Kition de Chypre.

• Author: Janko, Richard

Kition de Chypre. By MARGERITE YON. Guides archeologiques de l'Institut Francais du Proche-Orient, vol. 4. Paris: EDITIONS RECHERCHE SUR LES CIVILISATIONS, 2006. Pp. 156 (illus.).

This excellent and beautifully illustrated guide to the history and excavations of Kition, modern Larnaca, where the French Mission has been at work since 1976, is published by the Ministere des Affaires trangeres. It makes an invaluable contribution to the wider understanding of the history of the main Phoenician center on Cyprus. This major fortified port and metal-working center was founded, apparently by indigenous Cypriote later in the thirteenth century B.C.E., to replace nearby Hala Sultan Tekke. They built a large temple-complex of ashlar blocks with metal-working facilities nearby. (One question I would like to have seen addressed is whether this new foundation can be related to the Hittite conquest of Cyprus in c. 1230.) After a destruction in c. 1200, a reoccupation with some Greek influence, and a renewed decline. Kition was refounded by Phoenicians from Tyre in c. 900 (and probably renamed Qarti-hadast). It gained its independence in 702. The old temples were refurbished and new, less impressive ones were built; inscriptions attest the worship of Astarte and Esmun-Melqart. In the fifth and fourth centuries Kition became the leading Phoenician kingdom in Cyprus and a major naval ally of...