Studying Polis on Cyprus

Over the last ten years or so, I’ve been working with a small but good team of scholars to publish the Roman, Late Roman, and Medieval period from the site of Polis tis Chrysochous on Cyprus. This is ancient Marion and Arsinoe for those of you less-sensitive to “dead naming” cities.

This year, we’re working on two little projects. First, we’re wrapping up publication of the site of E.F1. We’ve been working to put together a publication of this area of the site as the first volume of a new “Polis” series perhaps in ASOR’s Archaeological Report Series. Last year, I shared what we’ve put together so far. This year, we’ll tidy up that manuscript and herd cats so that we can submit a volume in the spring.  

This summer, we’re going to focus our attention on the assemblage of Roman and Early Byzantine (Late Roman) Lamps from the area around the South Basilica (which we published a half-decade ago). Our goal is not only to publish a sample of the lamps found in this area, but, perhaps more importantly, put them in their stratigraphic and archaeological context.

Of particular significance is a small deposit of lamps nestled against the wall of the South Basilica apse. This group of lamps is in a secondary context, but they were found less than a dozen meters from a kiln. More interesting still is that this kiln was found below a pool which featured terracotta tile coping. It seems probable that this pool was associated with levigating clay and was par of a 2nd century-ish industrial area which preceded the basilica. The location of the pool above the kiln means that it was part of a second phase of activity associated with ceramic production in the area. (You can’t have a pool ABOVE a kiln, of course, because it would keep putting the kiln out… among other reasons!).

Another small cache of lamps has appeared elsewhere in the area that came to be dominated by the South Basilica. It seems likely that these too are in some kind of secondary context, but are of similar types to the lamps found near the apse of the basilica.

These two groups of lamps suggest that certain common forms not only appeared at Polis, but offers the enticing possibility that these types were manufactured there (as well as elsewhere on the island).

Of course, it remains early days in our study of the site and we have other projects here to keep us distracted (including excavations by the Department of Antiquities at the North Basilica and efforts to conserve various areas of the site). That said, I do enjoy little projects that not only offer a chance to unpack the history of the site, but to offer some context for an interesting group of Roman period artifacts.

More on this as the season develops!