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Roman wreck may point to massive battle September 6, 2007

A shipwreck from the imperial Roman era, found off Cyprus, could lead to the discovery of vessels sunk in antiquity’s largest naval engagement, the Battle of Salamis in 306 BC, said an official statement on Thursday.

“According to historian Diodoros, it was somewhere in the area where in 306 BC the Macedonian King Demetrius Poliorketes triumphed over Ptolemy of Egypt in one of the largest naval battles of antiquity,” said Cyprus’ Antiquities Department.

More than 300 ships were believed to have been engaged in the battle that saw Demetrius capture Cyprus.

The Roman ship, dating from the first century AD, was discovered sunk off Cape Greco on the Mediterranean’s southeast coast during an underwater survey to determine the area’s long-term maritime history. Material found provided solid evidence of maritime traffic from the archaic or classic period.

The discovery had encouraged international archaeologists working in deeper waters offshore, and more extensive mapping of the wreck and the seabed is planned for next summer.

UPDATE > Cyprus to seek ancient shipwrecks > Cyprus is to launch sea surveys in an area where dozens of vessels led by warring successors to Alexander the Great are believed to have sunk in battle for control over the island in 306 BC.

Encouraged by the discovery of one wreck from a later Roman era, the survey slated for the summer of 2008 will extend into deep waters from the south-east tip of the island, known as Cape Greco, the island’s Antiquities Department said. “Cyprus is a crossroads and is very rich in ancient shipwrecks,” said Pavlos Flourentzos, director of Cyprus’s Department of Antiquities.

Historical accounts suggest that the Cape Greco region, a rocky outcrop between the now popular tourist resorts of Agia Napa and Protaras, saw one of the biggest naval battles of the ancient world. According to the ancient Greek historian, Diodorus of Sicily, in 306 BC Demetrios the Poliorketes (Besieger) triumphed over Ptolemy I of Egypt in a naval engagement off Cyprus, with dozens of vessels sunk as the result of combat.

“It is well known that there was a naval engagement in the region in 306 BC, so there is a potential of finding wrecks, or parts of wrecks, in deeper waters,” Flourentzos said. Ptolemy I, one of the generals of Alexander the Great, lost control of Cyprus for a period of 10 years after his defeat at the hands of Demetrios Poliorketes. Demetrios was son of Antigonus, a Macedonian nobleman who later ruled Asia Minor.

The Cypriot Antiquities Department announced on Thursday that an ancient Roman shipwreck, dated the 1st century AD, had been found in the same area. The extensive wreck, dating from the early Imperial Roman era, carried a mixed cargo of several amphora, predominantly jars from the southeast Aegean area.

Further mapping of the wreck would take place in 2008. Searches for better preserved shipwrecks would extend to the deeper sandy seabed which was suited to remote sensing techniques, the antiquities department said. Authorities said the projects were financially and logistically supported by the Institute of Nautical Archaeology, Texas A&M University, the University of Pennsylvania and the RPM Nautical Foundation.

Excavations uncover new data on ancient Kingdom of Paphos July 31, 2007

New data on the history of the ancient Κingdom of Paphos are forthcoming as a result of the archaeological field project conducted by the Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus at Kouklia-Palaepaphos since last year.

According to the Department of Antiquities of the Ministry of Communications and Works, the project’s main target is to reconstruct the urban topography of Palaepaphos through the identification of the ancient settlement’s main components.

In the Late Bronze Age, ancient Paphos was the administrative and economic centre responsible for the construction of the megalithic sanctuary of the Cypriote Aphrodite at the end of the 13th century BC. In the Iron Age, the Κings of Paphos retained responsibility for the upkeep and function of the sanctuary, and thus had the unusual privilege of being the goddess’s priests, until the very end of the 4th century BC when the institution of Cypriot Κingship was finally abolished by Ptolemy I.

The University of Cyprus team has been working on the northern side of the Palaepaphos-Marchello plateau since last year. The 2007 excavation team exposed 40 metres of the stone foundation of a monumental Iron Age defensive system, 3.5 meters in thickness. They have also uncovered a gate, so far one side of it only, impressively constructed of finely dressed ashlar blocks, which is protected by a bastion.

A general survey of the plateau as well as various construction details, the position of casemates on the inner side of the wall and that of buttresses on the external facade, suggest that the defence scheme was designed to follow and strengthen the natural contours of the hilltop in the manner of a citadel wall.

Analysis of the ceramic material recovered during the 2006 and 2007 seasons indicates that the site was originally used for the construction of Late Bronze Age chamber tombs. Sometime in the 11th century, when burial sites throughout Cyprus begin to be strictly separated from habitation sites, Marchello ceased to be a burial ground and it was gradually incorporated into the Iron Age urban fabric of Palaepaphos. On the evidence of pottery, this new cultural horizon lasted from the Geometric to the end of the Classical period.

By virtue of the fact that it commands the highest elevation in the landscape of Palaepaphos, it is more than likely that the hill of Marchello was chosen to fulfill a special function. This hypothesis is supported by the fact that, back in the 1950s, a large deposit of Greek syllabic inscriptions, some of them bearing the names of Paphian Kings, and statues, some of them undoubtedly of royal individuals, were found buried on the north side of a monumental and well preserved stretch of wall with a gate, which were then excavated in the 1960s. The recently exposed stretch of wall with a gate has now been shown to be part of the same system of defence.

A geophysical survey and another excavation season in May 2008 are expected to provide definitive evidence in favour, or against, the identification of Marchello as a walled royal citadel of the Archaic and Classical Kingdom of Paphos.

The excavations were designed and directed by Maria Iacovou, Associate Professor of Archaeology in the University of Cyprus. The 2007 excavation team comprised fifteen Cypriot graduate and undergraduate students of archaeology, a student from the Erasmus exchange programme, plus two British volunteers.