The Mnemata Site is an

archaeological excavation In archaeology, excavation is the exposure, processing and recording of archaeological remains. An excavation site or "dig" is the area being studied. These locations range from one to several areas at a time during a project and can be condu ...

site at the Mnemata locality of

Larnaca Larnaca, also spelled Larnaka, is a city on the southeast coast of Cyprus and the capital of the Larnaca District, district of the same name. With a district population of 155.000 in 2021, it is the third largest city in the country after Nicosi ...

Cyprus Cyprus (), officially the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Situated in West Asia, its cultural identity and geopolitical orientation are overwhelmingly Southeast European. Cyprus is the List of isl ...

. A

tomb A tomb ( ''tumbos'') or sepulchre () is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes. Placing a corpse into a tomb can be called '' immurement'', alth ...

was discovered in 1979—during the construction of a refugee settlement. Built over the excavation site is now a supermarket. The site is located on the

city block A city block, residential block, urban block, or simply block is a central element of urban planning and urban design. In a city with a grid system, the block is the smallest group of buildings that is surrounded by streets. City blocks are th ...

east of the junction of Plateia Mitropoleos and Nikodimou Mylona Street. The site has been referred to as Agios Georgios cemetery, in various interim reports. (There are other institutions in the same city that are known as Agios Georgios. One is the Agios Georgios refugee settlement—the other is the cemetery on Agiou Georgiou Kontou Street. (An "Ancient Kition" text on a

roadsign Traffic signs or road signs are signs erected at the side of or above roads to give instructions or provide information to road users. The earliest signs were simple wooden or stone milestones. Later, signs with directional arms were introduce ...

, points toward the cemetery on Agiou Georgiou Kontou Street.) Other

archaeological Archaeology or archeology is the study of human activity through the recovery and analysis of material culture. The archaeological record consists of Artifact (archaeology), artifacts, architecture, biofact (archaeology), biofacts or ecofacts, ...

sites in its vicinity include the Pervolia Site, located north-east of Mnemata.

Name

''Mnemata'' is the name of the locality, and it means "

grave A grave is a location where a cadaver, dead body (typically that of a human, although sometimes that of an animal) is burial, buried or interred after a funeral. Graves are usually located in special areas set aside for the purpose of buria ...

s". The Mnemata Site is also known as the Agios Georgios cemetery, because a tomb was found in 1979 during the construction of a refugee settlement called ''Agios Georgios''. Other tombs were found on site, later.

History

During the construction of Agios Georgios (refugee settlement) , a tomb was discovered on March 22, 1979. In 1979, 63 tombs were excavated there. In 1989 Michael Heltzer said that the Ayious Georghios-Mnimata site had an unexcavated southern part that lies 700 meters northwest of Kition's city wall, and 1500 meters northwest of the seashore. "The site had been used as a cemetery from the beginning of the Iron Age until the Roman times", and there were four cemeteries in its environs in 1989.

References

{{reflist Archaeological sites in Cyprus Larnaca