Agia Irini (Kyrenia)

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Votive offerings, terracotta
Rider with horse
Votive offering, man with sacrificial animal?
Votive offering

The excavation site Agia Irini is located at the eponymous place Agia Irini ( Greek Αγία Ειρήνη ) in the northwest of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus , a few kilometers from the coast. It is formally part of the Kyrenia District . The site was first excavated by the Swedish Archaeological Mission in 1929. The area was occupied by Turkey in 1974 and with the establishment of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus in 1983 it became part of this state, which is recognized exclusively by Turkey, or of its Girne district . The Italians who dug there in the early 1970s were banned from further work.

background

On the initiative of Carlo Gallavotti from Rome, the director of the Istituto per gli Studi Micenei ed Egeo-Anatolici , the institute set up a branch in Agia Irini in 1970, after which Franco Biancofiore took over the excavation of the necropolis. He in turn followed Paolo Emilio Pecorella until 1973.

The cemetery consists of a rural Temenos , which slowly descends towards the coast on an irregularly oval, stony ground, whereby it was surrounded by a large earth wall. It originated in the period known as Zypro-Geometric I and was in use until the Zypro-Geometric III period (850-750 BC) when the peribolos wall and floor were raised and the infill of the the original floor covered the old altar. To the north of the remote complex there was a settlement that archaeologically began in the middle of the 2nd millennium BC. Can be proven. There are trade contacts to Syria and the Aegean. The few burials there were partly dated to the Cyprus-geometrical period. The entrance to the Temenos was in the south, the ground was covered with tamped earth. A low, roughly triangular altar was erected in the north of the Temenos and a sacrificial table for libations stood next to it. Its table was made of a limestone slab. After the complete reconstruction, a new altar was erected near the old one, which consisted of a monolithic limestone column. This temenos was in use up to the Cyprus Archean I.

The first Archaic Temenos originated in the Middle Archean I and was in use until the Zypro Archean II . The second archaic temenos lasted until the middle Archaic II , was then repaired, to finally be overcome by a huge flood around 500 BC. To be destroyed. The third archaic temenos was abandoned and then again until the 1st century BC. Put into use.

The complex system with its changeful history became famous for the large number of clay figurines that were found around the altars. These approximately 2000 figurines from the archaic period alone were probably votive offerings, of which only two represent women. Many of them are unusually large, apparently a large number of them come from the same workshops. They used consistent techniques and styles over long periods of time. About half of the figurines were taken to the Medelhavsmuseet in Sweden's capital Stockholm , while the other half fills the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia .

The Swedish archaeologist Einar Gjerstad was able to set up a relative chronology in 1948 on the basis of the stone and terracotta finds . The archaic period became the starting point, which was divided into three styles, namely "Proto-Cypriot", "Neo-Cypriot" and "Archaic Zypro-Greek". He added for the stone sculptures "Zypro-Ägyptisch" as well as for the 5th and 4th centuries BC. "Subarchaic Zypro-Greek" and "Classical Zypro-Greek".

literature

  • Lorenzo Quilici: La mission Italienne à Ayia Irini (Kyrenia). In: Vassos Karageorghis (ed.): Archeology in Cyprus, 1960–1985. AG Leventis Foundation, Nicosia 1985, pp. 182-192.

Web links

Remarks

  1. ^ Paolo Emilio Pecorella: Le tombe dell'età del bronzo tardo della necropoli a mare di Ayia Irini, Paleokastro. Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche, Istituto per gli studi micenei ed egeo-anatolici, Rome 1977.
  2. ↑ Foreign Press on Cyprus, 1981 , Public Information Office, 1983, p. 69.
  3. ^ Paolo Emilio Pecorella: Le tombe dell'età del bronzo tardo della necropoli a mare di Ayia Irini, Paleokastro. Consiglio nazionale delle ricerche, Istituto per gli studi micenei ed egeo-anatolici, Rome 1977, p. 7.
  4. ^ Tønnes Bekker-Nielsen: The Roads of Ancient Cyprus. Museum Tusculanum Press, Copenhagen 2004, p. 148.
  5. ^ Antoine Hermary, Joan R. Mertens: The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art: Stone Sculpture. The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York 2014, p. 17.
  6. ↑ p. 23.

Coordinates: 35 ° 17 '24 "  N , 32 ° 58' 38.3"  E