NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus' Antiquities Department says recent archaeological digs have uncovered more than 20 round buildings in what is believed to be the east Mediterranean island's earliest known village that dates as far back as the 9th century B.C.

The department said in a statement Tuesday that excavations, which concluded last month in the Ayios Tychonas-Klimonas area near Cyprus' southern coast, also found domestic dogs and cats had already been introduced to Cyprus when the village was active 11,200 to 10,600 years ago. It said villagers hunted small wild boar and birds, but didn't produce pottery.

Excavations directed by Francois Briois from France's School for Advanced Studies in the Social Sciences and Jean-Denis Vigne from France's National Center for Scientific Research-National Museum of Natural History found most buildings had built-in fire places.