INTRODUCTION The 2008 Prasteio-Mesorotsos Archaeologi- cal Expedition involved a first season of non- intrusive investigation of a multi-period archaeo- logical site. The project was run as a field school with students from the University of Edinburgh and involved a geological analysis of the site’s hinterland, a geophysical survey of the site, sur- face collection of artefacts, a Geographical Infor- mation Systems (GIS) analysis of the site topog- raphy and artefact spread, and recording (draw- ing and photography) of exposed archaeological features. Although previously identified as two sepa- rate sites belonging to different time periods, the 10 hectare area spanning the Lakries and Mesorotsos plots in the vicinity of the abandoned village of Prasteio(n) (Pafos District – see Fig. 1) can now be said to be a single large site with mul- tiple periods of occupation, including the Chal- colithic, the Early and Middle Cypriot Bronze Ages (EC, MC), as well as having a significant but localised Medieval component. If the 10 hectare area is indicative of simultaneous use of this space, it would be among the largest sites from the Chalcolithic and Prehistoric Bronze Age yet found in Cyprus. The fact that roughly equal quantities of Chalcolithic and EC artefacts (espe- cially pottery) have been found alongside one another suggests that this settlement may have spanned the elusive transitional period between these two epochs. If so, further investigation of the site might shed light on the long-standing question of whether the end of the Chalcolithic period saw the displacement of large groups of people in Cyprus, only to be re-occupied by new- comers from outside the island (Swiny 2008). While excavation is required to properly assess this issue, the preliminary analysis of the arte- facts from the 2008 season suggests that the same inhabitants continued to live at this settlement and adapted their way of life to suit new econo- mic and social practices. LAKRIES AND MESOROTSOS The identification of a portion of the site was initially made by the Canadian Palaipaphos Sur- vey Project (CPSP – Rupp et al. 1992), and was attributed to the Middle Cypriot Bronze Age based largely on the occurrence of Drab Polished Blue Core (DPBC) pottery (ibid.). At the time the CPSP was operating, a new road was being put in along the Dhiarizos Valley and terracing to make way for the road severely truncated the plots on the southwestern extent. As these plots have the toponym Lakries, CPSP gave the site the name Prasteio-Lakries. Probably due to poor visibility and slow erosional processes on the Mesorotsos plots, the CPSP neither included Mesorotsos as part of the same site, nor as belonging to the same periods. The Lemba Archaeological Project (LAP) Western Cyprus Survey (Bolger, McCart- ney and Peltenburg 2004), went beyond the sur- vey area of the CPSP to encompass most of west- ern Cyprus. As Lakries had already been identi- fied as an MC site, the LAP survey accepted this definition and identified a site adjacent to Lakries that had Chalcolithic artefacts, to which LAP gave the toponym Mesorotsos. At this point, the two sites were considered separate and dating to different time periods. The Prasteio-Mesorotsos Archaeological Expedition: First Preliminary Report of the 2008 Survey Andrew P. McCarthy 1 , Ben Blakeman 2 , Mat Dalton 3 , Lisa Graham 1 , Ian Hill 1 , Graham Ritchie 1 ( 1 University of Edinburgh, 2 Eachtra Archaeological Projects, 3 University of Cambridge)