At Dreamers Bay (or Nisarouin), on the shoreline of the Akrotiri peninsula which forms the southernmost point of Cyprus, lie the remains of an ancient port. These are unusually well preserved, as they are entirely within the confines of the UK’s airbase, RAF Akrotiri, which perhaps paradoxically has protected the natural and archaeological landscape of the peninsula from the rampant commercial development which now covers so much of the island’s southern coast. However, key elements of the ancient port are under threat from marine erosion, forming the initial impetus for the Ancient Akrotiri Project, led by the University of Leicester in collaboration with the University of Southampton and Cypriot colleagues. From the outset, the project was designed to be more than an academic research and heritage management exercise, but also has training, widening participation and outreach objectives.
Between 1 and 20 September 2016, excavations were undertaken at and around Dreamers Bay, led by research staff and professional field archaeologists from Leicester’s School of Archaeology and Ancient History. This, the second season of work at the site of a projected five following a short preliminary investigation in September 2015, was kindly funded by the CBRL through a Pilot Study Award. In 2016, attention was focused on the remains of stone buildings close to the shoreline exposed by winter storms and now eroding into the sea, and on a further masonry complex on the hilltop above.
One of the wave-exposed late Roman buildings along the Dreamer’s Bay shoreline (photo: Simon James).
One of the Roman buildings along the Dreamer’s Bay shoreline, now partially lost to the sea, being dug by students and Operation Nightingale participants (photo: Simon James).
The Dreamers Bay remains appear to comprise elements of a late Roman/early Byzantine port facility, probably serving the major nearby Greco-Roman city of Kourion, some 13 km along the coast to the northwest; the port seems to have been an important node in communications between Kourion and its neighbouring cities, and the wider Greek and Roman worlds. Its relatively good preservation, and lack of post-Byzantine occupation, provides the opportunity to study a largely intact port in its ‘coastscape’ context.
The ancient landward structures had previously undergone survey by the University of Buffalo, while submerged archaeological remains in the bay to the east had been identified by local avocational archaeologists and provisionally examined by marine specialists from the University of Cyprus. Possessing a masonry breakwater possibly of Hellenistic construction, the anchorage contains traces of shipping down to Late antiquity.
The present programme of work is intended to fully document and record the endangered shoreline structures; to establish their nature and date; to characterize and date the hilltop complex; and through collaboration with other UK and Cypriot marine archaeology and geomorphology specialists, to form an overview of the history of the Dreamers Bay port, in its regional context.
In 2016 the excavation was conducted by University of Leicester staff and students (under licence from the UK Sovereign Base Areas Administration and the Republic of Cyprus Department of Antiquities), and with the support and assistance of RAF Akrotiri, the Defence Infrastructure Organisation and the Western Sovereign Base Area Archaeological Society. The expedition was conducted in partnership with the Defence Archaeology Group, under whose auspices a number of injured UK service personnel participated in the excavation as part of the Operation Nightingale programme (Exercise ARTEMIS 16, which also involved provision of logistical support to the combined team). At the same time, colleagues from the University of Southampton conducted shoreline survey and geomorphological work to better understand and contextualize the port.
Plan of the shoreline structures.
Walls of buildings are visible on the surface close to the water’s edge at various points along the entire c. 0.5 km of low shoreline at Dreamers Bay, on the southern coast of the peninsula which is otherwise entirely very steep slopes or cliffs. The visible remains and their surroundings were cleaned for examination and selective excavation. The structures were found to be more extensive and more complex than the simple rectangular ‘warehouses’ they were hitherto presumed to be. Some trenches were also excavated to investigate whether there were further buildings back from the shoreline under a deep layer of colluvium. There was no clear indication of further structures inland from the shoreline buildings.
In Area 2 on the southern shoreline, a long rectangular building proved to have internal subdivisions, the westernmost of which proved to preserve a substantial occupational layer. This came as a surprise, as otherwise the structures appear generally to have been eroded to below floor level. This context produced virtually complete amphorae and other pottery vessels and coins suggesting a deposit of to the 4th century AD. The tumbled state of its eastern wall suggested earthquake damage. It is provisionally hypothesized that this building was destroyed in the earthquake which also destroyed Kourion around 365 AD.
Area 4, at the eastern end of the low ground facing into the bay, was another area where stratified deposits within the ancient buildings had been identified at the end of the 2015 excavation. These were a primary target for the 2016 dig. The area opened again revealed a more complex pattern of walls than previously expected, with occupation levels and burnt deposits overlying stone surfaces. Pottery recovered is yet to be analysed but again appears to belong to the later Roman period. Other finds included copper alloy nails thought to come from boats.
Additions and refinements made in 2016 to the overall plan of the known shoreline buildings indicate fairly close adherence to a common orientation, hinting at a single planned laying out of the site. Whether the buildings all belong to a single phase, and whether they were all destroyed at the same time, are questions for further seasons.
The other area investigated on the hill crest c. 650 m north of the shoreline buildings, at a point offering panoramic views of the coast almost from Cape Gata to the east round to Kourion in the north west, comprised expansion of a small area previously excavated by Buffalo. Here, some decades ago, British soldiers in training had discovered some ancient walls, which Buffalo later showed to be the corner of a masonry-built room or court with wall plaster, stone floor slabs and a doorway. The 2016 excavation (Area 7) revealed that the floor was still covered with broken roofing tile, of apparently late Roman type. Extension of the trench located other walls which appear to indicate two adjoining buildings, perhaps representing more than a single phase. In advance of excavation of the roofing material and underlying deposits projected for 2017, dating evidence is so far sparse. The hill slopes around the immediate area of the building(s) comprise concentrations of large stone rubble, which may indicate a surrounding wall, investigation of which is another planned objective for next year.
Work so far appears to confirm that the archaeological remains at Dreamers Bay generally belong to the late Roman or early Byzantine period. It is not yet clear how they relate to other archaeological sites on the peninsula, apparently, or in the case of the great ecclesiastical site at Katalymata ton Plakoton, certainly, of the same era.
During the season, colleagues from the University of Southampton conducted geological coring in the Akrotiri salt lake. This is projected to be the first stage in a collaborative investigation of the maritime part of the Dreamers Bay area and its wider setting, the Akrotiri landmass, which appears to have turned from an island to a peninsula during early historic times. It is hoped that the cores will provide a new, much more precise chronology for the process by which Akrotiri became joined to Cyprus—fundamental information for understanding the history of human settlement in the region, and potentially a major contribution to wider scholarship deriving from the field project.
Outreach: staff and students explaining excavation of an amphora to a visiting school group.
As mentioned at the outset, the Ancient Akrotiri Project also has training, widening participation and public outreach objectives. In 2016 these were pursued through training of Leicester and Southampton undergraduates, not only in archaeological fieldwork techniques, but also in public presentation, particularly though participation in activities with school groups and families form the UK military base community, and media engagement. Involvement of injured military personnel, working on the dig as part of their process of recovery under Operation Nightingale, engaged people in archaeology who would never normally do so, and proved a mutually enriching experience for soldiers, staff and students alike.
The 2016 season at Dreamers Bay was, then, successful in multiple ways, including the objective of the CBRL Pilot Study Award: to ‘pump-prime’ projects to the stage where they can secure more substantial financial support from other sources. On the back of the 2016 season, funding for 2017, and we hope beyond, was kindly granted by the Honor Frost Foundation, so we would like to reiterate our thanks to the CBRL for their support.