NICOSIA, Cyprus—New discoveries including gold ornaments and fine pottery at an ancient port city in Cyprus dating back more than 3,000 years indicate that the settlement was one of the Mediterranean’s most important trading posts in the late Bronze Age, an archeologist said Tuesday.
Professor Peter M. Fischer from the University of Gothenburg, Sweden, said the city now known as Hala Sultan Tekke because of its proximity to a famous mosque flourished in 1,630–1,150 B.C. because of its trade in the “most sought after product at that time”—plentiful copper mined from the Troodos mountain range. Some theorize that Cyprus got its name from copper because of its ancient trade in the metal.
