THE CEMETERY OF HALA SULTAN TEKKE, CYPRUS: EXCAVATIONS OF LATE BRONZE AGE CHAMBER TOMBS IN 2023.

This report presents the results of the 2023 fieldwork at the cemetery of the Late Bronze Age harbour city of Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus. Currently, the project's main objective is to safeguard, excavate, and document tombs that are threatened by farming, erosion, and looting. These efforts are supported by large-scale geophysical prospecting, including ground-penetrating radar, magnetometers, aerial photography, and surface surveys to identify the most endangered tombs. The stratified contexts of these tombs provide an excellent complement to the sequence of occupation in the over 25-hectare city, where excavations were conducted across ten seasons (2010-2019). The nature of personal belongings and mortuary gifts discovered in 2023, dating to the late 14^th and early 13^th centuries BCE, confirm the far-reaching trade networks and underscore Hala Sultan Tekke's role as a trading hub within the Mediterranean economic system. Material evidence corroborates both direct and indirect connections with Mycenaean, Minoan, Hittite, Levantine, and Egyptian cultures, as well as networks extending as far as Sardinia, the Baltic Sea, Mesopotamia, Afghanistan, and India. Several find contexts also provide valuable information about the complex mortuary customs of the Late Cypriot period. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]