Vounous-Bellapais cemetery

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Vounous-Bellapais , actually Vounoi , is a burial ground from the Early and Middle Bronze Age (EC1 – MC) in the north of the island of Cyprus , which mostly consists of rock chambers.

location

Vounous-Bellapais is located in the northern foothills of the Kyrenia Mountains northeast of Bellapais Abbey , about halfway between the monastery and the place Agios Epiktetos , at the same time southeast of Kazaphani on the northern slope of a small hill. This is separated from the main chain of the Pentadactylos by a ravine.

Research history

The site is already mentioned by Einar Gjerstad . In 1931–1932 the burial ground was partially excavated by Porphyrios Dikaios , curator of the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia , after a number of finds were confiscated by the Kyrenia District Police. The finds came, as Dikaios was able to determine, from extensive robbery excavations. The Cyprus Museum financed a short emergency excavation, and donations made possible another excavation campaign in the same year. A total of 31 graves were uncovered in 1931, and another 17 graves in 1932. In 1933 further excavations took place under the direction of Dikaios and Claude F. Scheffer from the French National Museum. In 1937 James Rivers Stewart investigated graves in the eastern part of the necropolis (Necropolis A) with funds from the British School at Athens .

Plant of the cemetery

Dikaios distinguishes four groups according to their location:

  1. upper eastern group
  2. upper western group
  3. Central group
  4. lower group

Group 1 contains the oldest graves.

The limestone in the west of the burial ground is quite hard and the burial chambers were accordingly well preserved, while in the east they mostly collapsed, which, however, largely protected their contents from robbery graves.

Plant of the graves

The graves are sunk into the limestone. They have a rounded (grave 16, 20, 30) to irregularly rounded shape, sometimes oval (grave 7) or mushroom-shaped (grave 27) and are usually connected to the access shaft by a short passage. In some graves (grave 5, grave 11) the chamber borders directly on the shaft. The access to the burial chamber was usually closed by a stone slab, which is sometimes toppled by smaller stones on the outside. The chambers are usually quite low (1.20–1.40 m), in individual cases even smaller (grave 36 with 1.04 m, grave 31 with 1.14 m), but there are also chambers in which one stands upright (grave 15 is 1.80 m high, grave 38 1.85 m, grave 6 1.90 m and grave 12 2.2 m). The maximum length of the burial chambers is 5.30 m (grave 11).

The very richly furnished grave 15 is characterized by a side chamber in the west, many other graves (3, 6, 7, 11) had a slight bulge on the side, which was apparently created to accommodate the various. Grave 5 has two side chambers, the western one with the skeleton of L-shape (Dikaois 1940, fig. 4). Individual graves were connected to one another (39 and 40). The graves are mostly oriented north-south, with the access to the north. Grave 38 was oriented east-west, grave 50 west-east. The entrances are either short with parallel sides or long with a trapezoidal floor plan.

Burials

The burial chambers usually contained several burials, most of which are not simultaneous. It seems that older burials have often been pushed aside to make room for new corpses. Grave 19 contained a double burial, in grave 36 a total of nine burials. Graves 38 and 40 are individual burials. The dead are mostly in the west of the chamber. Dikaois interprets the chambers as family graves (1940, 102).

Additions

The additions consist mainly of ceramics, the characteristic red-polished and white-painted goods, more rarely black-polished ceramics (grave 37). In addition to fine ceramics, saucepans were also added. The ceramics often show very baroque forms and rich plastic ornamentation (snakes, birds, deer) presumably it is mainly special grave ceramics.

The additions were usually only on one side of the chamber. In addition to vessels, spindle whorls, figurines (grave 34) and two models were made from clay. Spinning whorls were also made from bones (grave 36). Grave goods made of bronze, flint (blades and scratches), stone tools (club heads, whetstones) and glass (mostly pearls) are generally rarer and not very numerous within the individual graves. Pottery could also lie over the buried (grave 35).

Special finds

  • Grave 11 contained a red-polished jug with plastic figurative decoration on the shoulder (Dikaios 1940, fig. 10).
  • Grave 15 contains a jug with stags incised on the shoulder (Dikaios 1940, fig. 14).
  • Grave 22 with a model of a house or temple
  • Grave 23A with an Askos in the shape of a bird and incised decoration made of red polished goods.
  • Grave 28 with a ship-shaped pyxis and animal head protomes.
  • Grave 31 with a bird-shaped jug and incised decoration
  • Grave 36 with a red polished bowl, on the edge of which birds and a horned animal sit, while a snake is modeled on the body of the vessel
  • Grave 37 pyxis with a human couple on the lid

bronze

Handle plate and handle daggers, knives, needles, earrings (grave 16), rings (grave 47), necklaces made of wire (grave 21) and tweezers are made of copper, which contains only minor traces of lead and arsenic.

Glass

Pearls (grave 19, 20).

Animal bones

Grave 36 contained parts of an ox, grave 13 the remains of several animals on the floor of the chamber. Animal bones, presumably food, were also often placed in large bowls. In grave 19 animal bones lay beneath and next to the buried.

Terracotta models

House model

The terracotta model of a round enclosure comes from grave 22 of the central group. It is made of red polished ceramic and measures 37 cm in diameter. The round clay plate is bordered by an 8 cm high wall with a higher archway. The model was badly shattered when it was found; it was probably already broken by ancient grave robbers. Only the feet of two figures to the right of the chair have survived; other figures, such as the “climber” and the woman with child, were completely broken off but still preserved. The model contains two enclosures, each with two small long-horned cattle standing one behind the other, six figures sitting on benches along the wall, a male figure with clasped hands on a large chair or throne with a backrest and wide T-shaped struts, a group of five people to the right of the enthroned figure (two of them largely supplemented), a kneeling figure diagonally in front of the semi-sculptural figures on the wall (line of sight between the figures), a figure in a bull enclosure, two people, one of them with a child on both sides of the other bull enclosure and one Figure between the throne and the figure with the child - overall a rather confusing crowd (Dikaois 1940, plate 7). To the left of the entrance (always seen from the door) a figure with outstretched arms looks over the wall from outside. The “throne” is not in the center of the plate, but in the area to the left of the door in the rear area of ​​the enclosure.

Dikaios assumes rectangular houses for the Early Bronze Age due to the scant excavation findings at the time, but considers it possible that round buildings or enclosures were used in the sacred area, a tradition that, in his opinion, was perhaps also reflected in the shape of the graves in Vounous . In this context he refers to the Neolithic houses of Khirokitia , which, as we know today, are much older, and to the Temenos of Ayios Iakovos from the late Bronze Age.

He sees the representation of subterranean gods in the model. The three figures on the wall opposite the entrance hold two snakes in their “hands” (vertical wavy lines halfway between the middle figure and the outer “figures”). In front of you is a semi-circular, slightly raised platform. They are only half-sculpted from the wall, only the middle, much wider depiction has an elaborate face and could also depict architectural ornaments. Dikaois (1940, 121), however, sees them as images of gods and interprets the undulating protrusions on their heads as horns. He quotes René Dussaud (Syria 13), who interprets them as chthonic gods. Dikaios tends to interpret the not completely preserved "horns" as bull horns and refers to the Minoan Minotaur and signs of bull worship in late Bronze Age Cyprus ( Idalion , Ayia Irini ). He interprets the bull cult as the worship of a fertility god, while the snake could belong to a house god, healing god, astral or chthonic god.

Dikaios sees the figure on the throne, the seated and the five standing figures as participants in a cultic act and revokes his earlier interpretation of the figure with the child as mother goddess . He also rejects Dussaud's interpretation, who regards the enthroned man as the deceased. Overall, he interprets the model as evidence of a worship of fertility and underworld gods with the symbols of bull and snake, which may have been adopted from the Asian mainland, but could also represent a native Cypriot development.

Sturt Manning (1993, 45) sees the model as evidence of the incipient development of lordship structures and hereditary rule. He interprets the male figure on the seat ("throne") as the center of the representation, since it is the largest figure and the attention is focused on it. The fact that she does not perform the worship herself, but leaves it to the kneeling figure, points to her secure social position. The sources of life, power, wealth and social reproduction are gathered around them in the form of cattle and the woman with the child. The half-figures on the wall may represent the ancestors.

Desmond Morris (1985) interprets the model as an image of everyday village life (" a busy scene of village life ") while Nicolas Coldstream (1986) refers to similarities with the Kotchati Bukranion and also assumes a sacred content, an interpretation in which it is used In the light of the Kissonerga- Phosphilia find, Peltenburg (1988) also follows. He also sees parallels with the find of Platia Magoula Zarkou and house models from the Balkans. Ovcarovo , for example, should be mentioned here.

Plowing scene

A plow scene (Dikaios 1940, plates 9-10) stands on a long rectangular clay slab supported by five short feet. It is 41 cm long, 19 cm wide and shows a total of five stylized human figures, five quadrupeds, four of them with yokes and two plows. Dikaios identifies four oxen, two ploughmen, a figure following a saddled animal (donkey?) And two figures who may be carrying seeds (fig. Opposite plate 9). The model comes from a looted grave and was badly broken. Part of the table had been confiscated by the police, and the arrested grave robbers from Kazaphani referred the archaeologists to the grave (without number) that contained the rest of the fragments.

Another plowing scene, with only one plowman and a team of oxen, comes from the shoulder of a long-necked red-polished jug (plate 28).

Meal scenes

A jug with figurative decoration shows the grinding of grain (Dikaios 1940, plate 21), only one of the four grinding, highly stylized female figures has survived. A red polished jug with three necks and a double handle shows the same motif (Dikaios 1940, plate 25, e – f), here the grinding (?) Figure sits on the edge between the spouts.

table

A round red-polished clay table, which Dikaios interprets as a sacrificial tablet (Dikaois 1940, plate 33 b) has a round base and carries two cups with a tapering rim and a mug with a handle, all of which are decorated with incisions. The base of the table and its edge are also decorated with incisions.

additional

Tonhorns are relatively common, both with painting (panel 2; 41) and with incised decorations (panel 28). Dikaois also mentions the model of a spindle, perhaps also a bronze needle and the model of a brush (Plate 38c).

Dating

The cemetery begins with EC1 and has no connection to the previous Philia phase (Manning 1993, 38).

Other sites in the neighborhood

literature

  • John Nicolas Coldstream: The Originality of Ancient Cypriot Art. Cultural Foundation of the Bank of Cyprus, Nicosia 1986.
  • Porphyrios Dikaios: Excavations at Vounous-Bellapais in Cyprus 1931–2. Archaeologia or Miscellaneous tracts relating to Antiquity. Society of Antiquaries of London , Oxford 1940, pp. 1-168.
  • Sturt W. Manning: Prestige, distinction, and competition. The anatomy of socioeconomic complexity in Fourth to Second Millennium BCE In: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 292, 1993, pp. 35-58.
  • Desmond Morris : The art of ancient Cyprus. Phaidon, Oxford 1985, ISBN 0-7148-2280-9 .
  • Edgar J. Peltenburg: A Cypriot model for prehistoric ritual. In: Antiquity 62, 1988, pp. 289-293.
  • Priscilla Schuster Keswani: Death, prestige, and copper in Bronze Age Cyprus. In: American Journal of Archeology 109, 2005, pp. 341-401.

Further publications

  • Eleanor and James Stewart: Vounous 1937-38. Field report on the excavations sponsored by the British School of Archeology at Athens. Lund, Gleerup 1950.
  • Anne-Elizabeth Dunn-Vaturi: Vounous, CFA Schaeffer's excavations in 1933: Tombs 49-79. Paul Astrom, Jonsered 2003, ISBN 91-7081-191-1 (Studies in Mediterranean Archeology 130).
  • Ruth Amiran : More About the Vounous Jar. Some EB IV Antecedents. In: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research. 210, 1973, pp. 63-66.
  • Priscilla Schuster Keswani: Death, Prestige, and Copper in Bronze Age Cyprus. In: American Journal of Archeology. 109/3, 2005.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Dikaois 1940, note 1
  2. ↑ Dikaois 1940, p. 2
  3. ↑ Dikaois 1940, p. 95
  4. ↑ Dikaois 1940, p. 96
  5. ↑ Dikaois 1940, p. 99
  6. ↑ Dikaois 1940, p. 74
  7. ↑ Dikaois 1940, p. 174
  8. ↑ Dikaois 1940, p. 99
  9. ↑ Dikaois 1940, p. 95
  10. ↑ Dikaois 1940, note 1 on p. 118
  11. ↑ Dikaois 1940, p. 120
  12. ↑ Dikaois 1940, p. 123
  13. ↑ Dikaois 1940, note 1 on p. 124
  14. ↑ Dikaois 1940, p. 125
  15. ^ N. Coldstream: The originality of ancient Cypriot art. Cultural Foundation of the Bank of Cyprus Nicosia 1986, p. 281
  16. ↑ Henrietta Todorova: kamenno-Mednata Epocha v Bulgaria. Sofia 1986, p. 120
  17. ↑ Dikaois 1940, p. 127

Web links

Coordinates: 35 ° 18 ′ 44 ″  N , 33 ° 22 ′ 5 ″  E