Cyprus (; ; ), officially called the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean. The third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean, it is located south of Turkey; west of Syria and Lebanon; north of Egypt, Israel, and Palestine; and southeast of Greece. The earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia, and Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC.
Introduction
Cyprus
Cyprus | Introduction
In the Eastern Mediterranean - south of Turkey; west of Syria and Lebanon; north of Egypt, Israel, and Palestine; and southeast of Greece. It is located south of Turkey; west of Syria and Lebanon; north of Egypt, Israel, and Palestine; and southeast of Greece. In the Eastern Mediterranean. It is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean, located south of Turkey; west of Syria and Lebanon; north of Egypt, Israel, and Palestine; and southeast of Greece.
where may have the mycenaeans ultimately ended up
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Cyprus and the Levantine coast
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where is the former place located?
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Mycenaean refugees migrated to Cyprus and the Levantine coast. Nevertheless, other regions on the edge of the Mycenaean world prospered, such as the Ionian islands, the northwestern Peloponnese, parts of Attica and a number of Aegean islands. The acropolis of Athens, oddly, appears to have avoided destruction.
Mycenaean Greece | Final collapse
The scant remains of the Mycenaean acropolis that is surrounded by Cyclopean walls is located on a hill called Palaiokastro which is to the Northwest of the town.
Thisvi | Introduction
During the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, Greek Cypriot inhabitants also fled the village as the Turkish army advanced to the village, but they returned after the army withdrew. Turkish Cypriot inhabitants were relocated to Şirinevler (Agios Ermolaos), where they were given land. Today, the original Greek Cypriot inhabitants live in the village, while the Turkish Cypriot quarter lies in ruins.
Deneia | Demographics
The Ancient Greek historian Herodotus (5th century BC) claims that the city of Kourion, near present-day Limassol, was founded by Achaean settlers from Argos. He supports the discovery of a Late Bronze Age settlement lying several kilometres from the site of the remains of the Hellenic city of Kourion, whose pottery and architecture indicate that Mycenaean settlers did indeed arrive and augment an existing population in this part of Cyprus in the twelfth century BC. The kingdom of Kourion in Cyprus is recorded on an inscription dating to the period of the Pharaoh Ramses III (1186–1155 BC) in Egypt.
Ancient history of Cyprus | Mycenaean settlement
Even after the foundation of Nea Paphos in the late 4th century BC, Palaiaphos did not lose its significance. It remained a central place of worship in the Mediterranean world and cult worship of Aphrodite continued at this site until the Christian Roman emperor Theodosius I outlawed all pagan worship in 391 AD. Modern construction in the town of Kouklia has unfortunately obliterated much of the remains at Palaiaphos. However, enough remains that Roman built temples can be identified apart from earlier constructions. These buildings are situated on an East/West orientation, and are located in the Northern part of the sanctuary complex.
Roman Cyprus | Palaiaphos ("Old Paphos")
The catastrophe separates Late Cypriot II (LCII) from the LCIII period, with the sacking and burning of Enkomi, Kition, and Sinda, which may have occurred twice before those sites were abandoned. During the reign of the Hittite king Tudḫaliya IV (reigned c. 1237–1209 BCE), the island was briefly invaded by the Hittites, either to secure the copper resource or as a way of preventing piracy. Shortly afterwards, the island was reconquered by his son Suppiluliuma II around 1200 BCE. Some towns (Enkomi, Kition, Palaeokastro and Sinda) show traces of destruction at the end of LCII. Whether or not this is really an indication of a Mycenean invasion is contested.
Late Bronze Age collapse | Cyprus
The Greek presence and the cities linked to the settlement of the Mycenaeans in Cyprus can be verified by inscriptions found in neighboring countries.
Polis, Cyprus | History
Originally, two waves of destruction in c. 1230 BCE by the Sea Peoples and c. 1190 BCE by Aegean refugees have been proposed. Alashiya was plundered by the Sea Peoples and ceased to exist in 1085 BCE.
Late Bronze Age collapse | Cyprus
In general, in the second half of 13th century BC, trade was in decline in the Eastern Mediterranean, most probably due to the unstable political environment there.
Mycenaean Greece | Initial decline and revival
Mycenae was briefly reoccupied in the Hellenistic period, when it could boast a theatre (located over the Tomb of Clytemnestra). The site was subsequently abandoned, and by the Roman period in Greece its ruins had become a tourist attraction. The ancient travel writer Pausanias, for example, visited the site and briefly described the prominent fortifications and the Lion Gate, still visible in his time, the second century AD. Pausanias also describes being led to the site by shepherds, showing that the surrounding area was never completely abandoned.
Mycenae | Revival and abandonment
In place of the ancient Greek city today lies the modern city Sirintilinin Çiftlik in southeastern Turkey.
Serraepolis | Introduction
Cyprus (; ; ), officially called the Republic of Cyprus, is an island country in the Eastern Mediterranean. The third largest and third most populous island in the Mediterranean, it is located south of Turkey; west of Syria and Lebanon; north of Egypt, Israel, and Palestine; and southeast of Greece. The earliest known human activity on the island dates to around the 10th millennium BC. Archaeological remains from this period include the well-preserved Neolithic village of Khirokitia, and Cyprus is home to some of the oldest water wells in the world. Cyprus was settled by Mycenaean Greeks in two waves in the 2nd millennium BC.
Cyprus | Introduction
Alashiya therefore needs to be situated somewhere where there was sizable Bronze Age copper production, on the coast, and in the East Mediterranean. Some scholars have suggested sites and areas of Syria or Turkey, but it is now generally (although not universally) agreed that Alashiya refers to at least part of Cyprus. Specifically, it was generally argued that the site of Enkomi was the capital of the kingdom of Alashiya, which covered the entire island of Cyprus. The identification of Cyprus with Alashiya was confirmed by the 2003 publication by Goren et al. of an article in the" American Journal of Archaeology "detailing the petrographic and chemical analysis of a number of the Amarna and Ugaritic letters sent from Alashiya.
Alashiya | Identification
Cyzicus (; "Kyzikos"; , "Aydıncıḳ") was an ancient town of Mysia in Anatolia in the current Balıkesir Province of Turkey. It was located on the shoreward side of the present Kapıdağ Peninsula (the classical Arctonnesus), a tombolo which is said to have originally been an island in the Sea of Marmara only to be connected to the mainland in historic times either by artificial means or an earthquake. The site of Cyzicus, located on the Erdek and Bandırma roads, is protected by Turkey's Ministry of Culture.
Cyzicus | Introduction
Remains suggest that the building was not immediately abandoned, but was still used until the 8th century. The Late Roman site of Maroni "Petrera" is located along the south coast of Cyprus in the Maroni Valley near the modern village of Maroni. The remains of a church have been uncovered at this site as part of the Maroni Valley Archaeological Survey Project (MVASP) founded in 1990. The Petrera church was the religious center for the Maroni valley, yet archaeological evidence of a complex of rooms and courtyards separate from the church indicate that the site was also associated with storage and agricultural production.
Roman Cyprus | Major basilicas and churches
The town lay in Achaea (Roman province) and after split in the Late Roman province of Peloponnesus Secundus. The ancient city Trapezus was situated near the village. To the east of the modern village lay the ancient town of Basilis (Βασιλίς), which had largely vanished by the 2nd century AD, when the geographer Pausanias recorded that only the sanctuary of hunting goddess Artemis survived. The site is now being excavated.
Kyparissia, Arcadia | History and remains
Several earthquakes led to the destruction of Salamis at the beginning of the 4th century, at the same time drought and famine hit the island.
Ancient history of Cyprus | Christianity
Mycenae ( ; or , "Mykē̂nai" or "Mykḗnē") is an archaeological site near Mykines in Argolis, north-eastern Peloponnese, Greece. It is located about south-west of Athens; north of Argos; and south of Corinth. The site is inland from the Saronic Gulf and built upon a hill rising above sea level. In the second millennium BC, Mycenae was one of the major centres of Greek civilization, a military stronghold which dominated much of southern Greece, Crete, the Cyclades and parts of southwest Anatolia. The period of Greek history from about 1600 BC to about 1100 BC is called Mycenaean in reference to Mycenae.
Mycenae | Introduction
The ancient city of Kition is completely overlaid by the modern city of Larnaka, and is therefore largely unexcavated. It possessed an acropolis at Bamboula; to the southeast of the acropolis lay a large natural harbor, which has since silted in. It was very important in trade as a port city and the administration changed hands many times in its history, notably by the Phoenicians prior to the Roman administration. Even under the rule of the Romans, aspects of the old city life remained. For example, the cult of Eshmun continued into the Augustan age through a transition to the worship of Asclepius.
Roman Cyprus | Kition (Citium)
Cyprus was part of the Mycenaean civilization with local production of Mycenaean vases dating to the Late Helladic III (1400–1050 BC). The quantity of this pottery concludes that there were numerous Mycenaean settlers, if not settlements, on the island. Archaeological evidence shows that Greek settlement began unsystematically in c. 1400 BC, then steadied (possibly due to Dorian invaders on the mainland) with definite settlements established in c. 1200 BC. The close connection between the Arcadian dialect and those of Pamphylia and Cyprus indicates that the migration came from Achaea. The Achaean tribe may have been an original population of the Peloponnese, Pamphylia, and Cyprus, living in the latter prior to the Dorian invasion, and not a subsequent immigrant group; the Doric elements in Arcadian are lacking in Cypriot.
Greek Cypriots | Prehistory and antiquity
Twenty million years ago Cyprus was actually two islands, which were the predecessors of the Kyrenia and Troodos mountain ranges. Approximately one million years ago, the Mesaoria plain arose, resulting in the current island of Cyprus. At various times, changing levels of the Mediterranean sea covered and exposed the plain; it has been in its present form since the end of the Pleistocene. The Mesaoria plain shows evidence of cultivation dating from the neolithic. In classical times the entire center of the island was covered by dense forests. Most of these were cut down in the middle of the 1st century BC to provide wood for the Ptolemaic navy.
Mesaoria | History
It became a settlement in the New Stone Age.
Tenta, Cyprus | History
The LCIIC (1300–1200 BC) was a time of local prosperity. Cities such as Enkomi were rebuilt on a rectangular grid plan, where the town gates correspond to the grid axes and numerous grand buildings front the street system or newly founded. Great official buildings constructed from ashlar masonry point to increased social hierarchisation and control. Some of these buildings contain facilities for processing and storing olive oil, such as Maroni-Vournes and Building X at Kalavassos-Ayios Dhimitrios. A Sanctuary with a horned altar constructed from ashlar masonry has been found at Myrtou-Pigadhes, other temples have been located at Enkomi, Kition and Kouklia (Palaepaphos).
History of Cyprus | Bronze Age
The final collapse of the Mycenaean civilisation appears to have occurred about 1000 BC. The palace at Knossus was once more destroyed, and never rebuilt or re-inhabited. Iron took the place of Bronze, and Aegean art, as a living thing, ceased on the Greek mainland and in the Aegean isles including Crete, together with Aegean writing. In Cyprus, and perhaps on the south-west Anatolian coasts, there is some reason to think that the cataclysm was not complete, and Aegean art continued to languish, cut off from its fountain-head. Such artistic faculty as survived elsewhere issued in the lifeless geometric style which is reminiscent of the later Aegean, but wholly unworthy of it.
Aegean civilization | Fall
The Armenians later settled in the area since they were natives of the Armenian Plateau and related to the earlier inhabitants of Ishuwa. Kizzuwatna is the name of an ancient kingdom of the second millennium BC. It was situated in the highlands of southeastern Anatolia, near the Gulf of İskenderun in modern-day Turkey. It encircled the Taurus Mountains and the Ceyhan river. The centre of the kingdom was the city of Kummanni, situated in the highlands. In a later era, the same region was known as Cilicia.
Ancient Near East | Late Bronze Age
Human habitation of Cyprus dates back to the Paleolithic era. Cyprus's geographic position has caused Cyprus to be influenced by differing Eastern Mediterranean civilisations over the millennia. Cyprus is a small country. Periods of Cyprus's history from 1050 BC have been named according to styles of pottery found as follows:
History of Cyprus | Introduction
There is otherwise little direct evidence to support the foundation myth.
Salamis, Cyprus | Early history
Both the regular layout of the cities and the new masonry techniques find their closest parallels in Syria, especially in Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra). Rectangular corbelled tombs point to close contacts with Syria and Palestine as well.
History of Cyprus | Bronze Age
There is evidence of this because of the piles of burned bones in the camps occupied by these early humans in caves on the southernmost point on the Island.
Prehistoric Cyprus | Epipalaeolithic
Following the population exchange in 1923, the Greek refugees from Cius established the town of Nea Kios, in Argolis, Greece and the village of Paralia, in Pieria, Greece. There are only few remnants of the ancient town and its harbour today. Somewhat more to the west, the new modern town of Gemlik, Bursa Province, Turkey is found.
Cius | Modern history
Much archaeological data, from the Early Bronze Age up to the Late-Byzantine Period, have identified by Prof. Beksaç on the surface. According to the information, provided by Strabo, the ruins, identified by Prof. Beksaç, are related to Kisthene. The site is tentatively located by modern scholars near Gömeç.
Cisthene (Mysia) | Introduction
The island of Cyprus is located in the eastern Mediterranean, south of Turkey and west of Syria. In 1964, at the time of the battle, the island was governed by two sovereign state entities—the Republic of Cyprus and the British Sovereign Base Areas. The areas under the jurisdiction of the Republic of Cyprus included a number of large and fortified enclaves, inhabited by the island's Turkish Cypriot minority, which had receded into defensive positions around Turkish controlled villages following a major outbreak of civil unrest in 1963. The Tillyria region of Cyprus was largely enclosed within the Morphou Administrative District in the north-west of the island, forming a large portion of the southern coastline of Morphou Bay.
Battle of Tillyria | Location
Its site is located near Filyos (formerly Hisarönü), Asiatic Turkey.
Tium | History
Other were working at Nicosia or Xeros. Of course you could find carpenters, mechanics, butchers, storekeepers and so on. After 1974, Turkish Cypriots from Androlykou in Paphos District settled in Myrtou. Since the Turkish invasion of Cyprus in 1974, the monastery of Saint Panteleimon remains empty.
Myrtou | Population
In the later phase of the late Bronze Age (LCIIIA, 1200–1100 BC) great amounts of 'Mycenaean' IIIC:1b pottery were produced locally. New architectural features include cyclopean walls, found on the Greek mainland, as well and a certain type of rectangular stepped capitals, endemic on Cyprus. Chamber tombs are given up in favour of shaft graves. Large amounts of IIIC:1b pottery are found in Palestine during this period as well. While this was formerly interpreted as evidence of an invasion ('Sea Peoples'), this is seen more and more as an indigenous development, triggered by increasing trade relations with Cyprus and Crete.
History of Cyprus | Pottery
Mycenaean Greece (or the Mycenaean civilization) was the last phase of the Bronze Age in Ancient Greece, spanning the period from approximately 1600–1100 BC. It represents the first advanced and distinctively Greek civilization in mainland Greece with its palatial states, urban organization, works of art, and writing system. The most prominent site was Mycenae, in the Argolid, after which the culture of this era is named. Other centers of power that emerged included Pylos, Tiryns, Midea in the Peloponnese, Orchomenos, Thebes, Athens in Central Greece and Iolcos in Thessaly. Mycenaean and Mycenaean-influenced settlements also appeared in Epirus, Macedonia, on islands in the Aegean Sea, on the coast of Asia Minor, the Levant, Cyprus and Italy.
Mycenaean Greece | Introduction
Lapethus was a harbor town located along the northern coast of Cyprus near modern-day Karavas. It was most famous for its copper and earthenware processing, though it was an important commercial site regardless. Copious springs nearby provided the city with a constant supply of freshwater. Remains of the harbor's breakwater and city walls are still visible today, though no other ancient structures can be identified. The city had long been Phoenician in culture, and maintained Semitic speech for a long period of time before Hellenization kicked in. Although the site still remains unexcavated (due to its location in the north), the few inscriptions that originated from this area indicate that the city was extremely important from an economical standpoint; so much so, in fact, that Ptolemy says that it is one of the four conventi that divided the island.
Roman Cyprus | Lapethus
Achaeans settled among the old population, and founded Salamis. The epic "Cypria", dating to the 7th century BC, may have originated in Cyprus.
Greek Cypriots | Prehistory and antiquity
The urban center of ancient Pylos indeed remains only partially identified to date. The various archaeological remains of palaces and administrative or residential infrastructures that have been found in the region so far suggest to modern scholars that the ancient city would have developed over a much larger area, that of the Pylia Province. The typical point of reference for the Mycenaean city remains the Palace of Nestor, but many other palaces (such as those of Nichoria and Iklaina) or villages (such as Malthi) of the Mycenaean era have been recently discovered, which were quickly subordinated to Pylos. Its port and its acropolis were probably established on the "Koryphasion" promontory (or "Cape Coryphasium") commanding the northern entrance to the bay, 4 km north of the modern city and south of Nestor's palace, but no remains were found.The Pylos site is located on the hill of Ano Englianos, about 9 km northeast of the bay , near the village of Chora and about 17 kilometres from the modern city of Pylos.
Pylos | Mycenaean Pylos
This town is mentioned by Ptolemy. Judging from its coins, it worshipped the goddess Artemis Persica. Its site is located near Sazoba in Asiatic Turkey.
Hierocaesarea | History
The site of the Ancient city is at modern Kilya, in European Turkey. It was import enough to become a bishopric, suffragan of the Metropolitan of Perinthus, the archbishopric in the capital of the Roman province of Europa.
Coela | History
Myus or Myous () was a town on the coast of ancient Cilicia, between Nagidus and Celenderis. William Smith conjectured it to be the same place as the Myanda or Mysanda mentioned by Pliny the Elder; and if so, also identical with the town of Mandane (Μανδάνη) mentioned in "Stadiasmus Maris Magni" as between Celenderis and Cape Pisidium or Posidium (modern Kızıl Burun), from which it was only 7 stadia distant. Modern scholarship tentatively accepts the identity with Myanda/Mysanda but rejects that of Mandane. Myus is tentatively located near Yenikaş in Asiatic Turkey.
Myus (Cilicia) | Introduction
By 1923 whatever Greek population remained was expelled in the population exchange between Greece and Turkey following World War I. Shortly after, the Turkish population moved to a more favourable location, which they called "Güllü Bahçe," "rose garden". The old Greek settlement, partly still in use, is today known as Gelebeç or Kelebeş. The tourist attraction of Priene is accessible from there.
Priene | Later years
Palaemyndus or Palaia Myndos () was a town of ancient Caria, near Myndus, which was its successor settlement. Palaemyndus seems to have been the ancient place of the Carians which became deserted after the establishment of the Dorian Myndus. Its site is located near Bozdağ, Asiatic Turkey.
Palaemyndus | Introduction
Habitation continued towards the end of the Middle Helladic period, but no Mycenaean finds have been found yet. First signs of renewed habitation date from the Iron Age. The site is left again in the Roman period. Close to Geraki is the medieval fortress after which the village is named, and which formed the seat of the Barony of Geraki in the Frankish Principality of Achaea. In the village itself are several Byzantine-era churches.
Geronthres | Introduction
• Nea Paphos
Polish Centre of Mediterranean Archaeology University of Warsaw | Cyprus
Hestiaea is variously believed to have lived in the ancient Greek city Alexandria Troas, on the Aegean Sea in modern Turkey, or in Alexandria in Egypt. Hestiaea correctly realised that the plain lying between Ilium and the Mediterranean Sea was a comparatively recent deposit, and therefore questioned the Homeric view that this plain was the site of the Trojan War. Her opinion influenced Demetrius of Scepsis, who cited her as a source. According to the Homer scholar J. V. Luce, writing in "Celebrating Homer's Landscapes: Troy and Ithaca Revisited", neither Hestiaea nor Demetrius would have accepted the view espoused by the inhabitants of Ilium that their city marked the location of ancient Troy.
Hestiaea | Biography
The 14th century Uluburun shipwreck, off the coast of southern Anatolia, displays the established trade routes that supplied the Mycenaeans with all the raw materials and items that the economy of Mycenaean Greece needed, such as copper and tin for the production of bronze products. A chief export of the Mycenaeans was olive oil, which was a multi-purpose product. Cyprus appears to be the principal intermediary station between Mycenaean Greece and the Middle East, based on the considerable greater quantities of Mycenaean goods found there. On the other hand, trade with the Hittite lands in central Anatolia appears to have been limited.
Mycenaean Greece | Trade
The Acropolis, the Temple of Aphrodite, the agora, the city's walls, the basilica and the port have all been excavated. Further archaeological objects found during the excavations are preserved at both the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia and the Limassol District Archaeological Museum. In the agora there are marble columns decorated with spirals and a huge paved squares. On the coastal side of the city there is an Early Christian basilica with mosaic floors decorated with semi-precious stones. Further, near the terraced road leading to the Temple, situated on the top of the cliff, several houses built in a row dating to the Hellenistic period have been discovered.
Amathus | The site and archaeology
The area of Armenochori was strategically convenient to watch over the Mediterranean horizon and stay alarm against possible invasions by enemies. Ancient history says:
Armenochori, Cyprus | Ancient
History of Cyprus
Outline of Cyprus | History of Cyprus
It likely became extinct when the region developed its present Mediterranean-type climate, having preferred one that was cold and humid.
Albanerpeton | Introduction
Rule passed on to his nephew Hugh IV (1324–1359), who found himself in a new privileged position. The fall of the last coastal strongholds of the Kingdom of Jerusalem made it unnecessary for the island to waste its money on its defense. It also made the island the center for Oriental trade, and Famagustan merchants became notoriously rich, and the island as a whole became known for its wealth. Hugh enjoyed a peaceful reign, and preferred to stay on the island.
Cyprus in the Middle Ages | Hugh IV
Kiphisos was a town on the coast of ancient Cilicia, inhabited during Roman and Byzantine times. Its site is located near Yeşilovacık in Asiatic Turkey.
Kiphisos | Introduction
Mycenae or Mykenai () was a town of ancient Crete, the foundation of which was attributed by an historian of the Augustan age to Agamemnon. Jean Hardouin proposed to read Mycenae for Myrina which is mentioned as a city of Crete in the text of Pliny the Elder. Its site is tentatively located near the modern Selli, Kastelli. The editors of the "Barrington Atlas of the Greek and Roman World" also tentatively accept the association of Mycenae with Pliny's Myrina.
Mycenae (Crete) | Introduction
The city's site is today partly occupied by the Turkish village of Eskihisar, and part of the site's necropolis (allegedly of modest scientific significance) has vanished with the opening of a pit to extract the lignite reserves that feed the nearby Yatağan power plant. The pit is proposed to be transformed into a lake in the coming years, once the reserves there are exhausted. The village has a local museum, which contains mostly Roman remains; but the most remarkable object is a Mycenaean stirrup-cup of buff with horizontal red stripes which is dated to the 12th or 11th century BC.
Stratonicea (Caria) | Today
Robert Graves ("The Greek Myths") identifies, as Aeaea, the island of Lošinj, near the Istrian peninsula in the north Adriatic Sea. Tim Severin ("The Ulysses Voyage") identifies, as Aeaea, the island of Paxos in the Ionian Sea near the Greek coast. The island is on the furthest west on a boundary between the sea and the river of Okeanos, which is said to encircle the earth. Gaedl Lomen ("The Sea in the Greek Imagination") identifies, as Aeaea the island of Cyprus, in the Eastern Mediterranean.
Aeaea | Other hypothetical locations
1450 BC, replacing the previous Minoan installations. This site became a sizable and prosperous Mycenaean center until the 12th century BC. Apart from the archaeological evidence, this is also attested in Hittite records, which indicate that Miletos (Milawata in Hittite) was the most important base for Mycenaean activity in Asia Minor. Mycenaean presence also reached the adjacent sites of Iasus and Ephesus.
Mycenaean Greece | Koine era (c. 1450 BC–1250 BC)
This form of pottery is thus named for its intense technical and stylistic uniformity, over a large area of the eastern and central Mediterranean. During LH IIIA it is virtually impossible to tell where in Mycenaean Greece a specific vase was made. Pottery found on the islands north of Sicily is almost identical to that found in Cyprus and the Levant. It is only during the LH IIIB period that stylistic uniformity decreased; around the same time that the amount of trade between the Peloponnese and Cyprus dramatically decreased.
Mycenaean pottery | Palatial Period
Originally from Lebanon and Syria, today's Maronite community in Cyprus was shaped by four successive waves of emigration that started in the 8th century. With the Islamic conquests radiating outward from the Arab Peninsula, many Maronites abandoned Syria and Lebanon and settled in Cyprus. In 938, the destruction of St Maron's Monastery in Lebanon prompted a second wave of refugees. Another three centuries passed and Crusader king Guy of Lusignan purchased Cyprus from Richard the Lionheart, leading the former to import Maronite warriors to the island to protect its coastlines. The last wave of emigration came 100 years later when Acre, last outpost of the Crusader edifice, collapsed leading to the last migration of Maronites to Cyprus.
Kormakitis | Middle Ages
After the collapse of the Mycenaean world, communication ended, and Cypriot was differentiated from Arcadian. It was written until the 3rd century BC using the Cypriot syllabary. Tsan was a letter in use only in Arcadia until around the 6th century BC. Arcadocypriot kept many characteristics of Mycenaean, early lost in Attic and Ionic, such as the sound (digamma).
Arcadocypriot Greek | Later developments
Ceryneia, now overlaid by modern-day Kyrenia, was a port city on the northern coast of Cyprus. There is much evidence for the ancient city but epigraphic and archaeological evidence from the Roman era is inconclusive. Although it remains unexcavated, the ancient harbor still stands and occasional finds are made and reported. Three inscription were found that dated the city to the Roman time period; an oath of allegiance to Tiberius the "Apollo of Ceryneia," a dedication to the "demos of Ceryneia" on a statue, and one mentioning the construction of a water-system during Claudius' reign.
Roman Cyprus | Ceryneia
In the official records of another Bronze Age empire, that of the Hittites in Anatolia, various references from c. 1400 BC to 1220 BC mention a country named "Ahhiyawa". Recent scholarship, based on textual evidence, new interpretations of the Hittite inscriptions, and recent surveys of archaeological evidence about Mycenaean–Anatolian contacts during this period, concludes that the term "Ahhiyawa" must have been used in reference to the Mycenaean world (land of the Achaeans), or at least to a part of it. This term may have also had broader connotations in some texts, possibly referring to all regions settled by Mycenaeans or regions under direct Mycenaean political control.
Mycenaean Greece | Identity
Myndus () or Myndos () was an ancient Dorian colony of Troezen, on the coast of Caria in Asia Minor, (Turkey), sited on the Bodrum Peninsula, a few miles northwest of Halicarnassus. The site is now occupied by the modern village of Gümüslük.
Myndus | Introduction
Mampsoukrenai or Mapsoukrenai was a settlement and station ("mutatio") of ancient Cilicia, on the road between Tyana and Tarsus, inhabited during Roman Byzantine times. Its site is tentatively located near Kırıtlar in Asiatic Turkey.
Mampsoukrenai | Introduction
It was then annexed by the Medes in about 609 BC.
Mannaeans | Location
The ruins of this site are considerable, covering a wide area. Among the better preserved structures are the agora and a gate-tower. Meagre remains of a Byzantine church can also be found.
Pednelissus | Location
Cisthene or Kisthene () was a coastal town in ancient Aeolis, opposite Lesbos Island, in western Mysia; its mines were a source of copper. Its location is not certain, but it is generally considered to be near modern Ayvalık on the northwestern Aegean coast of Turkey. During a survey project, realized by Engin Beksaç in 1997, it was possible for Prof. Beksaç, to identify the place of Kisthene, as Kızçiftlik, on the Plains of Gömeç, near Ayvalık (ancient Greek Kydonies-Κυδωνιές). The site is near the sea and faces towards the Peninsula of Pryha. And by the cooperation of Kızçiftlik, it has been partially uncovered.
Cisthene (Mysia) | Introduction
Anastasius Sinaita, the famous 7th-century prolific monk of Saint Catherine's Monastery, was born here. It is thought that he left Cyprus after the 649 Arab conquest of the island, setting out for the Holy Land, and eventually becoming a monk on Sinai.
Amathus | Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages
Corycus (; also transliterated Corycos or Korykos; ; , lit. "maiden castle") was an ancient city in Cilicia Trachaea, Anatolia, located at the mouth of the valley called Şeytan deresi; the site is now occupied by the town of Kızkalesi (formerly Ghorgos), Mersin Province, Turkey.
Corycus | Introduction
The ancient village of Kopetra in the Vasilikos valley contains the remains of three churches dating to the Late Roman period. The first, a small basilica located at the site of Sirmata, dates to around the beginning of the 7th century. The basilica contains a crypt with two tombs. The construction styles of the tombs suggest the second was added later, around the middle of the 7th century. The central courtyard of the basilica was surrounded on three sides by rooms which may have served as domestic spaces for the religious community living there. A cistern had also been cut into one corner of the courtyard.
Roman Cyprus | Major basilicas and churches
Cyprus is an island in the Eastern Basin of the Mediterranean Sea. It is the third largest island in the Mediterranean, after the Italian islands of Sicily and Sardinia, and the 80th largest island in the world by area. It is located south of the Anatolian peninsula, so it may be included in Western Asia or the Middle East: Cyprus is close to Southern Europe, and Northern Africa, and has had lengthy periods of mainly Greek and intermittent Anatolian, Levantine, Byzantine, Turkish, and Western European influence. The island is dominated by two mountain ranges, the Troodos Mountains and the Kyrenia Mountains or Pentadaktylos, and the central plain, the Mesaoria, between them.
Geography of Cyprus | Introduction
We learn from Stephanus that Eutresis possessed a celebrated temple and oracle of Apollo, who was hence surnamed Eutresites. The "Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax", in its description of the coast of Boeotia, speaks of ὁ λιμὴν Εὔτρητος καὶ τεῖχος τῶν Βοιωτῶν. Its site is located near modern Arkopodi, about from Lefktra (site of ancient Leuctra). Excavations have found some remains of Cyclopean walls of the Mycenaean period. The archeology shows that the place was abandoned in the last phase of the Mycenaean period and again populated from the 6th century BCE onwards. In one of the Mycenaean clay tablets with inscriptions in Linear B script that were found in Thebes in 1995, the toponym Eutresis is written in the form "e-u-te-re-u".
Eutresis (Boeotia) | Introduction
This is a list of years in Cyprus. See also the timeline of Cypriot history.
List of years in Cyprus | Introduction
By the time of Caracalla, Chytri may have been subordinate to Salamis. Source: Mitford 1980, 1329–1330.
Roman Cyprus | Chytri
Its site is marked by a tower, called Paleopyrgo (or Pyrgos), and some Hellenic remains, about a mile to the south of the village of Livanates. The archaeological site is thus also referred to as Pyrgos Livanaton. The site was excavated between 1985 and 1995 by the 14th Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities in Lamia. The findings of these excavations have so far only been made known in preliminary reports, but archaeologists have found items from the Bronze and Early Iron Age. Kynos, like nearby Mitrou, Kalapodi, Elateia, and Lefkandi, shows continuous occupation throughout the transition from the Mycenaean palatial period to the Early Iron Age.
Cynus | Archaeology
Herodotus uses to refer to the stretch of land from the Halys river, including Cappadocia (The Histories, I.6) in today's Turkey to the Mount Casius (The Histories II.158), which Herodotus says is located just south of Lake Serbonis (The Histories III.5). According to Herodotus various remarks in different locations, he describes Syria to include the entire stretch of Phoenician coastal line as well as cities such Cadytis (Jerusalem) (The Histories III.159).
Syria (region) | Ancient Syria
BCE. Cyprus occupies an important role in Greek mythology being the birthplace of Aphrodite and Adonis, and home to King Cinyras, Teucer and Pygmalion. Literary evidence suggests an early Phoenician presence at Kition which was under Tyrian rule at the beginning of the 10th century BC. Some Phoenician merchants who were believed to come from Tyre colonised the area and expanded the political influence of Kition. After c. 850 BC the sanctuaries [at the Kathari site] were rebuilt and reused by the Phoenicians."
Cyprus | Prehistoric and Ancient Cyprus
From this violent conflict the city is said to have derived its name. The town minted coins in the Hellenistic period, some of which survive. Its site is located near modern Khorakia, Ano Viannos, a hill northwest of modern Viannos, where remains have been found from the Orientalizing period to Roman times.
Biannus | Introduction
The area has been inhabited since prehistoric times. A lesser neolithic settlement was followed, in the middle of the 3rd millennium BC, by a flourishing early pre-Hellenic settlement located about 15 km southeast of Mycenae, on a hill 300 m long, 45–100 m wide, and no more than 18 meters high. From this period survived under the yard of a Mycenaean palace, an imposing circular structure 28 meters in diameter, which appears to be a fortified place of refuge for the city's inhabitants in time of war, and/or a residence of a king. Its base was powerful, and was constructed from two concentric stone walls, among which there were others cross-cutting, so that the thickness reached 45 m.
Tiryns | History
In addition, the remains of seats surrounding the main stage of Kourion’s Stadion, estimating 7 rows with a height of 4 meters, shows the large entertainment industry. Further remains show the conversion of Cypriot entertainment to Roman housing after Rome’s expansion, that was later destroyed by natural disasters, namely the earthquakes of AD 322 and 342. In recent discoveries from Pasydy hill in Nicosia, Archaeologists have found an overlay of buildings from the 5th century BC in the city’s central park also led by the Department of Antiquities. The analysis of Hellenistic structure shows constantly evolving styles of building structures throughout Cyprus’s history.
Archaeology of Cyprus | Architectural sites and buildings
Hermoton or Hermaion was an inland town in ancient Mysia. Its site is located near Çınardere, Turkey.
Hermoton | Introduction
The two buildings, built sometime between the late first and early second century AD, keep to the traditional open court plan for the Paphian cult. It is thought that these were built after the earthquake in 76/77 AD that may have caused some destruction to the sanctuary complex. Reconstructions of the Roman sanctuary show the buildings to surround a rectangular open court, possibly left open on the West side, and enclosed by a South Stoa, an East wing, and a North Hall. The north and south halls are thought to have housed cultic banquets for the goddess. A shrine with an aniconic (non-human form) representation of the goddess Aphrodite was most likely moved from the Old Temple to the new Roman temple.
Roman Cyprus | Palaiaphos ("Old Paphos")
The ancient city of Amathus, near modern-day Limassol (village of Ag. Tychonas) was a city of importance before Roman rule. After Nea Paphos was established as the center of Roman administration on Cyprus, Amathus began to decline. Only the granting of asylum for the sanctuary of Aphrodite by the senate in 22 AD preserved its existence. The city remained unexcavated until 1975, when Pierre Aupert and the French School at Athens discovered remains on the acropolis, including the temple to Ahprodite, a Christian basilica, palace storerooms, and explored the port. The temple of Aphrodite was renovated in the first or second century AD to combine both Greek and Near Eastern architectural styles.
Roman Cyprus | Amathus
Some scholars have interpreted this phenomenon as the result of influence of the Homeric Epics in Cyprus. Most of the grave goods come from the Levant or Egypt. According to the foundation myth, the founder of Salamis is said to be Teucer, son of Telamon, who could not return home after the Trojan war because he had failed to avenge his brother Ajax. There is however some evidence that the area had been occupied long before the alleged arrival of Mycenaeans (at Enkomi) and the town of Salamis was developed as a replacement when Engkomi was isolated from the sea.
Salamis, Cyprus | Early history
The Cyprus dispute remains unresolved.
History of the Middle East | Modern states
The original inhabitants were natives of the island, known to scholars as the "Eteocypriotes". The original city lay on the northern side of the Gialias River in modern "Ayios Sozomenos". During the 13th century BC the people of Ed-di-al began manufacturing operations on the south side of the river in what is now modern Dhali. From there the city grew to the major urban and copper-trading centre founded by the Neo-Assyrians at the end of the 8th century BC. The city was the centre of the worship of the Great Goddess of Cyprus, the "Wanassa" or Queen of Heaven, known as Aphrodite and her consort the "Master of Animals".
Idalium | The ancient city
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to Cyprus: Cyprus – Eurasian island country located in the Eastern Mediterranean Sea, east of Greece, south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, northwest of Israel and north of Egypt. Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean Sea and the Republic of Cyprus is a member state of the European Union.
Outline of Cyprus | Introduction
BC. The Hadjiaptoullas plateau at 1 km east of the sanctuary of Aphrodite has been identified as the site of the royal palace and in 2016 a large storage and industrial complex of the Cypro-Classical period was also discovered by the University of Cyprus.
Kouklia | Archaeology
Here lie the remains of the Royal Residence of King Peter II (1369-1382), destroyed by the Saracens in 1426. When the site was visited by Rupert Gunnis in 1936, only a portion of the walls, a large vaulted room with fragments of frescoes, remained. Prior to the inter-communal conflict and the Turkish invasion of Cyprus of 1974 the village had a Turkish-Cypriot majority, however most Turkish Cypriots have subsequently emigrated to Northern Cyprus, and now the village is mostly inhabited by the remaining Greek-Cypriots. Nonetheless, the village has a history of co-existence between the two communities, and Greek and Turkish Cypriots still live side by side.
Potamia, Cyprus | History
Moreover, some island sites built fortifications or improved their defenses (such as Phylakopi, but also Aghios Andreas on Siphnos and Koukounaries on Paros). Relations were resumed during Late Helladic III C. To the importation of objects (jars with handles decorated with squids) was also added the movement of peoples with migrations coming from the continent. A beehive tomb, characteristic of continental Mycenaean tombs, has been found on Mykonos. The Cyclades were continuously occupied until the Mycenaean civilisation began to decline.
History of the Cyclades | Late Cycladic: Mycenaean domination
List of former mosques located in the Aegean Islands, the group of islands in the Aegean Sea between mainland Greece and Turkey.
List of former mosques in Greece | List of former mosques in the <a href="Aegean%20Islands">Aegean Islands</a>
Great official buildings constructed from ashlar-masonry point to increased social hierarchisation and control. Some of these buildings contain facilities for processing and storing olive oil, like at Maroni-Vournes and building X at Kalavassos-Ayios Dhimitrios. Other ashlar-buildings are known from Palaeokastro. A Sanctuary with a horned altar constructed from ashlar-masonry has been found at Myrtou-Pigadhes, other temples have been located at Enkomi, Kition and Kouklia (Palaepaphos). Both the regular layout of the cities and the new masonry techniques find their closest parallels in Syria, especially in Ugarit (modern Ras Shamra).
Prehistoric Cyprus | Late Bronze Age
The island of Cyprus was first inhabited in 9000 BC, with the arrival of farming societies who built round houses with floors of terazzo. Cities were first built during the Bronze Age and the inhabitants had their own Eteocypriot language until around the 4th century BC. The island was part of the Hittite Empire as part of the Ugarit Kingdom during the late Bronze Age until the arrival of two waves of Greek settlement. Cyprus experienced an uninterrupted Greek presence on the island dating from the arrival of Mycenaeans around 1100 BC, when the burials began to take the form of long "dromos".
Cyprus dispute | Historical background before 1960
While the use of Mycenaean Greek may have ceased with the fall of the Mycenaean civilization, some traces of it are found in the later Greek dialects. In particular, Arcadocypriot Greek is believed to be rather close to Mycenaean Greek. Arcadocypriot was an ancient Greek dialect spoken in Arcadia (central Peloponnese), and in Cyprus. Ancient Pamphylian also shows some similarity to Arcadocypriot and to Mycenaean Greek.
Mycenaean Greek | Survival
Kourion () or Latin: Curium, was an important ancient city-state on the southwestern coast of Cyprus. In the twelfth century BCE, after the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces, Greek settlers from Argos arrived on this site. In the seventeenth century, Kourion suffered from five heavy earthquakes, but the city was partly rebuilt. The acropolis of Kourion, located 1.3 km southwest of Episkopi and 13 km west of Limassol, is located atop a limestone promontory nearly 100 metres high along the coast of Episkopi Bay. The Kourion archaeological area lies within the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia and is managed by the Cyprus Department of Antiquity.
Kourion | Introduction
It served as an administrative center of Judaea Province of the Roman Empire, and later as the capital of the Byzantine Palaestina Prima province. During the Muslim conquest in the 7th century, it was the last city of the Holy Land to fall to the Arabs. The city degraded to a small village after the provincial capital was moved from here to Ramleh and had an Arab majority until Crusader conquest. Under the Crusaders it became once again a major port and a fortified city. It was diminished after the Mamluk conquest. In 1884, Bosniak immigrants settled there establishing a small fishing village.
Caesarea | Introduction
Some large Mycenaean tombs have been found at Musgebi (or Muskebi, modern Ortakent), not far from Halicarnassus. According to Turkish archaeologist Yusuf Boysal, the Muskebi material, dating from the end of the fifteenth century BC to ca. 1200 BC, provides evidence of the presence, in this region, of a Mycenaean settlement. More than forty burial places dating back to that time have been discovered. A rich collection of artifacts found in these tombs is now housed in the Bodrum Castle. These finds cast some light on the problem of determining the territories of ancient Arzawa and Ahhiyawa.
Halicarnassus | Mycenaean presence in the area
The trade routes were expanded further, reaching Cyprus, Amman in the Near East, Apulia in Italy and Spain. From that time period (c. 1400 BC), the palace of Knossos has yielded the earliest records of the Greek Linear B script, based on the previous Linear A of the Minoans. The use of the new script spread in mainland Greece and offers valuable insight into the administrative network of the palatial centers. However, the unearthed records are too fragmentary for a political reconstruction of Bronze Age Greece. Excavations at Miletus, southwest Asia Minor, indicate the existence of a Mycenaean settlement there already from c.
Mycenaean Greece | Koine era (c. 1450 BC–1250 BC)
The remains of the ancient Ephira are near the present Ioannina. In the period between 1958 and 1987, several excavations were conducted by a team from the University of Ioannina that were later expanded between 2006 and 2008. In them, archaeologists found remains of the only Mycenaean acropolis whose existence has been confirmed within the region of Epirus. Two of the three walls of the fortification that were found in the southern part of the acropolis, were built in stone with Cyclopean style in the fourteenth or early thirteenth century BC, while the third is much later, of the Hellenistic period.
Cichyrus | Archaeology