Profile. Albert Ammerman: Exploring the prehistory of Europe, in a few bold leaps.

NISSI BAY, CYPRUS--For the operator of the bungee jump here at the Olympic Lagoon Resort, it is a strange request. The Cypriot Department of Antiquities wants him to give a ride to a visiting American academic. A tall man in khaki trousers, Albert Ammerman steps over the coiled bungee cord and joins the operator in the metal cage. The crane hoists them 60 meters over the bay--the point at which most passengers are bound at the ankles and dive screaming into the air--and then Ammerman has the crane pivot farther, dangling the cage above the bone-white escarpment flanking the resort. Here Ammerman pulls out a camera and snaps shots of the land below.