Cape Maa
The Cape Maa is a few hundred meters long peninsula on the southwest coast of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus , almost 10 km northwest of the town of Paphos . Cape Maa borders the coral bay in the north, which actually consists of two bays. The peninsula is not freely accessible, but a fenced archaeological park.
Late Bronze Age settlement
Similar to Pyla-Kokkinokremmos , Maa-Palaeokastro was a short-lived settlement that fell in the time of the Sea Peoples , but also in a time when the island was believed to have been Hellenized .
In 1952, under the direction of Porphyrios Dikaios, the first test excavation took place, which was only followed by systematic excavations from 1979 to 1985. This was headed by Vassos Karageorghis , the head of the Cyprus Museum , whose ambition was to prove Greek artifacts and a correspondingly early settlement and Hellenization of the island. Against the background of the Cyprus conflict , which took place only a few years ago , and which strengthened attempts on the Greek side to prove that the island had always been Greek, considerable efforts went into the search for the first settlers, for example from Mycenae .
At the site of the Aegean settlement, however, remains of an early Chalcolithic , much older settlement were found, the houses of which were sunk into the rock and covered by light wooden structures.
The peninsula was, depending on the publication, after the mid-13th century BC. Settled by Mycenaeans or built by local groups. In fact, Mycenaean ceramics of the period SH III C early (approx. 1190–1150 BC) were introduced, which accounted for 40 to 60% of ceramics. Parts of the Cyclopean fortress walls, which protected the peninsula on the land side, but also on the sea, have been preserved from the settlement . In addition, the foundations of some buildings are still visible, under which there are two quite large structures. In one of them there were remains of food and drink left behind by large numbers of people, and in the other large quantities of storage vessels. After a first destruction around 1175 BC. The settlement was rebuilt, but around 1150 BC. Finally abandoned.
The museum located on the peninsula with the misleading name Museum of the Mycenean Colonization of Cyprus shows the Mycenean culture in Cyprus on display boards. However, the original finds are no longer on display. The building was designed by the Italian architect and Turin professor Andrea Bruno , who adapted the circular museum to the landscape and allowed its upper components to barely protrude above the surface of the earth.
Picture gallery
Mycenaean Museum from the outside
Mycenaean Museum, interior view
literature
- A. Georgiou: Pyla-Kokkinokremos, Maa-Palaeokastro and the settlement histories of Cyprus in the twelfth century BC , PhD, University of Oxford 2012.
Web links
Remarks
- ↑ August Strobel: The Late Bronze Age Sea Peoples Storm , Walter de Gruyter, 1976, p. 46.