Category: Cyprus

Kiddy Bling from Yeronisos

~ David Meadows ~ rogueclassicist ~ Leave a comment

From the Cyprus Mail (tip o’ the pileus to our long-time Explorator source Dave Sowdon for this):

ARCHEOLOGISTS digging a small island off Cyprus’ western coast have discovered amulets bearing male names, believed to have been worn by male toddlers over 2,000 years ago, it was announced yesterday.
The artefacts were found on the island of Yeronisos, or Holy Island, near Peyia, an important place of pilgrimage during the later Hellenistic period – 325-58 BC – when worshippers crossed the waters to pray at its sanctuary of the god Apollo.
“A series of small amulets that may have been worn by toddler boys brought to Yeronisos to mark their transitional time of weaning have been recovered,” the department of antiquities said. “One recently discovered amulet is inscribed with the male names Minas, written along the side, and Diophantes, written on the bottom. These may represent the names of boys who wore the talisman during special ceremonies on Yeronisos.”
A sherd also recovered from the site bears the male names Chariton, Thrasayis, Nikkon and Hereas.
“These are perhaps the names of boys who participated in the weaning rituals,” the department said.
Other shells found on Yeronisos preserve the writing exercises of children practicing their Greek letters. “These suggest that a school for boys may have been part of the sanctuary.”
That these amulets were made on Yeronisos is suggested by the discovery, this season, of an unfinished charm, not yet pierced for suspension and not yet engraved with designs.
In the north side of the island, archaeologists unearthed a circular platform, which they believe was used for dancing – an integral part of the boys’ education and a means of pleasing Apollo – the Olympian god of music and song, prophecy and oracles.
Late Hellenistic pottery excavated this season includes drinking cups, bowls, and juglets.
The excavation was undertaken by the New York University Yeronisos Island Expedition, under the direction of Professor Joan Breton Connelly.
NYU started exploring the island in June 1990, at around the same time as it was officially declared an ancient monument.

The original article has links to a couple of webpages associated with the project … here … and here. The Cyprus Mail also had a more general feature on the dig which is worth checking out: People-friendly green archaeology.

Temple of Apollo on Geronisos

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Brief item from Bloomberg:

Archaeologists in Cyprus found evidence that an island off the Mediterranean country’s south- west coast was the site of a temple for worshiping Apollo, the ancient Greek god of light, prophecy, music and healing.

Excavations led by New York University on Geronisos unearthed fragments of pithoi, or storage vessels probably used to hold olive oil, that could be repaired to stand to a height of 1.20 meters, among the largest storage containers ever found on Cyprus, according to a statement today on the Web site of the Cypriot Interior Ministry’s Public Information Office.

The vessel fragments, which date from the 1st century B.C., were found in what appears to be a storeroom or pantry facility, probably servicing a complex of previously found dining rooms, the statement said.

The digs also unearthed a sculptured lion’s head that “would have been plastered and painted as a fitting adornment for a monumental structure, possibly a temple,” according to the statement.

Previous digs on the island showed that Geronisos was an ancient religious tourist center for worshiping Apollo, son of the king of the Greek gods, Zeus, and the nymph, Leto.

“The discovery of this storage facility represents an important breakthrough in our understanding of the experience of ancient pilgrims on Geronisos,” the Cyprus Department of Antiquities said in the statement, “and the ritual dining that seems to have taken place within the complex of rooms in the central south sector of the island.”

NYU has been digging at Geronisos for a while … some previous results are on the web from 2004 and 2006.

Triangular Temple from Cyprus

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StonePages had this at the beginning of the month, but it doesn’t seem to have hit the ‘English press’ until recently. Italian archaeologists working on Cyprus have excavated a triangular-shaped (!) temple at Pyrgos-Mavroraki believed to date  to around 2,000 BC (which would make it the oldest temple on Cyprus; the jury’s still out on that one, apparently) . Maria Rosaria-Belgiorno  (Archaeological Mission of the Italian National Council for Research) told Cyprus Weekly:

“This is the first evidence of religion in Cyprus at the beginning of the second millennium BC.”

“The temple is the most ancient found in Cyprus and of a unique triangular shape. The finding sheds new light on the existence of religion on the island, since the oldest temple found in Cyprus before that was Kition and Enkomi, both dating to 1,000 BC …”

“We found no statues, although there is evidence that it is a monotheist temple. The most important thing is the altar and the blood channel running on two sides.”

“Among the finds we found stone horns which are more ancient than the consecration horns found in Kouklia, Enkomi, Kition, and Myrthou (Pighades) seven centuries later.”

Belgiorno has a website with assorted photos and diagrams worth looking at as well (the home page has some annoying music, so we’re linking directly to the page of interest).