| A few miles east of Girne in North Cyprus, on the | | | | heavy and too apt to break. But we farmed, we |
| seashore, lies the Neolithic site of Vrysi. | | | | lived a settled life, and we made pots. We could |
| Archaeologists have examined a small part of the | | | | store food safely. We had no starving time. |
| site, and left some of the house walls exposed. | | | | "We lived here by the sea, but the spring where |
| The sea has undercut the promontory on which | | | | we draw water is some ways away. Without |
| the village stood, and the whole area will fall into | | | | pots, we would need to carry water little by little |
| the sea before long. Visitors may look at the site | | | | in skin bags. Have you ever tasted water from a |
| and walk around its edges, but may not enter it, | | | | skin bag after a day in the hot sun? Ah, then you |
| lest they disturb this fragile place. If you have | | | | can appreciate a pottery water jug. |
| seen the artifacts from the site at the museum in | | | | "You can see how important pottery was to us |
| Girne Castle, you can imagine them in use, here | | | | by this fact: the archaeologists who excavated |
| where they were found. Your guide is a woman | | | | here found sixty-two thousand sherds of pottery |
| who lived here and raised her family some seven | | | | and only one thousand other artifacts of all kinds. |
| thousand years ago, when the village was already | | | | "We made pottery ourselves, each family having |
| very old. | | | | its own designs. You can see the grace and |
| "Welcome to our village, strangers. Please look, | | | | boldness of those designs in the museum. Our |
| but do not touch. My people have lived here for | | | | pottery was white and we painted it in dark red |
| over a thousand years, and our honored dead are | | | | or in brown. We had no pottery wheel, but |
| buried beneath these stones. | | | | shaped each piece by hand and fired it in small |
| "Imagine this place ringing with the laughter of | | | | ovens. |
| children, busy with the sounds we made grinding | | | | "The designs on our pots came with our |
| grain, flaking stone tools, chopping wood. We | | | | ancestors when they left Mersin in Turkey to |
| were a happy people, able to raise or find plenty | | | | make a brave voyage across the sea to North |
| of food, and able to store it against the dry years | | | | Cyprus. At first they were afraid, those pioneers. |
| and the bad crops. | | | | Their houses were half underground, and they |
| "Though we lived by the sea, we did not fish | | | | built a ditch as a defense against attack on this |
| much. We had our goats and sheep and pigs, and | | | | precious property. But, little by little, we learned |
| the men hunted in the great forests. The trees | | | | we had nothing to fear. |
| provided us with carobs, figs, lemons, and olives. | | | | "Our ancestors here at Vrysi lived in flimsy |
| We raised wheat and barley, lentils, even grapes | | | | houses when they first arrived. But ours, as you |
| for wine. We could keep pet dogs and cats, | | | | can see, were sturdily built. We had paved |
| because we always had enough to eat. | | | | walkways between our homes so we did not |
| "We used stone sickles, axes, knives, spindle | | | | have too much mud tracked in. |
| weights, and chisels. We carved fishhooks and | | | | "We liked rectangular houses, but sometimes the |
| needles from bone. | | | | lay of the land forced an irregular shape. We |
| "You can see just six of our North Cyprus | | | | rounded the corners, so they were easy to keep |
| houses. We had about twenty houses in my day. | | | | clean, and we had lovely walls plastered with clay. |
| They were grouped in clusters since several | | | | We covered our floors with woven mats. |
| extended families lived in our village. We stayed | | | | Wooden pillars supported our high thatched roofs. |
| here all year long, generation upon generation. | | | | "We built stone benches along the walls of our |
| Before our ancestors learned to farm, only small | | | | houses and had storage bins made of stone slabs. |
| groups of people could stay together all year. In | | | | A large hearth was the center of each house. At |
| those olden days, the people would come | | | | night, our one-room homes were cozy with the |
| together for festivals and to arrange marriages, | | | | firelight and with the glow of oil burning in stone |
| then scatter to harvest whatever the wild world | | | | lamps. We made small stone figurines which were |
| provided. Late winter and spring were always | | | | honored in our homes, but that is a religious |
| starving times, when grandparents died and too | | | | matter, which we do not discuss with strangers. |
| often the little children died as well. | | | | "My people lived here for over a hundred |
| "In those days before farming, it was difficult to | | | | generations, until an earthquake made the place |
| preserve food for the winter. Our ancestors dug | | | | unsafe and we moved away. For five thousand |
| pits in the ground and lined them with hides, but | | | | years since then, the sea has undercut our |
| mice and other vermin always found their way | | | | promontory. In the not-too-distant future, the sea |
| into the cache. Of course people have known that | | | | will swallow the whole village. Then all that will |
| some kinds of mud harden in fire ever since the | | | | remain to recall our lives will be the pottery |
| first child tried to bake a mud pie. Pottery was | | | | sherds and bone needles and stone spindle whorls |
| simply no use to our wandering ancestors-too | | | | in the museum at Girne, North Cyprus. |