Press Releases

The Department of Antiquities, Deputy Ministry of Culture, announces the completion of the 2024 excavation season of the Berlin-Idalion-Project (BIP), carried out in collaboration between Humboldt-Universitaet zu Berlin (Federal Republic of Germany) and the University of Cyprus, and under the auspices of the Department of Antiquities of the Republic of Cyprus, lasted from 10 September to 10 October 2024.

As in previous years, work focused on the upper plateau of Idalion-Moutti tou Arvili, the so-called eastern acropolis, and more specifically on an area where since the late 19^th century a sanctuary of the great Cypriot goddess is supposed to have existed.

During this year’s excavations, the remains of quite substantial architecture were discovered. A well-built wall, oriented in an East-West direction, that we have been able to follow over roughly 20m of length in the past years and that seems to correspond to the northern limit (temenos) of the sanctuary, forms the corner of a building in this year’s excavation area, that we call building 1 for the time being.

In only about 1m distance another building (building 2) was excavated, that shows a very slightly different orientation. While originally there was a small open space between the two buildings, a kind of small alley, in a later phase it was closed by a substantial adobe wall, henceforth becoming an internal corridor between the two buildings. In this area, several consecutive walking layers and ashy layers containing substantial amounts of pottery, mainly of the Hellenistic period, were discovered. In some cases, there were remains of animal bones in pottery vessels, indicating that the corridor must have been used either for preparing, consuming, or storing food, or as a deposit after cleaning, or destruction of an area with one of the aforementioned functions.

In the last rooms in the NE angle of building 1 and especially aligned immediately along the temenos wall, a lot of limestone and terracotta figurines were discovered, all of very good workmanship. Interestingly, at a certain moment, that, according to the results of previous years we can date roughly around 500 BCE, a new floor level was created in that area, incorporating complete limestone statuettes of the Cypro-Archaic period, packed in a hard layer of mortar.

While in other areas of the excavation the corresponding floor layers contained small fragments of heavily broken Archaic sculpture, in the specific zone excavated this year several complete or nearly complete statuettes were found in the floor layer, as if they were intentionally deposited. In a next destruction horizon, some 10 centimeters above the floor layer containing exclusively Cypro-Archaic sculpture, we found again (almost) complete statuettes made of terracotta and limestone, but this time they contained sculptures from the Cypro-Archaic to the Hellenistic period. One of the most remarkable objects from this horizon is a limestone statuette with a preserved height of 40cm. It shows a woman wearing a chiton and a himation with vivid red colours at its respective ends. The himation covers also the back of the head, leaving visible the front curls of the hair and the ears with earrings. The left arm is bent towards the left breast and with her left hand holds the himation and an oval object, possibly an egg. Either trapped by or hanging from her left forearm is a flat, round object, maybe a mirror. The right arm hangs down the right flank of the body and originally held an object that is now lost, but remains are visible on her right thigh, shortly above the knee. Her right wrist is adorned by a bracelet. In the general posture and outline, the statuette shows similarities with a Hellenistic life-size statue, found at the same spot in the 19^th century and now in the Louvre in Paris (inv. N III 3278). As the Louvre statue, this smaller statue should date to the Hellenistic period and represent either the goddess Aphrodite herself or an adorant.

As far as the divinity of the sanctuary under study is concerned, this year’s excavation added few new elements. For the Cypro-Archaic period we dispose of some iconographic information such as crowns from terracotta statues with lunar and solar symbols, but also figurines of the type of the naked woman holding her breasts.

As it has been pointed out by other scholars, this type is more likely representing a divinity than worshippers, indicating, therefore, a cult of the great Cypriot goddess, including aspects of the near eastern Astarte. The figurine was also found in the NE angle of building one, but in a disturbed layer without relevant context. For the Cypro-Classical II and the following Hellenistic period, the iconography of the votives, such as the limestone statuette mentioned before, would indicate a cult of Aphrodite, but as is well known, the cult(s) of the Cypriot great goddess are rich in variants and names. Hence, we can rely on a potsherd from this year’s excavation, showing the remains of an incised Greek alphabetic inscription, apparently applied before firing. The preserved parts shows the letters ᾼΦΡΟΔ[…], hardly leaving any doubt as for the main deity of the sanctuary.

Therefore, after more than 130 years of research, the hypothesis that placed the sanctuary of the great goddess of Idalion, sung in Hellenistic and Roman poetry, on the top of the hill of Moutti tou Arvili, seems confirmed.

(ΕΚ/ΜS)