Polis Archaeology

Published 26th of September, 2022

Next!

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I think these buildings were used by the Archaeologists during their dig.

Ok, that's enough looking at that particular site. Let's move on to the Ancient Basilica.

Ancient Basilica

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First things first. What exactly is a Basilica? I think they just mean it was an Old Church, though the official definition is somewhat grander:


In the Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox churches, a canonical title of honour given to church buildings that are distinguished either by their antiquity or by their role as international centres of worship because of their association with a major saint, an important historical event, or, in the Orthodox Church, a national patriarch. The title gives the church certain privileges, principally the right to reserve its high altar for the pope, a cardinal, or a patriarch, and special penitential privileges that remove the basilica from local geographical jurisdiction and give it international status.
Britannica

Church Boundary

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I did a bit more digging and found this about the site. It was an Academic article so may be a bit technical in nature:


The basilica transitioned from a wood-roofed to barrel-vaulted church in the 7th century. The excavation produced an assemblage of Late Roman fine wares that indicates the site was an entry point for Cypriot Red Slip onto the island. This assemblage complicates long-standing arguments for Late Roman decline and identifies the construction of a mid-sized and well-appointed basilica on Cyprus as characteristic of the transformation of Hellenistic and Roman cities into prosperous trade centers during the 6th and 7th centuries AD.

Ancient Pasty

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This pile of sand looked suspiciously like a Cornish Pasty to me...

Anyway, did you read the last paragraph and wonder what Cypriot Red Slip Was? Me too. Back to Google:


Red Slip Ware (Cyprus) refers to pottery made in this ware during the Bronze Age or of the Iron Age. Distinction between the periods can be achieved with the relevant period culture terms and/or production dates. This term should be reserved for Cypriot wares. The term Cypriot Red Slip should only be used for Red Slip of the terra sigillata type made during the Roman period.

Red Slip Ware of the Bronze Age was largely a Middle Cypriot ware, although its manufacture continued into Late Cypriot I. This term is used for the both the hand-made and the wheel-made wares, with the latter being Late Cypriot. The fabric is extremely uniform and the same in both cases, as are the forms. The all-over slip is red or red-brown. There is little to distinguish this ware from the Black Slip Ware category, other than the colour of the slip, and they are often grouped together as one group (Crewe 2007, 33). As such, Red Slip might be further classified in the same way as Black Slip. However, there is no Roman numeral division for Red Slip within the Swedish Cyprus Expedition catalogue (Åström, 1972, 84-88), and it is probably not helpful.

For Red Slip Ware of the Iron Age, the term applies to a wheel-made ware made of, brown or reddish-brown clay with a matt or lustrous red slip (Gjerstad 1948, 80-82). It was first manufactured in Cyprus in the Cypro-Geometric (CG) II-III period, and appears to have been based on imported Syro-Palestinian red slipped pottery of the CG I period (Karageorghis 1983, 369). Red Slip Ware is further classified into types I-V based on chronologically varied stylistic features (See Type Series scope notes). The fabric and slip of this ware is the same as that for Black-on-Red Ware.
British Museum

Rear View

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Still with me? That was a bit heavy going. Now you know why I started with the picture of the coast, to break you in gently.

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