Murray, Alexander S.; Smith, Arthur H.; Walters, Henry Beauchamp: Excavations in Cyprus: bequest of Miss E. T. Turner to the British Museum (London, 1900)

9i

sites (A and B) to the west of the Acropolis; on one site (C) to the north of the
Acropolis, and on two sites (D, E), which proved the most fruitful, to the east of
the city site.

The plan (p. 88) shows the positions of the several sites in relation to the town, and
also the positions of the most important tombs examined.

THE TOMBS.

The type of tomb that occurs most frequently is that of an approximately square
cave, measuring about 9 feet each way, and entered from a vertical shaft of a depth
varying from 8 feet to 21 feet. A doorway, usually left rough, but sometimes lined
with worked posts and a lintel, connects the cave with the shaft. In a small number
of cases, where the tomb was in the side of a sloping hill, the shaft was replaced by a
staircase.

In addition, however, to these tombs, which are of a common Cypriote type,
Amathus is distinguished by a series of large sepulchres, with massive masonry of careful
workmanship.

Cesnola (p. 255) claims to have opened nearly one hundred of these tombs, in the
" field" to the north-east of the city, lying at a very great depth (40 to 55 ft.) below
the surface. Only two such tombs were, however, known to the natives, and both of

LINE OF SURFACE

wmm77S77mmr/m,

SECTION A B

A-+

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I

PLAN

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Pi

1

TOMB 77

-I________________I____________L

Fig. 143. Plan and Section of Tomb 77.

I

j_____

11.60 18 3 4 5 6 7 6 FEET

--------JOINTS'OF CEILING STONES