several cylindrical houses reconstructed as they would have looked so many centuries ago. The settlement was surrounded by a wall, not against invaders, but probably to keep animals out; there were several stairs hidden in the wall. I climb the reconstructed stairs, and see the buildings, and have a peek inside. I love these: they give a good idea of what the settlement must have looked like.
From the foot of the hill, I walk up, and see the first wall of the settlement. A second, stronger wall was built later on. I soon reach the first ruins, where I clearly see the circular shape of the basement of the buildings. I follow the path up, and the higher I get, the more circles I see. I am happy I have seen the reconstructed buildings before, which makes it easier to visualise what Choirokoitia must have looked like between the 7th and 4th century BCE - millennia before the Greeks, Romans, Ottomans and all the others came to Cyprus. Reading the signboards, I learn that the northern side of the hill was abandoned, and a new wall constructed, partly on top of buildings. Entrance to the village was at the top of the hill, which also facilitated access to other hills in the vicinity. The earth-and-rock walls were plastered, and since the mud plaster still looked perfect when the site was excavated, the researchers concluded no animals entered the village: they lived outside the wall.
Life of the people living here has been analysed, based on finds in and around the prehistoric settlement. Flint tools were used for many tasks, like cutting, working wood, harvesting, etcetera. Cooking took place inside the houses, on a small platform. Artefacts made from bone were found. Remains of 248 humans were found, in pits dug into the floor of the houses: our ancestors did not have cemeteries. The high proportion of dead infants tells us there was a high infant mortality rate. Getting a picture of what the village looked like is easier thanks to the reconstructed houses, but I find imagining imagining their daily life harder. I walk to the top of the erstwhile settlement, where I indeed see the entrance. Unfortunately, the ruins can only be seen from a distance: they are closed off. I walk the path down on the other side of the hill, where I find several more ruins, before I walk down the hill past the ruined cylindrical houses again, and say goodbye to Choirokoitia.

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Choirokoitia (Cyprus)

Choirokoitia > Cyprus > Europe

[Visited: August 2020]

Around the World in 80 Clicks