Archaeologists from the University of Gothenburg have completed the excavation of two Bronze Age tombs at the Hala Sultan Tekke site in Cyprus. The finds include more than 150 human skeletons and nearly 500 objects, including gold jewellery, gemstones and pottery, all dating from around 1350 BC, in the time of Nefertiti.
Since 2010, Swedish archaeologists have carried out several rounds of excavations in Cyprus. In 2018, they discovered two tombs in the form of underground chambers with an impressive number of human skeletons. Managing the finds required very delicate work over almost four years, as the bones were extremely fragile after more than 3,000 years in the salty soil.
In addition to the skeletons of 155 individuals, the team also found 500 artefacts. The skeletons and ritual burial objects were found in layers on top of each other, indicating that the graves had been used for several generations.
“The findings indicate that these are family tombs for the city’s ruling elite. For example, we found the skeleton of a five-year-old child with a gold necklace, gold earrings and a gold tiara. This was probably a child of a powerful and wealthy family,” said Professor Peter Fischer, who led the excavation, according to Heritage Daily.
The finds included jewellery and other objects made of gold, silver, bronze, ivory and precious stones, as well as richly decorated vessels from many cultures.
“We also found a ceramic bull. The body of this bull had two openings: one on the back to fill it with a liquid, probably wine, and one at the nose to drink. It seems that they held feasts in the room to honour their dead,” the archaeologist added.
A message thousands of years old
A particularly important find is a cylinder-shaped seal made of hematite with a cuneiform inscription from Mesopotamia (modern-day Iraq), which archaeologists have been able to decipher.
The text consists of three lines and mentions three names. One is Amurru, a god worshipped in Mesopotamia. The other two are historical kings, father and son, whom we have recently been able to trace in other texts on clay tablets from the same period, i.e. the 18th century BC. We are now trying to establish why the seal ended up in Cyprus more than 1000 kilometres from where it was made, said Peter Fischer.
Other finds include a red carnelian from India, a lapis lazuli blue stone from Afghanistan and an amber from the Baltic Sea area, showing that the city played a central role for trade during the Bronze Age. Gold jewellery, along with scarabs (beetle-shaped amulets with hieroglyphs) and the remains of fish imported from the Nile Valley are evidence of intense trade with Egypt.
Gold jewellery from Nefertiti’s time, thanks to the extensive trade network
By comparing these finds with similar ones from Egypt, archaeologists were able to date the jewellery.
“The comparisons show that most of the objects (including these gold jewels n.r.) are from the time of Nefertiti and her husband Echnaton, around 1350 BC. We also found a gold pendant: a lotus flower with inlaid gemstones. Nefertiti wore similar jewellery,” said Professor Peter Fischer, who led the excavation.
The ceramic finds are also important. “The way ceramics have changed in appearance and material over time allows us to date them and study the connections these people had with the surrounding world. What fascinates me most is the wide network of contacts they had 3,400 years ago,” he added.
In the next stage, archaeologists will look at the DNA of the skeletons to find out how different individuals related to each other and whether there were immigrants from other cultures, a likely scenario given the vast trade networks.
