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|
 The Agora of Amathus | |
  Shown within Cyprus | |
| Location | Cyprus |
|---|---|
| Region | Limassol District |
| Coordinates | 34°42′45″N33°08′30″E / 34.71250°N 33.14167°E /34.71250; 33.14167 |
| Site notes | |
| Management | Cyprus Department of Antiquities |
| Public access | yes |
Amathus orAmathous (Ancient Greek:Ἀμαθοῦς) was an ancient city and one of the ancient royal cities ofCyprus until about 300 BC. Some of its remains can be seen today on the southern coast in front ofAgios Tychonas, about 6 miles (9.7 km) east ofLimassol and 24 miles (39 km) west ofLarnaca. Its ancient cult sanctuary ofAphrodite was the second most important in Cyprus, her homeland, afterPaphos.[1][2]
Archaeological work has recently been continued at the site and many finds are exhibited in the Limassol Museum.
The pre-history of Amathus survives in both myth andarchaeology.[3] No traces of human activity was detected in the site before the earliestIron Age,c. 1100 BC,[2][4][5] and no town is mentioned in the space betweenKition andKourion in the list of Cypriot cities fromMedinet Habu.[5] The city's legendary founder wasCinyras, linked with the birth ofAdonis, who called the city after his mother Amathous.[6] According to a version of theAriadne legend noted byPlutarch,[7]Theseus abandoned Ariadne at Amathousa, where she died giving birth to her child and was buried in a sacred tomb. According to Plutarch's source, Amathousians called thesacred grove where her shrine was situated the Wood of Aphrodite Ariadne.More purely Hellenic[clarify] myth would have Amathus settled instead by one of the sons ofHeracles,[6] named Amathes (Ἀμάθης),[8] thus accounting for the fact that he was worshiped there.
It was said in antiquity that the people of Amathus wereautochthonous, most likely Eteocyprian or "Pelasgian".[2] Their non-Greek language is confirmed on the site byEteocypriot inscriptions in theCypriot syllabary which alone in the Aegean world survived theBronze Age collapse and continued to be used down to the 4th century BC.[9]
Amathus was built on the coastal cliffs with a natural harbour and flourished at an early date, soon requiring several cemeteries. Greeks fromEuboea left their pottery at Amathus from the 10th century BC. During the post-Phoenician era of the 8th century BC, apalace was erected and a port was also constructed, which served the trade with theGreeks and theLevantines. A special burial ground for infants, atophet[10][11] served the culture of thePhoenicians. For the Hellenes, high on the cliff a temple was built, which became a worship site devoted toAphrodite, in her particular local presence asAphrodite Amathusia along with a bearded male Aphrodite calledAphroditos.[12] The excavators discovered the final stage of the Temple of Aphrodite, also known asAphrodisias, which dates approximately to the 1st century BC. According to the legend, it was where festiveAdonia took place, in which athletes competed in hunting wild boars during sport competitions; they also competed in dancing and singing, all to the honour of Adonis.
The earliest remains hitherto found on the site are tombs of the earlyIron Age period of Graeco-Phoenician influences (1000-600 BC). Amathus is sometimes identified[13] withQartiḫadasti (Phoenician "New-Town") in the Cypriote tribute-list ofEsarhaddon ofAssyria (668 BC) and some Phoenician inscriptions from the island, although others identify thisQartiḫadasti withKition or a part of it.[14] It certainly maintained strongPhoenician sympathies, for it was its refusal to join the philhellene league ofOnesilos ofSalamis which provoked the revolt of Cyprus fromAchaemenid Persia in 500-494 BC,[15] when Amathus was besieged unsuccessfully and avenged itself by the capture and execution of Onesilos.[16] Herodotus reports
Amathus was a rich and densely populated kingdom with a flourishing agriculture (grain[18] and sheep) and copper mines situated very close to the northeastKalavasos.[19][16][20]
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About 385-380 BC, the philhelleneEvagoras of Salamis was similarly opposed by Amathus, allied withCitium andSoli;[22] and even afterAlexander the city resisted annexation, and was bound over to give hostages toSeleucus.[23] Its political importance was now ended but its temple ofAdonis andAphrodite Amathusia remained famous inRoman times. The epithetAmathusia in Roman poetry often means little more than "Cypriote," but attesting to the fame of the city.[16]
From the 4th century BC the pedestals of two sculptures donated by the last Basileus of Amathous, Androkles, representing his two sons, Orestheus and Andragoras, have survived. Their inscriptions are in both Eteocyprian and Greek languages.
The decline of Amathus is often measured by the Ptolemaic gifts toArgos, where Amathus donated only 40 drachmas in 170-160 BC, but Kition and Salamis gave 208, Kourion 172, and Paphos 100. However, this figure contradicts the archaeologic evidence of new buildings in this period including a balneion, a bath, a gymnasium, as well as fortifications of the Acropolis, including a new tower. The port of Paphos appears to have lost traffic compared to Amathus in the Ptolemaic period, an indication that Paphos, as the capital of the island, perhaps offered fewer drachmas than the other cities for different reasons, like Amathus.[24]
In the Roman era Amathus became the capital of one of the four administrative regions of Cyprus.
A Roman temple was built in the 1st century AD on top of the Hellenistic predecessor. The temple facilities remained so important in Roman times that 'Amathusia' was used as a synonym for 'Cypriot'.
Later, in the 4th century AD, Amasus became the see of a Christian bishop and continued to flourish until theByzantine period. Of its bishops, Heliodorus was at theCouncil of Chalcedon in 451 and Alexander at theSecond Council of Nicaea in 787. In the late 6th century, Saint Ioannis Eleimonas (John the Charitable), protector of theKnights of St. John, was born in Amathus and after 614 sent Theodorus, bishop of Amathus, to Jerusalem to ransom some slaves.[25][26]
Today, Amathus is a see of theChurch of Cyprus and is also listed (under the name "Amathus in Cypro", to distinguish it from "Amathus in Transjordan") as atitular see by the Catholic Church, which however, in line with the practice adopted after theSecond Vatican Council, has made no appointments to the bishopric since the death of the lastLatintitular bishop in 1984.[27]
Anastasius Sinaita, the famous 7th-century prolific monk ofSaint Catherine's Monastery, was born here. It is thought that he left Cyprus after the 649 Arab conquest of the island, setting out for the Holy Land, and eventually becoming a monk on Sinai.[28]
Amathus declined and was already almost deserted whenRichard Plantagenet won Cyprus by a victory there overIsaac Comnenus in 1191.[16] The tombs were plundered and the stones from the beautiful edifices were brought toLimassol to be used for new constructions. Much later, in 1869, a great number of blocks of stone from Amathus were used for the construction of theSuez Canal. A ruinedByzantine church marks its site.
A new settlement close to Amathus but further inland, Agios Tychonas, is named after the bishop SaintTychon of Amathus. The site of the ruins is within the borders of this village, though the expansion of the Limassol tourist area has threatened the ruins: it is speculated that some of the hotels are on top of the Amathus necropolis.
From April to May 1930The Swedish Cyprus Expedition excavated a necropolis on both sides of Amathus'acropolis. Amathus was known and visited during the 18th century and 19th centuries by travelers and archaeologists. Earlier excavators, such as General Luigi Palma Di Cesnola, the first American consul in Cyprus, excavated the necropolis' large tombs situated north of the acropolis and the tombs in the necropolis west of the acropolis hill. Since he did not publish any plans or drawingsJohn Lindros illustrated two of the tombs from the old excavations that were still possible to visit. The necropolis had partly been excavated by the English Expedition to Cyprus in 1893-94 and published inExcavations in Cyprus, London 1900. The Swedish Cyprus Expedition excavated around 25 tombs.[29]
The tombs excavated areshaft tombs with adromos, which are rather rare in Cyprus. Variations of the shaft tombs occur, mostly because of the various circumstances of space and economics as well as difficulties in cutting the rock. The archaeologist identified six different styles. It is the shape of the dromos that differs the most between the different styles. Tombs 1 and 2 differ from the others in the sense of construction and quality and might have been created for wealthier people, maybe royals. Tomb 3 is more reminiscent of the other graves found in Cyprus since it is achamber tomb. Tomb no. 26 had a largetumulus and might have been related to otherHellenistictumuli. It contained a stonepithos with analabastron in which a burnt skeleton was found. Around the rim of the alabastron a wreath of gilded myrtle leaves was placed. The excavator thought it might have been aPtolemaic official who died in Amathus and was buried according to a foreign burial custom.[29]
Otherwise, the same burial customs were observed in most of the tombs. Many were reused multiple times, in which case the burial gifts were pushed into the corner of the tomb. Later, during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, Amathus was once again used for burial. These burials did not damage or alternate the earlier tombs since they were usually somewhere in the upper layers. The tombs are dated from the Cypro-Geometric I to the Roman period.[29]
The city had vanished, except for fragments of wall and of a great stone urn on the acropolis,[16] dating from the 6th century BC of which a similar vessel was taken to theMusée du Louvre in 1867. It is 1.85 m (6 ft 1 in) tall and weighs 14 tons. It was made from a single piece of stone and has four curved handles carved with bulls. In the 1870s,Luigi Palma di Cesnola excavated thenecropolis of Amathus, as elsewhere in Cyprus, enriching the early collections of theMetropolitan Museum of Art; some objects went to theBritish Museum. More modern archaeological joint Cypriote-French excavations started in 1980 and still continue. The Acropolis, the Temple of Aphrodite, the agora, the city's walls, thebasilica and the port have all been excavated.
Further archaeological objects found during the excavations are preserved at both the Cyprus Museum in Nicosia and the Limassol District Archaeological Museum.
In the agora there are marble columns decorated with spirals and a huge paved squares. On the coastal side of the city there is an Early Christian basilica with mosaic floors decorated with semi-precious stones. Further, near the terraced road leading to the Temple, situated on the top of the cliff, several houses built in a row dating to the Hellenistic period have been discovered. At the east and west extremes of the city the two acropoleis are situated where a number of tombs have been found, many of which are intact.
Two small sanctuaries, with terracotta votive offerings of Graeco-Phoenician age, lie not far off, but the location of the great shrines of Adonis and Aphrodite have not been identified (M. Ohnefalsch-Richter,Kypros, i. ch.1).[16]
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Myres, John Linton (1911). "Amathus". InChisholm, Hugh (ed.).Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 1 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 783.