Europe
Cyprus
Choirokoitia
Settlement
Choirokoitia
Nome:Choirokoitia
Periodo di costruzione:ca. fine del VII millennio a.C.
Costruttori:sconosciuti
Periodo di massimo splendore:ca. dal VII al V millennio a.C.
Declino:al più tardi nel IV millennio a.C.
Superficie totale:ca. 30.000 metri quadrati
Materiali da costruzione:pietra, argilla e mattoni crudi
UNESCO World Heritage Site:since 1998
Rekonstruierte Rundhäuser in Choirokoitia auf Zypern mit Steinmauern, Bäumen und hellem Boden

17 Fascinating Facts about Choirokoitia

 

  1. Location: Choirokoitia is located in southern Cyprus, in the Larnaca District, not far from the coast between Larnaca and Limassol. The prehistoric settlement lies on a hillside near the Maroni River, making it clearly embedded in the region’s gentle hills.
  2. Significance: Today, the excavation site is one of the most important archaeological attractions in Cyprus and one of the most significant prehistoric sites in the eastern Mediterranean. The remains mainly consist of low stone walls, circular ground plans and traces of the former round houses.
  3. Historical Context: Choirokoitia also represents the spread of early farming life in the eastern Mediterranean. According to current research, the early inhabitants of Cyprus probably came from the Near Eastern mainland or from Anatolia, bringing agriculture, animal husbandry and new forms of settlement with them. For this reason, the site is considered important evidence of how the Neolithic period spread from Western Asia via Cyprus and further into the Mediterranean region.
  4. Building History: The settlement probably emerged in the late 7th millennium BC, when early farmers settled here permanently and organised their daily lives around agriculture, animal husbandry and simple tools. At the centre of the site were round houses, around 20 ground plans of which have been identified archaeologically. However, the settlement included not only residential buildings, but also an enclosure wall, stairways, courtyards, hearths, basins, working areas and graves.
  5. Heyday: The most important phase of Choirokoitia began in the 7th millennium BC, when an astonishingly large and permanently inhabited settlement developed here. At that time, around 300 to 600 people probably lived at the site at the same time. For such an early period, Choirokoitia was a remarkably well-organised community, with densely built residential areas, shared pathways and clearly recognisable protective structures.
  6. Decline: Around 6200 BC, the climate in the eastern Mediterranean and on Cyprus appears to have become more unstable. Heavier rainfall, slipping slopes and stronger soil erosion may also have affected the area around Choirokoitia. Such changes could have damaged paths, soils and farmland, making harvests more difficult. In the middle of the 6th millennium BC, Choirokoitia was apparently abandoned relatively suddenly. About 1000 years later, the site was settled once again before being finally abandoned in the early 4th millennium BC. However, it has not been proven that environmental changes actually contributed to its decline.
  7. Excavation History: Choirokoitia was discovered in 1934 by the Cypriot archaeologist Porphyrios Dikaios and was systematically excavated from 1936 onwards. It quickly became clear that these were not ordinary ruins, but an exceptionally early Neolithic settlement. Since the 1970s, French research teams in particular have continued the investigations and greatly expanded our understanding of this early village community.
  8. Round Houses: The round houses still shape the appearance of Choirokoitia today and make the Neolithic settlement especially easy to visualise. Their lower walls were usually made of stone, while clay, unfired mud bricks and probably plant material were used for the upper sections and roofs. The individual round buildings belonged to small household units where people lived, cooked, worked and stored supplies. Their size varied greatly: some houses measured only about 2.30 meters in diameter, while the largest known round buildings reached about 9.20 meters. On some interior walls, archaeologists found evidence of plaster and even painting, although these remains are now preserved only in a very fragmentary state.
  9. Reconstructed Round Houses: Near the entrance and outside the original ruins, five round houses and a section of the protective wall have been reconstructed based on archaeological findings. They help visitors understand the settlement more clearly, because in the actual excavation area today, mainly low stone walls, circular ground plans and individual structural remains can be seen. The reconstructed round houses can be visited today and make the former appearance of the Neolithic village much easier to imagine.
  10. Access System: Choirokoitia lay on a slope above the Maroni River. As a result, several sides of the settlement were already naturally protected by steep terrain edges and the river. The round houses were arranged in terraces on the slope, forming a dense Neolithic village that adapted to the landscape. The more easily accessible western side was therefore especially important: there, the entrance did not lead openly into the village, but through a fortified wall section with a staircase made up of three parts.
  11. Walls: Choirokoitia was not surrounded on all sides by a closed city wall, but made clever use of its natural position on the hillside and by the river. Where the settlement was easier to reach, especially on the western side, the inhabitants built massive stone walls from large blocks and controlled access to the village in this way. Some preserved sections are still more than three meters high today and impressively show how carefully this Neolithic community protected and organised its settlement.
  12. Archaeological Finds: Choirokoitia is also significant because of the finds that make the life of this early village community tangible. The settlement belongs to the Aceramic Neolithic, a phase in which people already lived permanently in one place but did not yet produce ceramic vessels. Preserved finds include stone tools, bone tools, grinding stones, stone vessels, plant remains and animal bones. They provide evidence of agriculture, animal husbandry, hunting, craft activities and food processing. Especially fascinating are the small human-like figures made of stone and clay, as they suggest that the inhabitants of Choirokoitia also had symbolic or ritual ideas.
  13. Diet: Although the settlement was only around 6 kilometers from the coast, the inhabitants apparently did not live mainly from the sea. Their economy was based above all on agriculture, animal husbandry, the gathering of wild plants such as figs, olives and almonds, and the hunting of fallow deer.
  14. Burials: In Choirokoitia, many of the dead were buried beneath the floors of the houses. They usually lay in small burial pits and were often buried with bent arms and legs. In the excavated part of the settlement, more than 240 buried individuals have been identified, including a strikingly high number of infants and children. Anthropological studies suggest an average life expectancy of about 35 years for men and 33 years for women.
  15. Archaeological Reserve: To this day, only a small part of the settlement has been excavated, because valuable sites are not always fully uncovered. The untouched areas are deliberately left in the ground so that later generations can study them using better methods.
  16. Origin of the Name: The name Choirokoitia remains something of a mystery, because its exact origin has not been clearly proven. It is most commonly linked to the Greek word for pig or wild boar, which is why it can be understood loosely as “place of pigs”. However, there is no evidence that the Neolithic inhabitants already called their settlement by this name. The current name is a much later place name and also appears in older maps in other variants.
  17. UNESCO World Heritage Site: Choirokoitia was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 1998 and is therefore one of the especially protected cultural heritage sites of Cyprus. The settlement received this distinction because it offers an exceptionally well-preserved insight into life, building methods and the early village structure of the Neolithic period in the eastern Mediterranean.
  • Rekonstruierte Rundhäuser in Choirokoitia auf Zypern mit Steinmauern, Bäumen und hellem Boden
  • Rekonstruierte Rundhäuser der neolithischen Siedlung Choirokoitia auf hellem Gelände unter blauem Himmel
  • Archäologische Reste der neolithischen Siedlung Choirokoitia auf Zypern mit runden Steinmauern
  • Luftaufnahme der neolithischen Siedlung Choirokoitia mit runden Fundamenten und Steinmauern
  • Rekonstruierte Rundhäuser der neolithischen Siedlung Choirokoitia auf Zypern zwischen Bäumen
  • Rekonstruierte Rundhäuser in Choirokoitia auf Zypern mit weißen Wänden, kleinen Öffnungen und blauem Himmel
  • Ausgrabungsbereich von Choirokoitia auf Zypern mit freigelegten Steinmauern und Schutzdach