Salamis, Cyprus

A walk through the religious landscape of the ancient city

Alexandre Rabot

According to the legend, relayed by the kings who claimed to be his descendants, Salamis in Cyprus was founded by Teucros, the unfortunate hero of the Trojan War, who was driven from his native city of Salamis in Greece by his father because he failed to save the life of his brother Ajax. In fact the new city succeeded a large ancient Cypriot city, Enkomi, which continued to be occupied for some time while Salamis was established in the 11th century BC on a bay that was more suitable for maritime trade. The city remained in its new location throughout Antiquity until it was abandoned in the 7th-8th centuries AD. Gradually covered by the sands on which a forest of mimosas grew up, the ancient capital was reclaimed by nature while the port and the merchant city moved again, this time further south, to Famagusta.

The city and its immediate surroundings constitute, over the long term, a changing space, durably invested with religious practices, from Antiquity to the present day. Rather than following a chronological path that would lead in a linear way from paganism to monotheism, we propose to explore it by following the thread of themes and images that echo each other and weave, over the centuries, the religious landscape of Salamis in Cyprus.

Further readings

 Sabine Fourrier , "Lieux de culte à Salamine à l’époque des royaumes",  Cahiers du Centre d’Études Chypriotes ,  45 , 2015, p. 211-223.

Bestiary

Among the many animal images that populate the religious landscape of Salamis, horned beasts are omnipresent. One of the most common, over the long term, is that of the bull. It already appears, in allusive form, at Enkomi: the well-named "horned god", as well as the "ingot god", metal statuettes discovered on this 2nd millennium site, wear horned headdresses. In the new town of Salamis, small figurines representing bulls, dated to the 8th-6th centuries BC, come from the Geometric and Archaic sanctuary excavated by the French mission south of the Campanopetra basilica. Is it an image of the great god of Salamis, Zeus? Small terracotta bovine masks were also found at the same site: do they represent abbreviated images of the god or miniature replicas of bucranes worn during ceremonies, as known elsewhere? Later, the same image is found on a Hellenistic capital, discovered near the temple of Zeus. Held in the hands of terracotta worshippers in the extra-urban sanctuary of Salamis-Toumpa, the miniature bull rather evokes the offering, the victim sacrificed to the god.

As an embodiment of the deity, a beast associated with it or consecrated to it, the bovine image evocatively refers to one of the divine powers that watched over the city. The inhabitants of Enkomi brought it to Salamis, the old indigenous deity was hellenised into Zeus: despite the transformations of the name and the cult, the image, also shared by other sanctuaries in Cyprus, has endured.

Further readings

Baskets, fruits and bouquets

The fauna is matched by the flora: none of the plants that accompanied the cult practice (flowers, wreaths, aromatic plants, etc.) have been preserved, but the painted, modelled and sculpted images show their importance. Near the monastery of Saint Barnabas where, before the 1974 invasion, pilgrims went to assembled bouquets on feast days, a rescue excavation brought to light a votive deposit comprising a large number of limestone sculptures dating from the late 6th and 5th centuries. The female sculptures are standing, richly dressed and adorned, wearing a low headdress in the shape of a basket (calathos), made of intertwined plants and flowers. They often hold a round fruit in their hands, sometimes identifiable (pomegranate), sometimes a small animal. Another deposit, discovered this time during the French excavations in the urban area, immediately south of the city wall, contained a rich assemblage of female terracotta figurines, dated to the 4th and 3rd centuries. Their basket headdress is now much higher and more refined, with stems, foliage and blossoming flowers. They are sometimes accompanied by a wild animal, a deer or a fawn.

Being a female attribute (of the goddess or the worshipper), the floral motif is also found on Archaic vases, amphorae and jugs, then petrified on the capitals of temples. The capitals of the Temple of Zeus feature intricate interlacing designs inspired by those of Alexandria (the capital of Hellenistic Egypt, to which Cyprus was attached). Later, in the 6th century AD, beautiful acanthus leaves adorned the capitals of the Campanopetra basilica made of imported marble.

Further readings

Ruins

Inhabited over a long period of time, the town of Enkomi-Salamis was successively abandoned, moved and destroyed. The ruins belong to the religious landscape of the city. British excavators discovered Archaic terracotta sculptures and statuettes (dated to the 7th-6th centuries BC) in several tombs built in the Late Bronze Age (14th-13th centuries BC). These votives, deposited among the monumental remains of a 'heroic' past, show that the inhabitants of the new town continued to visit the deserted city, perhaps on the occasion of religious festivals, and that the latter was integrated into the historical landscape of Salamis.

The necropolis was located on the vast plain to the west of the city centre. In the Archaic period (8th-7th century BC), the rulers of Salamis had impressive chamber tombs built here. Findings made in the dromoi (access corridors) show that the burial was accompanied by grandiose ceremonies, with the sacrifice of harnessed horses and a rich burial deposit. One of these tombs had a particular destiny: reused, transformed after its first use as a tomb at the beginning of the Archaic period, the burial chamber gradually became a place of pilgrimage, known at least since the 14th century, as the Tomb or Prison of Saint Catherine. As the martyrdom site of a local saint, the pagan tomb became part of the Christian landscape. With the exploration of the dromos in 1965 and the discovery of sacrificed horses dating from the Archaic period, the movement was reversed: the monument is now part of the archaeological park of the royal necropolis.

On the site of the city of Salamis, and not on its suburbs where the necropolis was implanted, stood an isolated block, known to the villagers as the Campanopetra, the "bell stone". Whatever the precise exegesis of this local toponym, it refers to a Christian monument. In fact, the French excavation gradually uncovered a remarkable basilica complex, of unsuspected wealth, of which the "bell stone" was only a modest doorpost. The topographical marker has become, thanks to the archaeological work, one of the most grandiose monuments of early Christian times on the island.

Further readings