Aegean and Cypriot epigraphy

This article was written for the academic blog of the Bibliothèque de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, on the occasion of Paphos being the European Capital of Culture 2017. It can be found on the platform Hypotheses under the blog called Carnet de la bibliothèque de la Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée
https://prefixesmom.hypotheses.org/1925

Cipro, crocevia di culture e culla di antiche civiltà, costituì nei secoli del Medioevo e del Rinascimento un baluardo dell'Occidente latino nello scacchiere del Mediterraneo orientale. Quale atteggiamento assunsero governanti e viaggiatori occidentali nei confronti del ricco passato classico dell'isola? Il libro affronta il tema secondo una prospettiva volutamente ampia, ricercando la nascita dell'archeologia e dell'epigrafia sul suolo cipriota, ripercorrendo le tappe della riscoperta dei testi classici relativi all'isola ed esaminando il rapporto sviluppatosi fra il XIII e il XVI secolo con i resti visibili dell'antico.

Mycenae culture became due to its own merits, the most important one in continental Greece for more than four centuries all along the II Millennium B.C. Its commercial importance due to the fact they took advantage of the minoans exchange routes and their own economic interests made them reach far regions even in Central Mediterranean and the Near East. But all of that must’ve been difficult if they hadn’t encountered a powerful army who support their colonial and commercial adventures. Numerous Lineal B writings, pictorial and archaeological remains are witness to the importance the military world provides to those former Mycenaean. Therefore, in this article we will try to show the diverse aspects related to the Mycenaean army who supported its power in continental Greece in spite of this, neither the reforms taken in 13th century B.C. got that mycenaeans culture survival, when their settlements were destroyed.

Nikokles, the last Paphian king, marked the history of Cyprus beyond the kingdom of Paphos. During his reign, c. 325/321–311/309 BC, he tried to take advantage of the troubled political context in the Mediterranean area resulted from so-called Wars of the Diadochi. Paphos knew a lot of transformations and innovations under Nikokles who appears as a very active sovereign. It is especially illustrated by the religion that was deeply linked to the secular power. The religious activity of the last Paphian king is particularly visible through the inscriptions which are the main source of the present paper. The cult evolution as well as the sacred topography of the kingdom of Paphos are analysed in order to show how crucial they were for the ideological and political plan of Nikokles. The study of this religious policy leads to the question of the real ambition of the king and the question of his possible role in the foundation of the future Nea Paphos.

This study focuses on the figure of Giovanni Matteo Bembo and, especially, on his relationship with the island of Cyprus. Bembo was a learned Venetian aristocrat and nephew of Cardinal Pietro, whose famous Asolani take place at the court of Caterina Cornaro, former queen of Cyprus. Giovanni Matteo Bembo had a long and successful career, both as a military man and as an administrator of the Venetian possessions on the Italian mainland and overseas. He was sent to Cyprus with different appointments, including that of Captain of Famagusta from 1546 to 1548, during which time he was in charge of the most important military stronghold of the island. While in Famagusta he promoted a sophisticated plan of urban renewal, which entailed major works at the city walls, the building of a new aqueduct and the establishment of a series of monuments in the main square of the city. Among these were two granite columns and a marble sarcophagus that, according to contemporary sources, was said to be the ancient tomb of Venus, first queen of Cyprus. The article concludes by offering a preliminary explanation of the political and ideological motivations underlying the apparently bizarre interpretation of this ancient artefact..

This paper aims to underline the special divine relationship between Aphrodite and Apollo in Cyprus. Cypriot mythology and religion provide numerous examples of the obvious interactions between those two divinities. The goal of the submitted essay is, therefore, to show the nature of those specific ties through some significant instances. Firstly, this topic is examined basing on the literary sources. Then, the cultic complementarities visible in different kinds of rites are studied. Finally, a particular attention is given to the parallel evolution of the name of those divine figures provided by the epigraphic material.
This study shows the filiation of Aphrodite and Apollo with some autochthonous, preexisting goddess and god whose origins date back to the beginnings of the religious belief in Cyprus.

This paper aims to outline the methodology, goals and advantages of a digital corpus of the inscriptions from the ancient City-Kingdom of Paphos. It presents the use of the Text Encoding Initiative as well as EpiDoc standards in order to create a research tool that allows to multi-cross data which allows to draw some historical conclusions.

The submitted paper was presented at a conference entitled ‘Ecdotique’ held at Lyon
https://ecdotique.hypotheses.org/950

"For the reconstruction of the military Mycenaean world scarcely
we possess the information extracted from diverse slats written in Linear B, as well as the remains of some pictorial representations and scanty archaeological remains extracted from warriors' diverse tombs. It is for it that the reconstruction of this important aspect inside the Mycenaean culture is not simple, and in this respect it turns out very interesting to manage to raise approximations as the one that occupies us. Across the analysis of few remains which we possess,It occupies. Across the analysis of few remains which we possess, authors of John Chadwick's taya have proposed interesting theories on the Mycenaean systems of defense and, in this case, we will try to approach each other the system that could be used in Pilo's accession."

Con su libro Karuo el secreto ibero, Enrique Cabrejas o Enric Cabrejas nos relata de modo llano su experiencia personal con lo extraordinario de un descubrimiento. El 21 de Abril de 2012 consiguió lo que parecía imposible: Descifrar la escritura ibérica. El hallazgo más relevante de la cultura universal en nuestro país de los últimos tiempos, sin lugar a dudas. Un hito en la historia de la escritura sin precedentes. Desde este mismo instante la obra Karuo de Enrique Cabrejas lo convierte en un referente destacado a nivel mundial en historia y lingüística. Los innumerables datos, explicaciones, pruebas y significados que nos reporta nunca conocidos antes, son una referencia obligada para todos aquellos que quieran comprender la historia, la lengua antigua e incluso también la moderna de nuestro país o para quienes en el futuro deseen estudiarla e investigarla en profundidad, más si cabe desde el mundo académico.

This volume offers a new and interdisciplinary treatment of syllabic writing in ancient Cyprus. A team of distinguished scholars tackles epigraphic, palaeographic, linguistic, archaeological, historical and terminological problems relating to the island's writing systems in the Late Bronze Age and Iron Age, from the appearance of writing around the fifteenth century down to the end of the first millennium BC. The result is not intended to be a single, unified view of the scripts and their context, but rather a varied collection that demonstrates a range of interpretations of the evidence and challenges some of the longstanding or traditional views of the population of ancient Cyprus and its epigraphic habits. This is the first comprehensive account of the 'Cypro-Minoan' and 'Cypriot syllabic' scripts to appear in a single volume and forms an invaluable resource for anyone studying Cypriot epigraphy or archaeology.

During his trips to Cyprus in 1870 and 1873, the German orientalist and diplomat Paul Schröder, was able to study the Lang and Cesnola epigraphic collections. His correspondence with Justus Olshausen (an orientalist himself, but also a councillor of the Prussian Ministry of Education) contains precious information on some newly discovered important Phoenician and syllabic inscriptions. These derive mostly from Lang’s excava-tions and acquisitions at Idalion and Drymou, but also from Cesnola’s activities at Kition-Batsalos and Golgoi. This paper constitutes the fourth chapter on Schröder’s archives, following the first three published by S. G. Schmid in volume 49 (2019) of the Cahiers.

At the current state of the studies concerning the decipherment of the so–called «Cypro–Minoan», it can be claimed that a syllabic writing system was used in Late Bronze Age Cyprus to express probably three different languages. The signs of the syllabary show evident similarities with the signs of the other Aegean Linear writing systems. Unfortunately, we do not know much more than that yet. In my view, the use of the combinatorial method based on the analysis of the binary frequencies – how often a sign is followed or preceded by each of the other signs – and of the
distance between the signs – whether the similarity/difference between the signs at the left/right of two signs reveals any similarity/difference between the signs themselves – could determine whether previous advanced decipherment hypotheses are reliable. In this paper, I have applied this method to Cm2, which has been already tested on Linears B and A as well as on the Classical Cypriot Syllabary by C. Consani and M. Federighi, with the aim to identify the signs for the glides. The results of my preliminary analysis proves the validity of the method, and suggest that Cm 2 may have been an «adaptation writing», as has been demonstrated for Linear B.

Errata corrige:
1. nota 37, 39 si rifanno alla nota 33, non alla 35. Nella nota 33 si indica che i criteri di seguito esposti sono quelli esposti dal metodo Consani-Federighi e da me adattati nell'articolo al CM2.
2. pg. 6-7, a partire dalla nota 30 nel testo, si indica che seguono i passi principali del metodo offerto da Consani-Federighi 1984, ma mancano le virgolette ad indicare la citazione precisa dei passi tratti dal suddetto studio.

"The first mention of Apollo in Cyprus known so far dates back to the 5th century BC. It is a dedicatory inscription uncovered in the sanctuary of Kourion that appears to be the original place of worship of the god on the island. Beyond the political and ideological context, the Apolline cult was widespread significantly over the island defining Apollo as the main masculine divinity of the Cypriote religion at the end of the 4th century BC. This paper aims to present the characteristics of the god owing to the analysis of the development of his worship throughout the Cypro-Classical period. Three different areas are of the main focus: his major temenos in Kourion, the Mesaoria plain and the coastal region. Although some Greek and Oriental elements, especially Phoenician, exist, the autochthonous essence of his cult is clearly visible in some of the epicleses of the deity and certain aspects of his iconography.

Thus, the connection of the “Cypriot” Apollo with the protection, the fertility and the revival of both human community and the natural world is highlighted in this article."

The aim of this dissertation is to advance our knowledge of Cypro-Minoan, a group of undeciphered syllabic inscriptions dated roughly to the 16th or 15th through the 11th centuries BCE and found mostly on Cyprus, with small numbers of documents from coastal Syria and Tiryns (Peloponnese).
Two recently-published collections of inscriptions (Olivier 2007; Ferrara 2012 and 2013) have facilitated greatly the investigation of Cypro-Minoan, but the field is still missing a comprehensive paleographical study of the script and a definitive sign-list on which most scholars can agree. Albeit being now the main reference, Olivier’s sign repertory of 96 syllabograms is structured upon É. Masson’s (1974) division of Cypro-Minoan into three “subscripts” (CM 1, 2 and 3), supposedly created and used for different languages, a scheme which has come under criticism. It remains uncertain whether the Cypro-Minoan documents contain one or multiple writing systems. Together with the size of the corpus (almost 4,000 signs on fewer than 250 inscriptions), these lacunae greatly reduce the chances of decipherment. The present work intends to demonstrate that Cypro-Minoan in fact presents some advantages that open prospects for elucidating the script and that a methodology that is well-adjusted to them may contribute to improve our understanding of the inscriptions. Therefore, the goal of this thesis is twofold: (1) to establish a signary that identifies individual Cypro-Minoan signs and defines their paleographical variation to a fine degree of accuracy; and (2) to investigate the possible sounds represented by these signs. The second objective is achieved by means of a three-step methodology. The first two steps comprise, on one hand, cross-comparisons between the Cypro-Minoan signs (in terms of form and value) and signs attested in related scripts, namely Linear A and the Cypriot Greek syllabary; on the other hand and independently, internal analyses (positional distribution and frequency, alternations of related signs as a result of morphological activity, and scribal hesitations). The sound values proposed through these two methods are then tested by a third, which consists of provisionally transliterating a limited set of Cypro-Minoan inscriptions, to ascertain whether they yield readings corresponding to linguistic data known from external sources, therefore validating the hypothetical sign values and possibly even proposing new ones.
While a cogent decipherment is not the scope of this project, two main objectives are achieved. The first is to offer a revised list of Cypro-Minoan signs, not framed within the traditional division, but based on selected homogeneous subcorpora of inscriptions, with no preconceived bias as to the number of script varieties represented. It is argued that Cypro-Minoan contains between 57 and 70 different syllabograms, depending on the validity of a number of proposed assimilations of signs that possibly are mere allographs. Secondly, phonetic values are proposed for 60 of these sign forms: nine are considered confirmed and the rest hypothetical. In the investigation of the phonetic values, interpretations are offered for RASH Atab 004 (= RS 20.25), a clay tablet from Ugarit (Syria) long thought to contain a nominal list, and a limited set of sequences found on inscriptions from Cyprus. The suggested sound values and interpretations of sign-sequences, many of which represent identifications of personal names recognizable from cuneiform sources, independently corroborate a significant number of proposals made by Nahm in the 1980s.

An overstruck silver stater in the ANS cabinet provides unique testimony for a previously unknown king of Salamis, Cyprus, of the mid-fifth century BC.  The distinctive traces of the host coin suggest that it was originally issued by King Euanthes of Salamis earlier in the fifth century, and then restruck with standard Salaminian types by a King Sophysas.  Despite the difficulties posed by the syllabic legend, the name Sophysas remains the most plausible interpretation, and would be linguistically and culturally appropriate for a Cypriot ruler of this period.

Poster presentation of the research project “The Silver Coinage of the Kings of Cyprus: Numismatics and History in the Archaic and Classical Periods (6th to 4th centuries BC)” (acronym SilCoinCy)” that is realised in the Institute of Historical Research (IHR), Section of Greek and Roman Antiquity, National Hellenic Research Foundation (NHRF), Athens, Greece and is funded by the Action ARISTEIA II. The Poster has been presented in the 14th Meeting of Postgraduate Cypriot Archaeology THE MANY FACE(T)S OF CYPRUS in Bochum (Nov 14-16, 2014)

In this paper I aim to shed light on one of today’s most dynamic fields of Cypriot studies, i.e. the Hellenistic period and the Ptolemaic occupation of the island from 295/4 to 31 B.C. Based on a PhD project devoted to the reading of the Greek inscriptions of Hellenistic Cyprus and the study of the Cypriot society under Ptolemaic rule, it outlines the specificities of the Hellenistic period in Cyprus, and discusses its traditional representation as a « brand new world ». It will first recall Cyprus’ political, strategic and economical importance in the Ptolemaic foreign policy, and then focus on the installation of an administrative and military staff on the island. These synthetic lines will highlight the new Mediterranean networks of the Ptolemaic period. In the last part of the article I will focus on the role taken by the Cypriote elite both in local and external contexts.

" Apollo is one of the most popular gods in the island of Cyprus. So, this paper aims to analyze the personality and characteristics of this deity at Nea Paphos. In order to do so, the sanctuary of Apollo Hylates of the new Paphos will be the main element of this study, both in its political function related to the founding of the city and its religious function and symbolism. Moreover, emphasis is put on the interactions between this sacred place and the surrounding sanctuaries of Apollo Melanthios at Amargetti, Apollo Myrtates at Marathounda and at Dhrymou, where Hylates is also present.
Thus, based on these results, this Paper is going to show how Apollo appears as the major male deity of Nea Paphos and its surrounding area."

The aim of this paper is to examine the beginnings and the evolution of the Cypriot Syllabary in the context of the findings from the Paphos region. A great number of inscriptions dating back to the archaic and classical periods allow to distinguish a specific version of the Cypriot writing system which is called ‘Paphian Syllabary’. The changes that occurred in the structure of this script as well as in the dialect it reflects are discussed in this research.

This paper deals with part of the research for the doctoral thesis “Investigating the Signs and Sounds of Cypro-Minoan”. The project in question has the purpose of advancing our present knowledge of the Cypro-Minoan syllabic inscriptions by means of two primary tasks: (1) to establish a judicious signary that distinguishes individual signs and maps their paleographical variation to the possible extent; (2) to investigate the sounds represented by those signs. The investigation of the phonetic values comprises itself three methodological steps: a comparative method, an internal analysis, and the testing of the hypothetical sign readings obtained from the first two procedures.

Given the scope of the conference, focus will be on the application of the comparative method to the study of Cypro-Minoan, which involves comparisons with its direct ancestor and successor scripts, here argued to be Linear A and the Cypro-Greek syllabary, respectively. For each Cypro-Minoan grapheme, the goal of the method is to find in both Linear A and Cypro-Greek signs that are formally comparable and at the same time have similar phonetic values. The main points to be discussed are the relations between the involved Aegean-Cypriot syllabic scripts, the details of the method, how the latter fits into a larger research on Cypro-Minoan signs, and some of its results.