Ancient History of Cyprus

After the death of Alexander III in 323 BC, the coinage in his name and with his types continued to be issued by his successors. This posthumous coinage has been the object of various studies and discussions in the past decades because of the important volume of the coinage and also because of the difficulties of the attribution.

The present paper will discuss the posthumous Alexanders that were produced in various city-kingdoms in Cyprus, in Egypt (Memphis and Alexandria) and in Cyrene from 323 down to the end of the fourth century, also in relation to the local autonomous coinages of those areas. The above areas of control of Ptolemy I present a certain interest because the coinage in his own name and image replaced as early as the end of the fourth century the coinage in the name and types of Alexander, while his numismatic policy was particular and unique. In parallel, the paper will address in detail questions of attribution -or reattribution- of series and the circulation of those coinages abroad, based on the hoard evidence.

Layers of ancient history and globalization on this island has sealed its fate through to the present day and a cultural confluence has been occurring for millennia. Exploring the island thematically by looking at its history, the topography of the land, culture, identity, contested realms, and heritage preservation the exhibition will bring to light present day situations that are political in nature, problems that in essence effect the fabric of humanity on the island and the ties of future generations to come.

The exhibition is important in creating awareness about the current political problems of the island. From a humanitarian perspective we can seek to help preserve and protect the duality of the Cypriot heritage, giving an international identity to all the people habiting the island, thus creating opportunities in expansion of the economy, education and infrastructures. In doing so this will ensure that in turn all natural heritage sites, archeological excavations, architecture, and objects of ethnography or artworks are properly cared for and preserved as part of a long history of the island.

To understand Cyprus problem and founding out a sustainable solution we need to analyze and understand the role of religion on Cyprus issues in past and today. As it is known both Christian and Muslim cultures left their signs on island and have a strong impact on today's relationships. As a result of this differ¬ent effects in The Constitution of the Republic of Cyprus, referred to the Orthodox Christianity and Islam as constituent elements.
After division of Christianity, the conflicts between Catholic and Orthodox Churches, Ottomans and Cyprus Orthodox Church be¬came allies. The Ottomans, while trying to reduce Latin's influ¬ence, treated the Orthodox Cypriots with the consideration and gained their good will. In 1821 with the outbreak of the Greek War of Independence, the Greeks of Cyprus attempted to follow in the footsteps of those of Greece; such was the accusation, which Kuchuk Mehmed brought against the bishops and the leading Greek laymen of Cyprus. As a result of this the Archbishop and his archdeacon were hanged, the three Bishops beheaded and the notables dispatched by the Janissaries. This was the break point and beginning of political separation between Ottoman adminis¬tration and Cyprus Orthodox Church. In this article, I have tried to analyze the developments of relationships between Muslims and Christians under lights of history and give a right perspective to the future relationships.

More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions

P. A. Evdokimov
The Cypriot Politeia of Aristotle and Royal Power in Cyprus
There are just a few remained fragments of Aristotle's lost Cypriot politeia in the excerpts of later periods. It is worth noting, that all these extracts are anyway devoted to the problem of royal power (one explains the difference between the terms basileus and anax and another one gives some information concerning some particular personalities from the royal dynasty of Pafos); we should also take into account the one fragment from Politics, where he mentions a complot against Evagoras I the Salaminian.
Some interesting traits connect “political” works of Stagiritus with Cyprus: his friendship with Eudemus the Cypriot, the devotion of Protrepticus to Cypriot ruler Themison, Clearchus from Soloi as Aristotle's student in the Lyceum and Theophrastus, who also turned his attention to the phenomenon of royal power in Cyprus – not to mention Isocrates' Orationes and other facts of the late 5th – 4th centuries B. C. , which made the island closer to a number of Athenian intellectuals and politics of than time.
Both works of Aristotle devoted to megalonesoi (Crete and Cyprus) were named in a quite similar manner, i.e. Ton Cyprion politeia and Ton Creton politeia – that means that without going deep in the details and peculiarities connected with each individual polity, the author deals with common features of all the polities in these islands (seen from aside Cypriot polities looked much similar to each other, as like as Cretan ones did).
It is possible to suppose that it was namely the unique institute of royal power which attracted Aristotle's attention in Cyprus, so some general thoughts made in his Politics could be deduces by taking into account Cypriot political reality – and it is probably the passage where the Stagirite defines several types of royal power (Arist. Polit. ΙΙΙ. 12-14, 1285 b). When the philosopher deals with the royal power of the heroic times, it fits well to Cypriot realia known both from archaeological evidences and written tradition: military function of Cypriot kings as war-leaders, their close connection with cult (as king-priests in Pafos of elsewhere), scepters as signs of power, and especially important role as patrons of crafts (first of all mining bronze-production and metallworking).



Published in: ΠΕΝΤΗΚΟΝΤΑΕΤΙΑ. Исследования по античной истории и культуре. Сборник, посвященный юбилею Игоря Евгеньевича Сурикова / Под ред. О. Л. Габелко, А. В. Махлаюка и А. А. Синицына. – СПб.: Издательство РХГА, 2018. – 464 с. : ил., [16] с. ил.
ISBN 978-5-88812-887-9

ABSTRACT: This Ancient Near East and adjacent regions' resource guide represents an updated guide compiling diverse encyclopedae entries, book chapters, and various books (plus listing and reviewing many pertinent documentaries and Great Courses lecture series) currently in, or being obtained for, my institution's limited, but growing library holdings for student, public, and faculty use.  It may be of use for instructors with a similar range of resources in relatively small library collections, and will provide a basic starter guide for undergraduate and MA student papers. It aims mainly at Ancient Mesopotamia and adjacent areas, including Iran, the Indus Valley, Arabia, the Levant, Anatolia, and partly the Aegean and Egypt (the latter of which are covered more extensively by another guide). UPDATED: March 8, 2020, collating more sources into main guide, adding additional new items, etc.

The book deals with the interaction between the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Cypriot kingdoms in the 8th and 7th centuries B.C.
It examines the Assyrian policies and how they were applied in the South Mediterranean coast as well as their first state controlled world economy. It looks into the possibility whether the Assyrians established a nascent navy in the Mediterranean during the late Neo-Assyrian period.It compares how the Assyrians behaved in Dilmun the other extreme border outpost of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Finally the book examines  in detail how Cyprus prospered and survived in the shadow of the Assyrian empire.

This paper is translated into English, see: M.T. Olszewski, The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory (In Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus), on http://www.academia.edu/3256675
The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographical and iconological programme of five panels mosaic from the House of Aion at Nea Pahos in Cyprus. He proposes reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception (Leda and a Swan)  and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis (the apotheosis of Cassiopeia).
The author rejects the interpretation of W.A. Daszewski, (Dionysos der Erlöser, Mainz am Rheim 1985) proposed in 1985 and his order of interpetation the five mythological pictures (1. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 2. Leda and Zeus; 3. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia; 4. Apollo and Marsyas 5. The Dionysian thiasos). Daszewski would like to see in Dionysos - a newly born supreme god, the universal savior.
See too a more elaboret and completed version of the first paper published in Polish on academia.edu : M.T. Olszewski, L'allégorie, les mystères dionysiaques et la mosaïque de la Maison d'Aiôn de Néa Paphos (Chypre), BullAIEMA 13, 1990-1991, p. 444-463.

More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions
Key words: mythological mosaic, House of Aion, Nea Paphos, Late Antiquity, Roman art, allegorical narrative, allusive language of mythological pictures, wordplay (Marsyas-Messias), Jesus Christ, anti-Christian polemic, Dionysos, Cassiopeia, Apollon, Nereides, Abstract Personifications, Greek Mythology, ΚΥΠΡΟΣ

Η Κύπρος κατά τους προϊστορικούς χρόνους (σελ. 47-55), Η Κύπρος κατά τους ιστορικούς χρόνους (σελ. 83-91), Βυζαντινή Κύπρος (σελ. 133-137), Η Φραγκοκρατία στην Κύπρο (σελ. 147-153), Οθωμανική Κύπρος (σελ. 192-197), Η Ελληνική Επανάσταση και η Κύπρος (σελ. 222-223)

Cipro, crocevia di culture e culla di antiche civiltà, costituì nei secoli del Medioevo e del Rinascimento un baluardo dell'Occidente latino nello scacchiere del Mediterraneo orientale. Quale atteggiamento assunsero governanti e viaggiatori occidentali nei confronti del ricco passato classico dell'isola? Il libro affronta il tema secondo una prospettiva volutamente ampia, ricercando la nascita dell'archeologia e dell'epigrafia sul suolo cipriota, ripercorrendo le tappe della riscoperta dei testi classici relativi all'isola ed esaminando il rapporto sviluppatosi fra il XIII e il XVI secolo con i resti visibili dell'antico.

Cyprus during the LBA period underwent an unprecedented  period of economic intensification and social development. The progress of its naval economy accelerated in such a way that gave her a prominent place among the countries of the region.The secret of its success was based on two pillars: the first was its institutions and the second the diversified export portfolio.

A straightforward narrative in chronological order apart, the study seeks to reevaluate in detail, as the evidence allows, a number of key events and issues in the history of ancient Cyprus at the time of the kingdoms. The nature of Cypriot kingship, the ethnicity of the Cypriots (Appendix 1), the position of Cyprus within the Persian Empire, the role of the island in the Ionian Revolt, its relation to the Hellenic League and Athens and the Delian League, what the Peace of Callias entailed for it, the reign of Evagoras etc., are amongst the topics examined.

This is a more elaboret and developped version of the first paper published in Polish : M.T. Olszewski, Uwagi na temat mosaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr), Menander XLII, 9-10, 1987, pp. 421-438 (translated to English : The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory (In Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus), see on academia.edu

The author proposes a new interpretation of the iconographical and iconological programme of five panels mosaic from the House of Aion at Nea Pahos in Cyprus. He proposes reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; ; 3. Apollo and Marsyas; 4. The Dionysian thiasos; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception (Leda and a Swan)  and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis (the apotheosis of Cassiopeia).
The author rejects the interpretation of W.A. Daszewski, (Dionysos der Erlöser, Mainz am Rheim 1985) proposed in 1985 and his order of interpetation the five mythological pictures (1. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 2. Leda and Zeus; 3. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia; 4. Apollo and Marsyas 5. The Dionysian thiasos). Daszewski would like see in Dionysos - a newly born supreme god, the universal savior.
see also a new article: M.T.Olszewski, The iconographic programme of the Cyprus mosaic from the House of Aion reinterpreted as an anti-Christian polemic, in: Et in Arcadia Ego. Studia memoriae professoris Thomae Mikocki dicata, Institute of Archaeology, University of Warsaw, Warsaw 2013, pp. 207-239, Pls 74-86.

Η ιστοριογραφία του 19ου αιώνα επιφυλάσσει, πράγματι, αμέτρητες εκπλήξεις. Μέχρι λοιπόν να ανακαλύψουν οι ιστορικοί και οι αρχαιολόγοι τον μυκηναϊκό κόσμο, αυτοί που προβλήθηκαν ως οι θεμελιωτές του ελληνισμού της Κύπρου, ως οι ιδρυτές των αρχαίων πόλεων του νησιού δεν ήταν άλλοι από τους Μικρασιάτες Ίωνες. Δυστυχώς, ελάχιστη σημασία δόθηκε στην εξαιρετικά ενδιαφέρουσα βραχύβια περιπέτεια αυτού του αφηγήματος, και αυτό μολονότι στην πρώτη μονογραφία στα ελληνικά, όπου επιχειρείται συστηματική διερεύνηση του ερωτήματος πόθεν οι Κύπριοι, οι Ίωνες παρουσιάζονται ως οι γενάρχες των Κυπρίων. Αναφερόμαστε, φυσικά, στη μελέτη του Αρχιμανδρίτη Ιερώνυμου Μυριανθέα Περί Αρχαίων Κυπρίων, η οποία εκδόθηκε το 1868 στην Αθήνα. Αυτή η προσέγγιση αντιμαχόταν τη θέση σύμφωνα με την οποία, οι σύγχρονοι Κύπριοι δεν μπορούν να θεωρηθούν ως «πραγματικοί» απόγονοι των αρχαίων Ελλήνων, και αυτό γιατί η εθνική και πολιτισμική τους ταυτότητα έχει τις ρίζες της στο ρωμαίικο (βλ. για παράδειγμα Lang and Censola ). Σε αυτή τη θεώρηση οι Αρχαίοι Κύπριοι - αν και σε κάποια στιγμή εξελληνίστηκαν - είχαν περισσότερη σχέση με την Ανατολή παρά με τη Δύση. Αν αφαιρέσουμε όμως τις αρχαιοελληνικές ψιμυθιώσεις αυτών των προσεγγίσεων και δούμε το πραγματικό τους ιστορικό βάθος, διαπιστώνουμε ότι οι «καταγωγικοί μύθοι» που τις συγκροτούν έχουν να μας πουν πολύ περισσότερα για το παρόν, που τους πλάθει, παρά για το παρελθόν, που φιλοδοξούν να εγκολπωθούν.

The historiography of the 19th century is, indeed, full of surprises. Until the period when historians and archaeologists discovered the Mycenaean world, those who were presented as the founders of the Hellenism of Cyprus, were the Ionians of Asia Minor. Unfortunately, little attention was accorded to the extremely interesting and short-lived adventure of this narrative, and this despite the fact that in the first study in Greek, where a systematic elaboration of the question of the beginnings of the Cypriots was attempted, the Ionians are presented as the ancestors of the Cypriots. We refer to the study of Archimandrite Ieronymos Myriantheas ‘‘On Ancient Cypriots’, which was published in 1868 in Athens. This approach contradicted the position that the Cypriots could not be considered as "authentic" descendants of the ancient Greeks: their national and cultural identity has its roots in the Byzantine period, and thus they were Romioi.  (see for example Lang and Censola). According to this approach the Ancient Cypriots, even if they adopted some aspects of the Greek way of life, had more points in common with the populations and civilizations of the East than with those of the West. As we tried to show, these approaches, have many more things to say about the present that shapes them than about the past which they aspire to embrace.

Both the definition and identification of the ‘Cypriot Goddess’ before the Hellenistic period are problematic. There is no secure evidence for the equation of a ‘Cypriot Goddess’ with Aphrodite before the late Cypro-Classical period. The presence of a single distinctive deity, who is specifically Cypriot, and her interaction with other Mediterranean female goddesses (especially before the Hellenistic period) are also complex issues. The function and meaning of any female image before Late Cypriot IIIB remains an open question. During that period, however, and for the first time in the history of the island, we find a terracotta female figure in a clearly (religious) ritual context. Based on the evidence from Enkomi, I argue that this figure relates to an indigenous goddess; and it is this goddess that in the Iron Age becomes directly linked to royal ideology at least in some kingdom-polities of the island. Eventually, shortly before the abolition of the kingdoms by Ptolemy I, she begins to be addressed as Aphrodite.

Une lampe en forme de bateau, à becs multiples, a été mise au jour il y une vingtaine d'années dans la Maison d'Orphée à Paphos. Cette découverte a été brièvement mentionnée et illustrée à l'époque de sa découverte, mais l'importance iconographique et symbolique de l'objet n'avait pas encore été mise en évidence. L'article présente un commentaire de la lampe et de son décor qui comporte plusieurs images divines, dominées par celle de Sérapis trônant (mentionné dans une inscription sur le fond). Il examine et analyse également les autres exemples de l'iconographie de ces divinités à Chypre, dans le contexte plus large des décors de lampes, spécialement celles en forme de bateau. On constate ainsi que les divinités représentées étaient toutes protectrices des voyages et de la navigation, ce qui, associé à la forme des lampes, donne une indication sur la fonction et l'usage de ces objets exceptionnels. Boat-shaped poluv lucna were unknown in Cyprus until 1986, when the fine example (Figs. 1-3) forming the subject of this paper came to light during the excavation of the area known as the House of Orpheus in Nea Paphos. 1 The lamp is decorated with deities of the Egyptian pantheon, and is one of several Egyptian or Egyptianising objects brought to light in this building complex. 2 The lamp was found in numerous fragments in a deep fill of a general 2 nd /3 rd cent. AD date, a little above the beaten earth floor of a small room near the SE limit of the excavation. The reconstructed lamp is 37.7cm long, 10.5cm wide and 13.8cm high (at the deck). The clay is of light brown colour with small grey and some larger white inclusions. The outside is covered with a thin orange/red slip that occasionally turns to brown. The

Following the excavation of the tumulus of Salamis in the 1960s, which covered a cenotaph, two views were put forward to answer the key question of 'by whom was it built and to whose memory'. Both, however, associate the construction of this most unusual-for Cyprus-burial monument with the period of the conflict of the Diadochi. Written sources paint a vivid picture of the confrontation between Ptolemy and Antigonus, during which, one after the other, the royal dynasties that ruled the Cypriot polities were exterminated. By 294 BC, when Ptolemy finally won the island, the institution of Cypriot basileia (kingship) had died out. Although historiographers describe these dramatic events in considerable detail, their material imprint has not been identified in the archaeological record of the late 4 th and early 3 rd c. BC. A second much larger tumulus has now been identified at Palaepaphos-Laona. Ceramic analysis places its construction during the same transitional period. Although Cyprus did not possess the technical know-how required for the realisation of this type of mega-monument, a recently published geoarchaeological study confirms that Laona was an expertly designed and executed monumental earthwork. INSIGHT will conduct a state-of-the-art full digital recording and documentation of Laona as a burial tumulus ahead of site preservation and final publication. The material buried in the mound should provide information on the political entity responsible for its construction and reveal the purpose which this unique and culturally un-Cypriot monument was designed to fulfil. Combined with data from the diachronic landscape analysis and excavations conducted since 2006 by the Palaepaphos Urban Landscape Project, the results will throw critical new light on a poorly known period of major political and cultural realignment during which Cyprus lost her indigenous city-states and became an island colony of the Ptolemaic kingdom.

Archaeological excavations carried out by a mission from the Jagiellonian University Institute of Archaeology on the site of the agora of Nea Paphos in Cyprus brought to light a lead weight with a Greek inscription giving the year 251 of an era and mentioning an agoranomos with the name Seleukos. On the basis of parallels, the author demonstrates that the weight must have been issued by the North Syrian city of Seleucia in Pieria, and the era used in the inscription is the civic era of Seleucia with the starting point in 109/108 , which allows one to date the object to 142/143. He argues that the structure where the object was found can tentatively be identified as agoranomeion of Nea Paphos.

This paper focuses on certain symbols represented on the gold, silver and bronze coinages of the kings of Cyprus of the archaic and classical periods, such as the ankh, the sign of Tanit and the winged solar disk amongst others. Issues related to their influences, duration and diffusion,  in Cyprus and abroad, are also discussed.

This contribution analyses the architecture of the public reception area of a house in Kourion, on the southern coast of Cyprus. Known as the Early Christian House due to the discovery of a later phase, characterised above all by mosaics, the house, which is only partially excavated, boasts architectural features that dates back to the Hellenistic era. These sprang from offi cial Alexandrian models that subsequently spread across the Mediterranean. In territories such as Cyprus, where ties with the Ptolemaic kingdom were close, this new form of architectural expression continued to fl ourish, with transformations and elements of innovation, even during the Imperial Age. In the Early Christian House this phenomenon is particularly evident in a colonnaded room in which the model defi ned by Vitruvius, the Oecus Corinthius appears. In this particular instance, the style is embellished with the use of simplifi ed capitals and angular heart-shaped pillars of the Doric order. The architectural elements of the house are analysed here in order to provide a stylistic and chronological framework what contribute to the reconstruction of the history of the early Imperial phase of the building.

Nikokles, the last Paphian king, marked the history of Cyprus beyond the kingdom of Paphos. During his reign, c. 325/321–311/309 BC, he tried to take advantage of the troubled political context in the Mediterranean area resulted from so-called Wars of the Diadochi. Paphos knew a lot of transformations and innovations under Nikokles who appears as a very active sovereign. It is especially illustrated by the religion that was deeply linked to the secular power. The religious activity of the last Paphian king is particularly visible through the inscriptions which are the main source of the present paper. The cult evolution as well as the sacred topography of the kingdom of Paphos are analysed in order to show how crucial they were for the ideological and political plan of Nikokles. The study of this religious policy leads to the question of the real ambition of the king and the question of his possible role in the foundation of the future Nea Paphos.

New coring data provides a complete 14C dated sequence covering the paleo-environmental evolution of the
Larnaca Salt Lakes from c. 9000 BP onwards. This suggests the formation of a relatively confined lagoon after
4000 cal. BP. On the western shore of the main Aliki basin, overseas imports from the Late Bronze Age site of
Dromolaxia-Vyzakia (Hala Sultan Tekke) reflect use of the Salt Lakes as a harbour during the secondmillennium
BC. Coring and geomorphological mapping were employed to determine routes of navigation between this port
and the open sea, with two main natural channels identified. A third potential communication in the form of an
artificial cut, previously dated by Gifford (1978) to the Venetian period, is discussedwith reference to changes in
relative sea level along the island's south-east coast. Abandonment of settlement at Dromolaxia-Vyzakia in the
early 12th century BC relates to the gradual isolation of the Salt Lakes lagoon from the surrounding marine environment
through sedimentation. The timing of this event correlates with other known instances of population
displacement throughout the eastern Mediterranean c. 1200 BC.

"This paper proposes a new identification of a mosaic workshop of Late Antiquity in the Near East. Two mosaic pavements, that is, the mosaic of the Bath of Achilles discovered forty years ago in room 40 of the Villa of Theseus in Nea Paphos, Cyprus, and the renowned representation of the Life of Alexander from the
Villa of Patrikios in Baalbeck, published by M. Chéhab in 1958, display many similarities which leave no doubt that both of them were made by the same mosaic workshop. In the first half of the 5th century, like during the whole Roman period, Cypriot mosaics were closely linked with those of the Syro-Palestinian coastal area. The author suggests also a new date of execution of the mosaic from Baalbeck in the first half of the 5th century."

This paper examines the " Idalion Tablet " (ICS 217). Since its interpretation by Masson, there have been a number of efforts to re-interpret it, including a re-interpretation by Masson himself. It is thus crucial to explore a number of works on the " Idalion Tablet " in order to reveal some evidence and/ or information about Cyprus' ancient history. In particular, this paper suggests a closer reading of the Tablet's text with special emphasis on some points which seem to be contested and may be open to more than one interpretation. Drawing on a number of sources, this paper pays special attention to the historical value of the Tablet and focuses on three dimensions of this historical value : (a) the question on the dating of the Tablet ; (b) the political structure of Idalion ; and (c) the institution of public physicians.