Kourion (Ancient Greek: Koύριov; Latin: Curium) 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 1.3 km (0.81 mi) southwest of Episkopi and 13 km (8.1 mi) west of Limassol, is located atop a limestone promontory nearly 100 metres (330 ft) 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 9 km (5.6 mi) northwest of Kourion. This settlement dates to the Ceramic Neolithic period (c. 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 (c. 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 (c. 2400 – 2175 BCE). In the ECIII-LC (Late Cypriot), IA (c. 2400–1550 BCE) a settlement was established 0.8 km (0.50 mi) 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 0.4 km (0.25 mi) 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 c. 1050 BCE.
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.
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 c. 546 BCE, 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 (Greek: Πασικράτης) 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.
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, 2 km (1.2 mi) to the northeast. Episkopi was named as the seat of the bishop (Episcopus).
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. In 1882 George Gordon Hake excavated about 70 tombs at the base of the acropolis on behalf of the South Kensington Museum. 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.
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. 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). 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.
M.C. Loulloupis of the Cyprus Department of Antiquities excavated at the House of Gladiators and the Apsed Building between 1964 and 1974. A. Christodoulou (1971–1974), and Demos Christou (1975–1998) also worked at Kourion. Megaw returned to work on the site, on behalf of Dumbarton Oaks Centre for Byzantine Studies, from 1974 to 1979 at the Early Christian Basilica.
Between 1978 and 1984, D. Soren conducted excavations at the Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates, and on the acropolis between 1984 and 1987. D. Parks directed excavations within the Amathus Gate Cemetery between 1995 and 2000. Since 2012, the Kourion Urban Space Project, under director Thomas W. Davis of the Lanier Center for Archaeology at Lipscomb University in Nashville, TN, has excavated on the acropolis.
Archaeological remains
The majority of the archaeological remains within the Kourion Archaeological Area date to the Roman and Late Roman/Early Byzantine periods. The acropolis and all archaeological remains within the area are managed and administered by the Cyprus Department of Antiquities.
Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates
The Sanctuary of Apollo Hylates (Ἀπόλλων Ὑλάτης), 1.7 km (1.1 mi) west of the acropolis and 0.65 km (0.40 mi) in from the coastline, was a Pan-Cyprian sanctuary, third in importance only to the sanctuaries of Zeus Salaminos at Salamis and that of Paphian Aphrodite. The earliest archaeological evidence for the sanctuary are from votive deposits of the late eighth century BCE located in the southern court and at the archaic altar. These votive offerings are dedicated to "the god", apparently unassociated with Apollo until the mid-third century BCE. North of the priests residence and south of temple are the remains of an archaic altar, the earliest structure at the sanctuary dating to the late-eighth or early seventh-century CE.
A structure of the late-fourth century BCE, located east of the later sacred way, and south of the altar served as the residence of the priests of Apollo and the temple treasury. This building was subsequently renovated in the first, third and fourth centuries CE.
The present form of the sanctuary dates to the first century CE and to the restoration under Trajan in the early second century following the earthquake of 76/77 CE. Under Augustan patronage at the end of the first century BCE or early first century CE, the sacred street was laid out, with the palaestra, temple, structure north of the Paphian gate and the circular monument were constructed. The Augustan temple is 13.5 m (44 ft) long and 8.35 m (27.4 ft) wide with a tetrastyle pronaos and cella.
Under Trajan and the Proconsul Quintus Laberius Justus Cocceius Lepidus, the sanctuary underwent restoration and expansion. The southern portico, southern buildings, which likely functioned as dormitories for devotees and the bathhouse were built under this restoration. The temple was subsequently abandoned after a period of decline in the late fourth century CE, after it sustained significant damage in an earthquake.
Late Cypro-Classical and Hellenistic remains
The earliest structural remains excavated on the acropolis were uncovered at the northwestern end of the excavations directed by D. Christou in the civic centre. These Late Cypro-Classical (350–325 BCE) remains consist of an ashlar pyramidal structure, perhaps a fortified glacis. Further fortifications dating to the Cypro-Classical have been uncovered along the northern extent of the acropolis area.