Ruins and Castles!

Did another day of site seeing on Saturday. Saw a lot of cool stuff. My nose was running the whole time--I thought it was allergies, but today I'm absolutely fine. Maybe it was a cold. I dunno.

We traveled about an hour to the south west to a great late Roman site called Amathus. These ruins date probably from the 400's to the 600's AD.


The site was really cool; there were the ruins of a Roman marketplace (or "agora") at the bottom of the hill. At the top of the hill were the ruins of an early Byzantine church. Beautiful view of the Mediterranean. I can see why the Romans liked it.

Then we went to another late Roman site called Kurion. Here I am again standing in the "agora", the market place. The site also had Roman baths, a theater, and an early Byzantine basilica (church). The coolest part was the ruins of what seems to be an upper-class residence.

This mosaic, which was presumably on the floor of the rich guy's house, is still largely intact. The depiction of Roman gladiators implies that he was strongly connected to Roman culture; the Greek script implies that he was indeed Cypriot. Hence, we have evidence of a Romanized Cypriot culture. Kind of cool.

I tried to take this picture of my buddy and my professor and his wife interfered. It was too good of a picture not to blog.

This was my favorite part. We got to go to the nearby Frankish castle at Kolossi. It dates back to the early 1200's. The land was given by the Frankish (French) king of the Lusignan dynasty to the Order of the Knights of the Hospital of St. John (Knights Hospitaller). The knights were a newer breed of monk that centered on using violent means to defend the pilgrimage roads to the Holy Land. After the conquest of the Latin Kingdoms in the Holy Land, the knights used Cyprus as their base. The Castle was a local bastion and was used to oversee sugar production in the area.



Here's a monument from the castle grounds with the famous crusader cross shield.



Here's the crest from the side of the castle; the big shield in the center is the family crest of the leader of the Knights Hospitaller, and the other shields are the symbols of the Order of the Knights Hospitaller.



Immediately inside the castle was a badly-damaged fresco of the crucifixion. It is most likely contemporary with the rest of the castle, which means it was painted some time in the 1200's or 1300's. It's interesting to me because there are some elements which seem typical of Greek religious painting, but the inscription above Jesus' head is "I.N.R.I", a Latin (hence, Frankish) abbreviation. We might have a cool instance of blending Frankish culture with Cypriot culture--but I'll have to do a little more research before I bet on that.


Here's the classic "Fleur-de-lis" typical of French stuff, on the side of one of the fireplaces in the castle. These knights identified themselves as Franks, or were at least proud of their Frankish heritage. Interesting!

Well, we're starting to do survey fieldwork now. Perhaps I'll post some pictures of that stuff so you can get an idea of what exactly we are doing.

Until next time!