Kourion (; ) was an important ancient Greek city-state on the southwestern coast of the island of Cyprus. In the twelfth century BCE, after the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces, Greek settlers from Argos arrived on this site.
In the fourth century, Kourion suffered from five heavy earthquakes, but the city was mostly rebuilt. The acropolis of Kourion, located southwest of Episkopi and west of Limassol, is located atop a limestone promontory nearly high along the coast of Episkopi Bay.
The Kourion archaeological area lies within the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia and is managed by the Cyprus Department of Antiquity.
History of Kourion Early history of the area
The earliest identified occupation within the Kouris River valley is at the hilltop settlement of Sotira-Teppes, located northwest of Kourion. This settlement dates to the Ceramic Neolithic period ( 5500–4000 BCE). Another hilltop settlement from the same era has been excavated at Kandou-Kouphovounos on the east bank of the Kouris River. In the Chalcolithic period (3800–2300 BCE), settlement shifted to the site of Erimi-Pamboules near the village of Erimi. Erimi-Pamboules was occupied from the conclusion of the Ceramic Neolithic through the Chalcolithic period (3400–2800 BCE).
Occupation in the Early Cypriot (EC) period ( 2300–1900 BCE) is uninterrupted from the preceding Chalcolithic period, with occupation continuing along the Kouris River Valley and the drainages to the west. Sotira-Kaminoudhia, located to the northwest of Sotira-Teppes, on the lower slope of the hill, was settled. It dates from the Late Chalcolithic to EC I ( 2400 – 2175 BCE). In the ECIII-LC (Late Cypriot), IA ( 2400–1550 BCE) a settlement was established east of Episkopi at Episkopi-Phaneromeni. The Middle Cypriot (1900–1600 BCE) is a transitional period in the Kouris River Valley. The settlements established during the MC flourished into urban centres in the Late Cypriot II-III, especially Episkopi-Bamboula.
In the Late Cypriot I-III (1600–1050 BCE), the settlements of the Middle Cypriot period developed into a complex urban centre within the Kouris Valley, which provided a corridor in the trade of Troodos copper, controlled through Alassa and Episkopi-Bamboula. In the MCIII-LC IA, a settlement was occupied at Episkopi-Phaneromeni. Episkopi-Bamboula, located on a low hill west of the Kouris and east of Episkopi, was an influential urban centre from the LC IA-LCIII. The town flourished in the 13th century BCE before being abandoned .
Kingdom of Kourion
The Kingdom of Kourion, a Southern Cypriot kingdom, was established during the Cypro-Geometric period (CG) (1050–750 BCE) though the site of the settlement remains unidentified. Without Cypro-Geometric settlement remains, the primary evidence for this period is from burials at the Kaloriziki necropolis, below the bluffs of Kourion. At Kaloriziki, the earliest tombs date to the 11th century BCE (Late-Cypriot IIIB) with most burials dating to the Cypriot-Geometric II (mid-11th to mid-10th centuries BCE). These tombs, particularly McFadden's Tomb 40, provide a picture of an increasingly prosperous community in contact with mainland Greece.McFadden, George H., and Erik Sjöqvist, "A late Cypriote III tomb from Kourion Kaloriziki no. 40", American Journal of Archaeology 58.2, pp. 131-142, 1954Kourion: The Evidence for the Kingdom from the 11th to the 6th Century BCE, Diana Buitron-Oliver, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research No. 308, The City-Kingdoms of Early Iron Age Cyprus in Their Eastern Mediterranean Context (Nov. 1997), pp. 27–36Matthäus, Hartmut, and Gisela Schumacher-Matthäus, "Social and ethnic change in Cyprus during the 11th century BC: new evidence from Kourion, Kaloriziki, Tomb 40", Pasiphae: rivista di filologia e antichità egee: VII, 2013, pp. 159-168, 2013
Although Cyprus came under Assyrian rule, in the Cypro-Archaic period (750–475 BCE) the Kingdom of Kourion was among the most influential of Cyprus. Damasos is recorded (as Damasu of Kuri) as king of Kourion on the prism (672 BCE) of Esarhaddon from Nineveh.
Between 569 and , Cyprus was under Egyptian administration.
In 546 BCE, Cyrus I of Persia extended Persian authority over the kingdoms of Cyprus, including the Kingdom of Kourion. During the Ionian Revolt (499–493 BCE), Stasanor, king of Kourion, aligned himself with Onesilos, king of Salamis, the leader of a Cypriot alliance against the Persians. In 497, Stasanor betrayed Onesilos in battle against the Persian general Artybius, resulting in a Persian victory over the Cypriot poleis and the consolidation of Persian control of Cyprus.
In the Classical Period (475–333 BCE), the earliest occupation of the acropolis was established, though the primary site of settlement is unknown. King Pasikrates () of Kourion is recorded as having aided Alexander the Great in the siege of Tyre in 332 BCE. Pasikrates ruled as a vassal of Alexander, but was deposed in the struggles for succession amongst the diadochi. In 294 BCE, the Ptolemies consolidated control of Cyprus, and therefore Kourion came under Ptolemaic governance.Thonemann, Peter, "A ptolemaic decree from Kourion", Zeitschrift für Papyrologie und Epigraphik, pp. 87-95, 2008
Roman history In 58 BCE, the Roman plebeian council passed the Lex Clodia de Cyprus, fully annexing Cyprus to the province of Cilicia. Between 47 and 31 BCE, Cyprus returned briefly to Ptolemaic rule under Marc Antony and Cleopatra VII, reverting to Roman rule after the defeat of Antony. In 22 BCE, Cyprus was separated from the province of Cilicia, being established as an independent senatorial province under a proconsul.
Under the Romans, Kourion possessed a civic government functioning under the oversight of the provincial proconsul. Inscriptions from Kourion attest elected offices that included: Archon of the City, the council, clerk of the council and people, the clerk of the market, the various priesthoods including priests and priestesses of Apollo Hylates, and priesthoods of Rome. It is thought that Kourion flourished and quality of life increased due to good trade with the rest of the Roman Empire.
In the first to third centuries, epigraphic evidence attests a thriving elite at Kourion, as indicated by a floruit of honorific decrees (Mitford No.84, p. 153) and dedications, particularly in honour of the emperor, civic officials and provincial proconsuls. In the first and second centuries, Mitford suggests excessive expenses by the council of the city and peoples of Kourion on such honours, resulting in the sanctions and oversight of expenditures by the proconsul (Mitford 107), particularly during the Trajanic restorations of the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates.
Local participation in the imperial cult is demonstrated not only by the presence of a high priesthood of Rome, but also the presence of a cult of Apollo Caesar, a veiled worship of Trajan as a deity alongside Apollo Hylates. Epigraphic honors of the imperial family are particularly notable during the Severan dynasty in the late third and second centuries CE.
As one of the most prominent cities in Cyprus, the city is mentioned by several ancient authors including: Ptolemy (v. 14. § 2), Stephanus of Byzantium, Hierocles and Pliny the Elder.
During the Diocletianic Persecution, Philoneides, the Bishop of Kourion, was martyred. In 341 CE, the Bishop Zeno was instrumental in asserting the independence of the Cypriot church at the Council of Ephesus. From 365 to 370, Kourion was hit by five strong earthquakes, as attested by the archaeological remains throughout the site, presumably suffering near-complete destruction. In the late fourth and early fifth centuries, Kourion was reconstructed, though portions of the acropolis remained abandoned. The reconstruction included the ecclesiastical precinct on the western side of the acropolis. In 648–649, Arab raids resulted in the destruction of the acropolis, after which the centre of occupation was relocated to Episkopi, to the northeast. Episkopi was named as the seat of the bishop (Episcopus).Michel Lequien, Oriens christianus in quatuor Patriarchatus digestus, Paris 1740, Vol. II, coll. 1057–1058Pius Bonifacius Gams, Series episcoporum Ecclesiae Catholicae, Leipzig 1931, p. 438
History of excavations
The site of Kourion was identified in the 1820s by Carlo Vidua. In 1839 and 1849, respectively, Lorenzo Pease and Ludwig Ross identified the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates to the west of the acropolis. In 1874–1875, Luigi Palma di Cesnola, the American and Russian consul to the Ottoman government of Cyprus, extensively dug at the cemetery of Ayios Ermoyenis and the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates. His only objective was to recover objects of value, most of which he later sold to the Metropolitan Museum of Art.E. McFadden, "The Glitter and the Gold: A Spirited Account of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s First Director, the Audacious and High-Handed Luigi Palma di Cesnola, New York 1971Marquand, Allan, "A Silver Patera from Kourion", The American Journal of Archaeology and of the History of the Fine Arts, vol. 3, no. 3/4, pp. 322–37, 1887Karageorghis, Vassos, in collaboration with Joan R. Mertens and Marice E. Rose, "Ancient Art from Cyprus: The Cesnola Collection in the Metropolitan Museum of Art", New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000 In 1882 George Gordon Hake excavated about 70 tombs at the base of the acropolis on behalf of the South Kensington Museum.D. Parks, "Excavations at Kourion’s Amathus Gate Cemetery, 1995", Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, pp. 171-185, 1997 Between 1882 and 1887 several unauthorized private excavations were conducted prior to their illegalization by British High Commissioner, Henry Ernest Gascoyne Bulwer in 1887.
In 1895, the British Museum, led by H.B. Walters, conducted the first quasi-systematic excavations at Kourion as part of the Turner Bequest Excavations.A.S. Murray, A.H. Smith and H.B. Walters (1900). Excavations in Cyprus (Bequest of Miss E.T. Turner to the British Museum), pp. 57-85
G. McFadden, B.H. Hill and J. Daniel conducted systematic excavations at Kourion for the University Museum at the University of Pennsylvania in five seasons between 1934 and 1938 and in eight seasons between 1947 and 1954, mainly on the acropolis. They also worked in the cemeteries, including in the Kaloriziki field where they excavated twelve LC III-Iron Age tombs.J.F. Daniel, "Kourion, Past Achievements and Future Plans", University Museum Bulletin 13.6, 1948, pp. 7-15G.H. McFadden, "A Tomb of the Necropolis of Ayios Ermoyenis at Kourion", AJA 50.4, pp. 449-89, 1946Daniel, John Franklin, "Two Late Cypriote III Tombs from Kourion". American Journal of Archaeology 41.1, pp.56-85, 1937Benson, J. L., "Pictorial Mycenaean Fragments from Kourion", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 65, no. 1, pp. 53–54, 1961 and in the Late Cypriote II and III areas of Bamboula. Finds included 4 pots and 7 sherds bearing Cypro-Minoan script signs and the Kourion Sceptre (in Tomb 40).Daniel, John Franklin, "Excavations at Kourion: The Late Bronze Age Settlement-Provisional Report", American Journal of Archaeology, vol. 42, no. 2, pp. 261–75, 1938Goring, Elizabeth, "The Kourion Sceptre: Some Facts and Factoids", Bulletin of the Institute of Classical Studies. Supplement, no. 63, pp. 103–10, 1995Smith, Joanna S., "Seals, Scripts, and Politics at Late Bronze Age Kourion", American journal of Archaeology 116.1, pp. 39-103, 2012 Following the death of McFadden in 1953, the project and its publication stalled. The excavations of the Early Christian Basilica on the acropolis were continued by Peter Megaw, Director of Antiquities for the Government of Cyprus, from 1956 to 1959.A.H.S. Megaw, "Kourion City: The Basilica: The Cathedral Precinct of the Early Christian City-Area VI", in H.W. Swiny (ed.), An Archaeological Guide to the Ancient Kourion Area and the Akrotiri Peninsula, Nicosia, 1982