Previous First Next

SALAMIS IN THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS.
BY ALEXANDER PALMA DI CESNOLÀ, F.S.A.,
page 20

century, made in the time of the Venetian rule, one of the oldest being en graved by Bertelli, Rome, 1562; then follow those of the general atlases and other works of Ortelius, 1570; Mercator, 1595; Bleau, 1635; Coronelli, 1696; De Lisle, 1726; Dapper, 1688; Pococke, 1743; Drummond, 1754; Ali Bey, 1816; and M. Marcel Cerniti, Sardinian Consul at Larnaka, in 1844-1847, still, it is believed, unpublished. Then comes the Chart of Cyprus, by Captain Thos. Graves in 1849, republished with corrections in 1874. The map of the Recherches already mentioned, and that contained in the Essai d'ime Carte Agricole de l'Ile de Cliypre, par MM. Albert Gaudry et Amédée Damour, dressé d'après la Carte Géographique inédite de M. de Mas Latrie, Paris, 1854. The last mentioned map was reproduced and geologically coloured in the Mémoires de la Société Géo logique de France, 2me série, tom. vii, Mém. 3, Paris, 1859, 4to., but dated 1860. In 1862, the map of M. de Mas Latrie was published in his Histoire de Vile de Chypre sous le Règne des Princes de la Maison de Lusignan, with a statistical table which forms a complete "Index Geographicus" of the whole of the island. The geological map above mentioned was reproduced by Unger and Kotschy in their work entitled, Die Insel Cypern, considerably reduced. There is also a good map in Von Lòher's Cyprus. The writer of the Athenœum article also draws attention to the thirteenth century map in the Peutinger Tables at Vienna, and passes some strictures upon some recently published maps of the island. The reader will observe a province or district in the ancient map that I have introduced, to which Ortelius has applied the name of Salaminia. Of this district, Salamis was the centre or chief city. Now, as my discoveries and excavations were, with few exceptions, carried on within this area, I have selected, and I trust appropriately applied, the name for the title of my work. But, if the reader be inclined to criticise the use of this name in classical or ante-classical times, he may consider the word to be a neuter plural of the adjective Σαλαμινιοσ, and to refer to the Salaminian things of which the Lawrence-Cesnola collection is composed. And now that I have briefly recounted the traditions and historical records concerning Salamis and other Cypriote sites, I shall proceed to lay before archǽologists and students an account of my discoveries in those places, and relate simply my impressions, and as far as possible endeavour to describe the exact details of the spots where my excavations were carried out.

CHAPTER II.

GENERAL IDEA OF CYPRIOTE ANTIQUITIES.

NTIQUITIES found in Cyprus comprise fictile vases, statues in terra-cotta, bronze, and stone, glass vessels, bronze implements and arms, alabastra, ornaments in gold and silver, gems of precious stones, and coins of different epochs. Most of these objects have been discovered in tombs. Numerous sculptured statues and bas-reliefs were found among the ruins of temples or in walled enclosures, into which, after being broken, they were thrown by pious converts to Christianity, in obedience to an edict of Constantine the Great. Some recent excavators in Cyprus have fallen into what is, I think, the error of supposing that wherever sculptured remains have been discovered there is the site of a temple. This is certainly not always the case, for I have examined many similar places, and dug in them in search of plans and buildings, endeavouring to learn if any structures had existed there; but I found only shallow foundations of large squares and

Previous First Next