March is definitely spring. Blossoms exploding and the air feels different.
And along with the new life an awareness that this part of the world is very old. In yesterday’s news an announcement that three Middle Bronze Age tombs had been discovered during excavation for a swimming pool in Alsancak, the village next to ours. The find included terra cotta jugs and metal spearheads.
Lapta, where we are living, is as old as Alsancak. It stretches from the seaside, an important historic trading area with the Phoenicians around 800 BC, up through fertile land and onto the wooded mountainside. One of the reasons for the move uphill was probably to escape from the Arab raids which began in the second half of the seventh century. But as with most places in Cyprus there is evidence of much older habitation, including iron age tombs.
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