OLD CYPRUS

Greymouth Evening Star, 13 August 1935, Page 7

OLD CYPRUS

RUINS OF VANISHED CITY

At Kurion, in South-western Cyp-

rus, 10 miles from Limassol along the road to the birthplace of Aphrodite at Paphos, the ruins of a Hellenistic city (whose citizens, it is believed, were trapped under the falling roofs of their homes by the great earthquake near the end of the fourth century A.D.) have been traversed with exploratory trenches by three American archaeologists working under the University of Pennsylvania Museum. Skeletons of men and women of what was then the Roman Curium were found amid the bric-a-brac of their

households in sounding what may prove to bo one of the most interesting “digs” of the Near East. The time span of the settlement of Kurion stretches from the neolithic period to the historical earthquake. Although partly obscured by the undergrowth, the appearance of the site is unusual. There are in the city great mounds of solid debris, houses whose roofs collapsed upon the inhabitants.

The city’s fortification wall, 36ft

thick in some places, dates in its lowest segment from the ninth century 8.C., but houses thus far examined are not earlier than the third century B.C. Two to three feet below the surface the archaeologists came upon the debris of fallen upper storeys, and below that pottery, utensils and tools were found undisturbed. In one spot pieces of archaic statutary aro scattered about.

TREASURE IN TOMBS The earliest modern examination of the a work in the treasure-hunting style of the last century, was that in 1876 by BrigadierGeneral Palma di Cesnola, Civil War veteran, then American Consul at Larnaca. From his findings here and elsewhere he supplied the Metropolitan Museum in New York with its valuable Cypriote collection. Later he became the Metropolitan's director, a post he held until his death in 1904. Twelve tombs of the “geometric period,” opened by the archaeologists of to-day, proved to be valuable sources. Pottery hitherto unknown was discovered in several tombs—a geometric ware of soft reddish-purplo clay with a hand-polished, black surface and zig-zag design. There was also jewellery in bronze and ivory; and in one tomb was found a gold ring.

Many coins were found, and the fact that the latest coin is dated about 370 A.D. further supports evidence of the earthquake disaster. In one. case, a side shaft in the diggings revealed a beautiful floor mosaic.

On the pinclad rising country behind the site, now a British reforestation project, stands the stadium of the. bygone city. The walls of massive public buildings have been brought to light by the archaeologists. Only painstaking scholarship will be able to identify them, for unlike the excavators in the Athenian agora, who have the helpful though unreliable guidebook of Pausanias to give them hints, the scientists in Cyprus have no Baedaker for their ruins. A curious feature of the excavations is that comparatively few inscriptions have been brought to light. Those few are of importance because the world’s scholars are now trying to pick out clues to the lost Mycenean and Cretan languages from Cypriote tablets.

' The Cypriote Inscriptions run from the Mycenean period to the third century B.C. and wure the last to be written in a syllabic alphabet of Mycenean type. Although this writing postdates the Mycenean and Cretan epigraphs already found elsewhere, it now seems that by an understanding of the syllabary of Cyprus that a step backward toward the earlier riddle can bo taken.

One of the tasks of the excavators will be to determine whether a building they have uncovered was actually the place of worship of Apollo’s fabulous priests, who could uproot and bear giant trees upon their shoulders and leap from lofty places unharmed. Landmarks named by General di Cesnola are no longer recognisable, but if the hillside is cleared it may be possible to locate the underground treasure chambers where he reported finding bronze tripods and valuable gems. In somo archaeological circles di Cesnola is believed to have lumped his best findings together, a practice not out of keeping with the pioneer archaeology of his time. An extra thrill Is added to the work at Kurion by the presence in the ruius of many 3ft vipers. Serum is kept in a field tent nearby, but still the native diggers often remind the scientists that this reptile can bring about death only a little less quickly than the earthquake which wiped out Kurion.