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Excavations at Sphagion in Cyprus

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 August 2013

J. B. Hennessy
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Extract

The Cemetery at Sphagion was excavated during the last week of August 1951, under the auspices of the Ashmolean Museum—Sydney University expedition to Cyprus with the aid of funds contributed jointly by the University of Sydney and the Australian Institute of Archaeology, Melbourne, which now possesses the finds allotted to the expedition by the Department of Antiquities. Tomb 17 is in the Cyprus Museum. The University of Sydney has made a generous grant towards the cost of illustration.

The site at Sphagion (so called because of a nearby slaughter-house) lies on the outskirts of the village of Myrtou (Kyrenia District) in North-west Cyprus (fig. 1). It is situated immediately to the North of the main Myrtou-Nicosia road, within a few metres of the 20-mile post from Nicosia. The narrow, flat tract of land, now used for the cultivation of vines and olives, has a shallow surface soil overlying the soft white limestone into which the graves were cut. The land belongs to Eleni Hadji Sophokli of the village of Myrtou.

Type
Research Article
Information
Papers of the British School at Rome , Volume 22 , November 1954 , pp. 22 - 38
Copyright
Copyright © British School at Rome 1954

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References

1 Thanks are due to the Directors, Miss Joan du Plat Taylor and Miss Veronica Seton Williams, and members of the expedition for help during excavation in particular to Mr. G. R. H. Wright, who bore much of the work of Surveying, drawing of tomb-plans, and photography, and to Mr. Tryphon Koulermos for his unceasing efforts and guidance as foreman on this excavation. Mrs. Hector Catling and Miss Linda Melton supervised the initial cleaning and cataloguing of the finds. The drawings of pottery from Tombs 19 and 20 were made by Mrs. J. R. Stewart of the University of Sydney; those of Tomb 17 by Mr. Eha Markou of the Cyprus Museum. The pottery of Tomb 17 was photographed by Miss Nancy Lord. I am much indebted to Professor A. D. Trendall and to Mr. J.R. Stewart of the Department of Archaeology of the University of Sydney for constant encouragement during the course of excavation, and for guidance and criticism during the preparations for publication.

The following publications are cited in abbreviated form:

Ayos Ermoyenis—McFadden, George H., ‘A tomb of necropoli of Ayios Ermoyenis at Knnon’, American Journal of Archaeology l (1946), pp. 440 ffGoogle Scholar.

QDAP—Quarterly of the Department of Antiquities, Palestine.

SCE—Swedish Cyprus Expedition: Finds and Results of of the Excavations in Cyprus, 1927–1931.

Schörgendorfer—August Schörgendorfer, Die Römerzeitliche Keramik der Ostenalpenländer (Wien, 1942)Google Scholar.

Soli—Westholm, A., The Temples of Soli (Stockholm 1916)Google Scholar.

2 Land Registry Office Map. Plan XI, 35 E; 36 N. Plot No. 24.

3 SCE, iv, 2, p. 31, fig. 8, no. 3.

4 Syria, XX (1939), pp. 92–4Google Scholar.

5 Ibid., p. 94.

6 Soli, pp. 117–18, 120–1, 218 ff. SCE iii, 512–13, 515–16. The Matt Black Ware from Soli is well made and hard. The walls sometimes are very thin. The clay is usually grey, but sometimes pale red or pink (our example, pink). The slip is rarely well defined, arid can be black, grey, or mottled to dark brown.

7 Soli, Chart, p. 145.

8 Ibid., pl. XXX.

9 Holwerda, J. H., Het in de Pottenbakkerij van de Holdeurn Gefabriceerde Aardewerk uit de Nijmesgeche Grafvelden (Leiden, 1944), pl. 11, no. 86Google Scholar (pp. 14, 32). For dating see p. 49.

10 Schörgendorfer, Taf. 1, nos. 9, 10,12. Nos. 9 and 10 (p. 1), second half of the first century A.D.; no. 12 (p. 2) middle of first century A.D.

11 Ayios Ermoyenis, pl. XXXVII, nos. 15–16 (pp. 471–2), pl. XL, no. 43 (p. 476).

12 SCE ii, p. 103, no. 15, pl. XXIII, 4.

13 Ibid., p. 106, no. 10, pl. XXIV (Antoninus Pius).

14 Ibid., p. 208, no. 23, pl. XXXVIII, 2, top row.

15 Broneer, Oscar, ‘Terracotta Lamps’ in Corinth IV, 2, pp. 76 ffGoogle Scholar. and 171–6. Pl. XXV, no. 427, is a fragment of a lamp with similar relief decoration of gladiatorial weapons, but not arranged in the same order.

16 Soli, p. 137, no. 496, Pl. XXV, 15. SCE iii, Pl. CLXXIV.

17 Pézard, Maurice, Qadesh: Mission Archéologique à Tell Nebi Mend (Paris, 1931) Pl. XV, no. 13Google Scholar. See also Syria iii (1922), p. 103 and Pl. XIX, 2gGoogle Scholar.

18 Dunand, Maurice, Fouilles de Byblos, 1926–1932, i (Paris, 1937)Google Scholar, Pl. CLXXIV, no. 6060 (p. 403); no. 6509 (p. 419); no. 6529 (p. 421).

19 Syria, i (1920), p. 201, fig. 1, jGoogle Scholar.

20 Goldman, Hetty, Excavations at Gözlü Küle, Tarsus, (Princeton, 1950), pp. 93–94Google Scholar, fig. 99, nos. 155, 158, 159. Fig. 107, no. 339, has the same design.

21 Petrie, W. M. F., Roman Ehnasya (London, 1905), pl. LVI, no. 88Google Scholar.

22 Bushe-Fox, J. P., Excavation of the Roman Fort at Richborough, Kent, iii, pp. 89–91Google Scholar, pl. XIX, nos. 1–3, 5, 6. No. 1 is probably Pre-Flavian; nos. 2–3, A.D. 70–100; no. 5, first century A.D.; no. 6, Claudian. Bushe-Fox (ibid., p. 90) notes that this type is common at Vindonissa (first century A.D.?) and in graves at Trier with coins of Vespasian and Trajan, but is almost completely absent in forts on the Limes dated to the reign of Domitian.

23 May, T., The Pottery Found at Silchester (Reading, 1916), p. 110, pl. XLVI, no. 1Google Scholar.

24 SCE ii, pl. CLXIX, no. 10. See also p. 548, no. 599; period chart, p. 608; position, p. 598, fig. 249; from pottery-deposit in Squares G-H: 6–7.

25 Ibid., p. 625.

26 SCE ii, pls. CLXXXVII and CLXXXVIII. Compare especially no. 2715 (p. 772) in Plain White V Ware, dating to the middle of Cypro-Archaic II.

27 Cypro-Classical I-II:

SCE iii, Vouni: (a) Tomb 1 (Pl. XCIX and p. XXIX, 301), Dromos no. 13 (Coarse Ware).

Cypro-Classical II

(a) Tomb 3 (Pl. CI and p. 308), nos. 24 and 26 (Plain White VI). (b) Tomb 6 (Pl. CII and p. 312), no. 5 (Plain White VII). (c) Tomb 7 (Pl. CIII and pp. 314–5). White VII). (d) Tomb 8 (Pl. CIV and p. 317), no. 21 (Plain White VI). (e) Tomb 9 (Pl. CVI and p. 322), no. 3 (Plain White VII).

28 No. 52. 375. From the Rea Collection.

29 Breccia, Evaristo, La Necropoli di Sciatbi (Leipzig, 1912) i, p. 87Google Scholar, fig. 44, no. 261. Round mouth and handle from rim.

30 Soli, p. 221.

31 Schörgendorfer, p. 53, no. 469, and Taf. 38.

32 Harding, G. Lancaster, ‘A Roman Family Vault on Jebel Jofeh, Amman’, QDAP xiv (1948), pp. 81 ff.Google Scholar, pl. XXIX, in particular nos. 234, 344, 356, 357, 365, 366, 387. Harding remarks, p. 82, that: ‘There is no visible difference in style between any of the groups.’

33 soli, XXVII, no. 436(p.106); the position in situ is shown in plan VI. The parallel references in SCE iii are pl. CLXXVI, no. 436 (p. 501), together with Plan XXXVIII.

34 L. p. di; Cesnola, , A Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (3 vols. in 15 parts, 1885–1903) iii, pl. LXXVII, nos. 7 and 9Google Scholar.

35 Iliffe, J. H., ‘Vaulted Tomb at Ascalon’, QDAP ii (1932–1933), pp. 182–183, Pl. XLVIII, no. 12Google Scholar.

36 Harding, G. Lancaster, ‘A Nabatean Tomb at Amman’, QDAP xii (1946), pp. 58 ff.Google Scholar, pl. XX, no. 11 (p. 61).

37 SCE ii, pl. XXV. 53 (p. 118, no. 53).

38 SCE ii, pl. LXXXVIII. 12 and 13 (p. 633, nos. 12 and 13). See also note 41.

39 Vessberg, O., ‘Notes on the Chronology of Roman Glass in Cyprus’ in Studies Presented to David Moore Robinson, ii, p. 164Google Scholar. None of the glass types from Sphagion are represented in this article; but the small glass phials, Tomb 17, nos. 4–5, are a shape considered to be an early example of the type by Vessberg, , ‘Roman Glass in Cyprus’, Opuscula Archaeologica vii (1952), p. 131Google Scholar.

40 Corinth xii, pp. 78 and 101, fig. 8, no. 638; this was found in a deposit behind the South Stoa. For the base shape see p. 109, fig. 9, no. 651.

41 SCE ii, Pl. LXXXVIII, no. 10 (p. 653, no. 10). An examination of the stratification of this tomb and consideration of the condition of the fourth-century coin suggest that the precise dating of this tomb requires further consideration. There is nothing in the published evidence to exclude the possibility that the coin found its way into the chamber as a result of natural agency. Vessberg does not include this shape in his papers on glass.

42 Cesnola, , op. cit. iii, Pl. LXXXIV, no. 1Google Scholar. Cesnola recorded thirty-eight examples of this type of bowl in the collection.

43 Bushe-Fox, , op. cit. i, pp. 48–9Google Scholar, Pl. XIX, no. 7. Bushe-Fox quotes parallels from the Claudian fort at Hofheim.

44 Broneer, op. cit., pp. 76–8 and Pl. VII, no. 425.

45 Ayios Ermoyenis, p. 484, pl. XLIII, no. 93. Compare also Cesnola, op. cit., Pl. CXL, no. 1035.

46 Pézard, op. cit., Pl. XV, no. 34.

47 Dunand, , op. cit. i, Pl. CLXXIV, no. 6530 (p. 421)Google Scholar.

48 Goldman, , op. cit. i, pp. 109–10Google Scholar; fig. 98, nos. 139, 141, 142.

49 Petrie, op. cit., Pl. LIII, no. 6; Pl. LVI, nos. 12 and 88.

50 Rostovtzeff, M. I. and Others, The Excavations at Dura-Europos. Final Report iv, Part IIIGoogle Scholar: The Lamps, p. 56, pl. VIII, no. 336.

51 Caruana, A. A., Ancient Pottery from the Ancient Pagan Tombs and Christian Cemeteries in the Islands of Malta (Malta, 1899), p. 43Google Scholar, pl. XVII, no. 16.

52 Bushe-Fox, , op. cit. i, p. 48Google Scholar and pl. XIX, no. 4.

53 The Times, London, March 7, 1952.

54 Ayios Ermoyenis, p. 483 and pl. XLIII, no. 91. Found on Stratum II.

55 Holwerda, op. cit., pp. 26 and 40, and pl. VII, no. 474. The handle is less angular than that of the Sphagion example; but compare the handle of no. 475. The body-shape is similar, the rim different. For a parallel to the rim of Holdeurn 474 see Sphagion Tomb 19, no. 7.

56 Schörgendorfer, p. 55, Taf. 38, no. 479, dated to the first half of the first century A.D. For the body-shape, compare Taf. 39, no. 480 (p. 55), dated to the second half of the first century A.D.

57 SCE ii, p. 103, no. 14, and pl. XXIII. 4; p. 106, no. 9, and pl. XXIV. 1.

58 SCE iii, p. 53, no. 612, and pl. XXXVII. 4.

59 Breccia, op. cit., p. 87, fig. 46, no. 264.

60 SCE ii, p. 117, nos. 25–26, and pl. XXVI. 1, Plain Red Ware; p. 118, no. 54, Plain White Ware.

61 SCE ii, p. 633, no. 3, and pl. LXXXVIII. 5 (p. 633, no. 3).

62 Ayios Ermoyenis, pp. 464, 480, and Pl. XLII, no. 74. This pot, found in the fifth burial layer, had ‘fine, clean, micaceous, buff clay; traces of dark paint on neck and lip. Slightly concave base.’.

63 Goldman, op. cit., pp. 34–7; pp. 270 and fig. 159, 734–5 = fig. 202, nos. 734–5. Matt light-red-to-black decoration on upper neck of 735, the fabric of which is described as: ‘Clay, buff, very fine, hard, mineral temper, trace of mica.’

64 Knipowitsch, T., Die Keramik römischer Zeit aus Olbia in der Sammlung der Eremitage (Frankfort a.M., 1939), p. 53Google Scholar and Taf. VII, no. 2.

65 Schörgendorfer, p. 67, and Taf. 47, no. 570. Red Slip.

66 Kraeling, Carl H., Gerasa, City of the Decapolis (New Haven, 1938), pp. 561–4Google Scholar, fig. 41, no. X. 1.

67 Holwerda, op. cit., p. 26 and pl. VII, nos. 473–474.

68 Schörgendorfer, pp. 56–7 and Taf. 39, nos. 492, 493.

69 Gizeh and Rifeh, pl. XXII E, no. 5.

70 Knipowitsch, op. cit., pp. 37 ff. and Taf. III, no. 41.

71 This type is not recorded by Gjerstad in SCE iv, 2; but cf. Kazaphani, in a Cypro-Geometric II–III context (Liverpool Annals of Art and Archaeology xxviii (1948), p. 5Google Scholar).

72 Compare Vounous, Tomb 140 (Stewart, Vounous, p. 311).

73 Cesnola, , op. cit. ii, Pl. CXXXVIIGoogle Scholar.

74 Hesperia iii (1934), pp. 403–5Google Scholar, 450–51; E. 73 has the rope handle as in Sphagion Tomb 20, no. 1.

75 Ayios Ermoyenis, pp. 473–4 and Pl. XXXVII, nos. 21–4; p. 477 and Pl. XLI, nos. 52, 53.

76 Schörgendorfer, pp. 54–5 and Taf. 38, no. 477.

77 SCE ii, Pl. XXXVII. 5. Marion Tomb 7, no. 202: Bichrome Red II (V) Ware.

78 Ibid., pl. XXXVIII. 2. Marion Tomb 9, no. 9 (p. 208).

79 SCE i, Kountoura Trachonia, Tomb 2, (p. 441 and pl. LXXIII ) no. 10. Tomb 7 (p. 448 and pl. CXLI. 7) no. 6. Tomb 8 (p. 450 and pl. CXLI. 6) no. 3. Tomb 14 (p. 458 and pl. CXLI. 5) no. 1.

80 Ibid., pp. 459–60.

81 Knipowitsch, op. cit., pp. 37 ff. and Taf. 111, no. 40 = Taf. V, no. 6.