Archaeologists Uncover Bronze Age Defences at Ancient Cyprus Site

By Bill Giannopoulos

Archaeologists have identified the first Late Bronze Age fortification system at Palaepaphos, an ancient city in southwestern Cyprus, uncovering new evidence of how the settlement defended itself thousands of years ago.

The discovery was announced by the Department of Antiquities following excavations conducted in August and September 2026 at the Marchello site, near the modern village of Kouklia.

Read more: Akrotiri, Santorini: The Bronze Age City Frozen in Ash

The excavation was led by a team from the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA), which has been investigating the site since 2021 to establish the chronology and development of its defensive structures.

Evidence dates fortifications to the Late Bronze Age

Marchello lies less than one kilometre northeast of the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Palaepaphos, one of ancient Cyprus’ important religious centres.

Earlier excavations by British, German and Swiss teams, as well as researchers from the University of Cyprus, had uncovered a long defensive wall and a monumental gate. However, the date of their construction and the relationship between the structures remained uncertain.

The latest excavation has provided clearer evidence for the age of the fortifications.

Beside a newly exposed section of the defensive wall, archaeologists uncovered an undisturbed archaeological layer containing pottery from the Late Cypriot IIC to IIIA periods, near the end of the Late Bronze Age.

A layer of marl, a clay-rich soil, was found above the archaeological deposit and directly beside the wall’s stone foundations.

Researchers believe builders prepared the marl at the site and spread it over the stone base to create a level foundation for the mudbrick wall above. Its position alongside the pottery and foundations helps date the earliest phase of the rampart to this period.

Tower reveals successive phases of construction

The excavation also clarified how a defensive tower developed as part of the fortification system.

Builders initially incorporated a rectangular bastion into the rampart during the Late Cypriot IIIA period. A three-sided extension was later added to its front, creating a nearly square structure measuring approximately 7.4 by 7.3 metres.

The tower’s thick walls enclosed a central room of around nine square metres. Its design suggests the structure may have had additional floors, although only the foundations survive and its original height remains unknown.

The tower was subsequently reinforced with an additional wall measuring approximately 2.7 metres thick along its northwestern side. Researchers believe this strengthening work probably also took place during the Late Cypriot IIIA period.

The successive construction phases indicate that the inhabitants of Palaepaphos repeatedly invested in strengthening their defences during the Late Bronze Age.

Fortifications were reinforced centuries later

The defensive complex continued to be modified long after the Bronze Age.

During the fourth century BC, in the Late Cypro-Classical period, another reinforcing wall was added along the tower’s northeastern and southeastern sides.

Pottery recovered from the foundation trench helped researchers date this later construction phase. The rampart was also widened at a subsequent stage, possibly during the same period.

However, important questions remain about the history of the site.

The excavation team has not yet identified construction phases from the Cypro-Geometric or Cypro-Archaic periods within the area investigated. It is therefore still unclear whether the fortifications remained in continuous use between the Late Bronze Age and their later reinforcement.

Further archaeological work and analysis of the recovered material are expected to help establish how the complex evolved and what role it played in the history of Palaepaphos.

At the conclusion of the 2026 excavation season, the team covered the exposed architectural remains with protective ground-cover fabric to safeguard them.

The findings add to the archaeological record of ancient Cyprus, offering new evidence of the construction techniques, defensive planning and long-term development of one of the island’s historically significant settlements.

Source: Department of Antiquities, Deputy Ministry of Culture, Republic of Cyprus.

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