One Cannot Export a Palace on Board a Ship

“One Cannot Export a Palace on Board a Ship”
by Louise Hitchcock

Studying Aegean Elements in Cypriot Late Bronze Age Architecture

Horns of consecration, Aegean-style stepped rock, sancturary of Aphrodite, Kouklia-Palaepaphos>>

As Senior Fulbright Fellow in residence at the Cyprus American Archaeological Research Institute in Nicosia, I spent this last year studying Aegean influences on Cypriot architecture toward the end of the Late Bronze Age (thirteenth century bce). This period is distinguished by the emergence of monumental buildings connected to the regulation of the copper industry and the production of olive oil. These buildings, along with twelfth century bce towns and cult centers in Cyprus, are characterized by some twenty-four Aegean symbols, architectural features, and design elements.

Identifying these characteristics was the first part of my project. Among the most notable are the “horns of consecration,” a tradition of engraved mason’s marks, baetyls or aniconic cult representations, the organizational layout of buildings, modules, altars, bench shrines for placing offerings, tripartite shrines, and basin buildings. The second part of my investigation surveyed the frameworks of interpretation for explaining these influences. A third part was cataloging of mason’s marks and building techniques as a means of analyzing the organization of labor in Cyprus.

The author seated on bench for offerings opposite altar displaying horns of consecration, Kition

Cypriot masonry technique is characterized by ashlar (dressed) blocks with drafted margins, placed on ashlar foundations, also with drafted margins. The central panel of the block remains raised, slightly rusticated, and a lifting boss is often preserved. These features anticipate a technique that typifies masonry of Classical Greek architecture. I believe that this technique was an entirely local development that emerged out of an earlier tradition of creating worked threshold blocks, although similarly worked blocks in the west façade of the First Palace at Phaistos indicate that Minoan influence cannot entirely be ruled out. In some instances, ashlar blocks and other architectural fragments such as a trough, drain, and stone anchor were engraved with mason’s marks. Most of these marks are Cypro-Minoan signs, a writing system derived from Minoan Linear A. I have cataloged a dozen of these signs, bringing them together in one corpus for the first time. In contrast to Minoan mason’s marks, most were placed in areas where they would not have been visible. Beyond these preliminary observations, no further conclusions can be drawn at this time.AD

Despite widespread similarities in building technique, there is substantial diversity in terms of the architectural vocabulary employed in Cypriot monumental buildings. This diversity indicates that Cypriot elites were competing for status in trying to construct the most impressive building and suggests that these sites were the center of independent polities rather than part of a centralized political system.

Drainage system from monumental building/central administrative structure, Alassa, Palaeotaverna

For example, building X at Kalavassos-Ayios Dhimitreos, is distinguished by a finely constructed ashlar hall on the west with monolithic pillars devoted to communal hoarding of pithos storage jars containing oil. Monumental storage halls with a west orientation and associated pillars were typical features of the Minoan palaces. A gigantic pillar base that gave monumental character to its tripartite porch distinguishes the Ashlar building at Maroni–Vournes. Similar porches with a tripartite arrangement are found in Minoan buildings at Phaistos, Gournia, and Pyrgos Myrtos. The use of pillars in special contexts in Minoan and Cypriot cultures relates to the tradition of aniconic cult figures evidenced in both cultures. This is seen in the aniconic cult image of Aphrodite at Kouklia on Cyprus and in Minoan glyptic images of trees and baetyls venerated on altars.

Altar displaying horns of consecration, Kition

A colossal three-ton ashlar block at Alassa, Palaeotaverna, that exceeds structural requirements indicates that the building’s patrons were using monumentality to communicate power and prestige. Four courses of ashlar masonry further enhance the character of this building. Bench shrines for offerings at Kition and elsewhere replicate a practice observed on Crete from the time of the first palaces to the shrines of the Minoan Goddess with Upraised Arms found in the Post-Palatial period. The Aegean connection is reenforced by the presence of horns of consecration at Kition and elsewhere. The “bathroom” at Hala Sultan Tekke with limestone veneering forms the closest parallel to Minoan veneering outside of Crete. Its sunken floor, stepped entrance, and association with a bucrania parallel features of the Minoan “lustral basin.”

The title quote from Sir Leonard Woolley alludes to difficulties in understanding the transmittal of ideas relating to architecture. Colonization is, I believe, a simplistic historical construct too often equated with remains of pottery while neglecting other categories of evidence. Furthermore, modern notions of colonization call to mind the social and intellectual domination associated with colonialism. Other explanations that I have investigated include: mnemohistory (remembrance of the past in oral history and cultural exchange), structuration (the role of architectural remains in orchestrating daily routines, thus forming cultural identity), peer polity interaction and competition, modified diffusion (treating indigenous development and external influences as co-occurring components of cultural transformation), and evidence for itinerant builders.

North Pithos Hall with burnt ashlar facade

Using this more complex combination of explanations has allowed me to explore complementary models of cultural transmission and motivations at different levels of society. My investigations suggest that Cypriot elites were aware of the world around them through participation in international trade and diplomatic exchanges. The fall of Knossos in the fourteenth century bce may have given Cypriot elites new access to Aegean markets. Thus, appropriating a Minoan architectural vocabulary gave Cypriot centers a genealogical link to a prestigious past while preserving its legacy. I will be expanding my investigation this year to include Philistine architecture when I take up residence at the Albright Institute of Archaeological Research in Jerusalem as a United States Information Agency Fellow.

Louise Hitchcock is a Research Associate at the Cotsen Institute of Archaeology at UCLA. Backdirteditors can be reached by email at ioapubs@ucla.edu.