Vrysi, North Cyprus In History

A few miles east of Girne in North Cyprus, on theheavy 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 thestore 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 whichwe draw water is some ways away. Without
the village stood, and the whole area will fall intopots, we would need to carry water little by little
the sea before long. Visitors may look at the sitein 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 havecan 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, hereby this fact: the archaeologists who excavated
where they were found. Your guide is a womanhere found sixty-two thousand sherds of pottery
who lived here and raised her family some sevenand 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 forpottery was white and we painted it in dark red
over a thousand years, and our honored dead areor 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 ofovens.
children, busy with the sounds we made grinding"The designs on our pots came with our
grain, flaking stone tools, chopping wood. Weancestors when they left Mersin in Turkey to
were a happy people, able to raise or find plentymake a brave voyage across the sea to North
of food, and able to store it against the dry yearsCyprus. 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 fishbuilt a ditch as a defense against attack on this
much. We had our goats and sheep and pigs, andprecious property. But, little by little, we learned
the men hunted in the great forests. The treeswe 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 grapeshouses 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, spindlehave 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 Cyprusrounded 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 severalWe covered our floors with woven mats.
extended families lived in our village. We stayedWooden 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 smallhouses and had storage bins made of stone slabs.
groups of people could stay together all year. InA large hearth was the center of each house. At
those olden days, the people would comenight, 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 worldlamps. We made small stone figurines which were
provided. Late winter and spring were alwayshonored in our homes, but that is a religious
starving times, when grandparents died and toomatter, 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 togenerations, until an earthquake made the place
preserve food for the winter. Our ancestors dugunsafe and we moved away. For five thousand
pits in the ground and lined them with hides, butyears since then, the sea has undercut our
mice and other vermin always found their waypromontory. In the not-too-distant future, the sea
into the cache. Of course people have known thatwill swallow the whole village. Then all that will
some kinds of mud harden in fire ever since theremain to recall our lives will be the pottery
first child tried to bake a mud pie. Pottery wassherds and bone needles and stone spindle whorls
simply no use to our wandering ancestors-tooin the museum at Girne, North Cyprus.