Island Jewels - Understanding Ancient Cyprus and Crete

Island Jewels: Understanding Ancient Cyprus and Crete
Island Jewels
Understanding Ancient Cyprus and Crete
© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society

About the Biblical Archaeology Society

The excitement of archaeology and the
latest in Bible scholarship since 1974
The Biblical Archaeology Society (BAS) was founded in 1974 as a nonprofit, nondenomina-
tional, educational organization dedicated to the dissemination of information about archaeol-
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The articles in this collection were originally assembled as a service to participants in our
Fall 2008 BAS tour to Cyprus and Crete. We feel, however, that this material will also be of
great interest to others who are planning to visit those islands and also to those who want to
learn more about these fascinating ancient lands.
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The articles in this collection originally appeared in Archaeology Odyssey and Biblical
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Contents
Introduction 1
Steven Feldman
Death at Kourion 3
David Soren
Cypriot Land Mines 16

Hershel Shanks
The Guardians of Tamassos 33

Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou
Book Review: Cyprus’ Jewel by the Sea 39

Nancy Serwint
Did Theseus Slay the Minotaur? 45

Jeremy McInerney
Sailing the Wine-dark Seas 59

Joan G. Scheuer

INTRODUCTION
Island Jewels
Understanding Ancient Cyprus and Crete
Steven Feldman
I
n the fall of 2008, the Biblical Archaeology Society’s Travel/Study department spon-
sored a two-week tour of Cyprus and Crete led by Professor Daniel Schowalter of
Carthage College. To give our tour participants some background on the history of
these two ancient lands, we pulled together a packet of articles from Archaeology
Odyssey and Biblical Archaeology Review magazines. As a service to others who may
be traveling to Cyprus or Crete—and to those who simply wish to know more about the
history of these two fascinating islands—we are pleased to provide the articles in the
form of this e-book.
Cyprus and Crete are the third and fourth largest islands in the Mediterranean, fol-
lowing Sicily and Sardinia. In the mid-second millennium B.C., Cyprus lay at the cen-
ter of a vigorous eastern Mediterranean trade in metals, particularly the copper and tin
used to make bronze. Texts from Syria and Egypt refer to the Biblical land of
“Alashiya”—thought by most, but not all, scholars to refer to Cyprus—in connection
with copper. An 11th-century B.C. account by an Egyptian priest named Wen-Amon
describes how he sought refuge on Alashiya after surviving a shipwreck while attempt-
ing to return to Egypt from Byblos, in modern-day Lebanon. His account seems to con-
firm the identification of Alashiya with Cyprus.
Thanks to its natural resources, especially its copper mines, forests and salt lakes,
Cyprus was able to build a number of significant harbor cities around its coast. As a
result, Cyprus enjoyed a thriving trade with surrounding areas, and much Cypriot pot-
tery has been recovered at Middle and Late Bronze Age sites along the coast of Canaan
and further north into Ugarit, and inland sites such as Megiddo, Egypt and Anatolia
(modern Turkey).
In about 1375 B.C. Mycenaean settlers arrived in Cyprus; some of them, perhaps the
Sea Peoples, moved on to settle the Canaanite coast. By 850 B.C., the migration pattern
© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society 1

was reversed, with Phoenicians arriving on the island from what is today Lebanon,
notably Tyre and Sidon.
Crete, for its part, was home to the great Minoan civilization for about two-and-a-half
centuries (from 1700 to 1450 B.C.). Minoan culture became well known thanks to the
excavations of Sir Arthur Evans, who uncovered the city of Knossos, home of the leg-
endary King Minos. Knossos was also the reputed site of the labyrinth built to contain
the part-man, part-bull Minotaur.
Evans also found tablets written in languages called Linear A and Linear B; the lat-
ter was deciphered by Michael Ventris, who showed it to be an early form of Greek.
Minoan civilization came to an end with the arrival of the Mycenaeans and especially
with the massive eruption of the Thera volcano on the island of Santorini.
Our armchair tour of Cyprus and Crete begins with David Soren’s “Death at
Kourion,” a history of an important Cypriot site that was destroyed by an earthquake.
Soren recounts the first excavation at the site and then tackles the question of just
when Kourion was destroyed. He also describes a very poignant discovery: the remains
of a man and a woman cradling an infant in a futile effort to shield each other from an
earthquake’s rubble.
Biblical Archaeology Review and Archaeology Odyssey editor Hershel Shanks
recounts his visit to the island in “Cypriot Land Mines,”—a reference to the political
divisions on the island between the Greek and Turkish populations. Despite those divi-
sions, Shanks was able to visit sites in both the Turkish north and the Greek south of
the island and shares with us the insights he gained throughout the island.
In “The Guardians of Tamassos,” archaeologist Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou
describes the exciting discovery of lion and sphinx sculptures that once stood in a sub-
terranean tomb complex. Solomidou-Ieronymidou tells the story of the site and of the
sculptures and also places sculptures in the context of ancient iconography.
Though ostensibly a book review, Nancy Serwint’s “Cyprus’ Jewel by the Sea” is actu-
ally a guide to Salamis, one of the island’s most stunning sites, and an appreciation of
the man who excavated it, Vassos Karageorghis, widely hailed as the dean of Cypriot
archaeology.
Turning now to Crete, Jeremy McInerney asks, “Did Theseus Slay the Minotaur?”
Underneath that seemingly simple question lies a more complicated one: Can archaeol-
ogy illuminate myths and can myths help us in any way to understand archaeology and
ancient history? In attempting to answer that question, McInerney revisits the power-
ful myth of the Minotaur and also takes us on a tour of the many splendid remains on
Crete, particularly the famed palace at Knossos.
Completing our volume, Jane Scheuer writes of “Sailing the Wine-dark Seas,” her
stimulating diary of her own visit to Crete. Whether you joined us for the BAS tour of
Cyprus and Crete, traveled there on your own or simply want to learn about these his-
tory-laden islands, we hope the articles contained here will teach you much about these
two jewels in the Mediterranean.

Death at Kourion
In the fourth century A.D., a huge earthquake
destroyed one of Cyprus’s glittering Greco-Roman cities.
By David Soren
O
ne of the most devastating earth-
Courtesy of Noelle Soren

quakes ever to hit the Mediterranean
struck a little after daybreak on
July 21, 365 A.D.
The fourth-century A.D. Latin historian
Ammianus Marcellinus called it “a fright-
ful disaster surpassing anything related
either in legend or authentic history.”
Ships in Lakonia, in the southern Pelopon-
nesus, were driven several miles inland.
(Ammianus claims to have seen this near
the town of Motho.) In several places,
Ammianus recalled, water receded
sharply from the land, luring people out
Eternally frozen in a protective embrace, the

remains of an ancient family vividly testify to the
enduring power of love. When a powerful earth-
quake struck Kourion, Cyprus, on July 21, 365
A.D., a 25-year-old man (the skeleton at right in
the photo) tried to comfort his 19-year-old wife,
who, in turn, attempted to shield their infant
child from collapsing walls. In his History, the
fourth-century A.D. historian Ammianus Marcelli-
nus described this earthquake as “a frightful dis-
aster surpassing anything related either in
legend or authentic history.”

onto what had moments before been the ocean bottom—where they could examine, at
their peril, the “many kinds of sea creatures stuck fast in the slime.” Suddenly a wall
of water appeared, drowning thousands of people. This “swift recoil” of the water
destroyed a large number of ships, flinging some “on the tops of buildings” (History
26.10.15–19).
The same event devastated the harbor at Alexandria, Egypt, to such a degree that an
annual religious festival was instituted to ward off future disasters.
But Cyprus was hit worst of all, according to the orator Libanius, who thanked God
that his own town of Antioch, just to the northeast in Syria, had not suffered such a
calamity (Oratio 2.52). Among the destroyed Cypriot sites was the glittering seaside
city of Kourion, where I directed excavations 25 years ago.
Perched on the edge of a cliff on the southern coast of Cyprus, Kourion once com-
manded a strategic position on a major trade route between the eastern and western
Mediterranean. The site was also famous in antiquity for a large sanctuary dedicated
to Apollo Hylates (Apollo of the Woodlands), begun in the sixth century B.C. a few miles
outside the city.
The first major excavations at Kourion were undertaken by a wealthy Philadelphian
named George McFadden from 1934 to 1953. Though he had no formal training in
archaeology, McFadden financed the excavations, built a lovely structure called Kou-
rion House (still used by excavation teams) and enjoyed playing archaeologist. McFad-
den enjoyed yachting, too, which proved his undoing: On a perfectly calm day in 1953,
his boat mysteriously capsized in Episkopi Bay and his body washed ashore near the
cliffs of Kourion.
McFadden was aided by Bert Hodge Hill, an architectural historian with the Ameri-
can School of Classical Studies in Athens, and J.F. Daniel, the young Keeper of Mediter-
ranean Archaeology at the University of Pennsylvania Museum. (During the
excavations, the 38-year-old Daniel also died suddenly, apparently of a heart attack,
while on holiday in Turkey.) Neither McFadden, Hill nor Daniel ever published these
early excavations. Not until 1967 did a detailed summary of some of the work come out,
when University of Chicago architectural historian Robert Scranton was able to make
some sense of McFadden’s and Daniel’s notes.
In 1977 Vassos Karageorghis, then Director of Antiquities of Cyprus, granted me a
permit to excavate the large Sanctuary of Apollo, which I undertook with co-director
Diana Buitron. About 375 feet long and 300 feet wide, the sanctuary was a large walled
complex of buildings, courtyards and monuments. In ancient times, this sanctuary was
a pilgrimage center, a place for supplicants to plead with the powerful god Apollo—
represented not by a statue but by a standing stone called a baetyl—to improve their
crops or bless their families.
After entering the sanctuary through one of several monumental gateways, visitors
could proceed to the baths or to a large exercise ground, called a palaestra. Those

hoping to make offerings to Apollo, whose
Harry Heywood
temple lay at the northernmost end of the
sanctuary, could wait their turn at a kind
of visitors’ center (the South Building), a
structure consisting of six large rooms
with benches.
The sanctuary complex had three prin-
cipal sacred locations: the Altar of Apollo,
an enclosed park and the famous Temple
of Apollo. We began excavating at the
sacred altar, near which worshipers once
set up offerings of terracotta figurines—
some adorned with helmets or shields,
and some gesturing for the attention of Since the sixth century B.C., supplicants of
the god. The altar itself was a small, prob- Apollo—the ancient Greek god of light, healing,
ably round structure (a part of the curve prophesy, music and poetry—made pilgrimage
was preserved), made of piled stones. to a sanctuary complex, located a few miles out-
side Kourion. By the late first century A.D., the
(Apollo received so many visitors that the
Sanctuary of Apollo consisted of a perimeter wall
terracotta offerings were periodically
that enclosed baths, an exercise ground called a
gathered up and pitched into sacred pits palaestra, civic buildings and several sacred
(favissae) in the open central area of the precincts. In the late 1970s, author David Soren
sanctuary.) Our excavations yielded a directed excavations at the sanctuary’s altar,
beautiful, tiny gold-and-silver bull built temple (see photo of the columns of the Temple
right into the altar’s center. of Apollo in this article) and park.
Next, we turned to the park (or alsos),
which lay on a raised terrace enclosed by a massive second-century A.D. wall. McFad-
den never excavated this precinct, because its broad, flat expanse served perfectly for
his beloved pastime of croquet. Very likely, the famous sacred deer of Apollo at Kou-
rion, mentioned by the writer Aelian in the early third century A.D., were kept in this
enclosure (Aelian, On the Nature of Animals 11.7). McFadden found a lovely small
bronze image of a deer in this area.
Just a couple of inches below the surface of this raised expanse, we uncovered an
unusual structure—later dubbed the Round Building—consisting of a circular wall
enclosing a paved walkway surrounding an open circular courtyard. The entire struc-
ture is about 40 feet in diameter. Apparently worshipers walked, or danced, around the
interior of this structure. The central courtyard was planted with shallow-rooted trees,
perhaps date palms sacred to the god Apollo.
The Round Building—which may date to the sixth century B.C., though it was
repaved in the Roman period—remains a discovery unique in Mediterranean archaeol-
ogy. Following references in ancient sources, scholars had long sought monuments
with sacred trees in the center around which humans could dance, but this was the first
actual building where such cultic dancing seems to have taken place. Had McFadden

stuck his croquet wickets in a lit-
Discover Magazine
tle deeper, he might have found it.
After uncovering the Round

Building, we began excavating the
Temple of Apollo, the last of the
sanctuary’s three sacred loca-
tions. Like the Round Building and
the sanctuary itself, the temple
was probably first erected in the
sixth century B.C. and then
remodeled during the reign of the
emperor Nero (54–68 A.D.). In
Nero’s time, a front porch, or
pronaos, was added, and the tem-
ple was entirely rebuilt with new Drawing of the Sanctuary of Appolo, a few miles outside
columns and pilasters. When we Kourion.
began work, only its foundations
and front steps were visible.
McFadden had left behind unpub-
lished plans showing many of the
temple blocks lying on the
ground, but these blocks were no
longer to be seen. We later found
that they had simply been covered
with wind-blown debris between
1935 and 1978, the year our exca-
vations began. The blocks east of
the temple had been disturbed dur-
ing previous excavation, but those
north of the temple remained as
they had fallen, probably as the
result of an earthquake. The
upper third of the temple had
been sheared off, which also indicated an earthquake. It was possible for our architect,
Jack Rutherford, and his assistant, Alexandra Corn, to attempt an accurate reconstruc-
tion drawing of the temple, and we began making plans to rebuild it.
Unfortunately, a coxsackie virus then struck our village. Coxsackie viruses are
enteroviral infections causing fever, mouth ulcers and, though not in my case, blisters
on the palms and soles of the feet. The epidemic killed two people and left me dazed for
weeks, with a fever reaching 106 degrees. Two trips to the emergency room on the
British military base at Episkopi failed to revive me, and I lapsed into delirium. Night
after night I clung to my bed, afraid I would fall out of it and into the abyss; hordes of

insects appeared to be crawling up the walls.

Noelle Soren
Finally the fever broke and I was able to keep food

down. Foolishly ignoring my wife’s advice to stay
in bed, I returned to work—and promptly fell
down in our storage shed, knocking a stack of old-
fashioned iron wheelbarrows on top of me, which
crushed my left wrist. It took several years to
recover my full strength.
While I was incapacitated, Karageorghis
assigned the reconstruction project to Stefanos
Sinos of the University of Athens, who was noted
for his repairs on the Parthenon. My team had
already exposed the temple’s front stairs, the
pronaos and the core of the temple, or naos. Sinos
then uncovered the rest of the temple and rebuilt it
(largely adhering to our plan), the first reconstruc-
tion of its kind on Cyprus and the first glimpse of
Noelle Soren
The team excavating in the sactuary’s
altar also found pits crammed with
small terracotta statues which appar-
ently had been placed around the altar
by supplicants. Although Apollo him-
self was not represented anthropomor-
phically at Kourion (though he was
represented by sacred standing
stones, called baetyls), worshipers
brought both human- and animal-
shaped statues to the sanctuary to ask
favors of the god.

Noelle Soren
Noelle Soren
An exquisite gold-and-silver bull figurine was
found by author David Soren’s excavation team
in the sanctuary’s altar, a small round structure
made of piled stones. Although Apollo himself
was not represented anthropomorphically at
Kourion (though he was represented by sacred
standing stones, called baetyls), worshipers
brought both human- and animal-shaped statues
to the sanctuary to ask favors of the god.
what a Romano-Cypriot temple looked

like. It looked surprisingly Nabataean—
like the temples at Petra, in Jordan!
The soaring columns of the Temple of Apollo
For some unfathomable reason, how- were probably knocked flat during the devastat-
ever, Sinos deviated from our plan and ing earthquake of 365 A.D. The temple’s
changed the temple somewhat. He took a pronaos (or front porch) was reconstructed in the
capital from a pilaster (a square column early 1980s. Although the original temple dates
built into a wall) we had found behind the to the sixth century B.C., the structure was
temple and placed it beneath the capital rebuilt—and the pronaos added—under the
of a column standing in front of the emperor Nero (54–68 A.D.).
pronaos—clearly altering the original
design of the temple as published in our reconstruction. He also said he found a small
round molding, which he added to the base of the column capital.
From the damage to the Temple of Apollo, it was clear that the sanctuary had been
destroyed in an earthquake. But when? Unable to excavate because of my injuries, I
began to take another look at the evidence. It soon became obvious to me that ancient
Kourion was destroyed during the earthquake of July 21, 365 A.D.—the “frightful dis-
aster” described by Ammianus.
When large floating land masses, known as plates, butt up against one another, one
land mass tends to run under the other along a collision zone, or fault line, in a process

known as subduction. Cyprus lies just north of such a zone. Quakes in the second quar-
ter of the fourth century A.D. had caused drastic damage in the harbor of Paphos to the
west and Salamis to the east. These earlier quakes no doubt caused extensive damage
to Kourion as well, resulting in the evacuation of much of its population. After the
major quake hit, the site was occupied primarily by squatters.
George McFadden had discovered (but never published) several hoards of coins,
which are very useful in dating destruction layers. Of course, not every coin in the
hoard dated to 365 A.D. If you were to examine a pocketful of change, the coins would
have a range of dates. The most recent coins, however, would likely correspond to the
time when the hoard was deposited, provided that you have a large enough sample. Of
the more than 100 coins recovered from Kourion in stratified contexts, the latest coins
Kourion Through the Millennia

In the mid-second millennium
Michael Setboun/Corbis
B.C., Cyprus lay at the center of a
vigorous eastern Mediterranean
trade in metals, particularly the
copper and tin used to make
Bronze Age bronze. Contempora-
neous texts from Syria and Egypt
refer to the land of “Alashiya”—
identified by most, but not all,
scholars as Cyprus—in connection
to copper.a
It is not known when Kourion
was first settled. Although a
nearby cemetery contained Myce-
naean artifacts from the 11th cen-
tury B.C., it seems likely that
remains of the earliest settlement
are buried beneath the extensive
Roman-period ruins. Kourion is
first mentioned in the written record by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (680–669 B.C.), whose boast-
ful list of vassals includes “Damasu, king of Kuri (Kourion).”
In the late-seventh and sixth centuries B.C., the emerging power on the Greek mainland, Athens,
clashed with Persian Achaemenids for control of Cyprus. (The Persians eventually won.) It was dur-
ing this period that the cult of the god Apollo—associated with woodlands, music and knowledge—
was first celebrated at Kourion. (In fact, as early as the eighth century B.C., the site of the sanctuary
dedicated to Apollo had been a sacred precinct honoring a now-unknown god who probably repre-
sented cycles of death and rebirth.)
continued on next page

were minted during the reign of the emperor Valens (364–378 A.D.). On these coins,
the emperor’s name is split by his portrait: The letters “VALEN” are to the left of his
portrait and the “S” is to the right. These so-called split-Valens coins are thought to
have been issued early in his reign. No coins of later emperors were found. This
seemed strong evidence that the Temple of Apollo and Kourion were leveled by the
365 A.D. earthquake.
We also knew that southwest Cyprus had been devastated around this time. Archae-
ologist David Rupp of Ontario’s Brock University reported, for example, that there
was no habitation at Paphos from 365 A.D. to the latter part of the century. At Kourion,
In 499 B.C. Kourion’s king, Stasanor, joined with other Greek Cypriot kingdoms and the Greek
cities of Ionia (on the western coast of Anatolia) in the so-called Ionian Revolt, an attempt to throw
off their Persian overlords. During the land battle at Salamis, Stasanor betrayed his allies, a move
that enabled Kourion to remain independent after Persia crushed the revolt.
When Alexander the Great defeated Persian forces at the battle of Issus in 333 B.C., the Cypriot
cities joined him. Kourion’s last ruler, Pasicrates, committed 120 of his warships to Alexander’s siege
of Tyre (in modern Lebanon) in 332 B.C. Following Alexander’s death in 323 B.C. and the subsequent
division of his empire into three parts (European, Asian and Egyptian), the Macedonian-born ruler of
Egypt, Ptolemy I, annexed the island of Cyprus. Kourion then declined into a small, provincial town.
After Rome annexed the island in 58 B.C., Kourion experienced a revival. By the mid-second cen-
tury A.D., it was a thriving metropolis of 20,000 citizens, who enjoyed amusing entertainments in a
newly remodeled theater (above) and thrilling spectacles in Cyprus’s only known stadium, located
halfway between the city of Kourion and the Temple of Apollo. The massive stadium, in use for at
least 200 years, had 20-foot-thick walls.
The devastating earthquake that occurred on July 21, 365 A.D., destroyed many of Kourion’s build-
ings. The site was then abandoned for several decades. By the beginning of the fifth century,
the Christian community had constructed the Meydani Basilica just east of the stadium, probably on
the site of an ancient temple to Demeter. One of the largest Christian sanctuaries built on Cyprus, the
basilica was made from stone salvaged from nearby ruins. The city’s renewed vigor is also suggested
by the ruins of a palatial dwelling known as the Villa of Eustolios. Restored by the builder Eustolios
in the fifth century A.D., the excavated villa contains an impressive bath complex with a hypocaust
heating system (a kind of central heating, with hot-water pipes running beneath tile floors), as well
as fine mosaic images of birds, fish and dolphins.
Kourion remained a prosperous Byzantine city until the Muslim invasions of the mid-seventh cen-
tury, when the town was plundered and deserted. Soon thereafter, wind-blown sand covered all traces
of its glorious past.
Note
a. “Cyprus” probably derives from the Semitic word kpr, meaning “henna” or “henna-colored”—the color of
copper. The Greeks rendered the name as Kupros (or Kypros), which later became Romanized as Cyprus.
The Latin cuprum (copper) derives from “Cyprus,” and the English “copper” derives from cuprum.

no coins were found from the latter fourth century,

The American Numismatic Society
and there was little building activity until the begin-

ning of the fifth century A.D., when the whole area
began to flourish under a lavish new Christian build-
ing program.
Despite all this evidence, my earthquake theory was
severely criticized. At a lecture I gave in 1980 in
Nicosia, several scholars openly laughed while I gave
my presentation, and one called it ridiculous. I was
told that the renowned Princeton archaeologist Richard
Stillwell had worked for a time with McFadden and
Daniel at Kourion. Stillwell had argued that the theater
Coins uncovered in the ruins of
area was rebuilt in the fourth century A.D. Closer
Kourion help to date the massive examination of Stillwell’s evidence, however, sug-
earthquake that leveled the city. A gested to me that he had not been able to examine the
number of the coins bear the remains closely enough: The fallen theater blocks lay
image of the Roman emperor directly on top of coins from Valens and Valentinian I
Valens (364–378 A.D.) wearing a (364–375 A.D.), suggesting that the theater was
pearl diadem. Coins issued during destroyed in the great quake of 365 A.D.
the first years of his reign are eas-
ily identifiable: The first five letters
In 1983, after I had sufficiently recovered from my
(“VALEN”) of the emperor’s name injuries, Vassos Karageorghis offered me the opportu-
appear to the left of his portrait nity to test the earthquake theory. But I wasn’t sure
while the “S” appears on the where to begin. Daniel’s excavation diary revealed that
right. The so-called split-Valens well-preserved pottery, bronze pitchers and a large
bronze coin above, from the col- quantity of coins had come from an area he called
lection of the American Numis- Trench III. This seemed like a promising place to exca-
matic Society, is similar to those vate.
recovered from Kourion—which
strongly suggests that the site was
In Trench III, Daniel, working for McFadden, had
destroyed in 365 A.D. also found the remains of a house and two skeletons.
Since McFadden thought the skeletons were locked in
an embrace, he named them Romeo and Juliet; he claimed that they had been trapped
by collapsing debris during an earthquake that occurred between 320 and 350. (Unfor-
tunately, he didn’t study the coin hoard from his own trench, which included examples
of the split-Valens coins that enable us to date the earthquake to 365.)
In the University of Pennsylvania Museum, I found photographs of finds from
Trench III, including striking images of the two skeletons. In fact, they weren’t
embracing at all; one skeleton was curled up in the fetal position, as if seeking protec-
tion from falling debris, while the second consisted only of a pair of adult legs.
But how would I find Trench III? Daniel’s diary doesn’t mention the location. The
site plans made in the 1930s by the architect Joseph Last don’t show Trench III. And
Karageorghis wanted me to begin digging just a few months later, in early 1984.

Then fortune struck. While leafing through The Inscriptions of Kourion (1971), by the
classical epigrapher Terence Mitford, I came across a site plan by Joseph Last that I
had not seen before. Tiny dotted lines enclosed some areas that were not explained in
the text but were marked with barely visible Roman numerals. One of these areas,
marked III, was similar in shape to the sketches of Trench III in Daniel’s diary. I was
sure that I’d found Trench III, and I decided to stake the entire 1984 season, and our
$50,000 budget, on this assumption.
In May 1984, 15 of us flew to Cyprus to look for Trench III. On the morning after our
arrival, our architect, John Huffstot, went to the site and found the trench in just a few
minutes. The next day we mapped it, and in three days we were excavating.
From the start the finds were extraordinary. We were soon excavating a large build-
ing similar to a modern Cypriot village house. There was an alleyway entry, a courtyard
Harry Heywood
In another of the sanctuary’s sacred precincts, the park, stood an unusual structure dubbed the Round
Building. The Round Building once consisted of a round wall enclosing a paved walkway that sur-
rounded a garden or arbor. This garden was once planted with trees, perhaps palm trees that were
sacred to Apollo. Author David Soren suggests that worshipers strolled or danced around the interior
of this structure—in contemplation or in ecstasy.

with a colonnade on one side, and a large main room suitable as a reception area. A
smaller chamber may have served as a bedroom. The structure also contained storage
rooms with pottery (mainly amphoras for wine, olive oil or fish sauce) smashed into
thousands of pieces, as well as a kitchen with an oven that was still plainly visible. At
the top of a staircase was a cistern in which we found a lovely necklace of amber, coral
and jet.
This house showed the certain signs of earthquake destruction—particularly the col-
lapse of huge blocks and the human bodies left beneath the rubble. When the quake
struck, the house was probably occupied by squatters, who had crudely partitioned its
rooms. (The original inhabitants likely abandoned the house when earthquakes struck
earlier in the fourth century.) The coin hoards recovered from the house were consis-
tent with those found by McFadden and Daniel, again suggesting that this earthquake
was the famous one of 365 A.D.
Seismologist Terry Wallace compared the data to that of recent earthquakes, such as
the massive 1983 temblor in the Sea of Japan. Geologists Michael Schiffer and Reuben
Bullard sought to piece together the sequence of events that took place within the
house on that fatal day. Together, we concluded that the massive earthquake struck in
three waves, each a few seconds in duration. The entire event probably lasted no more
than 20 to 25 seconds, but it must have seemed an eternity.
One room in the front of the house, which may have served as an anteroom, had been
converted into a stable. Probably during the earthquake’s foreshocks, which may have
lasted one or two minutes, an agitated mule, tethered by an iron chain to an 800-pound
trough, drew the attention of a young girl about 12 years of age, who left her bedroom
to investigate. As the first tremor hit, perhaps lasting just four seconds, the girl
became tangled up in the legs of the mule. The girl was knocked about, unsure of what
was up, down or sideways.
When the powerful second wave hit, striking with devastating fury for some 10 sec-
onds, she covered her face and slumped down amid the legs of the mule. Her skull was
crushed. We were not able to recover all of her body. Perhaps she was already dead (she
was certainly dying) when the third pulse struck, with slightly less intensity, for about
five seconds.
A man about 55 years old had taken refuge in a doorway by the courtyard of the same
structure. The doorway collapsed, crushing him and knocking his teeth from his mouth.
Since his legs were never found, it is likely that hungry animals (perhaps dogs in need
of food) ripped them away, leaving the rest of the body beneath the debris.
Near him, we found thousands of pieces of plaster from the walls, some containing
graffiti with the names of local citizens: Demetria, Eutyches and Sozomenos. These
were Greek names, so it is clear that the people of fourth-century Kourion spoke and
wrote Greek, despite living under Roman control. One badly damaged graffito even
referred to Jesus, reading “Oh Jesus [. . .] of Christ.”

Our most dramatic discovery

David Vandenberg
lay in a makeshift room

installed in the entry corridor
of the structure. Here we found
a 25-year-old man and a 19-year-
old woman, presumably hus-
band and wife. To protect his
wife from falling debris, the
man had placed his leg over her
pelvis and his arm over her
shoulder. They were holding
hands; she had a hairpin in her
hair. A large falling chunk of
plaster had struck her skull,
snapping her neck at right
angles and killing her. The hus-
band took the brunt of the
falling blocks as he straddled
his wife, and his skull was
Reconstruction drawing of a house that had once been a crushed. Lying near them was a
lavish villa. By the time the 356 A.D. earthquake struck, small bronze ring, probably
squatters had divided the house up into rooms, which they worn by the woman, inscribed
inhabited. Human remains uncovered within the house attest with the first two letters of
to the suddenness of Greco-Roman Kourion’s final destruc- Jesus Christ’s name in Greek,
tion. A partial skeleton of a 12-year-old girl was found chi and rho (for Christos), plus
beneath the bones of a mule, both crushed by falling the letters alpha and omega,
masonry. Most poignant of all, the skeletons of the man, signifying the beginning and
woman and child shown at the beginning of this article were the end—as haunting a coinci-
found in the building’s entry corridor. dence as one might ever find at
an archaeological site.
There was more. Our young husband and wife were not only holding each other’s
hands; they were cradling an 18-month-old child in their arms. Both were touching the
child’s back, and the mother held the baby’s face just under her chin. Bits of the child’s
bones were found scattered at some distance from the skeletal group. Apparently
rodents crawling through openings in the debris fed on the corpses and dragged their
bones about. The skeleton of one rodent, unable to make it out, was found trapped near
the skeletons.
I will never forget this scene—how the husband and wife held onto each other, and
how she protected the baby while he protected her.
Our entire team felt that this family should not be separated. Forensic anthropologist
and reconstruction specialist Walter Birkby prepared a plaster cocoon to lift the skele-
tons out of the earth. A crane provided by the British Forces on Cyprus carried the

encased skeletons to a new museum at the site.
Noelle Soren
Birkby then chiseled off the upper part of the
cocoon, revealing the skeletons just as they had
been found. The white plaster was then covered
with earth and sand from the skeletons’ original
surroundings, replicating as best we could the
immediate setting in which we had found them.
Today the family can still be seen at the Kourion
Museum in the village of Episkopi.
Kourion eventually rose again in the fifth cen-
tury A.D. as a smaller but still significant town
and Christian center. The debris, which by then
had already been covered by wind-blown sand
and loess, was largely left undisturbed. In places,
however, it was cleared away so that new homes
and churches could be erected. One of the new
houses of the early fifth century shows that the
memory of the disaster still survived, for an
inscription on a mosaic floor pavement states that
the house was now under the protection of Christ,
whereas Kourion earlier had been the town of The skeleton of a 55-year-old man was
Apollo: “In place of big stones and solid iron . . . discovered in the ruins of a large
this house is girt with the much-venerated signs house that was leveled during the 365
of Christ.” A.D. earthquake. (Forensic anthropolo-
gist Walter Birkby is shown examining
Much of Kourion still remains to be excavated. the skeleton in 1984.) The man proba-
Although most scholars now accept my interpre- bly took refuge in a doorway next to
tation that the site was destroyed in the 365 A.D. the building’s side courtyard (see
earthquake, some still disagree. Only future exca- reconstruction drawing) as the first
vations can resolve the dispute once and for all. temblor struck.

Cypriot Land Mines

Military, political and archaeological
By Hershel Shanks
©Sky Bergman 2002

A group of now-headless marble statues lines a second-century A.D. cold-water bath at ancient
Salamis, in Cyprus. The original excavations at Salamis, led by Cypriot archaeologist Vassos Kara-
georghis, were halted in 1974 when Turkey occupied the northern part of the island—including
Salamis. Although archaeologists from the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus have continued to
excavate at Salamis, Karageorghis and his colleagues from the southern Republic of Cyprus refuse to
enter what they consider to be illegally occupied territory.
W
e couldn’t get to the fifth-century B.C. tomb at Pyla, said to be one of the finest
of the period, because minefields were being cleared that day and the road was
closed. Pyla, on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus, lies near the border
between the Republic of Cyprus in the south and the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus (TRNC), which occupies the northern third of the island. According to Giorgos

Georgiou, the archaeologist from the Cyprus Department of Antiquities who had been
assigned to us that day, the decision to clear the minefield was a result of a recent rap-
prochement between the two sides.
But we hit a different kind of mine, a diplomatic one, which blew up in our face.
We had decided to visit the archaeological sites of Cyprus because the most distin-
guished archaeologist in the country, Vassos Karageorghis—a former director of the
department of antiquities, a retired professor at the University of Cyprus and the exca-
vator of Salamis, among many other sites in Cyprus—was a member of Archaeology
Odyssey’s editorial advisory board. Archaeologist Robert Merrillees, a former Aus-
tralian ambassador to Israel and now head of the Cyprus American Archaeological
Research Institute (CAARI), an affiliate of the American Schools of Oriental Research,
was also a member of our editorial advisory board. These relationships, I was sure,
would enable us easily to get an in-depth appreciation for Cyprus’s rich archaeological
heritage—from the Neolithic period to the 19th century of our own era.
I knew that Cyprus was politically divided, so I made inquiries as to whether it was
possible to visit archaeological sites on “the other side.” I was told that we could cross
into northern Cyprus through the Nicosia checkpoint on day trips, but that we had to be
back in the south by 5:00 p.m. So we planned three day trips to the north. When I men-
tioned this in an email to Kara-
georghis, he replied that a visit to the
Hershel Shanks
north would be “unethical.” He told
me that an Israeli group had “very
bitterly regretted” a visit to the
Turkish Cypriot-controlled area of
the island.
This is what had happened: Each
year Avner Raban, head of Haifa
University’s maritime archaeology
program, leads a cruise of students
to coastal archaeological sites. In
2000, the students cruised the south-
ern coast of Turkey, then sailed
southeast to visit sites on the north-
ern coast of Cyprus, less than 45 Throughout the millennia, conquering peoples—
miles from the coast of Turkey. Phoenicians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Greeks, Romans,
Raban wrote a day-by-day account Crusaders and Ottoman Turks—have been attracted by
of the cruise in the program’s Cyprus’s timber and copper resources, as well as by its
newsletter. This so disturbed friends strategic location in the eastern Mediterranean. The
in southern Cyprus, including Kara- island’s first, Neolithic occupants probably arrived
georghis, that Raban felt obliged around 7,000 B.C. from north Syria. They have left
to issue an “apology” for, in what behind remains of their curvilinear mudbrick homes
must have been carefully negotiated (shown here) at such sites as Kalavasos-Tenta.

diplomatic language, “overstepping the boundaries which

David Lees/Corbis
friendship allows.” In this way, cordial relations with col-

leagues in southern Cyprus were maintained.
Upon hearing that we were planning to go to the north,
Robert Merrillees asked for our assurance that if we did
plan to visit the north, we would publish nothing about it
in the magazine. “I personally cannot be associated with
any publication that causes offense to our Cypriot hosts,”
he wrote me.
I replied that we always try to avoid politics in our
archaeological coverage, but that we are archaeological
journalists who, as a matter of principle, cannot be told
where to visit or what to report. I pointed out that we had
published articles on Leptis Magna in Libya, Baalbek in
Lebanon and, in our sister magazine Biblical Archaeology
Review, an article by the director of antiquities of Saudi
Archbishop Makarios III
(1913–1977), former head of
Arabia. We had also reported on the Palestinian Author-
the Orthodox Church of ity’s excavation in Gaza based on a personal visit. “I think
Cyprus, led the Greek you know,” I added, “that we do try to be fair and make an
Cypriot campaign for enosis honest judgment.” I also touted the merits of freedom of
(unity with Greece) in the the press.
1950s, when the island was a
British colony. In 1960 an
Hershel Shanks
independent Republic of
Cyprus was established, with
Makarios serving as president
with a vice-president of Turk-
ish descent. After a period of
Christian-Muslim bloodshed,
Makarios was overthrown in a
coup whose leaders desired
unification with Greece. In
1974, to protect Turkish
Cypriots, Turkey invaded
Cyprus and occupied the
northern part of the island,
which is now called the Turk-
ish Republic of Northern
Cyprus. When the coup col-
lapsed, Makarios resumed
the presidency of Greek
Cyprus, serving until his The remains of curvilinear mudbrick homes (shown here covered by
death in 1977. a tent) at Kalavasos-Tenta.

Merrillees replied, “I do not, of

course, dispute your right as a
journalist to go where and report
what you wish.” Our decision to go
to the north, however, “leaves my
role as a member of the Editorial
Advisory Board of Archaeology
Odyssey open to misinterpretation
. . . CAARI depends for the suc-
cess of its operations on the
goodwill and cooperation of . . .
the archaeological community in
Cyprus, and we cannot know-
ingly allow ourselves to be asso-
ciated with anything that has the potential to have our credentials and motives
questioned or bring CAARI into disrepute.” Merrillees added that his stance was in no
way “the result of outside pressure,” nor did it preclude a future “working relationship
with you and Archaeology Odyssey.”
Merrillees concluded that our decision to visit the north left him “with no choice but
to resign.” Karageorghis, too, resigned.
In Washington, we had been in contact with the Embassy of Cyprus and the represen-
tative of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The TRNC representative arranged
archaeological guides for us at a variety of sites we wanted to see in the north, but I
was dubious of making the trip if we were going to have difficulties in the south. I
explained to our contact at the Embassy of Cyprus in Washington that Karageorghis
and Merrillees had resigned and that I did not want to make the trip unless we would
be warmly welcomed in the south and provided with professional archaeological guides
at sites we had selected. I was assured that I had nothing to worry about.
Both the government of Cyprus and the representative of the TRNC were as good as
their word. We were graciously and competently received in the south as well as in the
north. Archaeologists were available to explain all of the sites that we had planned to
see in both areas of the island.
But politics was unavoidable. The depth of feeling on both sides is intense and pas-
sionate. Each side is absolutely certain that the position of the other side is blatantly
indefensible. And archaeological issues have been politicized, just as everything else
has been.
Cyprus became an independent country only in 1960. Before that the island was ruled
by an enormous number of outsiders. Neolithic settlers arrived 9,000 years ago, even
before metal was used and pottery invented. We saw some of their strange circular
stone and mudbrick houses clustered at a site called Kalavasos-Tenta on the island’s
southern coast. The village was protected by a wall and a moat that still survives in

places. These Neolithic people buried their dead beneath the plastered or beaten-earth
floors of their circular houses; archaeologists have found a number of these burials. The
most intriguing structure in the settlement consists of a series of three concentric cir-
cles; the complex may have been the residence of the headman of the village or, some
have speculated, a religious shrine, although nothing in the finds suggests a religious use.
Much of the site is now protected by a smartly designed, round, tent-like roof that may
well provide a model for other endangered sites,
Hershel Shanks
especially those with difficult-to-preserve mudbrick.

In the following millennia, Sea Peoples, Phoeni-
cians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks,
Romans, Arabs, Crusaders and Venetians, to name
only a few, held sway in Cyprus. In 1571, the island
was added to the Turkish Ottoman Empire, of which
it remained a part for 300 years. By 1878, however,
the Ottoman Empire was in serious financial straits
and agreed to lease the island to Great Britain,
which administered the island until 1922, when
Cyprus became a British colony. (Turkey had sided
with the Central Powers in the First World War and
now had to pay the price.)
There has never been a Cypriot people as such—
only two communities, Greek and Turkish. They
are separate religiously (Greek Orthodox and Mus-
lim), educationally (completely separate educa-
tional systems), economically (the Greek Cypriots
The Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish
have always been better off), culturally (modern
Republic of Northern Cyprus are
versus traditional) and politically (the Greek
divided by the infamous Green Line—
Cypriots are the majority and the Turkey Cypriots
a barbed-wire barrier that crosses the
the tolerated minority).
island, running right through the heart
of Nicosia. Although tensions between Nevertheless, a Cyprus independence movement
Greek Christians and Turkish Muslims gradually developed, with Greek Cypriots advocat-
once turned violent, no blood has been ing enosis (unity with Greece) and Turkish Cypriots
shed since the division of the island in supporting taksim (partition between the two com-
1974. Foreign visitors to the Republic munities). In 1950 the Greek Orthodox Church,
of Cyprus are permitted to cross into always powerful in Cypriot politics, took a referen-
northern Cyprus for day trips—first dum on enosis and found that 95 percent were in
passing through a Turkish checkpoint favor of uniting with Greece.
(shown here) and later returning
through a Greek checkpoint (see photo Beginning in 1955, Greek Cypriot campaigns for
of Greek checkpoint). No visitors from independence turned violent. The violence was
the Turkish Republic of Northern directed, however, not only against the British, but
Cyprus are permitted to cross the also against Turkish Cypriots. The British expelled
Green Line into southern Cyprus. the Greek Cypriot leader Archbishop Makarios,

who was implicated in the terrorism, to the Seychelles. In the hope of stopping Greek
Cypriot terrorism, however, Britain released Makarios the following year and permit-
ted him to return to Cyprus.
As inter-communal strife increased, Britain called a conference in 1959 in Zurich,
out of which came the so-called 1960 Accords, signed by Turkey, Greece and Great
Britain. Turkey gave up its support for partition and Greece relinquished its support
for enosis. The Republic of Cyprus was born. A new constitution established a bi-
communal federal state in which the president was to be a Greek Cypriot and the vice-
president a Turkish Cypriot. Each
had a veto over legislation. The
Hershel Shanks
legislature was to be 70 percent

Greek Cypriot and 30 percent
Turkish Cypriot, elected by their
respective communities. Govern-
ment administrators were to be
hired in the same proportions.
Turkey, Greece and Great Britain
“guarantee[d] . . . th[is] state of
affairs.” In effect, the constitution
could not be amended without the
agreement of the two communi-
ties. Britain retained sovereignty
over two areas on the island for its
military contingent.
The Republic of Cyprus and the Turkish Republic of North-
ern Cyprus are divided by the infamous Green Line—a This governmental structure
barbed-wire barrier that crosses the island, running right
lasted a bare three years. In
through the heart of Nicosia. Although tensions between
December 1963 violence again
Greek Christians and Turkish Muslims once turned violent,
broke out and the Turkish Cypriot
no blood has been shed since the division of the island in
legislators and administrators,
1974. Foreign visitors to the Republic of Cyprus are per-
fearing their lives, fled to Turkish
mitted to cross into northern Cyprus for day trips—first
enclaves. Of hundreds of casual-
passing through a Turkish checkpoint (see photo of Turkish
checkpoint) and later returning through a Greek check-ties, the great majority were Turk-
ish Cypriots. The British troops
point (shown here). No visitors from the Turkish Republic
proved powerless to stop the vio-
of Northern Cyprus are permitted to cross the Green Line
into southern Cyprus. lence. In March 1964 the Security
Council of the United Nations
established a peacekeeping force
in Cyprus (UNICYP), which remains there to this day. In March 1965 the Turkish Cypriot
members of the legislature sought to return to their seats but were prevented by the
Greek Cypriot government of Archbishop Makarios. Britain and Turkey protested, but
to no avail. In short, the 1960 Accords were unilaterally abrogated by the Greek Cypri-
ots, who sought to justify their position under the legal “doctrine of necessity.”

This was followed by a decade of violence and counter-violence, each side accusing
the other of barbarities. Talks were held in numerous forums, but they all ended in
deadlock.
In 1974 the Greek military junta that had ousted the Greek civilian government came
to Cyprus and ousted Makarios as well. He fled the island and was replaced by the junta
leader, Nicos Sampson, known as the “hammer of the Turks.” Fearing for Turkish
Cypriot lives and concerned that enosis was about to become a reality, Turkey invaded
the island on July 20, 1974. On July 23, the junta was ousted from mainland Greece and
a civilian government took over. Two days later, a cease-fire was agreed upon for
Cyprus. On August 14, after negotiations once again broke down, a new two-day
advance by Turkish forces left 37 percent of the island under Turkish control. Over
150,000 Greek Cypriots fled to the south. The following year the two sides agreed to a
regrouping of their populations. Almost 50,000 Turkish Cypriots abandoned their prop-
erty in the south. Today there are almost no Greek Cypriots living in the north or Turk-
ish Cypriots living in the south.
In 1975 the Turkish Cypriots in the north formed the Turkish Federated State of
Cyprus. In 1983 they asserted their independence as the Turkish Republic of Northern
Cyprus. That is the situation today. Northern Cyprus has been a de facto state for more
than a quarter century.
One good thing: There is very little violence on either side. This tranquil situation has
prevailed for nearly a decade and, according to some sources, much longer. Hence,
there is not much pressure for a change in the quarter-century-long status quo.
While planning to visit the TRNC, we had been told a number of things: that we
should advise the American Embassy about our trip to the north, that we would never
know if we would be allowed through on any particular day or for a series of days, that
48-hour advance notice was required, that we must be careful not to allow the Turkish
Cypriot authorities to stamp our passports, and that we would see the streets in the
north heavily guarded with Turkish troops and tanks (approximately 30,000 Turkish
troops remain in the north).
The first time we approached the checkpoint it reminded us of going through Check-
point Charlie, years earlier, from West to East Berlin. But it was in fact toto caelo dif-
ferent. We did not give advance notice; we simply appeared. No trouble at all. The
Turkish Cypriot authorities didn’t need us to tell them not to stamp our passports; they
knew the rules. After walking through the buffer zone, we were cheerily greeted by our
Turkish Cypriot host. In our three day trips to northern Cyprus, we saw no tanks and
only two soldiers posted at the entrance to a military barracks in the countryside.
The Greek Cypriot border authorities were just as cordial as the Turkish Cypriots.
On our return, they would call a taxi for us and invite us inside their small office to sit
down while we waited.

We could hardly imagine a trip to

Cyprus without visiting the north—
any more than we could imagine a
trip to the island without seeing the
south. Some of Cyprus’s most impres-
sive remains are in the north—places
like storied Salamis, the 45-foot Kyre-
nia shipwreck with its packed cargo
of amphoras that lay for 2,300 years
just a mile beyond the safety of the
Kyrenia harbor, and the breathtaking
monastery of St. Hilarion on a rugged
mountain outcrop. There are equally
impressive sites in the south—like
A blanket of fine sand miraculously preserved three-
the Late Bronze Age city of Kition
quarters of the 45-foot-long wood hull of this fourth-
century B.C. Greek ship, now on display in the Kyrenia with its huge ashlar walls, the intri-
Castle in the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus. The cate mosaics of Paphos, and the 12th-
sunken ship was discovered in 1965 by a sponge diver century painted church at Asinou
about a mile off the coast of Kyrenia. More than 400 with its series of brightly colored
amphoras containing wine from Rhodes and oil from panels portraying the life of Christ.
Samos were recovered from the site, along with thou-Politics was involved not only in
sands of almonds, probably harvested on Cyprus.
our decision to visit the north, but
also surfaced in archaeological issues.
There is absolutely no cooperation between archaeologists in the south and in the north.
An archaeologist with the Cyprus Department of Antiquities asked us if we would send
copies of pictures we took in the north because the department had no other way of
knowing what is happening there archaeologically. Any Greek Cypriot archaeologist
who visits the north would certainly be out of a job the next day.
Southern Cyprus is clearly more prosperous and obviously wants to choke the north
economically. There can be no other reason for the rule requiring a visitor to return to
the south at night. Visitors on day trips are forbidden to make purchases in the north.
Visitors who enter the island from the north cannot visit the south. An embargo on
exports from northern Cyprus is imposed not only by the south but also by European
countries.
Both sides know there is no solution, but they continue to hold weekly talks at the
presidential level. (In fact, not quite at the presidential level: The “government of
Cyprus” refuses to recognize Rauf Denktash as the “president” of the TRNC, though
that is his position. Instead, he is referred to as the “leader,” in contrast to “President”
Glafkos Clerides in the south.)
Cyprus (the government in the south that claims sovereignty over the whole island) is
due to become a member of the European Union in 2004. This could well precipitate a
crisis because Turkey, which also seeks entry into the European Union, would clearly be

vetoed by Cyprus unless Turkey
James Davis/Corbis
were to give up its support for the
TRNC. In this way, the govern-
ment in the south hopes (in vain)
that it will be able to extend its
writ to the north. Turkey, on the
other hand, threatens to “inte-
grate” northern Cyprus into main-
land Turkey if Cyprus is admitted
into the European Union.
The north hopes to have its own
independence recognized one day.
It too believes time is on its side.
True, it is suffering economic
hardship, but it is willing to pay
that price to ensure its security,
Turkish Cypriots say. Besides, the
TRNC hopes to build a water
pipeline from Turkey, which is
only 45 miles away (mainland
Greece is 300). The south will need From the ruins of the St. Hilarion castle in northern Cyprus,
this water and will agree to recog- one can see the Kyrenia mountain range (right back-
nize the independence of the north ground) and sometimes even the Taurus mountains of Ana-
to secure it. So the argument runs. tolia, some 63 miles across the Mediterranean. The castle
is named for a hermit monk who lived in a nearby cave in
A recent report of the Commis- the fourth century A.D. A Byzantine monastery and church
sion on Security and Cooperation were built beside the cave in the tenth century, along with
in Europe (titled “Cyprus: What a tower to keep watch for marauding Arab pirates. In the
if the Talks Fail?”) concluded 13th and 14th centuries, the castle complex was enlarged
that the north-south issues are to serve as a summer palace, which was destroyed by
“hideously complicated.” That, at Venetians in the 15th century.
least, is something we can all
agree on. Unfortunately, the resolution of the crisis depends less on the situation on the
ground than on global issues having little to do with the differences between the Greek
and Turkish Cypriots—such as the relative strengths of their lobbies in Washington and
global interests in Turkey versus Greece. One former American diplomat who is deeply
involved in the south told me that he would deny it if questioned but the fact is that
Turkish Cypriots are in the right. Yet they remain unrecognized and shunned by the
international community.
The ancient site of Salamis lies just north of the Green Line that divides the two sec-
tors, on the east coast of the island. It is not the famous Salamis, an island off the coast
of Greece where the Greek fleet defeated Persian invaders in 480 B.C., ushering in the
great age of Classical Greece—but the two Salamises are related. According to legend,

one Teukros, a hero of the Trojan War

Hershel Shanks
and the son of the king of the Greek

island of Salamis, founded the Cypriot
city of Salamis on his way back to
Greece in the 12th century B.C.
Cypriot Salamis is a huge site that at
its height covered more than 600 acres.
It has been excavated by a number of
archaeological expeditions. As early as
1890, a mission from the British
Museum excavated there. For 22 years,
from 1952 to 1974, a Cypriot expedition
mostly led by Vassos Karageorghis
The Late Bronze Age walls of Kition still stand 3,200
years after they were erected. The construction of worked at Salamis. Simultaneously, a
these massive ashlar (dressed stone) walls and rectan- second archaeological team, from the
gular towers probably coincided with the arrival of University of Lyon, led by the late Jean
Mycenaeans on Cyprus—perhaps associated with the Pouilloux, excavated the site from 1965
Sea Peoples mentioned in Egyptian texts. After a to 1974. Remains from almost every
1075 B.C. earthquake destroyed much of this city on period from the Bronze Age through
Cyprus’s south-central coast, Phoenicians established medieval times have been found, but
a colony on the site, restoring one of the ancient city’s the most impressive are the elaborate
temples and dedicating it to the goddess Astarte. Royal Tombs (c. 800–500 B.C.) and the
Roman public edifices.
Hershel Shanks
The Royal Tombs (not really royal,

just rich) are impressive, each with its
own elaborate entrance road (dromos).
On some of these dromoi, which are in
effect plazas fronting the tombs, a
horse is buried, presumably the steed
of the deceased. The most imposing of
the tombs, labeled Tomb 79, was exca-
vated by Karageorghis in 1966. Inside
the tomb were a bronze cauldron deco-
rated with griffins and sirens, silver
plate, chariots and horse bones. The
The mythical hero Theseus, who killed the man-eating
Minotaur imprisoned by the Cretan king Minos in the
excavators also found magnificent
Labyrinth, is depicted in the center medallion of the ivory plaques (see photo of ivory
above mosaic from Paphos, on Cyprus’s southwestern plaque in the sidebar to this article)
coast. This late-third-century A.D. mosaic floor was that adorned a wooden throne—which
uncovered in a villa thought to have been the palace has been reconstructed and is now in
of the Roman governor. the Archaeological Museum in Nicosia.

The most elaborate building at
Gianni Dagli Orti/Corbis

Salamis is the Roman bath and gymna-
sium complex, with its columned exer-
cise court (palaestra) originally graced
with larger-than-life statues; two
swimming pools; hot and cold baths,
several decorated with intricate and
colorful mosaics; and a latrine that
originally had 44 seats.
Since Salamis is now in the TRNC, a
new excavation has been undertaken
by Cosku Özguner of Ankara Univer-
sity in Turkey. “Unethical,” charges
Karageorghis. Archaeologists from
the south claim that the Turkish In a late-second-century A.D. mansion known as the
excavation violates scholarly ethics House of Dionysus, the “Four Seasons” mosaic (a
because the site was under excavation detail is shown here) was accidentally uncovered in
by teams from France and Cyprus, 1945 by a British military detachment. The youth
which now have the rights to the site. shown here, from the mosaic’s central panel, is sur-
Moreover, a pamphlet given to me by rounded by poorly preserved images of spring, sum-
mer, autumn and winter.
the current director of the depart-
ment of antiquities, Sophocles Had-
jisavvas, charges that Özguner wants to
excavate “a spot where he could have quick
and spectacular results.”
At Salamis, we asked to be taken to the new
Turkish excavations. They appeared to be ordi-
nary excavations of a Roman bath. The Turkish
excavators have also cleared the dumps of pre-
vious excavations in order to better reveal
ancient shops in the agora.
Stripped, forced into a freezing lake and eventually

stoned to death by pagans, the Forty Martyrs of
Sebaste steadfastly refuse to recant their Christianity in
this magnificent 12th-century wall painting from Asi-
nou’s church of Panagia Phorviotissa (see photo of
church of Panagia Phorviotissa in the sidebar to this
article), in the southern Republic of Cyprus. The Forty
Martyrs of Sebaste is just one of many dazzling paint-
ings housed within simple, barn-like Byzantine churches
in Cyprus’s Troodos Mountains. Ten of these churches
have been deemed international cultural treasures and
added to UNESCO’s list of World Heritage sites.

When we told Ahmet Erdengiz, director of political affairs of the TRNC, about the
Greek Cypriot complaint, he replied, “Why should Mr. Karageorghis have the only
right to this very large site?” Hadjisavvas conceded that large sites often have more
than one excavation going on at a time. At Idalion in southern Cyprus, for example, we
visited two excavations currently being conducted simultaneously.
But Hadjisavvos had a more fundamental complaint about the Turkish dig in Salamis.
International law forbids archaeological excavation by an occupying power. Salamis
is now in “occupied Cyprus,” he says. But, of course, the TRNC does not regard itself
as an occupying power.
Erdengiz, on the other hand, told me, “Mr. Karageorghis is invited to come and con-
tinue his dig at Salamis.” This is unthinkable to Karageorghis. He will not even visit the
site he has loved since childhood (he was born eight miles north of Salamis, in the vil-
lage of Trikomo).a
During the Cypriot Late Bronze Age (c. 1600–1050 B.C.), Enkomi, which lies less than
two miles from Salamis, was the most important city on the island. During this period,
the city—and perhaps the entire island—may have been known as Alashiya (Alasia).
This suggestion is based on references in the 14th-century B.C. Amarna letters,
cuneiform correspondence between two successive Egyptian pharaohs and other Near
Eastern rulers. Several of the letters were exchanged between the pharaoh and the king
of a country called Alashiya, which has never been identified. The king of Alashiya
promises the pharaoh shipments of copper and other luxury goods. Similar references
are found in other ancient inscriptions. Because Cyprus was rich in copper and pro-
duced great quantities of it at this time (and
Hershel Shanks
later),b several scholars, including the famous
French excavator of contemporaneous Ugarit on
the Syrian coast, Claude Schaeffer, have argued
that Alashiya is none other than Cyprus.
Enkomi is full of imposing Late Bronze Age
architecture. The pubic buildings are made of
In the 1950s Cypriot archaeologist Vassos Karageorghis

uncovered the remains of Salamis’s second-century A.D.
Roman gymnasium and baths, located on the seaward-
side of the colonnaded palaestra (exercise ground).
Karageorghis continued to excavate at Salamis until
1974, when his work was halted by the Turkish occupa-
tion of northern Cyprus. However, a Turkish team
headed by Ankara University archaeologist Coskun
Özguner has continued to excavate the area around the
gymnasium. In 1999, when Özguner uncovered a
Roman-period building—probably a villa with baths
(shown here, compare with aerial photo)—Karageorghis
decried the action as a breach of scholarly ethics.

very large squared stones called ashlars. Considerable evidence of metal production
was also found at the site, along with grandiose tombs with rich finds. Enkomi was
apparently abandoned when the adjacent river estuary that provided shelter from the
exposed harbor silted up. It was then that Salamis was founded, probably by people
from Enkomi.
Enkomi was excavated most recently from 1971 to 1973 by a team from the Univer-
sity of Lyon under the direction of Olivier Pelon. The final report on this excavation
remains unwritten. The excavation finds are locked and stored at the site, untouched
by the Turkish Cypriot authorities since 1974. They would like the excavator to study
the finds and write a report. This is especially important because, as the entry on
Enkomi in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East states, “Some sig-
nificant points in the chronology of Enkomi have not yet been settled.” Ahmet Erden-
giz responded, “If the excavator doesn’t want to excavate anymore, that is his
business. But he could come and write a report.”
We contacted Pelon at the Institut d’Archeologie Orientale in Lyon. “I am in total
ignorance of what has become of the finds,” he replied. “It has been impossible for me
. . . to visit the site officially.” A source at the Centre National de la Recherche Scien-
tifique in Paris tells us that the French Foreign Ministry has instructed archaeologists
not to work in northern Cyprus.
“The fact is, unfortunately,—and I wholeheartedly regret it—that under the present
circumstances no resumption of the work of excavation or even study may be envi-
sioned in the near future,” Pelon wrote us.
Many archaeological sites on the island, including Salamis and Enkomi, as well as the
later painted churches in the north (there are many more in the south), are badly in
need of conservation and restoration. The TRNC has neither the money nor the expert-
ise. They need and want help. But the TRNC is unrecognized. UNESCO, for example,
In the 1950s Cypriot archaeologist

Sonia Halliday
Vassos Karageorghis uncovered the

remains of Salamis’s second-century
A.D. Roman gymnasium and baths,
located on the seaward-side of the
colonnaded palaestra (exercise ground)
in the center of this aerial photo. Kara-
georghis continued to excavate at
Salamis until 1974, when his work was
halted by the Turkish occupation of
northern Cyprus. However, a Turkish
team headed by Ankara University
archaeologist Coskun Özguner has
continued to excavate the area around
the gymnasium.

will not process an application from the TRNC, explaining that UNESCO deals only
with “a state authority.”
A paradox: Everyone agrees that the work should and must be done. The sites include
many that the Greek Cypriots are especially devoted to. It is not that they love the sites
in northern Cyprus less, but that they hate the TRNC more. So the sites continue to
deteriorate. The excavation reports remain unwritten. And the status quo will almost
surely continue—unless Greece and Turkey someday go to war over Cyprus.
Notes
a. See Nancy Serwint, “Cyprus’ Jewel by the Sea,” AO 05:05 (review-article on Vassos
Karageorghis’s memoir, Excavating at Salamis in Cyprus [Athens: A.G. Leventis Founda-
tion, 1999]).
b. Even the name “Cyprus” has long been associated with copper. “Cyprus” probably derives
from the Semitic word kpr, meaning “henna” or “henna-colored”—the color of copper. The
Greeks rendered the name as Kupros, and it later became Romanized as Cyprus. The Latin
cuprum (copper) derives from “Cyprus,” and the English “copper” derives from cuprum.

Age by Age: Ancient Cyprus

Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods:
7500–2500 B.C.
Over 9,000 years ago, Neolithic settlers who did not yet know
how to produce metals or pottery arrived on Cyprus from the
Near East, probably from the north Syrian coast. By the sixth
millennium B.C., villagers in scattered settlements along
Cyprus’s northern and southern shores survived by fishing,
hunting and farming, and some lived in curvilinear homes made
of river stones and mudbrick, like those at Kalavasos-Tenta (see
photo of curvilinear homes in the main article). Metal objects,
pottery and cruciform-shaped stone figurines, such as the
3-inch-tall figure above, began to be produced on Cyprus during
the fourth millennium B.C. These figurines have been recov-
ered from graves and ruined buildings in the southwestern part
of the island.
Bronze Age: 2500–1100 B.C.
By the middle of the 16th century B.C., most of

Cyprus—except the mountainous areas—was inhabited.
Cypriots established new commercial ties with the east-
ern Mediterranean, Egypt, the Near East and the Aegean
world, exchanging their timber, pottery and copper for
pottery from Minoan Crete, metals from Anatolia, and
faience beads and ivory from Egypt. The islanders
adapted a Minoan script (now called Cypro-Minoan
script), and they used a system of weights similar to that
used in the Near East and
Egypt. Around 1200 B.C.,
settlers from the Mycenaean world—perhaps associated with the Sea
Peoples mentioned in Egyptian texts—introduced new burial customs
and the Greek language to the island. This period of cultural cross-
fertilization and expanding international commerce spurred the
growth of new urban centers—Paphos, Salamis, Kition and Enkomi—
which grew wealthy from trading pottery and oxhide-shaped copper
ingots (above), which were alloyed with tin to make bronze.

Iron Age: 1100–310 B.C.T
Ten autonomous city-states ruled the island during the 11th

century B.C., with Salamis replacing Enkomi as the dominant
city in eastern Cyprus. Phoenicians colonized the harbor town
of Kition during the ninth century B.C.; soon sophisticated
Phoenician motifs (often reflecting the influence of Egypt)
began appearing in Cypriot metalwork, pottery and luxury
goods, such as the open-work ivory plaque shown above, which
once adorned a throne found in Salamis’s royal necropolis. The
island’s growing prosperity, based on the export of copper and
pottery, attracted unwanted attention from a succession of for-
eign overlords. Sargon II of Assyria (722–705 B.C.) boasted in an
inscription found in Kition that the cities of Cyprus paid him
tribute, and an inscription left by the Assyrian king Esarhaddon
(680–669 B.C.) lists “ten kings from Cyprus [Iadnana] amidst
the sea” under his yoke. During the mid-sixth century B.C.,
Egyptians briefly ruled the island, followed by Persians who
remained in control for two hundred years, using Phoenicians
as local administrators. Following Alexander the Great’s defeat
of the Persians in 333 B.C. at the Battle of Issus, the Cypriots
voluntarily submitted to their new Greek rulers.
Hellenistic Period: 310–30 B.C.

When Alexander died in 323 B.C., the Cypriot kingdoms became enmeshed in
a power struggle between two of his Macedonian Greek generals: Antigonus,
who sought to reunite the empire under his own rule, and Ptolemy, who claimed
Egypt as his share of the empire. After annexing Cyprus in 294 B.C., Ptolemy set
out to abolish the island’s city-states. He accused Nicocreon, the king of Salamis,
of siding with Antigonus, and then besieged Salamis and put Nicocreon’s palace
to the torch. Nicocreon and the rest of the royal family committed suicide rather
than submit. (The fourth-century B.C. life-size marble head of Aphrodite above
was found in the ruins of Salamis.) The Ptolemies ruled over a unified Cyprus
for the next 250 years.
Roman Period: 30 B.C.–330 A.D.

Cyprus was incorporated into the Roman Empire in 30 B.C. as a province of Syria after the con-
quest of Alexandria, Egypt by Octavian (later to be acclaimed Emperor Augustus). The Romans
levied huge taxes on the island and exploited Cyprus’s copper and timber resources. In the year 45
A.D., the apostle Paul and his Salamis-born, Jerusalem-raised disciple Barnabas traveled to Cyprus
and converted the Roman proconsul (a governor of senatorial rank) Sergius Paulus to Christianity—
making Cyprus the first Christian-ruled country in the world. The city of Paphos became the

Romans’ administrative capital during this period, although the

second-century A.D. Roman emperors Trajan and Hadrian con-
tinued to favor Salamis, where they built a theater, gymnasium
and colonnaded palaestra, or exercise ground (above).
Byzantine Period: 330–1191 A.D.
With the rise of the emperor Constantine (274–337 A.D.), the

Roman Empire became officially Christian. After Constantine’s
death, Cyprus remained under the jurisdiction of the Eastern
Roman Empire, whose capital was Constantinople (which was
built on the site of an earlier settlement called Byzantium). After
a devastating earthquake struck the island in 365 A.D., Cyprus
was rebuilt as
a thoroughly
Christianized culture. The rise of Islam in the mid-
dle of the seventh century led to frequent Arab
incursions into the eastern Mediterranean over
the next 300 years, and Cyprus became a haven for
Christian refugees from Syria and Palestine. The
Arabs, however, never occupied the island; they
struck a deal with Constantinople and received the
island’s taxes as a form of tribute. By 965 A.D.
Cyprus was once again under the control of the
Byzantine Empire, and Byzantine dignitaries
sponsored the building of new churches. Chapels
like the early 12th-century Church of Panagia
Phorviotissa at Asinou (above) were decorated
with sacred wall paintings (see photo of wall painting from the Church of Panagia Phorviotissa at Asi-
nou). This artistic floruit was interrupted in 1191 when England’s Richard the Lionhearted conquered
the island en route to the Holy Land during the Third Crusade.

The Guardians of Tamassos

Rescuing Cyprus’s 2,500-year-old sphinxes and lions
By Marina Solomidou-Ieronymidou
O
n a cold and rainy morning in January 1997, I received a phone call from
Orthodoxos Liasides, the foreman of a maintenance crew working on the monu-
mental tombs of Tamassos, 15
Department of Antiquities, Republic of Cyprus

miles southwest of Nicosia. The men
were insulating the tombs from the
destructive effects of dampness in the
soil, and they were digging a trench
from which they would apply the pro-
tective coating.
“Mrs. Marina, you need to come to
Tamassos. I think we have found two
statues,” he said. “Stop work immedi-
ately,” I told him. “Just wait for us.
We’ll be there soon.”
We arrived at the site by 10:30 a.m.
The workmen had already covered the
area with a plastic cloth to protect it
from the rain. In the trench was the
large head of a lion. Next to it was what
appeared to be the back of an animal
with a tail. This proved to be another Two serene sphinxes (shown here and in the next
lion, even bigger than the first, but photo) stood watch over a sixth-century B.C. royal
broken into four parts. tomb at Tamassos, in central Cyprus. Since the
3-foot-long limestone sphinxes are mirror images
The Tamassos tombs, dating to the of one another and unworked on their backs, they
late sixth century B.C., reflect the were probably placed against a wall on either side
prosperity of the city, which once grew of the tomb’s entrance.

wealthy from nearby copper mines. The three

tombs, of which two are extremely well pre-

served, were discovered in 1889 and 1894 by a
colorful Prussian journalist-turned-archaeologist
named Max Ohnefalsch-Richter. He arrived on
the island in 1878, the year Cyprus passed from
Ottoman to British rule. Within a year he had
grown weary of reporting politics and pursued
his new interest in archaeology, excavating in the
area of ancient Kition.
Ten years later, Ohnefalsch-Richter directed a
dig at Tamassos on behalf of the Berlin Royal
Two serene sphinxes (shown here and in Museums; there he uncovered the first of the
the previous photo) stood watch over a sixth-century B.C. subterranean tombs. He
sixth-century B.C. royal tomb at returned to Tamassos in 1894, once again with
Tamassos, in central Cyprus. Since the imperial backing, and excavated a second well-
3-foot-long limestone sphinxes are mirror preserved tomb 65 feet east of the first tomb.
images of one another and unworked on (The third tomb had been destroyed in the past by
their backs, they were probably placed villagers in search of building material.)
against a wall on either side of the
tomb’s entrance. After recovering the lions, we continued exca-
vating. Only a few inches away, we discovered
another large statue—this time a sphinx. All this in one day! We were so excited by the
work that we didn’t feel the cold or the rain. Before we knew it, late afternoon had
arrived, time for the workmen to go home. We left the site in the hands of the guard,
Gregoris Ioannou, who stayed there all night.
That evening we arranged for a bulldozer to remove the pile of debris we had creat-
ed so that we could continue the excavation. The three statues were transported to the
Cyprus Museum in Nicosia. I remained at the site to continue digging.
There is a Greek expression: “The earth gives birth.” As we continued to excavate, it
did indeed seem that the land was giving birth. I vividly remember workmen shouting,
“Mrs. Marina, there’s another one on the way!”
The fourth statue to come to light was the head and, unfortunately, only the front part
of a large lion. A fifth statue was also a lion. About 20 feet from one of the tombs was
the final statue, another sphinx, identical to the first.
We continued the dig for another nine days in the hope of uncovering more statues,
but all we found were some animal bones and pottery sherds.
All the statues are quite large. The lions vary from about 2 to 2.5 feet high and 2.5 to
4 feet long, and they are similarly carved (see photos of limestone lions). The first lion
we excavated is recumbent, seemingly relaxed, with its head fully turned to its right
toward the viewer. The left hind leg is tucked under the body so that the paw is visible

above the right hind leg. The tail coils up over the
Michael Given
creature’s right haunch. The sculptor even rendered
bones beneath the flesh. The forepaws are crossed,
left over right.
In contrast to the lion’s calm pose, its head is menac-
ing, with a wide open mouth, a broad tongue and four
long canine teeth, visibly larger than the other teeth.
The open mouth and sharp canines suggest a creature
ready to attack—surely suggesting that the lion is a
kind of guardian figure. Here the realism of the body
gives way to the symbolism of the head: This creature
is an apotropaic figure, meant to scare away evil.
The lion’s whiskers are rendered as four incised
lines that curve upward beneath its broad, flat nose.
Its eyes are large and rounded, and the artist, with a
touch of endearing naturalism, has chiseled tear
ducts into the inner corners of the eyes. The lion’s
small, rounded, erect ears protrude from its large tri-
angular-shaped head. So determined was the sculptor
Although three Tamassos royal
to produce a realistic image that he even rendered tombs (one is shown here) were
the hair inside the lion’s ears as small rounded protru- excavated more than a century ago,
sions. The mane is shown by short parallel incisions, the funerary statues only came to
creating a sort of collar around the head. At the top of light recently when a maintenance
the head, these incisions form a decorative motif in crew uncovered a stone lion’s head
the shape of a flower with open petals. The mane then (see photos of stone lion’s head)
continues down onto the back, chest and shoulders. near one of the tombs. In the sal-
vage excavation that followed,
The lion also still has traces of its original painted author Marina Solomidou-
decoration: red on the tongue, gums, ear, nostrils and Ieronymidou and her team from
body, and blue on the mane. Cyprus’s Department of Antiquities
Another excavated Tamassos lion is the mirror found three other lion statues, as
image of the first one. This lion looks to its left well as the two sphinxes. The
archaeologists believe that these
toward the viewer, and its paws are crossed right
three pairs of statues served as
over left. Both of these lions are meant to be seen
guardian figures, preventing evil
only on one side; the back of the statues remain influences from disturbing the dead.
unworked. Clearly they were paired, perhaps at
either side of a portal.
The bodies of the two sphinxes—which, like the lions, are mirror images of one anoth-
er—are almost identical to those of the lions, with their tails coiling up over the haunch
and their crossed forepaws. However, the sphinxes have wings and human heads. The
large curving wings consist of two bands of incised feathers and a decorative band with
spiral motifs.

The sphinxes’ human heads wear the royal double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt
and the Egyptian nemes, or royal headdress. As with the lions, the heads are turned
toward the viewer, one to the right and the other to the left. The eyes are large and
almond-shaped. The mouth is closed and sculpted in a discreet smile, which is more
clearly visible on one sphinx than on the other.
Like the lions, the sphinxes are not worked on the back and retain traces of their orig-
inal painted decoration—blue and red on the wings, the nemes and the crown, and black
on the eyes to render the iris.
In some ways, our lions and sphinxes are unique. This uniqueness stems principally,
and paradoxically, from their syncretism; they are the product of a variety of different
cultures. In this sense they are typical of Cyprus, which has for millennia been a cross-
roads of cultures, often creating an amalgamation all its own. That is what appears to
have occurred here.
The iconography of lions in ancient art has been intensively studied.a Suffice it to say
that as the “king of beasts,” the lion is often a symbol of strength, power, royalty,

Tamassos’s limestone lions, about 2 feet high, were depicted with menacing fangs and a slobbering
tongue. The body, however, is a picture of repose—with one paw gently resting atop the other and
the long tail curving gracefully over the creature’s hindquarters. Perhaps this combination of features
suggested the supple ease with which the beasts warded off evil.
Since lions were not indigenous to Cyprus, sculptors apparently melded a variety of features bor-
rowed from other eastern Mediterranean cultures. The Cypriot lions’ recumbent pose, crossed
forepaws and triangular face suggest Egyptian influence, and the naturalistic chiseling of the mane
resembles stone carving from Ionia, in western Anatolia. The lions’ most distinct features, however,
are their open mouths, bared teeth and panting tongues—elements associated with lions carved by
Assyrians and Hittites.

courage and sovereignty in the art of the eastern

Mediterranean and Near East. Although lions never

roamed Cyprus, native sculptors could easily find
models in nearby lands. The Tamassos lions (and
sphinxes), though made of Cypriot limestone and pre-
sumably sculpted by Cypriot artisans, reflect a mix-
ture of influences: Syro-Hittite, Ionian, Phoenician
and Egyptian.
The Tamassos sphinxes also show this multi-cultural-
ism. We all know about Egyptian sphinxes, but there
were also sphinxes in other countries, such as Greece,
Syria and Phoenicia. In Egypt, guardian-sphinxes were
placed in rows on either side of the main avenues lead-
ing to sanctuaries and palaces. Often we find sphinxes
placed in pairs in front of entrances. Monumental
Greek and Asian sphinxes usually guarded temples
and tombs, but we also find smaller sphinxes sculpted
in ivory or metal and incised on seals.
Like the lions, the sphinxes had an apotropaic char-
acter—they protected against evil. The combination of
a sphinx’s theriomorphic (beast-shaped) and anthropomorphic aspects made it a sym-
bol of supernatural power; it fused the intelligence and imagination of mankind with
the speed and strength of beasts.
Clearly, the Tamassos lions and sphinxes were guardians of the tombs. They were
probably placed in pairs at the entrances of the three monumental “royal” tombs of
Tamassos, as suggested by the fact that their back sides were not worked (and there-
fore not visible).
In this respect, our figures are somewhat distinctive: When such lions or sphinxes
appear in a funerary context, they tend to be found on sarcophagi or on top of funerary
columns. The practice of placing a lion or sphinx on a tomb to guard the dead seems to
have had its origins in Ionia, on Anatolia’s Aegean coast. The concept of guardian lions
was imported into Cyprus probably via north Syria and Anatolia. The principal iconog-
raphy of the Tamassos carvings, however, comes directly from Egypt, where the lion
and the sphinx served as guardians of funerary monuments and sacred avenues of
Egyptian temples. That the bodies of the sphinxes are so similar to those of the lions is
further evidence of Egyptian influence, although this influence was combined with the
influence of Egyptianizing Syro-Phoenician art.1
I leave the reader with some final mysteries: How did it happen that these lions and
sphinxes were not exposed by Max Ohnefalsch-Richter at the end of the last century?
Is it possible that he simply didn’t notice these large lions and sphinxes? Or did he see
them and just leave them where they were, rather than taking them back to Germany,

as he did with so many other finds? Did he have to rush back home for some reason?
Unfortunately, I have no answers.
Notes
a. See Marian Feldman, “The Iconography of Power: Reading Late Bronze Symbols,” AO 05:03.
1. See Marguerite Yon, “Les lions archaiques,” Salamine de Chypre 4 (Paris 1973), pp. 19–47;
and Annie Caubet, “Stèles funéraires de Chypre au Musée du Louvre,” RDAC (1977), pp.
170–172.

Book Review: Cyprus’ Jewel by the Sea

In Excavating at Salamis in Cyprus, 1952–1974, Cypriot
archaeologist Vassos Karageorghis lovingly recalls one of
his most memorable excavations—in a part of the island
controlled for almost three decades by Turkey.
By Nancy Serwint
S
alamis. Her wealth profound and
glittering, her kings cultured and
defiant. A gleaming marble city
on the east coast of Cyprus, washed by
waves that brought many a hopeful
conqueror to her royal court.
Such beguiling images are evoked in
Vassos Karageorghis’s archaeological
memoir, Excavating at Salamis in
Cyprus, 1952–1974. The author’s repu-
tation as the doyen of Cypriot studies
is based on his detailed excavation
reports, cross-cultural studies and
scholarly analyses of Cypriot artifacts.
Nowhere, however, is there a volume
quite like this one—at once a paean to
the heady days of exploring ancient
Salamis and a lament that Cyprus’s
golden age as an independent, united
country was so brief.a Archaeological
texts typically offer facts, measure-
ments and statistics. This one speaks
from the heart.

Karageorghis grew up just a few miles

Sonia Halliday
from Salamis, in the village of Trikomo,

and he traces his fascination with the site
to an epiphany that occurred during a high
school field trip. While brushing sand
from an ancient fallen column, he had
intense feelings of wonder and awe. Some
13 years later, he returned to the site as an
archaeologist.
According to the archaeological evi-
dence, Salamis was first settled in the 11th
century B.C. Greek literary sources
record that the city was founded after the
Trojan War by Teucer, the son of the king
of the Greek island of Salamis. For a thou-
sand years, Salamis was the principal city
Some 24 feet of sand covered Salamis’s early
of Cyprus and, indeed, one of the most
second-century A.D. gymnasium complex in
prosperous cities of the eastern Mediter-
1952, before the excavations of Cypriot archae-
ologist Vassos Karageorghis (see photo of Vassos ranean world. From Salamis, merchants
Karageorghis). sailed to Egypt, the Levant, Anatolia and
Greece. The city’s royalty built lavish
palaces and tombs. This wealth made
Cyprus appealing to invaders, and the
Sonia Halliday
island came under Persian jurisdiction in

the sixth century B.C. In the late fourth
century B.C., Salamis was taken by
Ptolemy I, the founder of the Egyptian
Ptolemaic Dynasty. By the mid-first cen-
tury B.C., the Romans controlled Cyprus
and incorporated the island into its
expanding empire—with its capital not
Salamis but Nea Paphos, at the western
end of the island.
In the Roman period, Salamis nonethe-
Karageorghis and his team exposed some of the
less remained Cyprus’s richest city, with a
complex’s walls to a height of 28 feet, uncovered
the floor of its palaestra (exercise ground) and
magnificent theater, gymnasium and
re-erected some of the palaestra’s columns. baths, all embellished with beautiful sculp-
Many of the niches in the gymnasium’s walls tures and mosaics. In 342 A.D. Salamis was
were decorated with mosaics and wall paintings renamed Constantia, after the Byzantine
of mythical scenes—such as this mural showing emperor Constantius II, and the city
Hylas, a boy loved by Hercules, rejecting the became the seat of a metropolitan (the
charms of a nymph. head of an ecclesiastical province). During

the Arab raids of 647 and 648, much of the population of Salamis was massacred and
the city was sacked—never to recover fully.
Battered by earthquakes, subjected to Arab invasions and inhabited by squatters,
Salamis eventually vanished under drifting sand that, mercifully, has preserved much
of the site. What remained uncovered tantalized generations of travelers and archaeo-
logical voyeurs. Many of these people—both looters and well-intentioned scholars—
despoiled parts of the city and the nearby necropolis. Over the centuries, the lure of
Salamis’s hidden riches proved to be too much of a temptation for those with an
appetite for gold and silver jewelry and other precious objects. Ancient treasures were
shipped off to foreign museums and private collections.
When Karageorghis was appointed assistant curator of the Cyprus Museum in 1952,
he was sent to Salamis to help investigate the area around the ancient gymnasium. The
excavation team was faced with a 24-foot-deep accumulation of sand. This tremendous
overlay so burdened the laborers that they eventually went on strike; three years would
pass before the floor of the gymnasium was uncovered. The team’s discoveries drew
curious visitors to the site, but this time the flow of tourists was monitored. They were
put in the hands of guides and instructed about the difficulties associated with strati-
graphic excavation, which Karageorghis had learned from his teacher, the British
archaeologist Sir Mortimer Wheeler.
After recovering the columns and statues of the gymnasium, the excavators decided
to pursue limited restoration. Using simple equipment and a good deal of ingenuity, the
columns were once again raised. Karageorghis
Excavating at Salamis in Cyprus

describes how the team positioned the marble
statues amid budding trees and blooming wild
flowers, all set against the brilliant blue sea.
Karageorghis’s discovery of the Roman-
period theater in the winter of 1959 was pure
serendipity. While searching for mushrooms in
the Salamis forest, he noticed a large cavity
covered with wild fennel and mimosa. Assum-
ing that the depression might indicate the slope
of a theater, he began to excavate the site. The
archaeologists soon unearthed the theater’s
lower seats, along with the remains of a stage
structure replete with honorific inscriptions,
statues of the Muses and the radiant marble
Apollo Musagetes.
The partially restored theater was inaugu-
rated in 1962 with a production of Sophocles’s Vassos Karageorghis is shown here (right)
Oedipus Rex. What an opening this must have with Renos Solomides, Cyprus’s minister of
been! Government officials from the fledgling finance from 1962–1968.

republic sat beside local villagers, filling the the-
Photo from Excavating at Salamis in Cyprus

ater to capacity. Makeshift dressing rooms were
constructed and electricity was provided by a
generator on loan from the army.
One of the great discoveries at Salamis was the
necropolis. In 1957, a local farmer cultivating his
field happened to find a krater from the Geomet-
ric III period (850–750 B.C.), which he brought to
the attention of the Cypriot antiquities depart-
ment. Porphyrios Dikaios, then the curator of the
Cyprus Museum, began to excavate the site, which
turned out to be a tomb. In the dromos (entrance-
way) of the tomb, the excavators found horse buri-
als. They also found a bronze cauldron with the
cremated remains of a woman who was buried
with an impressive necklace made of gold and
crystal beads. Dikaios had uncovered the first of Two intricately carved ivory plaques,
the so-called Royal Tombs of Salamis, which were just a few inches high (including the
built in the eighth and seventh centuries B.C. to sphinx shown here, compare with pho-
house the remains of wealthy aristocratic and tos of wooden throne), were originally
royal families. set in a magnificent wooden throne
found in the royal tombs of Salamis—
Subsequent excavations by Karageorghis an eighth-century B.C. necropolis
revealed more elaborate burials. In one tomb, located outside the city walls.
human skeletal remains (including one in which

the victim’s hands had been tied) disclosed the
grisly practice of interring bound captives during
funeral rites. The most extraordinary tomb was
what came to be called Tomb 79, which Kara-
georghis considers one of the outstanding discov-
eries of his career. From May to August 1966, he
and his colleagues conducted a painstaking exca-
vation of the tomb. They found a splendid bronze
cauldron decorated with sirens and griffins, finely
worked ivory plaques, a wooden throne that had
been covered with silver plate affixed with gold-
headed rivets, the bones of horses, and chariots
with bronze trappings. Even the crumbling
remains of a chariot’s plaited willow-twig floor A magnificent wooden throne found in
remained in a partial state of preservation. As in the royal tombs of Salamis—an eighth-
some Egyptian and Near Eastern burials, the century B.C. necropolis located outside
wealthiest citizens of Salamis had their favorite the city walls (shown here in situ, com-
horses and chariots entombed with them. pare with photo of reconstructed chair).

A few months after work on Tomb 79 was com-

pleted, Salamis yielded another marvel. While

excavating Tumulus 77 near the village of
Enkomi, Karageorghis uncovered the cenotaph of
King Nicocreon and his family. In 311 B.C. the
royal family committed suicide inside their burn-
ing palace rather than submit to Ptolemy I, who
was besieging Salamis. The excavators found a
cenotaph containing many offerings: bronze
weapons, droplets of gold from elaborate wreaths,
and remnants of clay statues with faces of the
royal family. This moving discovery recorded the
defiant pride of the last king of Cyprus.
From 1964 to 1974 excavation at Salamis pro-
ceeded as a collaborative effort between the
Department of Antiquities of Cyprus and a
French team from the University of Lyon. Mar-
guerite Yon, who became director of the French
mission in 1972, tells about this work in an
Even though the throne’s wood had appendix to Excavating at Salamis. Like Kara-
almost completely rotted away (this photo gheorgis, she affectionately recalls the contribu-
shows the reconstructed chair, compare tions of local workers from the villages of
with photo of chair in situ), it took excava- Enkomi and Ayios Serghios. She also highlights
tors a month and a half to reveal the deli- key discoveries made by the French, including
cate ivories. Based on the workmanship
an 11th-century B.C. tomb and the early Christ-
of the throne and the style of the ivory
ian Campanopetra basilica.
carving, archaeologists believe the throne
was made by Phoenician craftsmen. After the Turks invaded Cyprus in 1974, all
work at Salamis stopped. Although Kara-
georghis’s book joyfully recounts the thrill of archaeological
Excavating at Salamis in Cyprus
discovery, its pages are also tinged with a profound longing for
what now is just out of reach.
Excavating at Salamis is beautifully illustrated with scores
of color and black-and-white photographs that add a vivid sense
Four sirens and eight griffins adorn the rim of this magnificent 4-foot-high
bronze cauldron with iron tripod from Salamis’s royal tombs. The cauldron,
perhaps used for making offerings, was found in association with Phoeni-
cian pottery, which allowed archaeologists to date the necropolis to the
eighth and seventh centuries B.C. These tombs contained many treasures:
gold necklaces, ivory carvings and bronze weapons. They also yielded
grimmer finds, such as the remains of bound captives who were interred—
perhaps alive—along with the remains of Salamis’s kings and aristocrats.

of immediacy to the excavation records. Books like this one are rare. Seldom does an
excavator speak so eloquently and personally about archaeological work, and seldom
are we given such an intimate view of an excavation as a shared venture between work-
ers and scholars. This is a precious record of one of the most significant excavations
undertaken in Cyprus—or anywhere else in the eastern Mediterranean.
Note
1. In the late 19th century, Great Britain took over control of Cyprus from the Ottoman
Empire, which had ruled the island since 1571. In 1960 the island became an independent
republic, despite growing tensions between the resident Greek and Turkish communities. In
1974, the Turks invaded Cyprus and seized the northern third of the island, including
Salamis. Cyprus has since been divided into the Turkish-occupied north—which is not offi-
cially recognized by any nation other than Turkey—and the Greek-speaking south.

Did Theseus Slay the Minotaur?

How Myth and Archaeology Inform Each Other
By Jeremy McInerney
I
n 1876, Heinrich Schliemann completed a season’s excavation at Mycenae, where
his faith in Homer’s text was repaid with spectacular success. Having excavated
one of the shafts in grave circle A, close by the Lion Gate, Schliemann had come
down on a burial containing the remains of a man whose face in death had been cov-
ered by a gold plate, beaten out to form a crude portrait. According to a story widely
told, Schliemann claimed that the features of the dead man’s face had remained visible
for a split second before crumpling into dust. He cabled the king of Greece and
announced that he had discovered the tomb of Agamemnon.
In recent years Schliemann’s record at Troy
The Art Archive / Archaeological Museum, Naples/Dagli Orti (a)
and Mycenae has come under scrutiny, and many

of his claims have been shown to be exaggerated,
perhaps even to the point of fabrication, but part
of his legacy has been a popular and widespread
belief that archaeology can affirm stories and
historical traditions that otherwise exist only in
Theseus wrestles with the Minotaur before killing him,

while three happy people in the background look on,
knowing that, unlike the victims lying on the labyrinth’s
floor, they will be spared. The labyrinth was created by
King Minos to provide an abode for the Minotaur. Having
defeated the Athenians in battle, Minos ordered them to
provide seven boys and seven girls annually as offerings
to the monster. With the help of Minos’s daughter
Ariadne and her string, Theseus, her Greek lover, entered
the labyrinth, slew the Minotaur and found his way out,
establishing himself as an Athenian hero. Is history buried
in this myth?

literary form. Even if Schliemann were discredited
Bildarchiv Preussischer Kulturbesitz / Art Resource, NY

utterly and we knew that he had planted the so-called
Treasure of Priam, the Bronze Age jewelry that his
wife Sophie was famously photographed wearing, we
would still like to believe his excavations had proved
that Homer’s account of the Trojan War was based on
actual historical events. The tumulus containing the
many city levels of Troy is vividly real in a way that
Homer’s poetry is not. Words are ephemeral, but
objects have a tangible reality that is hard to resist.
When archaeology is applied to myth traditions like
that of the Trojan War, it is hard not to connect the two
and to treat the archaeology as a way of amassing evi-
dence proving the myth.
Archaeologists often decry this approach. “Arch-
aeology is archaeology is archaeology,” they proclaim.
Excavator of Troy Heinrich
By this, they mean that archaeology is not the hand-
Schliemann learned about the
maiden of history and does not exist to generate data
Hissarlik-Troy connection from
that proves historical or literary traditions. Arch-
British archaeologist Frank Calvert,
aeology is its own discipline, with its own story of the who had been digging at the site
past to tell. Hissarlik, the mound of Troy, has exposed for 20 years. In 1871 Schliemann
evidence of a Bronze joined Calvert, fully believing that
Erich Lessing
Age culture (and later the famed city of Homer’s Iliad lay
cultures as well), and at the bottom of the mound.
these deserve to be
studied on their own.
One can understand the frustration of the archaeol-
ogist whose work is hijacked in an attempt to prove
Homer, but there is also a danger of throwing the baby
out with the bathwater if we insist on keeping the lines
between disciplines entirely separate.
Perhaps what is needed is a different emphasis.
After all, if Homer’s epic poetry purports to tell the
story of a war set at Troy and if we have located a
After a fallout with Calvert and the Bronze Age city in the place where he understood
revocation of his dig permit in that war took place, it seems almost perverse to keep
1874, Schliemann left Turkey and archaeology and epic poetry neatly compartmental-
excavated at sites in Greece, ized from each other. Archaeology and epic may be
including Mycenae, where he taught in different university departments, but
uncovered tombs with gold grave Homer’s audience lived in a world where there were
goods, including the so-called abundant reminders of a golden age all around them:
“Mask of Agamemnon”. Mycenae’s Lion Gate was still there in the eighth

century B.C. and in the fifth century B.C., too, the
Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
Age of Pericles. For them the past continued to affect
the present, and their mythology was shaped by a dia-
logue between past and present.
Instead of combing archaeology for evidence to
prove that epic is an accurate reflection of a historic
society or, conversely, rejecting any connection
between them, what we ought to do is ask if there are
correspondences between archaeological materials
and mythical traditions that would yield to us a richer
understanding of both.
As an example of this, we might consider the case of
Theseus, the great Athenian hero. Like many Greek
heroes, he is born of two fathers: His divine father is
Poseidon; his mortal father, Aegeus, king of Athens.
Theseus is raised by his mother, Aethra, at Troizen and Excavator and rebuilder of
is unaware of his royal parentage. Upon reaching man- Knossos Arthur Evans began exca-
hood Theseus learns his father’s identity after passing vations in 1900 with Scottish
a test set for him by Aegeus: He successfully moves a archaeologist Duncan McKenzie.
rock covering a pair of sandals and a sword, tokens of Evans coined the term “Minoan,”
his lineage left there by his father. Theseus travels with naming the civilization he was
them to Athens to claim recognition from his father. On uncovering for King Minos, who
the way, he performs various great deeds that eventu- supposedly ruled the island of
ally will be commemorated in song and on vases. For Crete. Through an extensive and
example, he defeats Procrustes, the bandit who was in thorough excavation, Evans and
the habit of forcing his victims to fit into a bed of spe- his team uncovered the palace
cific size. If they were too short, he stretched them on and frescoes, as well as Linear A
a rack, and if they were too tall, he lopped off any and Linear B tablets. His restora-
pieces that hung over the edges. tion of the palace and some of the
frescoes is still controversial. He is
Once in Athens, again following the pattern of many pictured holding a bull’s-head rhy-
hero-myths, Theseus performs deeds to benefit his peo- ton (ceremonial drinking cup)
ple. Perhaps the best-remembered story about Theseus made of steatite and decorated
concerns his voyage to Crete. Crete was ruled by King with gemstones.
Minos, who controlled a vast empire across the Aegean.
His power, nevertheless, had not saved his family from disaster: After refusing to sac-
rifice a magnificent bull to the gods, he was punished for his impiety. His wife,
Pasiphae, fell in love with the bull, mated with it and gave birth to a monster, half bull,
half man: the Minotaur. This creature was kept in a labyrinth beneath the palace and
fed on the flesh of young men and women who were sacrificed to it. The victims were
tribute paid by Athens, which at that time was under the suzerainty of Minos.
When the time comes for the Athenians to choose the victims, Theseus offers himself
voluntarily and assumes leadership of the expedition. Upon reaching Crete, Theseus

meets Ariadne, daughter of Minos.

She falls in love with Theseus
and helps him to make his way in
and out of the labyrinth by means
of a thread tied to the lintel at the
entrance to the maze. At the heart
of the labyrinth Theseus finds the
Minotaur asleep and manages to
slay him, with his bare fists in
some versions. Retracing his
steps via the thread, he escapes
and flees with Ariadne. On the
pair’s arrival at Naxos, Dionysus
sees Ariadne and, smitten with
her beauty, carries her off.
Because of his grief at losing her,
Theseus sails on to Athens with a
black sail on his ship instead of a white one, the signal intended to show that the
Athenians have been successful and that the youths have been saved. Thinking that his
son has perished in the labyrinth, Aegeus hurls himself down from the Acropolis and
dies, giving his name to the Aegean Sea.
Is there any point at which this story can shed light on the history of the Bronze Age
Aegean that has emerged over the last century?
To answer that question we must look at the archaeology of Crete. Since the late 19th
century, when Sir Arthur Evans commenced excavations at Knossos, it has become
clear that Crete was home to an extraordinary civilization in the second millennium
B.C. Based on pottery sequences, archaeologists are now able to chart the growth of
Minoan culture on Crete from a prepalatial period during the late third millennium B.C.
to the period of greatest power and prosperity in the second half of the second millen-
nium—the First Palatial period, which lasted from approximately 1900 to 1700 B.C., fol-
lowed by the Second Palatial period, which ran from approximately 1700 to 1450 B.C.
and even a third and final phase that centered on Knossos from perhaps 1450 to 1300
B.C. These absolute dates should be treated with caution, but the dates are not central
to our story. The terminology, however, does alert us to two important features of
Cretan society. We refer to the civilization of Bronze Age Crete as palatial because
palaces were at the heart of all economic, political and religious life. The division into
successive, discrete periods also serves to remind us that the palaces experienced fluc-
tuating fortunes, at times enjoying enormous prosperity and at other times suffering
destruction and abandonment.
The palaces were located around the coastline of Crete at Knossos, Mallia, Zakro,
Phaistos and Khania. From here Minoan fleets put out to sea and engaged in trade or
raiding throughout the eastern Mediterranean. Shipwrecks from the end of the Bronze

Age, such as the Uluburun wreck excavated by George Bass off the coast of Turkey,
revealed cargoes of glass ingots, tin, copper, Baltic amber, scarabs of lapis lazuli, and
drinking cups. When we add perishable items such as perfumes, textiles, spices and
slaves, all of which were certainly among the items circulating around the eastern
Mediterranean, it comes as no surprise that the Minoans grew rich on their control of
the trade routes that reached Egypt and Syria to the east and south and the Adriatic in
the west.
On Crete itself, social organization appears to have been increasingly stratified. It is
not difficult to imagine an elite of sophisticated consumers dominating life in the
palaces, and, as with any complex society, the complement of this palatial ruling class
was the large force of farmers and artisans who produced the food, the pottery, the
exquisite jewelry and the artwork that the elite enjoyed. The exact nature of this social
stratification and how it worked in practice remains somewhat opaque; for example,
we don’t know if kings or queens, or both, sat on the
Erich Lessing
throne. Were they high priests ruling on behalf of
the gods or taken as incarnations of the gods? We
simply don’t know.
We are also in the dark when it comes to the
world of ideas and beliefs inhabited by the Minoans
since we do not possess any Minoan literature. No
hymns or prayers survive to reveal their religious
system. Instead we have to rely on mute sources,
such as the frescoes decorating their shrines and
cult centers, as well as carved gemstones and seals
that depict cultic activity. These suggest that the
Minoans recognized a powerful goddess who is
sometimes shown looming over lesser mortals.
Also, many household shrines have revealed bell-
shaped figurines showing goddesses, or perhaps
the one goddess in various forms, in a characteris-
tic pose with arms open and bent upwards at the
elbow. Faience figurines of women wearing the
characteristic Minoan flounced skirt with snakes
wrapped around their arms may be depictions of
goddesses or the priestesses who served them.
A REGAL ENTRANCE. Built around
Another deity, or at least a divine principle, wor- 1260 B.C., the Lion Gate guards the
shiped by the Minoans was the bull. Again, we rely entrance to Mycenae, a powerful
on the evidence of frescoes and gems that show Bronze Age citadel. The city thrived
how the Minoans practiced an astonishing ritual from 1600–1100 B.C. and, according to
that consisted of grasping a bull by its horns and the Iliad, was once ruled by King
leaping over its back. When we add to this the ubiq- Agamemnon, brother of Menelaus and
uity of stylized bulls’ horns, so-called “horns of leader of the Greeks in the Trojan War.

consecration,” as well as the bull’s-

The Art Archive/Dagli Orti
head rhyta (drinking vessels; singu-

lar, rhyton) and vivid portraits of
individual beasts, there can be no
doubt that the Minoans treated the
bull with deep reverence. To them it
was the embodiment of masculine
power. The bull may well have rep-
resented the young male consort of
the goddess of love, a pattern that
recurs throughout the ancient near
east from Tammuz and Ishtar to
Venus and Adonis, although if this
is the case we cannot even give
names to the Cretan versions of this
divine couple.
One other aspect of Minoan cul-
FIT FOR A CHIEFTAIN. Constructed in the 16th century
ture requires mention. The Minoans
B.C. and discovered by Schliemann in 1876, grave circle
were literate, or more accurately,
A held skeletons, swords and daggers, suggesting that
their society included a class of
the graves were the burial site of warrior rulers. Some of
scribes who employed a script,
the grave goods can be traced to Asia Minor and Egypt,
reflecting the expansive Mycenaean trade network. Linear A, to record the goods placed
Schliemann discovered the famous “Mask of in the great storage rooms of the
Agamemnon” in this grave circle. palaces and to mark vessels and
objects dedicated in their sanctuar-
ies. Linear A has not been deciphered, but the presence of clay tablets inscribed with
this script both on Crete and further afield fits with a general picture of expanding
Cretan influence in the Second Palatial period. Some scholars have gone so far as to
refer to the Minoization of the Aegean during the Late Bronze Age. Whether this
resulted in political domination by Knossos or one of the other Cretan palaces cannot
be proved. However, the growth of Cretan power is undeniable. Cretan looms and
weights were adopted far abroad, and conical cups popular in Cretan rituals turn up in
increasing numbers. Frescoes found on the island of Thera reflect such pervasive
Minoan influence that some scholars have interpreted them as evidence for Thera’s
origins as a Minoan colony. (Minoan frescoes have even been found in Israel and Egypt;
see “Minoan Frescoes in Egypt, Turkey and Israel” sidebar.)
Linear A and its successor, Linear B, play an important part in our story. In the final
phase of Knossos’s occupation, the writing used to record palace inventories was
Linear B. Although some of the ideograms in this script are very close to Linear A, sug-
gesting that the two are related as writing systems, Linear B has been successfully
deciphered, unlike its predecessor. The language somewhat awkwardly rendered into
the syllabary of Linear B is a form of Greek, while Linear A is not. It seems, then, that
the occupants of Knossos in this Third Palatial period were Greek speakers and that

they had replaced their Minoan predecessors in
Vanni/Art Resource, NY
control of Cretan society and palatial culture. This
shift can hardly signify anything less than an inva-
sion of Minoan Crete from mainland Greece.
(Linear B tablets have also turned up in great num-
bers at Pylos, Mycenae, Tiryns and most recently at
Thebes.) This is not surprising. In fact, the takeover
of the Minoan palaces by invaders from the main-
land is the culmination of competition between
mainland Mycenaean Greeks and the Minoans that
had been brewing for two hundred years.
On mainland sites like Mycenae, the material
record shows a taste for Minoan handicrafts in
pottery shapes and decoration and in jewelry. The
The flower-like jewel from Tomb III at
Mycenaean Greeks were in close contact with the
Mycenae was part of a cache of jew-
Minoans, importing goods and perhaps even
elry. Homer referred to the city as
craftsmen from Crete. However, the relationship “rich in gold,” as indeed it was.
had not been entirely amicable. For all of the
appeal of Minoan style to the Mycenaeans, there
was genuine competition between them along the
Erich Lessing
trade routes of the Aegean and eastern Medi-
terranean. As the fortunes of the Minoans waned,
measured by the shrinking amount of their pottery
found beyond Crete, so, too, Mycenaean material
increased in volume. It turns up further afield as
well. Even if this evidence does not support the
notion of a trade war, an anachronistic concept
that implies too great a degree of central authority,
coordination and organization, it is not too much to The hexagonal box, discovered by
imagine the warlords of Mycenae increasingly Schliemann in grave K, displays hunt-
turning their attention to Crete. The ruling elite of ing scenes and corkscrew designs on
its 12 panels.
the Mycenaean world buried its leaders with their
weapons, finely made blades inlaid with silver and
enamel, and marked their graves with stelae Museum Athens / Dagli Orti
The Art Archive / National Archaeologica
adorned with chariots. This was a culture with a

warrior ethos. At some point it would have dawned
on one of these Mycenaean princes that the
palaces of Crete, with all their wealth, were not
protected by walls. It seems clear that it was Gold artifacts from tombs at
Greeks who ruled at Knossos in its final phase and Mycenae reflect the Mycenaean
that the complex, hierarchical organization of interest in wealth and status. The
palatial culture was brought back to the Greek inlaid dagger blade from grave circle
mainland and applied to Mycenaean states such as A depicts a lion hunt.

Pylos, Mycenae and Thebes. By the end of the

Vanni/Art Resource, NY
Bronze Age, Mycenae must have looked like a

rougher version of its more sophisticated Cretan
cousin at Knossos.
The final phase of both cultures occurred toward
the end the 13th century B.C., when the complex
social and economic systems of the Palatial period
simply collapsed. No single factor explains this col-
lapse. It remains somewhat of a mystery, but an
explanation is not significant to our story.
The aftermath of this breakdown brings us back
to Theseus. Here we have a hero whose cycle of sto-
ries touches upon all sorts of themes. There is the
unknown young man who must prove his character
is a match for the royal status he is destined to
enjoy. There is the adventurer who travels to
Hades and the king who saves his people and unites
all of Attica. There is also the mainlander who trav-
els to Crete to throw off the oppressive burden of
This bronze and gold libation vase in Minoan control.
the form of a bull was unearthed at
I am not suggesting that we read this as if the
Mycenae. For the Minoans, whose
story corresponds strictly to historical events. The
culture considerably influenced the
Mycenaeans, bulls were especially popularity of Theseus’s story for hundreds of years
revered. is not, in and of itself, sufficient to prove that there
The infamous Minotaur, half was ever an individual who single-handedly saved
human, half bull, was born to the Athens from foreign domination, whether by
wife of king Minos, Pasiphae, after Cretans or Amazons. Nevertheless, the preceding
she mated with a bull, a punishment summary of Crete and mainland Greece in the sec-
inflicted by the gods after her hus- ond millennium shows that the myth and the story
band failed to sacrifice a bull to told by archaeology are not entirely divorced from
Poseidon. On Minos’s orders, the each other. It is not going too far to suggest that the
creature lived in the labyrinth and ate myth may contain a memory, the memory of a great
the unfortunate people who ended and prosperous earlier age during which the main-
up in the maze—until the Greek hero land saw Crete as powerful and dominant.
Theseus killed it.
To be sure, the story of Theseus and the Minotaur is
hardly the equivalent of scientific archaeology with
its ability to test the contents of Minoan storage vessels or to use ground-penetrating
radar to find traces of the settlements that surrounded the palace at Knossos. Even so,
telling a story set in a mysterious labyrinth, which surely corresponds to the many lev-
els, corridors and staircases of Knossos, is, like archaeology, an interpretation of the
past, anchored in a specific place and shaped by familiarity with it. Myth serves many
functions, but one powerful impetus behind mythology is an overwhelming human

An underwater archaeologist excavates a copper oxhide-

Institute of Nautical Archaeology
shaped ingot from the Uluburun wreck off the coast of

Turkey. Ingots—flat, rectangular metal slabs with four con-
cave sides and similar to the shape of an animal skin—were
an easy way to stack and transport metal. The ship’s cargo
included copper ingots, storage jars, gold jewelry and
domestic pottery dating to approximately 1300 B.C., a
cache probably typical of the trade Minoans engaged in.
drive to tell stories, to take dim memories, con-

fused images, puzzling and half-understood
reminders of the past and to put them into some
kind of order. If archaeology is our way of under-
standing the past, mythology was the Greeks’ way
of understanding theirs.
Stories have a beginning, middle and end. They
repeat motifs, and they reassure us, the audience,
by rendering the confusion and unpredictability of
life into neat narrative patterns: the hero is set a
task, goes on his quest, is victorious and restores
order. To the Greeks, the story of Theseus was a
cycle of myths that helped them deal with their
own past, which was situated in actual places still visible in their landscape. The
ancient Greeks could see, touch and feel Knossos and Mycenae. They wondered who
had lived there. Were they their ancestors? Had they once ruled the seas?
So what does the story of Theseus on Crete say to the Greeks? It recognizes that
Crete was home to a wealthy culture based on naval power. Thucydides, a sober histo-
rian who might have rejected these stories as fabrications, has this to say about Minoan
sea power:
But as soon as Minos had formed his navy, communication by sea became easier, as he col-
onized most of the islands, and thus expelled the malefactors. The coast populations now
began to apply themselves more closely to the acquisition of wealth, and their life became
more settled; some even began to build themselves walls on the strength of their newly
acquired riches.
(Thucydides, The Peloponnesian War 1.8.2–3)
For the historian, then, there was no doubt that Crete had been the super-power of an
earlier age. In the story of Theseus, poets and mythographers were forging a connec-
tion between Athens’s past and that superpower. Where history deals with places,
events and processes, mythology could transform this into a story on a human scale:
Theseus traveled to Crete. An Athenian prince slew the Minotaur. Does this recall a his-
toric event in which the Mycenaeans forcefully overthrew their Minoan overlords?

Bull-jumping, in which a man grabbed
Erich Lessing
a bull’s horns and vaulted over its
back, was popular among Minoans,
who seemed to have revered bulls.
They considered the animal an incar-
nation of masculine power, possibly
representing a female deity’s consort.
Aside from explaining the past

and linking it to the present, the
story also served to stake a
specifically Athenian claim to
importance in the past, correlat-
ing to their status at the time
when the stories gained popular-
ity in the fifth century B.C. This
was the age when Athens became a mighty naval power, its ships patrolling the Aegean
and exacting tribute from its allies. In one sense, then, the story of Theseus resisting
the impositions of Minos and his ghastly tribute is an inversion of Athens’s own impe-
rial position. How reassuring, at a time when the Athenians in reality deliberated on the
fate of subject peoples, on occasion voting to execute
entire populations, that they should have a national
Nimatallah/Art Resource, NY
myth involving a hero who liberated victims from
unjust exactions. This is the kind of mythologizing
designed to mask the abuse of power, by casting the
powerful as morally superior.
We should not ignore the circumstances in which the
story of Theseus became fixed in the imagination of
the Athenians. In the period after the Persian Wars,
democratic Athens was casting about for stories that
glorified its own might; it was, after all, a city that had
come to prominence in defending Greece from the
Persians. Until now, Sparta had been seen as the
unchallenged champion in the field of battle, but at
Marathon in 490 B.C., the Athenians had acquitted
themselves triumphantly, and at Salamis their navy
and their tactics had made the difference between
NOT YOUR EVERYDAY FASHION. At Knossos, Evans discovered this serpent goddess (or priestess)
with her flounced skirt, apron and open bodice, an example of Minoan ritual dress. In each hand she
holds a snake, possibly a religious symbol. Since only paintings and statuary were discovered at the
site, but no descriptive writing, nothing more definite can be said about the woman in this striking
representation.

defeat and victory. It is telling, therefore, to find that the Athenian Treasury at Delphi
should at this time have been decorated with two sets of metopes: one set commemo-
rates the Dorian hero par excellence, Herakles, while the second set matches his
labors with those of the younger, fresh-faced Ionian hero: Theseus. In this way the
Athenians staked their claim: We have our (Athenian) hero, just as important and pow-
erful as your (Spartan) hero.
On this reading, no Greek myth is ever likely to have only one meaning. Jungian
archetypes arising from a collective unconscious may help us to recognize certain pat-
terns in myth, but the key to myth is its flexibility. It can repeat age-old patterns but
can also serve new and particular ends arising at specific times and under specific con-
ditions. The Athenian hero Theseus provided the Athenians with a way of imagining
how they fit into a world that included a glorious but distant past (Crete), foreign
threats successfully defeated (Persians and Amazons) and fellow Greeks with whom
they were in competition (Spartans and Herakles).
For those whose interests are focused on the Bible and Biblical archaeology, the exam-
ple of Theseus may offer some food for thought. On the model I am suggesting here, it
would be a dangerous enterprise
to try to employ archaeology to
Nimatallah/ Art Resource, NY
prove the Bible in any literal way,

since Biblical traditions and
archaeology are fundamentally
different kinds of narratives
about the past. On the other hand,
it is certainly worth trying to read
the stories of the Bible with a view
to understanding the time and set-
ting in which those stories were
generated. Take, for example, the
strong bias in the Pentateuch
toward desert nomadism. It is
Cain, the farmer, whose offerings
are not pleasing to the Lord,
MANY OARS MAKE A FASTER SHIP. This 13th-century B.C.
unlike Abel’s offering of the first-
fresco from the island of Thera (modern Santorini) reflects
the importance of ships and nautical prowess in the Late
born from his flock, which is
Bronze Age, a time that witnessed what some scholars refer pleasing in the eyes of the Lord.
to as the Minoization of the Aegean. Such frescoes, along The herder’s sacrifice is prefer-
with the island’s architecture and pottery, suggest that able to the sedentary farmers.
Thera had Minoan origins. The Minoans retained a strong Babel, Sodom and Gomorrah are
sea presence and traded with Egypt, the Near East and variations on a theme: the city and
Greece, where fine Minoan objects were found in the grave civilization are tied to corruption.
circles at Mycenae. Thera, located 60 miles from Crete, In the desert lies purification. If
would have been a natural port for the Minoans as they Knossos was both a real place and
made connections with eastern Mediterranean ports. the setting for Theseus’s killing of

the Minotaur, then surely Babel is both Babylon and the sym-
The Art Archive/Heraklion Museum/Dagli Orti

bol of human arrogance. “This is but the start of their under-
takings,” observes Yahweh, upon seeing “the tower that the
sons of man had built” (Genesis 11:5–6). In other words, we
are in the fortunate position of having both concrete, or at
least mud-brick, evidence for the world of the patriarchs,
thanks to archaeology, and complementary evidence for the
world of the imagination that they inhabited. In that world
there was a Babylon, and it was evil.
In a similar way, the story of Exodus lends itself to a read-
ing that moves beyond using archaeology to prove the
Biblical narrative. Archaeology identifies a complex and
magnificent civilization in second-millennium Egypt, but
the stories of the enslavement of the Hebrews in Egypt,
their flight from Egypt and the arrival in the Promised
Land provide a much richer mytho-poetical viewpoint and a
way for the Israelites to address their past (which may well
have taken place in Egypt) and their special relationship
with their God. As they pass through the desert, they are
purified, given laws by Moses, the great culture hero of
Israelite tradition, and reunited with God. Their arrival in An undeciphered script,
Canaan puts an end to an exile that began with the expulsion Linear A appears on tablets,
pottery and dedicatory ves-
from Eden. Instead of looking for literal confirmation of
sels at Knossos and other
myth-history in archaeology, or vice versa, we read these
Minoan sites. Clay tablets
narratives to understand the fears, anxieties, hopes and with this writing have also
dreams that shaped the Hebrew Bible. been recovered in other
Mythological traditions do not lead us into the same world regions of the Mediterranean,
another indication of the
as archaeology does. The latter is our attempt to win back
Minoans’ seafaring ways.
tangible evidence for the world as it was before us, so that
Linear A’s Mycenaean succes-
we can reconstruct the look and shape of the past. But the sor, Linear B, was successfully
past was inhabited by humans with passions, imagination, deciphered in 1952 by British
fears and prejudices. The avenue to that past, more often architect Michael Ventris. It is
than not, passes through mythology. a form of early Greek.

Minoan Frescoes in Egypt, Turkey and Israel

Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier
The most famous Minoan wall paint-

ing, dating to about the 17th century
B.C., was found on the island of
Santorini (ancient Thera), 60 miles
north of Crete, where the Minoan cul-
ture originated. The magnificent
fresco depicts what appears to be a
marine festival in a busy Medi-
terranean harbor. The importance of
sea trade and travel is apparent by
the number and type of boats in the
painting, including three large ships
with 42 oars each. By this time,
Minoan culture had spread beyond
its origins in Crete. But did it spread
much further?
In the years since the great discov-

eries at Thera/Santorini were made
by Greek archaeologist Christos
Doumas, other archaeologists have
Wolf-Dietrich Niemeier
found evidence of Minoan culture in Egypt and

Turkey—and even in Israel.
The frescoes have not survived in anything like the

condition of those on Santorini, however, which were
preserved in volcanic ash. At Tel Kabri, about 3 miles
from the Mediterranean coast in northern Israel, near
the border with Lebanon, a Minoan-type wall fresco
from a local palace was discovered by Israeli archae-
ologist Aharon Kempinski. But the fresco was lying on
the floor in 2,500 unrestorable pieces!
The Minoan frescoes were in almost the same con-

dition at the site of Tell el-Dab‘a, the Hyksos capital of
Egypt, and at Alalakh on the plain of Antioch near the
Mediterranean coast of Turkey just north of Syria.
These frescoes date perhaps a century or so later than
the frescoes at Thera/Santorini, evidencing the grad-
ual spread of Minoan culture east into the Levant and
south to Egypt.
Ancient borders were much more porous than pre-

viously thought—at least culturally.

The Palace at Knossos

Gouvoussis
An artist’s reconstruction shows the multi-storied

palace at Knossos. Pottery from the palace area
enabled archaeologists to identify occupation at
the site for almost a millennium: a prepalatial
period in the late third millennium B.C. and two
subsequent palatial periods, the First Palatial
period (1900–1700 B.C.) and the Second Palatial
period (1700–1450 B.C.).
The building was constructed around a main
open court 82 by 180 feet, which functioned as the
center of religious, administrative and commercial
activity. With
approximately
The Art Archive / Dagli Orti

130 rooms, the palace itself was a veritable labyrinth. Built on the
slope of a hill, it reached a height of four to five stories in some
areas. The palace also featured elaborate sewage and plumbing
systems.
The so-called “Throne of Minos” (it is uncertain whether
Knossos had kings) sits amid a griffin fresco in the “Throne
Room” of the palace. A lustral basin was found in this room,
probably used for purification purposes. This basin and the
heraldic griffins, sometimes considered symbols of divinity,
suggest that the “throne” may have been used by a priest for
religious ceremonies.
The columns from the east wing of the palace were originally
made of wood. When Evans reconstructed the palace, he restored
the columns in cement. Minoan columns like these were made
smaller at the bottom and larger at the top to disguise the con-
junction of the
Erich Lessing
column and horizontal beam it supported. Later

Greek columns were designed with a broader base
and tapered shaft, making them appear taller than
they actually were.
The Minoan thalassocracy (so called because of
their control over the seas) left its cities unwalled.
The Minoans apparently relied on their navy for the
defense of their island domain. Their maritime skills
also supported trade and travel to Egypt, Italy, Asia
Minor and the Levant.

Sailing the Wine-dark Seas

Crete’s great Minoan civilization
By Joan Scheuer
There is a land called Crete . . .

ringed by the wine-dark sea with rolling whitecaps—
handsome country, fertile, thronged with people
well past counting—boasting ninety cities,
language mixing with language side-by-side . . .
Central to all their cities is magnificent Cnossos,
the site where Minos ruled and each ninth year
Conferred with almighty Zeus himself.
(Homer, Odyssey 19.195–204)
May 3rd
At JFK we spotted David Reese and his wife, Catherine (Cap) Sease, the scholars who
were to lead our trip. My husband, Dick, and I had signed on a Circumnavigation of
Crete tour sponsored by the Archaeological Institute of America. We would sail aboard
a small ship, the Callisto, stopping at ports around the island. A bus would then take us
to sites not accessible by boat.
David and Cap have worked together at Kommos, in southern Crete, and separately
at many other sites around the Middle East. David is an anthropologist-zoologist who
specializes in the analysis of bones and shells; he lectures on the kinds of information
to be found in the detritus of human occupation—in the dregs of pots and in human and
animal remains. Cap is an archaeological conservator, who would tell us how digs are
run and finds preserved.

May 4th
From Athens, we made the short flight to Heraklion, the major city in Crete. A dra-
matic Venetian fort called Rocca al Mare dominates Heraklion’s harbor, where we
caught our first view of the Callisto. She had been recently renovated, so her brass rails
shone brightly and her rich mahogany woodwork glowed with fresh varnish. Our group
of 22 assembled in the ship’s main salon for wel-
Erich Lessing
coming champagne, followed by the obligatory

safety drill. Later that night, docking lines were
cast off and the Callisto set sail east for the port
of Aghios Nikolaos.
May 5th
A brisk wind blew as we boarded a bus for

Mallia, the first site on our itinerary. Our able
Greek guide, Stavroula Stratigi, told us that
Mallia was the third-largest Minoan palace in
Huge clay pithoi (storage jars), as tall as a man and deco-

rated with designs mimicking the rope cradles that were
used to transport them, once held the oil, grain and other
foodstuffs that fed the residents of Mallia, the third
largest of the Minoan palaces on Crete. According to leg-
end, Mallia was ruled by Sarpedon, brother of King Minos.

Crete, after those at Knossos and Phaistos. Erected around 1900 B.C., the palace was
destroyed several hundred years later in a great catastrophe that leveled so many
buildings throughout Crete—putting an end to what archaeologists call the Middle
Minoan period (2100–1700 B.C.). Many of the structures—including the palaces at
Mallia, Knossos and Phaistos—were then rebuilt on the sites of the old ones. Another
catastrophe struck the island around 1450 B.C., again destroying the great Minoan
palaces. Some time later (probably toward the end of the 15th century, though the exact
date is a subject of controversy) Mycenaeans from the Greek mainland arrived on
Crete. The Mycenaeans rebuilt and occupied many of the Minoan palaces.
The Mallia palace was rebuilt after the 1700 B.C. destruction. The royal portion of the
palace consisted of many corridors with small rooms. We saw a plaster-lined lustral
basin (or bath) and a grand reception hall with multiple doors. In the king’s quarters,
excavators found a bronze sword and a stone ax shaped like a leopard. These objects
are “now on exhibit in the Heraklion Museum”—a phrase we would come across again
and again.
The Mallia palace, like most Middle Minoan palaces, had a rectangular central court-
yard. In this courtyard sat a round stone table with small hollow depressions running
around its outer perimeter. This sacred table, or kernos, was probably used for offer-
ings of seeds and fruit—possibly at an altar in the middle of the courtyard. The
entrance to another cult area contained masonry blocks incised with the image of the
sacred double-ax.
One of the site’s most striking objects is a huge, well-preserved storage jar, or pithos,
decorated with bold rope designs. More of these pithoi—probably used to contain oil,
wine or grain—still stand on one side of the courtyard in a special storage area replete
with a drainage system that collected spillage.
Gail Mooney/Corbis
That afternoon we drove
through the Lasithi plateau, high
in the Dhikti mountains (above).
The hills were splashed with
color from yellow buttercups, red
poppies and wild orchids just past
their bloom. Stavroula Stratigi
told us that the plateau has been
inhabited at least since 5000 B.C.
Lasithi is criss-crossed by rem-
nants of Roman aqueducts and
pockmarked with caves—which
have made it an ideal hiding place
for rebels and resistance fighters The high Lasithi plateau (shown here, compare with photo of
in wars against Venetians, Turks Phaistos disk), filled with olive groves and vegetable gardens,
and Germans. is surrounded by the 7,000-foot-high Dhikti mountains.

May 6th
Erich Lessing
On to Lato, a city-state founded in the seventh
century B.C. As we scrambled up the rocks to the
abandoned site, we were again greeted by flow-
ers—bright poppies, blue gentians, daisies and
asters. We came upon a deep cistern overgrown
with flowering oregano. Ancient Lato was a care-
fully planned town; it had well-defined rows of
shops and residences, as well as strongly fortified
walls, towers and gates, all crowned by an adminis-
A 3-foot-wide kernos (offering stand)
trative area at the summit of the hill. From this high
with 34 small hollows around its edge
acropolis, we had a magnificent view of the rolling
was found in Mallia’s courtyard. Like
countryside below. the palaces of Knossos, Phaistos and
In the afternoon we visited a Byzantine church, Kato Zakro, the royal palace of Mallia
was reconstructed on a grand scale
Panaghia Kera. Its primitive frescoes, the earliest
following a devastating earthquake
dating to the late 13th century A.D., depict the life
that struck Crete around 1700 B.C.
of Saint Anne, the life of the Virgin, themes from
The rebuilt palace had a rectangular
the Gospels and the rewards of Heaven and the per- central court abutted by officials’
ils of Hell. quarters to the west and by the royal
family’s private quarters to the east.
That evening, as the Callisto set sail for Sitia, the
wind freshened. During Cap Sease’s lecture, the
ship rolled so heavily that her projection screen
was tossed from one end of the room to the other. It
had to be steadied by helping hands—definitely a
slide show.
May 7th
The bus from Sitia took us to Vai, which offers a lovely sheltered beach in a tropical
palm grove. We had a festive lunch—snails and barbecued lamb—and then set out for
Kato Zakro.
Dick and I had visited the site years ago, when the Greek archaeologist Nicholas Pla-
ton was working there. Kato Zakro lies in a low area of southeastern Crete that is often
flooded, making it habitable only part of the year. It is a coastal, sandy place, with small
natural pools filled with turtles. No wonder the ancient palace was at first missed by
early 20th-century British excavators, who assumed that the major Minoan structures
would be situated on the heights.

Kato Zakro was the site of the fourth largest center of

Erich Lessing
Minoan civilization, after Knossos, Phaistos and Mallia.

Its palace, like the others, was destroyed around 1450
B.C., though it seems to have escaped the pillaging that
occurred at the other sites.
In the palace, we saw a ceremonial bath lined with
plaster. We saw workshops where royal purple dye was
extracted from murex shells, and a smelting foundry
with remnants of the tin and copper used to produce
bronze. Passing between two pillars, we came to the
central court, where stone pavements still bore traces
of red plaster patterns.
Only 37 miles away from the
In the palace’s ceremonial complex, archaeologists
Lasithi plateau lies Homer’s “well-
found a gold bull’s head—which, of course, we were
situated Phaistos,” where the
able to see later when we visited the Heraklion
Phaistos disk (shown here)—a red
clay tablet inscribed on both sides Museum. Excavators also found several rhytons (ritual
with still-undeciphered hiero- vessels), including a bull’s-head vessel fashioned with
glyphics—was found. pierced nostrils so that sacrificial blood or wine could
be poured from the creature’s mouth.
The palace also contained an archive with tablets inscribed with the so-called Linear
A script—which has not yet been deciphered. (When Mycenaeans from the Greek main-
land arrived on Crete, they may have adapted Linear A to write their own language,
ancient Greek; this script, referred to as Linear B, was deciphered in the 1950s by the
English architect and linguist Michael Ventris.) Many of the Minoan Linear A tablets
were crushed, but 13 have survived relatively intact.
May 9th
Our ship sailed back to Heraklion. The next morning we boarded a bus to the Mesara
Plain—and Phaistos.
“From well-situated Phaistos,” writes Homer, “came warriors to join Idomeneus,
renowned with the spear, as he gathered the Cretans for the voyage to Troy” (Iliad
2.648). Well-situated Phaistos is exhilarating! It commands a broad view of Mount Ida
and the river valley below. Sections of the Early Minoan (third millennium B.C.) settle-
ment survive in the Middle Minoan palace’s west court and in the processional path
leading away from it. An imposing portico with a monumental central column and mul-
tiple doors leads into a reception room. Near the east courtyard are storerooms, where
clay seals and Linear A tablets were discovered. Here also were pottery workrooms,
where artisans probably produced the elegant, thin-walled Kamares ware that we later
saw on display in the Heraklion Museum.

The famous Phaistos disk was found in the north wing of

Hulton-Deutsch Collection/Corbis
the palace. Inscribed with a spiral of mysterious symbols,

this clay disk has inspired scholars, amateurs and crack-
pots to try their hand at decipherment. No one has suc-
ceeded.
In the afternoon, we visited Gortyn, a town mentioned by
Homer in his account of Menelaus’s voyage home from the
Trojan War. As Menelaus, the brother of Agamemnon and
the husband of Helen, returns to Greece from Troy, a huge
storm forces half of his fleet south toward Crete, where
“there’s a sheer cliff / plunging steep to the surf at the far-
thest edge of Gortyn, / out on the mist-bound sea” (Odyssey
3.331–334).
Gortyn has Hellenistic remains spread out below a high
acropolis. Stravroula Stratigi led us to a venerable tree that
English archaeologist Arthur
modern Cretans associate with the legend of Europa, the
Evans (compare with photo of
daughter of the king of Phoenicia. According to the myth,
scenes of cavorting dolphins).
Zeus falls in love with the maiden and then, in the guise of
a bull, abducts and rapes her. Europa gives birth to Minos, who later becomes ruler of
Crete. Beyond this ancient tree are the remains of a Greek settlement from the fifth
century B.C., including traces of an agora, theater and odeon (music hall). On the wall
of the odeon is a tightly chiseled Greek inscription—an extensive law code written in
boustrophedon (meaning “as the ox ploughs,” a script in which a line reading from left
to right is followed by a line reading from right to left, and so on). The text, written in
a dialect attributed to the Dorian Greeks, consists of detailed rules covering property,
marriage, divorce, adoption, mortgages, crime and the rights of slaves. It is said to be
the earliest known codification of law in the European world.
We returned through groves of ancient, gnarled olive trees, passing by the ruins of
the basilica of Aghios Titos. Now merely a shell, this seventh-century A.D. church was
built to house the remains of Crete’s first bishop, Saint Titus, who died in 105 A.D.
May 10th
The Callisto took us west to Chania, not far from the deep, protected harbor at Souda
Bay. Well-preserved Venetian fortifications helped Cretans fend off Turkish invaders
for 46 years in the 18th century. During the Second World War, Souda Bay was used to
evacuate Allied forces from mainland Greece and to prepare for the Battle of Crete. In
1941, the Cretan resistance, reinforced by British, Australian and New Zealand forces,
tried in vain to defend the island against the Nazis.

Chania is the second largest city in Crete. According to legend, it was founded by
Cydon, a grandson of King Minos. Thus it was the ancient home of the Cydonians men-
tioned by Homer. Traces of a Bronze Age settlement have been excavated on the
promontory above the harbor.
May 11th
Like Chania, Rethymnon is a fortified port city. It is also a lively university town with
many cafés and shops. In the archaeology museum, we saw small sarcophagi called lar-
nakes, decorated with painted images of bulls, birds and humans.
May 12th
On our last full day in Crete we were off to visit the grandest Minoan palace on the
island, the royal center of King Minos’s regime.
In 1900 the British archaeologist Sir Arthur Evans began to excavate the site of Knos-
sos. He employed local labor, used newly developed methods of stratigraphy and kept
precise records. Evans devoted many years and much of his personal fortune to the
work—which was published as the four-volume The Palace of Minos (1921–1936). It was
Evans who realized that Knossos was the site of one of the earliest-known Bronze Age
European cultures—a people he called the Minoans,
after the legendary ruler of Crete.
Erich Lessing
Walking the site in a dull drizzle was somewhat of a
letdown. For the first time, we found the crowds of
tourists oppressive. This, my second visit to Knossos,
lacked the thrill of the first, but I was again struck by
The English archaeologist Arthur Evans began excavating the

5-acre site of Knossos in 1900. He uncovered the ruins of a 4-
story, 1,000-room palace filled with naturalistic frescoes, some
with scenes of cavorting dolphins (shown here, compare with
photo of Arthur Evans). Although many scholars believe that
Evans’s restorations were largely fanciful re-creations of the
Minoan works, his team nonetheless discovered abundant
evidence of a European Bronze Age civilization at Knossos—
including the stone rhyton in the form of a bull’s head in the
photo above. This libation vessel has eyes made of rock
crystal and jasper and horns made of gilded wood.

the scale, elegance and sophistication of the palace. The frescoes that had delighted us
years ago were almost impossible to see because they have been cordoned off behind
plexiglass barriers. Some of Evans’s reconstructions remain, such as the red-painted
columns, but in order to distinguish the reconstructions from the original, others have
been replaced by white-painted cement. Many people have criticized Evans’s restora-
tions as excessively subjective, as unsubstantiated by evidence, but his reconstructions
were inspired and have enhanced the experience of thousands of visitors—helping
them to perceive the grandeur and beauty that distinguishes this palace from all oth-
ers in Crete.
Back in Heraklion, we finally reached the museum. This archaeological museum is a
must, and it was good to visit it at the end of our trip, rather than at the beginning. We
saw treasures from the sites we had visited. The museum reminded us again of the
many influences on the people of Crete, lying as it does in the middle of the Mediter-
ranean Sea—influences from Egypt, Anatolia, the Greek mainland, the Levant. We left
the museum with a greater and more intimate understanding of Crete’s long struggle
to retain its identity in this handsome, fertile land thronged with people whose “lan-
guage mix[es] with language,” just as in Homer’s day.
All translations from Homer by Robert Fagles’ Odyssey (New York: Viking Penguin, 1996)
and Iliad (New York: Viking Penguin, 1991).

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Island Jewels: Understanding Ancient Cyprus and Crete

© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society

About the Biblical Archaeology Society

© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society

Cypriot Land Mines 16

The Guardians of Tamassos 33

Book Review: Cyprus’ Jewel by the Sea 39

Did Theseus Slay the Minotaur? 45

Sailing the Wine-dark Seas 59

© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society

© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society 1

© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society 2

Courtesy of Noelle Soren

Eternally frozen in a protective embrace, the

© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society 3

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hoping to make offerings to Apollo, whose

© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society 5

stuck his croquet wickets in a lit-

After uncovering the Round

© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society 6

insects appeared to be crawling up the walls.

Finally the fever broke and I was able to keep food

© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society 7

what a Romano-Cypriot temple looked

© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society 8

Kourion Through the Millennia

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no coins were found from the latter fourth century,

and there was little building activity until the begin-

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Our most dramatic discovery

lay in a makeshift room

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encased skeletons to a new museum at the site.

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Cypriot Land Mines

©Sky Bergman 2002

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diplomatic language, “overstepping the boundaries which

friendship allows.” In this way, cordial relations with col-

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Merrillees replied, “I do not, of

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especially those with difficult-to-preserve mudbrick.

© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society 20

legislature was to be 70 percent

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We could hardly imagine a trip to

© 2008 Biblical Archaeology Society 23

vetoed by Cyprus unless Turkey

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one Teukros, a hero of the Trojan War

and the son of the king of the Greek