Pithos House

Reconstructing a Chalcolithic Roundhouse in Kissonerga

This building is a recreation, also known as the Pithos House at Kisonerga - Mosfilia villages in Paphos (pithos=vessel) because of the large numbers of pottery storage vessels found inside. There were at least 37 pithoi (vessels) of different types positioned on the floor. At nine meters diameter, the pithos house is also the largest Late Chalcolithic building known on Cyprus. 

The people who lived there abandoned their houses around 2400 BC who therefore took their useable goods with them. Roofs and walls have collapsed and it is often difficult to interpret how the original building may have appeared, and how the space would have been used for different activities. Fortunetly people left many of their possessions behind upon abandonment closing off the housewith a rich array of tools, containers and other objects left in places. Reasons for this may have been connected with the ritual abandoment of the house upon the death of it owner, or for other motives importand to Chalcolithic communities but difficult for us to understand today.

The people of Kisonerga then established a settlement down the hill at Kisonerga - Skalia, which was occupied throughout the Early - Middle Bronze Age before being abandoned around 1650 BC. 

It is uncertain where the inhabitands of Kisonerga went during the Late Bronze Age but people returned to the area during the Archaic period and the village has since flourished, from the Roman through Byzantine periods to the present.