Review of Giorgos Papantoniou, Religion and Social Transformations in Cyprus: From the Cypriot Basileis to the Hellenistic Strategos. Mnemosyne 347. Lieden/Boston: Brill, 2012. (original) (raw)
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This article aims to raise issues for discussion about the change in the use and concept of sacred landscapes, which were originally constructed in the era of the Cypriot kings (the basileis), but then continued to function in a new imperial environment, that of the rule of the Ptolemaic strategos and later of the Roman proconsul and the various Christian bishops. Our archaeological survey project in the Xeros river valley, titled 'Settled and Sacred Landscapes of Cyprus', reveals that these new politico-economic structures were also supported by the construction of symbolically charged sacred landscapes. Thus, while outlining the long history of the island as manifested from the diachronic study of Cypriot sacred landscapes, we identify three pivotal phases: first, the consolidation of the Cypriot polities and the establishment of a 'full' sacred landscape; second, the transition from segmented to unitary administration under the Ptolemaic and Roman imperial rule and the consolidation of a more 'unified sacred landscape'; and finally, the establishment of a number of Christian bishoprics on the island and the movement back to a 'full' sacred landscape. Moving beyond the discipline of Cypriot archaeology, this contribution aims to serve as a paradigm for the implications that the employment of the 'sacred landscapes' concept may have when addressing issues of socio-political and socioeconomic transformations. While it is very difficult to define or capture the concept of landscape in a pre-modern world, it offers a useful means by which to assess changing local conditions. We have also attempted to situate the term in archaeological thought, in order to allow the concept to become a more powerful investigative tool for approaching the past.
Landscape archaeology and sacred space in the Eastern Mediterranean: a glimpse from Cyprus
Land, 2017
This article aims to raise issues for discussion about the change in the use and concept of sacred landscapes, which were originally constructed in the era of the Cypriot kings (the basileis), but then continued to function in a new imperial environment, that of the rule of the Ptolemaic strategos and later of the Roman proconsul and the various Christian bishops. Our archaeological survey project in the Xeros river valley, titled 'Settled and Sacred Landscapes of Cyprus', reveals that these new politico-economic structures were also supported by the construction of symbolically charged sacred landscapes. Thus, while outlining the long history of the island as manifested from the diachronic study of Cypriot sacred landscapes, we identify three pivotal phases: first, the consolidation of the Cypriot polities and the establishment of a 'full' sacred landscape; second, the transition from segmented to unitary administration under the Ptolemaic and Roman imperial rule and the consolidation of a more 'unified sacred landscape'; and finally, the establishment of a number of Christian bishoprics on the island and the movement back to a 'full' sacred landscape. Moving beyond the discipline of Cypriot archaeology, this contribution aims to serve as a paradigm for the implications that the employment of the 'sacred landscapes' concept may have when addressing issues of socio-political and socioeconomic transformations. While it is very difficult to define or capture the concept of landscape in a pre-modern world, it offers a useful means by which to assess changing local conditions. We have also attempted to situate the term in archaeological thought, in order to allow the concept to become a more powerful investigative tool for approaching the past.
Sanctuaries and religion were instrumental in forming the worldview of the ancient Cypriots, and one would expect that social power relations, meanings, and identities were expressed through the holistic concept of sacred landscapes. This contribution primarily discusses the change in the use and perception of sacred landscapes, which were originally constructed in the era of the Cypriot basileis (kings) but continued to function in a new political environment under the control of the Ptolemaic strategos (general). Furthermore, it proposes a contextualized methodology for approaching the study of sacred landscapes in Iron Age Cyprus, revealing new possibilities and their effects on our understanding of Cypriot social, cultural, and political histories and at the same time indicating the limits and the dangers of such a task. Drawing on ideas from theoretical/methodological studies of landscape archaeology and their relevant applications in other Mediterranean histories, this article explores how spatial order (i.e., the hierarchical arrangement of sites), as observed in sacred landscapes, is expected to articulate social order and to be linked with shifting relations of power and cultural influence in an ancient Cypriot context. It also suggests that a closer consideration of sacred landscapes and their complexities from a long-term perspective not only makes the transition from the Cypriot city-kingdoms to the Hellenistic period more comprehensible but also illuminates the political and sociocultural histories of both periods when they are studied in their own terms. Archaeological Institute of America Jstor link: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.3764/aja.117.1.0033?searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dpapantoniou%252C%2BGiorgos%26amp%3Bprq%3Damerican%2Bjournal%2Bof%2Barchaeology%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3Bhp%3D25%26amp%3Bacc%3Doff%26amp%3Bso%3Drel%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff&resultItemClick=true&Search=yes&searchText=papantoniou%252C&searchText=Giorgos&uid=3737848&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21105808080823
Colonial and National Tensions in Cypriot Archaeology: An Attempt at a Cosmopolitan Resolution
Colonial and National Tensions in Cypriot Archaeology: An Attempt at a Cosmopolitan Resolution, 2023
Trauma and ambivalence are common aspects of the post-colonial condition and themes in Cypriot poetry. Yaşın's (1998) poem acknowledges the present de facto political partition of Cyprus since the Greek coup and Turkish invasion of 1974, with Michanikos' (1975) poem providing a complementary question as to the lack of necessity of this partition with references to the intercommunal violence of 1963-1964. These questions are linked to both a shared, albeit segregated, trauma from political tragedies and upheaval and a shared nostalgia either for a nationalist past or a bicommunal garden of Eden, the main cleavages of the island's separation. The question of history and nostalgia in Cyprus, as well as its own identities have been entangled in the context of British colonialism as well as Greek and Turkish nationalism. This article investigates the relationship between archaeology, nationalism, and colonialism in Cyprus, producing segregated archaeological narratives and hidden bicommunal and minority experiences. It outlines a history of Cyprus, its nationalisms, and their effects on intercommunal imaginaries (Ioannou 2020). It will then discuss how ideology has shaped archaeological research in Cyprus (Karageorgis 1969). Lastly, the paper looks at how archaeology has moved towards a more nuanced discussion of ethnicity, the possibility of a common history, and reconciliation through the use of spatial, non-ethnic frameworks.
The discovery of ancient Cyprus: archaeological sponsorship from the 19th century to the present day
In Theodoropoulou-Polychroniadis, Z. & Evely, D. AEGIS. Essays in Mediterannean archaeology presented to Matti Egon by the Scholars of the Greek Archaeological Committee UK. Oxford, 2015
A fundamental aspect of archaeological research, particularly nowadays, is its funding. Sponsorship, either private or public, has significantly determined the nature and extent of archaeological practice throughout the world, on several occasions since archaeology's establishment as an academic discipline. The present paper aims at elucidating/ outlining the essentially interactive relationship between archaeological sponsorship (when, who, how) and the development of Cypriot archaeology from an infant academic field back in the 1890s to a highly advanced section of Mediterranean archaeology attracting several researchers and archaeological missions from various European countries, Canada and the United States. This is closely associated with the following factors: -the development of archaeological theory and practice resulting in the shift of attention from Greek antiquity to the archaeologies of the surrounding land and the chronological periods preceding the Classical era -the complexity/ multiformity of past Cypriot societies, which allowed plenty of space for experimentation and the application of new theories and methods -the island's turbulent political history (part of the Ottoman Empire, British colony, Republic of Cyprus, Turkish invasion of 1974) and the consequent association of Cypriot archaeology with various ethnic claims -Cyprus' geographic location between the Aegean, Egypt and the Syro-Palestinian coast, which attracted archaeologists focusing the study of the surrounding regions Emphasis will be placed on both past achievements and future prospects.