{{Short description|Village in Cyprus}} {{For|the modern village near the site|Choirokoitia (village)}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2020}} {{Infobox ancient site | name = Khirokitia | native_name = Χοιροκοιτία, ''Chœrocœtía'' | alternate_name = Choirokoitia | image = Khirokitia near Larnaca 01-2017 img7.jpg | alt = | caption = View of Khirokitia | map_type = Cyprus | map_size = | relief = | map_caption = Location on the island of Cyprus | coordinates = {{coord|34|47|48.21|N|33|20|37.39|E|display=inline,title}} | location = Choirokoitia, Larnaca, Cyprus | region = | type = Settlement | part_of = | length = | width = | area = | height = | builder = | material = | built = {{circa|7000 BC}} | abandoned = {{circa|3500 BC}} | epochs = | cultures = | dependency_of = | occupants = | event = | discovered = 1934 by Porphyrios Dikaios | excavations = | archaeologists = | condition = | ownership = | management = Cyprus Department of Antiquities | public_access = | website = <!-- {{URL|example.com}} --> | notes = | designation1 = WHS | designation1_offname = Choirokoitia | designation1_date = 1998 (22ns session), modified 2012 | designation1_number = [https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/848bis 848bis] | designation1_criteria = ii, iii, iv | designation1_type = Cultural | designation1_free1name = Region | designation1_free1value = Europe and North America }}
'''Khirokitia''' (sometimes spelled '''Choirokoitia'''; {{langx|el|Χοιροκοιτία}} {{IPA|el|çiɾociˈti.a|}}, suggested meaning ''Pig-cradle'', from {{lang|el|χοίρος}} 'pig, boar' + {{lang|el|κοιτίς}} 'place of origin, cradle') is an archaeological site on the island of Cyprus dating from the Neolithic age. It has been listed as a World Heritage Site by UNESCO since 1998.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Choirokoitia|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/848/|access-date=2021-04-09|website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre|language=en}}</ref> The site is known as one of the most important and best preserved prehistoric sites of the eastern Mediterranean. Much of its importance lies in the evidence of an organised functional society in the form of a collective settlement, with surrounding fortifications for communal protection. The Neolithic aceramic period is represented by this settlement and around 20 other similar settlements spread throughout the island.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.historyworld.net/wrldhis/PlainTextHistories.asp?historyid=ab27|title=History Of Architecture|website=History World|access-date=23 June 2017}}</ref>
==Discovery== The site was discovered in 1934 by Porphyrios Dikaios, director of the Department of Antiquities who carried out six excavations between 1934 and 1946.<ref>{{cite news |first=Nicolle |last=Hirshfeld |title=Biography of Joan Du Plat Taylor |publisher=Brown University |url=https://www.brown.edu/Research/Breaking_Ground/results.php?d=1&first=Joan&last=Du%20Plat%20Taylor |access-date=21 July 2007 |archive-date=12 June 2023 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230612150421/https://www.brown.edu/Research/Breaking_Ground/results.php?d=1&first=Joan&last=Du%20Plat%20Taylor |url-status=dead }}</ref> His initial findings were published in ''The Journal of Hellenic Studies'' in 1934.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Archaeology in Greece, 1933–34|journal=The Journal of Hellenic Studies|year=1934|first=H. G. G.|last=Payne|volume=54|issue=2|pages=199|doi=10.2307/626861|jstor=626861|publisher=The Society for the Promotion of Hellenic Studies |s2cid=163629380 }}<!--|access-date=1 July 2008--></ref> Dikaios initially believed the settlement was established around 4000 BC. However, radiocarbon dating revealed a foundation date of around 7000 BC.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karageorghis |first=Vassos |title=Cyprus: From The Stone Age To The Romans |publisher=Thames And Hudson |year=1982 |location=Great Britain |pages=16}}</ref> Further excavations were then held in the early 1970s but were interrupted by the 1974 Turkish invasion of Cyprus.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Karageorghis |first=Vassos |date=2007 |title=Cypriote Archaeology, the Eighty Years after the Swedish Cyprus Expedition |journal=The Swedish Cyprus Expedition 80 Years |pages=22}}</ref> A French mission under the direction of Alain Le Brun resumed excavation of the site in 1977.<ref>{{cite news |first=Alain |last=Le Brun |title=Le Néolithique de Chypre |date=March 2001 |publisher=Clio |url =http://www.clio.fr/BIBLIOTHEQUE/le_neolithique_de_chypre.asp |access-date= 21 July 2007 |language= fr }}</ref> It was occupied from the 7th until the 4th millennium BC.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ifchypre.org/index.php/en/cooperation/archeologique/5-mission-archeologique-francaise-de-khirokitia|title=The French Archeological Mission, Khirokitia|website=ifchypre.org|access-date=23 June 2017|archive-date=27 January 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170127022430/http://www.ifchypre.org/index.php/en/cooperation/archeologique/5-mission-archeologique-francaise-de-khirokitia|url-status=dead}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal|url=http://www.persee.fr/doc/paleo_0153-9345_1990_num_16_2_5101|editor-last=Le Brun |editor-first=A. |year=1989 |title=Fouilles récentes à Khirokitia (Chypre) 1983–1986|first=Watkins|last=T.|journal=Paléorient|volume=16|issue=2|access-date=23 June 2017}}</ref>
==Archaeology== The settlement of Khirokitia was situated on the slope of a hill in the valley of the Maroni River, towards the southern coast of the island about {{Convert|6|km|mi|abbr=on}} from the sea.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Karageorghis |first=Vassos |title=Ancient Cyprus: 7,000 Years Of Art & Archaeology |publisher=Louisiana State University Press |year=1981 |isbn=0-8071-0998-3 |location=Baton Rouge and London |pages=10}}</ref> Subsistence methods practiced by its Neolithic inhabitants included farming crops like wheat, barley, lentils, peas, horse bean, and vetch, foraging olives, flax, figs, pistachios, plums, and pears, herding sheep, goats, and pigs, and hunting deer.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Knapp |first=A. Bernard |title=The Archaeology Of Cyprus: From Earliest Prehistory Through The Bronze Age |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-521-72347-3 |location=New York |pages=17}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Winbladh |first=Marie-Louise |title=The Bearded Goddess: Androgynes, Goddess, And Monsters In Ancient Cyprus |publisher=Armida Publications |year=2012 |isbn=978-9963-706-31-0 |pages=12}}</ref><ref>{{Cite book |last=Karageorghis |first=Vassos |title=Cyprus: From The Stone Age To The Romans |publisher=Thames And Hudson |year=1982 |location=London |pages=12}}</ref> It was a closed village, cut off from the outside world –apart from by the river– by a strong wall of stones {{Convert|2.5|m|ft|abbr=on}} thick and {{Convert|3|m|ft|abbr=on}} at its highest preserved level.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Knapp |first=A. Bernard |title=The Archaeology Of Cyprus: From Earliest Prehistory Through The Bronze Age |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-521-72347-3 |location=New York |pages=125}}</ref> The village was probably accessed via several entry points through the wall. The buildings within this wall consist of round structures huddled close together, called ''tholoi'', between {{Convert|2 and 9|m|ft|abbr=on}} in diameter, which may have had windows.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Le Brun |first=Alain |date=1993 |title=Recherches sur le Néolithiques pré-céramique de Chypre: les fouilles du Cap Anderas-Kastros et de Khirokitia |journal=Kinyras: L'archéologie française à Chypre |pages=65}}</ref> These ''tholoi'' are organized in tight groups around an unroofed "courtyard", which scholars believe represents family groups.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Knapp |first=A. Bernard |title=The Archaeology Of Cyprus: From Earliest Prehistory Through The Bronze Age |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2013 |isbn=978-0-521-72347-3 |location=New York |pages=122}}</ref> The lower parts of these buildings are often made of stone and attain massive proportions by constant additions of further skins of stones. A collapsed flat roof of one building indicates that not all roofs were dome shaped as was originally believed.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/848|title=Choirokoitia|website=UNESCO World Heritage Centre|access-date=23 June 2017}}</ref>
Each hut was divided internally according to the purpose of its usage. Low walls, platforms designated work, rest or storage areas. They had hearths presumably used for cooking and heating, benches and windows and in many cases there is evidence of piers to support an upper floor. It is believed that the huts were like rooms several of which were grouped around an open courtyard and together formed the home. The population of the village at any one time is thought not to have exceeded 300 to 600 inhabitants.{{Citation needed|reason=''I've not seen this number in a credible source''|date=August 2024}} The people were rather short – the men about {{convert|160|cm|ftin|sp=us}} on average and the women about {{convert|150|cm|ftin|sp=us}}. Infant mortality was very high. On average adult men reached 35 years of age and women 33. The dead were buried in crouched positions just under the floors of the houses. In some instances provision was made for offerings, possibly indicating a form of ancestor cult within the households. This, the earliest known culture in Cyprus, consisted of a well-organised, developed society mainly engaged in farming, hunting and herding. Farming was mainly of cereal crops. They also gathered fruit in the surrounding area such as pistachio nuts, figs, olives and plums. The four main species of animals whose remains were found on the site were deer, sheep, goats and pigs.<ref>{{cite journal|url=https://www.academia.edu/393912|title=History of Solar Architecture in Cyprus|first=Petros|last=Lapithis|access-date=23 June 2017}}</ref>
The village of Khirokoitia was suddenly abandoned for unknown reasons around 6000 BC and it seems that the island<ref>[https://whc.unesco.org/en/list/848 UNESCO World Heritage Centre entry]</ref>{{full citation needed|date=November 2022}} remained uninhabited for about 1,500 years until the next recorded entity, the Sotira group. More recent discoveries, however, including several sites in the vicinity of the ancient acropolis of Amathus on the eastern edge of modern Limassol, have filled this chronological gap considerably, revealing that the island was probably occupied continuously from at least the ninth millennium BC. Early communities were small and widely dispersed, so not every region would have been as heavily exploited as later in prehistory.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.britishmuseum.org/research/publications/online_research_catalogues/ancient_cyprus_british_museum/kourion/history,_culture,_burial/early_prehistory.aspx#Footnote8|publisher=British Museum |title=Early prehistory |access-date=23 June 2017}}</ref><ref>Simmons 1999; Simmons 2001 (both with previous references); Peltenburg et al. 2001; Steel 2004, 19–32.</ref>
==Village name== According to the dominating opinion the name of the village is a composite of the word "Khiros" (hog / pig) and the word "Kiti", thus suggesting an area where pigs were raised. Other sources claim that the original name was "Sidirokitida", thus an area where iron was found. It is also said that it might have originated from the word "Khirogetia", which implies the practice of palmistry. Another opinion suggests it may have originated from some initial name like "Ierokitida" (Sacred place). Others claim that the name came from the words "gyros" and "oikia" due to the fact that the prehistoric huts are round. Furthermore, tradition has it that the name is derived from the phrase "Chere Kitia" a phrase used by the Queen "Rigena" to address a certain female friend of hers from Kition. It was also claimed that maybe the name originated from the plant Cherimoya, which is found cultivated in Cyprus under the name "Cheromolia", although this is considered very unlikely.{{Citation needed|date=November 2025|reason=No source is given for what claims are made by who}} At any rate, in old maps the village is marked as either Cherochetica or as Chierochitia.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.khirokitia.org/en/neolithic-len|title=Khirokitia - Neolithic Settlement Khirokitias|website=khirokitia.org|access-date=23 June 2017|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170127021002/http://www.khirokitia.org/en/neolithic-len|archive-date=27 January 2017}}</ref>
==Gallery== <gallery> File:Khirokitia3.jpg File:Chirokitia 1.JPG File:Khirokitia4.jpg File:Chirokitia 2.JPG|Reconstructed structures File:Khirokitia2.jpg|Reconstructed structures File:Khirokitia1.jpg|Reconstructed structures File:Zypern 11 2013 Choirokoitia, insides of reconstructed huts 03.JPG|Reconstructed structures File:Zypern 11 2013 Choirokoitia, insides of reconstructed huts 02.JPG|Reconstructed structures File:Khirokitia 3.JPG|Reconstructed structures </gallery>
==See also== * List of World Heritage Sites in Western Asia
==References== {{Reflist}}
==Sources== * [http://www.mcw.gov.cy/mcw/DA/DA.nsf/All/4EF92D50616EFE49C225719B00314171?OpenDocument Department of Antiquities, Government of Cyprus]
==External links== * [https://whc.unesco.org/pg.cfm?cid=31&id_site=848 UNESCO World Heritage Centre entry] * [http://www.cyprus.gov.cy/portal/portal.nsf/AdvancedSearch_en?OpenForm&q=&p=1&w=&t=&s=Khirokitia&L=E&d=AA&e=&i=1 Khirokitia by Cypriot Government] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210118064249/http://www.cyprus.gov.cy/portal/portal.nsf/AdvancedSearch_en?OpenForm&q=&p=1&w=&t=&s=Khirokitia&L=E&d=AA&e=&i=1 |date=18 January 2021 }} *[https://ephemera.cyi.ac.cy/khirokitia_vouni/ Khirokitia 3D]
{{Commons category|Khirokitia}}
{{World Heritage Sites in Cyprus}} {{Authority control}}
Category:Archaeological sites in Cyprus Category:World Heritage Sites in Cyprus Category:Tourism in Cyprus Category:Former populated places in Cyprus Category:Neolithic Cyprus Category:Populated places established in the 7th millennium BC Category:Populated places disestablished in the 4th millennium BC Category:1934 archaeological discoveries Category:Archaeological discoveries in Cyprus