Kourion

Mosaic in the "Villa des Eustolios"

Kourion , also Kurion , Assyrian Ku-ri-i , ancient Greek Κούριον , Latin Curium , is an Iron Age city-kingdom and an ancient city west of the Kouris and the Akrotiri peninsula on the southwest coast of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus west of today's Limassol . Kourion lies on the territory of the British Sovereign Base Area Akrotiri .

history

The city probably originated in the 13th century BC. Chr. According to Strabo Kurion was an Argive foundation. Kourion was first mentioned in 673/672 BC. Chr .: on the Kition stele it is mentioned as "Ku-ri-i".

To the west of Kurion was a peninsula from which the wicked who had touched the Altar of Apollo were thrown into the sea.

The oldest inscription, which names the god Apollo , who is considered the main god of the city, comes from Kourion . It dates from the 5th century BC. A local god who appears only as "teo" merged with Apollo. This is also indicated by the fact that since the 8th century , votive offerings, mostly made in terracotta, were consecrated, which mostly took the form of horsemen or charioteers, and which then also represented the main offerings for Apollo. This was worshiped as a god of war and protector of the fighters.

Archaeological site

The Greco-Roman Theater in Kourion

The excavations of ancient Kourion covered several buildings with numerous well-preserved floor mosaics , including the " Gladiator's House", the "House of Achilles " (both named after motifs from local mosaics), the "Villa des Eustolios" (5th century AD) , a theater with a view of the sea (1st to 2nd century AD), an agora , an early Christian basilica and the "earthquake house" with skeletons of the human and animal inhabitants who were surprised by an earthquake .

About two kilometers away is a sanctuary of Apollon Hylates, who was venerated in Kourion in Roman times . Some of the excavation finds are displayed in the small Kourion Museum in the village.

literature

Diana Buitron-Oliver : Kourion. The Evidence for the Kingdom from the 11th to the 6th Century BC , in: Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research 303 (1997), pp. 27-36. doi : 10.2307 / 1357407
Dorothy Hannah Cox: Coins from Excavations at Curium, 1932–1953 (= Numismatic Notes and Monographs 145). New York 1959.
TB Mitford: The Inscriptions of Kourion (= Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society 83). Philadelphia 1971.
Bärbel Morstadt : Kourion. City of Apollo. In: Katja Lembke (Ed.): Cyprus. Aphrodite's Island. Catalog for the special exhibition. Philipp von Zabern, Mainz / Roemer- und Pelizaeus-Museum Hildesheim 2010, pp. 92–101.
D.Soren, THE EARTHQUAKE THAT DESTROYED KOURION , pdf

Web links

Commons : Kourion - collection of images, videos and audio files

Finds from Kurion in the British Museum

Individual evidence

↑ ^a ^b Strabo, Geographika 14, 16, 3
↑ Yannick Vernet: Some remarks on the beginnings of the cult of Apollo in Cyprus , in: Iosif Hadjikyriako, Mia Gaia Trentin (ed.): Cypriot Cultural Details. Proceedings of the 10th Annual Meeting of Young Researchers in Cypriot Archeology , Oxbow, 2015, pp. 179-195, here: pp. 179 f.
↑ Cf. Benjamin Costello IV: Architecture and Material Culture from the Earthquake House at Kourion, Cyprus. A Late Roman Non-Elite House Destroyed in the 4th Century AD (= BAR International Series 2635). Archaeopress, Oxford 2014.

34.6642 32.8877Coordinates: 34 ° 39 ′ 51 ″ N , 32 ° 53 ′ 16 ″ E

[Strabo,_Geographika_14,_16,_3-1] Strabo, Geographika 14, 16, 3

[2] Yannick Vernet: Some remarks on the beginnings of the cult of Apollo in Cyprus , in: Iosif Hadjikyriako, Mia Gaia Trentin (ed.): Cypriot Cultural Details. Proceedings of the 10th Annual Meeting of Young Researchers in Cypriot Archeology , Oxbow, 2015, pp. 179-195, here: pp. 179 f.

[3] Cf. Benjamin Costello IV: Architecture and Material Culture from the Earthquake House at Kourion, Cyprus. A Late Roman Non-Elite House Destroyed in the 4th Century AD (= BAR International Series 2635). Archaeopress, Oxford 2014.