Please wait ...
ALVIN
Platform for digital collections and digitized cultural heritage
English
ui-button
English
Svenska
Norsk
Login ()
ui-button
Gothenburg
Företagens historia
Karolinska Institutet
Linköping
Linnaeus University
Lund
Stockholm
Uppsala
Örebro
Västerås
Österåker
Folkrörelsearkivet
Skara
Riksantikvarieämbetet
Musik- och teaterbiblioteket
Veterinärmuseet
Universitetet i Oslo
Arboga
All resource types
Archive
Books & Manuscript
Image
Map
Mixed material
Music material
Object
Software
Sound recording
Video
Person
Organisation
Place
Work
Resource types
All resource types
Archive
Books & Manuscript
Image
Map
Mixed material
Music material
Object
Software
Sound recording
Video
Index
Person
Organisation
Place
Work
ui-button
Extended search
|
About Alvin
|
Copyright
|
Contact us
Ajia Irini
(Mixed Material, Collection)
Alternative title
Ayia Irini
Persons
Sjöqvist, Erik
, 1903-1975
(researcher)
Origin
Ajia Irini
, Cyprus, Late Cypriot III–Cypro-Archaic II (c. 1200-500 BC)
Other years/dates
Excavation date:
The Swedish Cyprus Expedition began excavating the site in November, 1929.
Acquisition date:
1934
Physical description
The cult in the sanctuary at Ajia Irini began in the last period of the Bronze Age, in Late Cypriot III, and lasted until the last quarter of Cypro-Archaic II. In Late Cypriot III the sanctuary consisted of a complex of rectangular houses with walls built of mud-brick on solid stone foundations of rubble. The houses were built in isolated blocks along the sides of a large, open court. The western and northern houses seem to have served as living rooms for the priest and store rooms. The central and southern houses served cult purposes, the central building being the cult-house proper and consisted of two rooms separated by an angular wall. The Late Cypriot III sanctuary was covered by a thick layer of sterile, red earth at the beginning of Cypro-Geometric I, and on top of the same a new sanctuary was erected. Instead of the closed and roofed-in cult-house, with the adjoining houses forming a rectangular and geometrically planned complex, there was now an open temenos of an irregular, oval shape, surrounded by a peribolos wall of red earth. A low altar was built in the temenos, with a libation table close by. This Geometric temenos lasted to the middle of Cypro-Geometric III, at which time the temenos was subject to new arrangements. The peribolos wall of earth was heightened, and the earlier altar replaced by a new altar in the shape of a rectangular pillar. This temenos was in use until about the middle of Cypro-Archaic I, when a new temenos was planned on top of it. This new temenos inaugurates the great period of the Ajia Irini sanctuary. The same altar as in the period before was still in use, but the temenos was widened and attained a size of about 40x30 m. A new peribolos wall of rubble, covered with a hurdle-fence, was built around the temenos thus enlarged. In its south part an enclosure of two small, rectangular rooms was erected. During Cypro-Archaic II a series of three floods inundated the temenos. The third of these, in the final phase of Cypro-Archaic II, was the severest of all, and after this destruction the temenos was abandoned. The place was not occupied until the first century BC when a poor revival of the cult took place.
Format:
Non digital
Abstract
The cult in Late Cypriot III was likely a typical agrarian cult with the worship of deities protecting the crops and cattle, filling the store-rooms with corn, wine, olives, honey, and other vegetables. To these deities products of this kind were offered. The cult object itself was not found. The bull statuette among the votives (see 'Contents' below) seems to indicate that the deity was conceived in the shape of a bull. This is entirely in accordance with the character of the cult as a fertility cult: the idea of the bull as a representative of the power of fertility is widely spread. In Cypro-Geometric I the cult likely remained a cult of fertility and the deity was still conceived in the shape of a bull. Apart from the change of the type of sanctuary there is also a change of the rite. In the Late Cypriot sanctuary only bloodless sacrifices were performed while the remains of animal bones among the sacrificial waste in the Geometric temenos gives evidence of sacrifices of animals in the cult. The minotaurs of the Cypro-Geometric III sanctuary (see 'Contents' below) indicate that the strictly theriomorphous conception of the deity had been substituted by an anthropomorphic idea of the same. Both in cult and art the anthropomorphic idea begins to appear. The great majority of armed figures among the votive sculptures indicate that the god was a god of war as well as a god of fertility. The rites seem to have remained the same as in the earlier temenos, as far as evidence goes. This remained the case with the Cypro-Archaic I sanctuary. The name of the god is unknown, as no inscriptions were found.
Contents
In the cult-house of Late Cypriot III all the cult requisites were found: offering tables of stone slabs, large pithoi, jugs, bowls, a cult-axe of stone, pestles and grinders, spindle-whorls of stone, a bronze arrow-head, a terracotta bull, and a group of pebbles of various shapes and colours. The majority of the votives from Cypro-Geometric I consists of terracotta bulls which originally were placed around the altar. The majority of votives from Cypro-Geometric III consists of three classes of statuettes: animal statuettes, minotaur statuettes, and human figures. Besides, a few other objects: pottery, scarabs, a bead, an amulet, and a stone mace-head were found among the votives. The majority of votives from Cypro-Archaic I consists of terracotta sculptures. These were arranged in concentric semicircles around the altar in such a way that the smallest statuettes were placed nearest the altar, the larger statuettes and small statues behind these, and the life-size statues further back. Apart from the sculptures, the votives consisted of scarabs, minor objects of iron, bronze, faience, glass, stone, and bone. From its period of revival, only a few crude and rustic sculptures, a bronze lamp, and coins remain.
UAS 1446-1453, 1456-1460, 1536
Literature
SCE II, Ajia Irini.
Related records in Alvin
See specifically described parts (14)
Host:
Svenska Cypernexpeditionen : 1927-1931
Host:
Antiksamlingen i Uppsala
Subject, topics
Klassisk arkeologi
(sao)
Arkeologiska samlingar
(sao)
Cypriotisk skulptur
(sao)
Subject, places
Ajia Irini
Location
Museum Gustavianum, historic collections
Akademigatan 3
753 10 Uppsala
Identifiers (general)
urn:nbn:se:alvin:portal:record-147581
(nbn)
Identifiers (local)
alvin-record:147581
(alvin)
Please wait ...
Link to record
Permanent link
http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:alvin:portal:record-147581
Direct link
https://www.alvin-portal.org/alvin/view.jsf?pid=alvin-record:147581
Create new record
Enter title
Owner
Ok
Cancel
New place
Enter name
Ok
Cancel
Create new organisation
Enter name
Ok
Cancel
Create new person
Enter last name
Ok
Cancel
Create new musical work
Enter title
Ok
Cancel
Could not delete
This record can not be deleted as it is referenced from other resources
Ok
Login to Alvin
Username
Password
Log in
Cancel
About Alvin
Alvin is a platform where digitized cultural heritage and digital collections are preserved and made available, as well as a catalogue of materials not yet digitized.
Copyright
All digitized materials in Alvin may be downloaded and used freely!