Site D (Phase II) 18–27 March 1895

Tombs 86 to 109

‘Site B being pretty well exhausted a return was made to Site D, and at the same time a preliminary investigation was made on a site on the pathway just outside Episkopi beyond the church. The latter proved quite unsuccessful. On Site D during the first few days very little was found beyond fragments of Mycenaean and Ayia Paraskevi pottery [WS ware] – the tombs (when found) having been robbed – altogether the second visit to the site was unsuccessful, and it would seem that the area of the Myc. necropolis was very limited’.

Tomb 86

Contents: BM: one item
Materials/objects: Pottery
Chronological range of objects: LC II–IIIA (WS II bowl)
Tomb type and status:  Chamber
Additional information: Frags of Mycenaean pottery not registered.

Base Ring ware pyxis (box) imitating an imported Mycenaean shape, Tomb 88, 1400–1100 BC (GR 1896,0201.387)

Tomb 87

Contents: CM
Materials/objects: Pottery, terracotta
Chronological range of objects: LC II–III
Tomb type and status: Chamber
Additional information: CCM, 181, C.M. 469 (terracotta bull); CVA Cyprus I (Cyprus Museum), pl. 26,1 (FS 219 globular cup, LH IIIA1); pl. 29,7 (FS 118(?) small jug, LH IIIB or Cypriot imitation (?)); SCE IV/1D, 524 (Faience, jar (7), C.M. G 88).

Tomb 88

Contents: BM: one item
Materials/objects: Pottery
Chronological range of objects: LC II–IIIA
Tomb type and status: Chamber
Additional information: The registered BR vase is described as Mycenaean in the Notebook; also two fragmentary terracotta animal figurines were not registered.

Syrian faience goblet, Tomb 89, 1450–1200 BC (GR 1896,0201.33)

Notebook
Descriptions of Tombs 86–90

Tomb 89

Contents: BM: 22 items
Materials/objects: Pottery, faience, stone, ivory
Chronological range of objects: LC
Tomb type and status: Double chamber tomb: ‘the first chamber Mycenaean, the second Cypriote, of considerably later date’ (all the material is in fact LC in date)
Additional information: Unregistered material includes frags of ‘pseudamphorae and other Mycenaean vases’, numerous bronze items (six bronze bowls and mirrors and a spatula), and a ‘stone plate’ (probably a mortar or dish). This is the largest deposit of LC material from Bamboula preserved by Walters. The later ‘Cypriote’ chamber was probably added in LC IIC/IIIA to an existing tomb and contained the WPW III wares and the stone mortars and pestles, which are probably later than the date of the Myc. material. See Kiely 2010, 62–3 for a discussion of this group.

Late Helladic (Mycenaean) shallow bowl, Tomb 90, 1300–1200 BC (GR 1896,0201.332)

Notebook
Description of Tomb 89

Tomb 90

Contents: BM: one item
Materials/objects: Pottery
Chronological range of objects: LC IIC (LH IIIB)
Tomb type and status: Chamber
Additional information: The only object recorded from this tomb was described in Excavations as ‘sub-Mycenaean’ but is actually a genuine LH IIIB import.

Notebook
Descriptions of Tombs 86–90

Tomb 91

Contents: CM
Materials/objects: Pottery, bronze, stone
Chronological range of objects: LC; LH IIIA2–IIIB
Tomb type and status: Chamber
Additional information: CCM, 181; SCE V/1D: stone (540, bead, unclassified; 453, vessel, unclassified); Mycenaean (306, stirrup jar, ‘other’ [C.M. A.1685]; 328, jug FS 114 [C.M. 1560]); CVA Cyprus I (Cyprus Museum), pl. 29,1 (small globular jug, FS 114 [C.M. 1560]).

Bronze bowl, Tomb 92, 1300–1100 BC (GR 1896,0201.314)

Notebook
Descriptions of Tombs 89–91

Tomb 92

Contents: BM: one item
Materials/objects: Bronze, pottery
Chronological range of objects: LC IIC–III
Tomb type and status: Chamber
Additional information: ‘Two bronze bowls, found one inside the other’ (only one registered); shallow Mycenaean bowl.

Tomb 93

Contents: CM
Materials/objects: Stone
Chronological range of objects: LBA/IA
Tomb type and status: Chamber
Additional information: ‘Five stone beads, one with incised annules’. CCM, 181; SCE IV/1D: stone (453, bead, unclassified).

Bull-shaped vase, perhaps for ritual use, Tomb 94, 1450–1100 BC (GR 1896,0201.42)

Tomb 94

Contents: BM: five items
Materials/objects: Pottery, bronze, terracotta
Chronological range of objects: LC II–III
Tomb type and status: Chamber

Tomb 95

Contents: apparently assigned to BM but no items registered
Materials/objects: Pottery
Chronological range of objects: IA
Tomb type and status: Double chamber tomb
Additional information: ‘Between 60 and 70 Cypriote vases found’. Eight ‘Cypriote jugs with concentric circles of the usual type’ were listed in the Notebook (probably WP/BiCh, BoR or BiCh Red ware) but none was registered by the Museum. Another example, along with Tomb 56 above, of the high degree of selectivity (and bias against) locally made material, especially pottery.

On a site about 0.4km to the south-west, marked on the main map of the excavations as a rectangular projection to the south of Bamboula. See above for a discussion of the location of this burial plot.

Fragmentary terracotta figurine of a woman, possibly a woshipper, found in or near Tomb 96, 400–300 BC (GR 1896,0201.294)

Tomb 96

Contents: BM: two items
Materials/objects: Pottery, terracotta
Chronological range of objects: LC IIC–III; CA–CC (?)
Tomb type and status: Chamber/surface
Additional information: Two bronze bowls are also listed in the Notebook, which were not registered, along with a draped terracotta figurine of Graeco-Phoenician date (with a likely date range of CA to CC). The latter may represent a later burial, or else was intrusive, perhaps from a surface grave in this area.

Notebook
Descriptions of Tombs 92–96

Tomb 97

Contents: CM
Materials/objects: Pottery/terracotta, stone, bone
Chronological range of objects: EC–MC(?)
Tomb type and status: Two chambers
Additional information: RP or DP (‘red’ or ‘Alambra’) wares, including several jugs/flasks; an askos and a ladle; numerous spindle whorls (10 terracotta, two stone, one bone). CCM, 181 lists most of the major items entered in the Notebook, including a ladle of red ware (C.M. 26); terracotta spindle-whorls (C.M. 655).

Tomb 98

Contents: BM: 21 items
Materials/objects: Pottery, terracotta, stone, bronze
Chronological range of objects: EC III–MC I; CG III–CA I/II
Tomb type and status: Double chamber
Additional information: An EC III–MC I tomb reused in the late CG and CA periods, though it is unclear from the description in the Notebook if the two deposits were in separate chambers.

Notebook
Descriptions of Tombs 97–98

Tomb 99

Contents: BM: three items
Materials/objects: Pottery, bronze, stone, glass
Chronological range of objects: LC
Tomb type and status: Chamber
Additional information: A hollow stone tube (GR 1896,0201.59) was also registered but this is no longer identifiable. The tomb also contained a pair of bronze tweezers (not registered).

The team returned to the main site on 26 March

Tomb 100

Contents: CM
Materials/objects: Pottery/terracotta, bronze
Chronological range of objects: LC
Tomb type and status:  Chamber
Additional information: CCM, 181, C.M. 466 (terracotta ‘primitive female figure’), ‘small Mycenaean (?) vase with two side handles’; SCE IV/1D: bronze knife (477), terracotta (512); see also Catling 1964, 126, no. 4.

Fragment of a fineware vessel with unusual mottled decoration, Tomb 101, 1450–1100 BC (GR 1896,0201.70)

Tomb 101

Contents: BM: five items
Materials/objects: Bronze, pottery
Chronological range of objects: LC II–III
Tomb type and status: Chamber
Additional information: A Mycenaean pithoid jar dating to the 14th or 13th centuries BC was also registered but this can no longer be found in the collection (GR 1896,0201.390; Vase C438). Daniel identified the mottled sherd from this tomb as Minoan in the British Museum vase catalogue (Vase A568) (illustrated here) as part of a small krater discovered in his Tomb 13 (Benson 1972, 17–18 and 122 no. B224; Daniel 1940, 10, pl. IV(f) where it was correctly classified as a Cypriot fabric. The burial chamber, accessed by a small dromos on the south side, was oval in shape, 3 x 3.9m and approximately 1.5m high. The tomb had been badly disturbed, but yielded the remains of one of the richest burials found at Bamboula by the UPenn expedition, including gold jewellery, cylinder seals and masses of LC pottery as well as some Mycenaean ware. The date range given by Benson (LC I–IIA) seems too early and too narrow for the recorded finds.

Gold beads from a necklace or bracelet, Tomb 102, 1650–1050 BC (GR 1896,0201.266)

Notebook
Descriptions of Tombs 99–101

Tomb 102

Contents: BM: ten items
Materials/objects: Pottery, terracotta, glass, faience, bronze, gold,
stone
Chronological range of objects: LC II; CG
Tomb type and status: Chamber (?)
Additional information: Five gold studs of a type similar to 1908,2-1.277 were also registered but can no longer be identified in the BM collection (GR 1896,0201.278–282. Frags of Myc pottery matching those in Tomb 53 were also recorded but not registered. See entry on Tomb 53 above for discussion of this burial.

Tomb 103

Contents: CM
Materials/objects: Bronze, stone, faience, glass
Chronological range of objects: LC
Tomb type and status: Chamber (?)
Additional information: ‘Five bronze bracelets’; ‘eight green stone beads...’; ‘lower part of porcelain [faience] Egyptian figure’; ‘glass bead’.

Tomb 104

Described in the Notebook as being a λάκκος 60–70 feet deep and in Excavations (p. 81) ‘like a well, about 70 ft. deep; contained fragments of Mycenaean vases, none preserved’. Daniel (quoted in Benson 1972, 4) suggested that this was the well discovered in his Trench 19 on the eastern side of Area E, a large cluster of tombs outside the built-up area. It should not be confused with the large stone-lined well in Area B just below the summit of the hill (Weinberg 1983, 32).
 
Tombs 105–109 on the αλωνια [threshing-floor] on the highest part of the site. 4–8 April.

Notebook
Descriptions of Tombs 102–104

Tomb 105

Contents: CM
Materials/objects: Pottery, stone, terracotta
Chronological range of objects: LC
Tomb type and status: Chamber (?)
Additional information: WS and Red Lustrous wares; terracotta bull (BR ware?). CCM, 181; SCE IV/1D, 540 (stone beads: unclassified type).

Bull-shaped spout of a rhyton or special pouring vessel, Tomb 105, 1450–1100 BC (GR 1896,0201.65)

Tomb 106

Contents: BM: one item
Materials/objects: Pottery
Chronological range of objects: LC II–III
Tomb type and status: Chamber (?)
Additional information: Frags of a Myc. stirrup jar and other vases recorded in the Notebook.

Tomb 107

Contents: BM: three items
Materials/objects: Pottery, bronze
Chronological range of objects: LC II
Tomb type and status: Chamber (?)
Additional information: Frags of Myc. pottery also found but not kept.

Tomb 108

Contents: CM
Materials/objects: Pottery
Chronological range of objects: LC(?); IA (CG?; CA)
Tomb type and status:  Chamber (?)
Additional information: The Notebook mentions six skyphoi, a small lekythos, and an aryballos, all decorated with black bands or circles on a drab background, probably WP, BiCh or BoR wares; also an iron object and a frag. of a Myc. vase (poss. intrusive or else surviving from an earlier period of use, if not a misidentified ware). See CCM, 181, which cites as a parallel for one of the skyphoi a stemmed WP I vase from Kouklia (C.M. 954), indicative of an early CG use of this tomb.

Tomb 109

Contents: BM: two items registered
Materials/objects: Pottery
Chronological range of objects: LC IIC–III
Tomb type and status: Chamber (?)
Additional information: A second WPW III strainer jug is mentioned in the Notebook but was not kept. Excavations, 81.

Notebook
Descriptions of Tombs 105–109

Guide to the tombs

Tombs from Site A (1–6)
Tombs from Site B (7–14)
Tombs from Site C (15–19)
Return to Site B (20–26)
Tombs from Site D: phase I (27–58)
Tombs from Area E: phase I (59–70)
Site B: phase III (71–85)
Site D: phase II (86–109)
Area E: phase II (110–118)
Site C: phase II – continued 9 April 1895

Introductions to the sites

Site A | Site B | Site C / Temple site | Site D | Area E