Yeronisos and Geronisos ( el, Γερόνησος; ) is a small island lying off the west coast of
Cyprus
Cyprus ; tr, Kıbrıs (), officially the Republic of Cyprus,, , lit: Republic of Cyprus is an island country located south of the Anatolian Peninsula in the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Its continental position is disputed; while it is ge ...
, some 18 kilometres north of
Paphos
Paphos ( el, Πάφος ; tr, Baf) is a coastal city in southwest Cyprus and the capital of Paphos District. In classical antiquity, two locations were called Paphos: Old Paphos, today known as Kouklia, and New Paphos.
The current city of Pap ...
. Uninhabited since the 15th century, recent excavations have revealed it once held a sanctuary dedicated to
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...
in the late
Hellenistic period
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
.
Description
The island which lies 280 metres from the shore of western Cyprus has been uninhabited since the 14th or 15th century.
It has an area of 26,000 square metres and rises 21.65 metres from sea level.
Geologically the island consists of a hard
calcarenite
Calcarenite is a type of limestone that is composed predominantly, more than 50 percent, of detrital (transported) sand-size (0.0625 to 2 mm in diameter), carbonate grains. The grains consist of sand-size grains of either corals, shells, ooi ...
crust of
Pleistocene
The Pleistocene ( , often referred to as the ''Ice age'') is the geological epoch that lasted from about 2,580,000 to 11,700 years ago, spanning the Earth's most recent period of repeated glaciations. Before a change was finally confirmed in ...
marine terraces overlying a soft
marl core.
The toponym "Holy Island" is an ancient one.
Pliny
Pliny may refer to:
People
* Pliny the Elder (23–79 CE), ancient Roman nobleman, scientist, historian, and author of ''Naturalis Historia'' (''Pliny's Natural History'')
* Pliny the Younger (died 113), ancient Roman statesman, orator, w ...
speaks of an island called "Hiera," near Paphos, and
Strabo mentions a place called "Hierocepis" nearby Paphos and Akamas.
It is likely that the name refers to the Apollo sanctuary that stood there in the 1st century BC.
Excavations
The island was first excavated in 1982 by
Sophocles Hadjisavvas following a proposal to build a hotel on the island.
He quickly established the presence of Hellenistic remains on the island, which halted all further attempts to build on the island.
In 1989,
Joan Breton Connelly from New York University heard about the work and impressed by the range of the material joined the excavations which have continued since then.
The excavations have established three periods of occupation on Yeronisos. Early
Chalcolithic
The Copper Age, also called the Chalcolithic (; from grc-gre, χαλκός ''khalkós'', "copper" and ''líthos'', "stone") or (A)eneolithic (from Latin '' aeneus'' "of copper"), is an archaeological period characterized by regular ...
(3800 BC), late
Hellenistic
In Classical antiquity, the Hellenistic period covers the time in Mediterranean history after Classical Greece, between the death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC and the emergence of the Roman Empire, as signified by the Battle of Actium in ...
(80-30 BC), and
Byzantine
The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...
(6th-7th century and 13th century). The most intense of this activity is the late Hellenistic period at a time when
Cleopatra ruled Cyprus.
Artefacts include coins, pottery, glass, and inscriptions.
Limestone amulets, identical to those used in Cypriot sanctuaries of Apollo, point to ritual activity and the worship of Apollo.
The island was apparently abandoned following a devastating earthquake in 1st century BC/AD.
Low-level activity on the island begins again in the 6th century AD. when a reservoir and animal shelters were built.
References
{{reflist
External links
Yeronisos Island Expedition New York University
www.yeronisos.org
Archaeological sites in Cyprus
Islands of Cyprus