Alassa
Alassa Άλασσα |
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Basic data | ||
State : | Cyprus | |
District : | Limassol | |
Geographic coordinates : | 34 ° 46 ′ N , 32 ° 56 ′ E | |
Residents : | 282 (2011) | |
LAU-1 code no .: | CY-02 | |
View of the place |
Alassa ( Greek Άλασσα ) is a place and an archaeological site in the southwest of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus , north of places Limassol and Kourion on the south side of the Troodos Mountains, situated on a plateau.
description
Today's place has 282 inhabitants. With the construction of the Kouris Dam, they were relocated to the north on a hill and the new Alassa was expanded into a park-like tourism center. The dam created a larger body of water. The church tower rises out of the water as the only still visible symbol of the submerged place. The church was built in 1939 and is still explored by divers to this day.
Historical place and excavations
The excavations by Cypriot archaeologists uncovered the ruins of a Bronze Age city near Alassa in the early 1980s . These were two separate areas, called Paliotaverna and Pano Mantilaris . In Pano Mantilaris, the lower area, large storage vessels ( pithoi ) were discovered that indicate storage, as well as indications of metal processing. Prestigious goods and some graves were also discovered. In Paliotaverna, the upper settlement district, about 250 meters to the northwest, the remains of a palace-like or mansion-like complex were discovered, which suggest the city is of greater importance as a local trading center.
It is controversial whether Alassa was the capital of the Late Bronze Age Cypriot Empire of Alašija . After the archaeologist Claude Schaeffer suspected the capital of ancient Alašijas to be at his excavation site in Enkomi , this opinion established itself over a long period of time in research and specialist literature. More modern excavations, however, confirmed that other historical settlements in the area, including Alassa, showed a similar urban character as Enkomi and are therefore also possible. In addition, there is a relationship between Alassa and Alasia (Alašija). Material examinations on clay tablets, the so-called Amarna letters , which were found in Ugarit and Amarna among others , prove a connection between Alašija and the southeast of the Troodos Mountains. In addition to Alassa, this would only allow Kalavasos (or the Kalavasos-Ayios Dhimitrios archaeological area ) to localize the empire.
Web links
literature
- Sophocles Hadjisavvas: Alassa. Excavations at the Late Bronze Age Sites of Pano Mantilaris and Paliotaverna 1984-2000 . Cyprus Department of Antiquities, Leukosia 2017, ISBN 978-9963-36-470-1 .
- Appendix II: Lente Van Brempt, Vasiliki Kassianidou: The study of the metallurgical remains from Alassa Pano Mantilaris and Paliotaverna
- Appendix VI: Paul Croft: Animal remains from Alassa.
Individual evidence
- ^ Statistical Service. Accessed February 15, 2019 (Download)
- ↑ Stephanie Valera: Here a ghost town emerges from the lake - 9. Alassa, Cyprus. weather.com. June 2016. Retrieved October 29, 2016
- ^ A b A. Bernard Knapp: Prehistoric and Protohistoric Cyprus. Identity, Insularity, and Connectivity. Oxford University Press, Oxford 2008, p. 214.
- ↑ S. Hadjisavvas: Alassa. A New Late Cypriote Site . In: Report of the Department of Antiquities Cyprus 1986 . Pp. 62-76
- ^ CFA Schaeffer: Enkomi-Alasia. Nouvelles missionsen Chypre, 1946–1950 . Paris 1952.
- ↑ Sabine Rogge: Cyprus: Island in the focus of cultures . Waxmann Verlag, 2000, ISBN 3-89325-878-7 , p. 67 ff., At Google Books
- ↑ These are letters 33, 34, 37 and 38, see Amarna letters.