The Athienou Archaeological Project, sponsored by Davidson College, completed its second season of investigations at the site of Athienou-Malloura in south-central Cyprus. In addition to excavation, the topographical mapping of the site was completed and a regional survey of the surrounding valley was initiated.

EU 2 and 3 revealed more portions of the large, industrial structure discovered last year and a new building (house) with well preserved, slab-paved floor and a nearby rock-cut well. Associated sgraffito wares date these buildings to the late 15th-early 16th centuries, i.e., the Venetian occupation of the island, when the settlement apparently reached its greatest extent. In EU 5 excavations laid bare portions of a well-built structure of similar orientation and construction as that partly exposed last summer in EU 3, ca. 15 m to the west. On the basis of associated pottery (African Red Slip and Pompeian Red), the two structures date to the late Roman/early Byzantine period.

Excavations west of the settlement succeeded in locating the Archaic-Hellenistic sanctuary. Though very few architectural remains were encountered, a significant number of Late Archaic statues were found lying on a hard-packed layer of Hellenistic date, including a headless statuette of Egyptianizing style, fragments of a Herakles statue, and two heads of wreathed votaries.

The regional survey was undertaken in order to document past human use of the landscape in a 20-km2 area around Malloura. A primary concern was to determine the extent of the settlement at Malloura. This was accomplished through the systematic collection of 286 samples from an area 2.5 km2 around the hypothetical center of the site. Additional transects corresponding to 3 km2 were surveyed in the southern and northern portions of the survey area. Most interesting was the discovery of a lithic processing station of Aceramic Neolithic affiliation (Site 9) - the only prehistoric component thus far located in the area.