Author(s)

W.L. Newell, B. Stone & R. Harrison

Abstract

Excavations for modern, urban construction in the greater Lefkosia (Nicosia) area of Cyprus expose three to ten meter thick Holocene alluvium of the Pedhieos River. The Pedhieos River originates in the Trodoos Mountains, flows north to the Mesaoria Valley, then eastward to the Mediterranean. Alluvial stratigraphy presents serial flood deposits underlying river terraces and an extensive alluvial fan. Individual flood deposits include fining-upward sequences of gravel, sand, and silt. Thick, silty, fine-sand, over-bank sequences are overprinted by textural soil profiles and incipient caliche representing periods of sub-aerial, non-deposition. Artifacts from a long history of human occupation occur with 14C dates from charcoal and other organic remains that indicate the Holocene alluvial sequence has been accumulating for at least 8,000 y

Keywords