Larnaca District Museum is a museum in Larnaca, Cyprus that has displays that show the "historical development of the city of Kition and the District of Larnaka in general." It was inaugurated in 1969. and was formerly named Larnaca District Archaeological Museum. It is controlled by the Department of Antiquities.
The Kition-Bamboula archaeological site at is located around 100 meters north of the museum. Information about the site is posted on the grounds of the museum. The entrance fee at the museum is €1.70 (as of 2013)—there is no separate charge for viewing the Bamboula site.
The Kition-Kathari site is located around 500 meters further north.
Exhibits
A replica of the stele of king Sargon II stands in the entrance hall.
The exhibits of pottery excavated in Cyprus include: red polished III- and -IV ware; black polished- and black slip ware—exhibit 8; drab polished ware—exhibit 9; white painted ware, black slip III-, punctured-, red-on-black ware—exhibit 10; base-ring ware—exhibit 11; white slip ware—exhibit 12: base-ring I ware—exhibit 14; Mycenean pottery types IIIA and -IIIB (found in Larnaca, dated 1230-1050 BC), Minyan ware crater—exhibit B; proto-white painted ware; Mycenean pottery III C and -rude style.
Other exhibited items consist of crater with guilloché work.
Room I
In this hall, the items are from the Neolithic-, the Chalcolithic Period, the Early Bronze Age until the end of the Middle Bronze Age.
Displayed are "bone tools (needles etc.), flint knives and jewellery of picrolite and dentalia"—all from Choirokoitia, except for knives from Kalavasos-Tenta.
The remains of an inhabitant from the Neolithic settlement at Choirokoitia is displayed like it was found, with the body "buried in a contracted [ foetal] position and [with] a heavy millstone [that] was placed on the chest and head"—which was a common burial practice at the time. The stone over parts of the body might indicate beliefs at the time, which might have included fear of the dead (and theorized capabilities of the dead, in an afterlife).
Items include stone vessels, stone idols and Comb Ceramic; a collection of pottery shards; two deer antlers—providing "evidence for the presence of this animal in Cyprus at the dawn of Cypriot pre-history"; fragments of idols from Kalavasos-Ayious and -Tenta; from the Chalcolithic Period: "a spouted bowl, vessels with cylindrical neck and a cooking vessel"; "a limestone figurine, roughly shaped in the form of a human"; vessels and tools "made of either andesite or limestone"; "pottery known as Red Polished I, II, III as well as Black Polished vessel Area II" of Kition; vessels from Pyla, Psematismenos and Kalavasos; a ritual vase—"spouted and decorated with moulded small vessels" placed near the rim; "an oinochoe and a flask of Red Polished ware from a tomb at Kalavasos";
Pottery of ancient Cyprus displayed, include stone vessels from Kalavasos' and Choirokoitia's Neolithic Period.
Wall mounted text tells about excavations including those at Maroni-Vournes (involving British Museum and University of Cincinnati), Kalavasos-Tenta and Kition.
Room II
Items from Mycenaen Period are emphasized in this hall.
Pottery of ancient Cyprus displayed include "jugs and stemmed kylikes of LH IIIA:2 type", including amphorae (with three handles), bowls and pyxides.
The finds are from Pyla, Tersefanou (Arpera), Kalavasos and Alykes (Hala Sultan Tekke).
Other exhibited items consist of Horns of Consecration.
Items imported to Cyprus during the Late Bronze Age include "a faience sceptre with the cartouche of Pharaoh Horemheb"; and an opium pipe.
Wall mounted text tells about excavations including those at Tourapi (Τουραπή), in present-day Larnaca.
Room III
Items on display include several types of figurines: various of horse and rider (made of terracotta)—mainly found in tombs at Larnaca-Mnemata, a quatrine with a charioteer and a chariot racer (one of the horses is missing).; "Limestone head of a male wearing a" diadem "decorated with rosettes"—dated 550-525 BC, funerary stele in the shape of a lotus flower, scarabs.
These items are from the Cypro-Geometric and Cypro-Archaic Periods to the early phases of the Classical Period.
Wall mounted text tells about excavations including those at Larnaca-Mnemata—part of the necropolis of Kition.