Kissonerga-Mosphilia: the Pithos House between two dates

The explanations distinguish finds, interpretations and open questions. Sources appear at the end of the page.

What the Department of Antiquities says

According to the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus page on the Paphos museum, the reconstructed house, the "Pithos House" from Kissonerga-Mosphilia, attests social stratification, economic organisation and contacts overseas. The details cited here do not say whether the reconstruction is a display in the museum or a reconstruction on paper. Source 1.

Two dates that do not agree

The same page dates the house to "the end of the Chalcolithic (end of the 3rd millennium)". The end of the 3rd millennium BCE means the years approaching 2000 BCE. The Department of Antiquities' own chronological table ends the Chalcolithic in 2500 BCE and assigns 2500-2000 BCE to the Early Bronze Age, and the Met's timeline also ends the Chalcolithic of Cyprus at about 2500 BCE. The two parts of the wording therefore do not fit the table: by the table, "the end of the Chalcolithic" is shortly before 2500 BCE, while "the end of the 3rd millennium" is some 500 years later, inside the table's Early Bronze Age. Sources 1, 2, 3.

How the site places the house

The article is placed in the Chalcolithic, because the museum names that period, and it does not correct the numeric expression to fit the table. A reader who follows the number would look for the house in the Early Bronze Age, and the site's Early Bronze Age page notes this conflict. Whether one of the expressions is a slip, or whether the museum follows another division, cannot be decided from the details available here. Sources 1, 2.

What the claims would need

Social stratification, economic organisation and overseas contacts are the museum's interpretation. The details cited here do not say what in the house supports each of them, for example storage, imported objects or differences between houses, and this page does not infer it from the name. Pithos is the Greek term for a large storage jar, so the name suggests storage, but what was found in the house is not among them. Checking the claims needs the excavation report of Kissonerga-Mosphilia.

Scope of reading: the Department of Antiquities pages cited here could not be opened for checking on 24 October 2026; the details from them follow notes taken from those pages at an earlier stage and were not re-checked. The Met's timeline for 8000-2000 BCE was read on 24 October 2026. The excavation report of Kissonerga-Mosphilia was not read, so this page gives no plan of the house, measurements or list of finds.