Maroni Vournes Micromorphology Study of Possible Earthen Construction Materials Based on Late Cypriot Bronze Age Wall

This project presents preliminary data taken as part of the Kalavasos and Maroni Built Environments (KAMBE) Project investigating urbanism and human-environment interactions in Cyprus during the Bronze Age using a micromorphological soil technique. Two geological samples were collected from near a monumental Late Cypriot (LC) wall at Maroni Vournes in Cyprus, processed into petrographic thin sections, and analyzed macroscopically using high-resolution scans and microscopically using a petrographic microscope under plane-polarised and cross-polarised light. Sample 5C (MV19 MM17), north of the wall, illustrates bedding with rounded pebbles and increased clay content in the upper portion, which could be evidence of a potential flooding event caused by a change in climate or environmental conditions in the region. Sample 1D (MV19 MM2), south of the wall, demonstrates extensive evidence of bioturbation, incorporated anthropogenic materials (charcoal and mudbrick/ceramic fragments), and does not present evidence of fluvial (flooding) sediments. Therefore, the wall could have acted as a protective barrier against alluvial sedimentation in this sample context. Further data from other micromorphological samples around LC Wall 10 are required to confirm the results in this preliminary study. Overall, the sediment accumulated over the wall is natural colluvial sediment, suggesting that thelandscape naturally sloped away from the large ashlar building during the Bronze Age