![](https://i1.wp.com/artyembroidery.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/sampler-cyprus-midden.jpg?fit=640%2C480)
Archeological “drawings”
You may know I have a love for making embroidered samplers. I also have a love for archaeological architecture. In my holidays I visit those sites when I can. So I will later this year, when I go to Cyprus. I intend to visit the (Pre Ceramic) Neolithic village Khirokitia, which was founded around 7000 years before Christ, can you imagine?
Recently I read a book about it, in which my eyes fell on a beautiful ground plan of the site.
![](https://i1.wp.com/artyembroidery.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_2322-2-midden-2.jpg?fit=640%2C480)
I loved the drawing in itself, especially all the circular forms struck me. To me they have a quite modern look and feel, now, 9000 years later! I immediately decided to embroider it. And the result…. you saw that at the beginning of this post.
To get some feeling how this village looks like … take a look at the photo below, where you see the site from an aerial point of view.
![](https://i1.wp.com/artyembroidery.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_2185-midden.jpg?fit=640%2C480)
And this is how the village houses probably must have looked like 9000 years ago:
![](https://i2.wp.com/artyembroidery.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_2187-midden.jpg?fit=640%2C480)
Making process
As I said I decided to embroider the plan. I drew it on soluvlies and then stitched it on fabric, after that I embroidered it with DMC yarn 1 thread. I used a firm, cotton fabric. When I was finished, I put it all in water to delete the soluvlies. The flexibility of the threads changed a little bit, they became a bit stiff.
![](https://i2.wp.com/artyembroidery.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_2182-midden-1.jpg?fit=640%2C480)
Initially I also embroidered the grid the archaeologists used at the time for excavation, so many horizontal and vertical lines appeared. Later I decided to do things differently and removed them.
![](https://i0.wp.com/artyembroidery.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_2309-midden.jpg?fit=640%2C480)
Wanna know more?
Lots of information can be found in this book (1997).
![](https://i2.wp.com/artyembroidery.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/IMG_2321-2-midden.jpg?fit=640%2C852)
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Cool
Wow, love the end result!