Abstract:
The modern village of Karmi is located 330m above sea level on the northern slopes of the Kyrenia range, approximately 6km due west of the Agirdha pass and immediately below the castle of St. Hilarion. The ancient sites at Karmi
Lapatsa and
Palealona thus lie approximately midway between major contemporary settlements at Lapithos (8km to the northwest) and Bellapais
Vounous(12km to the east) in one of the most densely populated and dynamic regions of the island during the Early and Middle Bronze Age. Although the settlements associated with the cemetery sites reported here were probably relatively small, both the architecture and content of the tombs are of considerable interest. The value of these assemblages is further increased by the fact that they derive from the northern half of Cyprus, which has been inacessible to Greek Cypriot and foreign archaeologists since 1974. Excavated in 1961, this publication of Karmi
Lapatsa and
Palealona is long overdue.
