As you drive down from the Mosfilia Site towards the coast, you will see the Skalia site on your left. The first thing I noticed was how mundane it looked. It's just a random field, that's actually a bit higher than the surrounding farmland. Incidently, if you are not sure where it is, there is a link to a map at the foot of each page of the article.

And if you look at the reviews of the site posted on Google Maps, you will find some interesting information:

Kisonerga-Skalia is an ongoing archaeological excavation of an Early Bronze Age single occupation site. It is situated virtually next to the very important Chalcolithic site of Kisonerga-Mosfilia.

It seems that after the abandonment of Mosfilia the new occupants built their village in Skalia.

Little is visible, with fragments of the foundations covered with tarpaulins. Perhaps further work will begin. The site was abandoned in 1628 BCE after the eruption of the Thera volcano on Santorini and its subsequent flooding by a 200-meter tsunami.

Objects excavated here are displayed in the Paphos Archeological Museum illustrating life in the Cypriotic Early Bronze Age.

This is an active site, though they are not excavating at the moment. When the site is not being examined it is covered like you see here. The last reported work was performed in 2025. This is a summary of what the Department of Antiquities had to say about that (full report here):

The Department of Antiquities announces the completion of the 2025 excavations at the Bronze Age settlement of Kissonerga-Skalia, directed by Dr Lindy Crewe of CAARI. The site shows a long Bronze Age sequence with earlier Chalcolithic occupation from before 2500 BC (succeeding nearby Kissonerga-Mosphilia) and was abandoned around 1600 BC at the start of the Late Cypriot period. It exemplifies the contemporary shift to large structures and larger-scale production amid flourishing Mediterranean trade; its early abandonment left the remains well-preserved.

Founded as a Philia-phase village around 2500 BC, it flourished until about 1750 BC. Earlier houses were then demolished and material dumped to create a flat area of at least 1,200 m². Large walls (up to 1.2 m wide) formed a complex of courtyards and roofed spaces with mud/plaster floors, used for only a few generations before permanent abandonment around 1600 BC. The complex shows industrial rather than domestic use, with fire installations, grinding/processing areas and storage vessels.

In 2025 the team further exposed the complex. A previously known 1.5 m domed oven in a plaster courtyard was shown to sit in an L-shaped space; at the short end a new ~4 m diameter oven was found - a hard-baked mud-plaster concave hemisphere with low walls but no roof. It contained discarded tools, plaster, sherds and bones, went out of use, was filled and floored over, then superseded by the smaller oven. Wet-sieving recovered terebinth and wheat remains, suggesting possible Bronze Age consumption of a food made from wheat and terebinth seeds.

It amazes me though how close to the surface all the excavations are. This site has been here for over 3500 years. I wonder what it looked like during the Hellenic and Roman eras. Were they at all curious about the prior history of the area? I know at the ruins around St Paul's Pillar there is evidence of 6th Century Archaeologists. So who knows?

I didn't see any evidence of deep excavation at the site. That's not to say they didn't do any. They might have just filled up after themselves. They seem to have spent most of their time picking through the foundations though.

If you are tempted to turn up here with a shovel though, please don't. It might have been a coincidence, but as I was taking pictures, somebody came out of nowhere and was walking nearby to me. I've had similar experiences at other sites too. So don't assume you just start some DIY excavations, because they will not appreciate it at all.

Anyway, let's go to the Museum, and see what they found here...