Idalion

About

Idalion or Idalium (Greek: Ιδάλιον, Idalion, Phoenician: 𐤀𐤃𐤉𐤋, ʾdyl, Akkadian: e-di-ʾi-il, Edīl) was an ancient city in Cyprus, in modern Dali, Nicosia District. The city was founded on the copper trade in the 3rd millennium BC. Its name does not appear on the Sargon Stele of 707 BC, but does appear on the later Prism of Esarhaddon (copies of the text dated to 673–672 BC) and in similar spellings in Ashurbanipal's annal (648/647 BC). Recent excavations have uncovered major buildings on the site which are open to visitors. A new museum is at the entrance of the site.

According to the ancient tradition, an oracle instructed King Chalcenor to found a city at the spot where he would behold the rising sun. As one of his companions was surveying the region, he said, "Look, my king, there is the sun." From this utterance, namely ἴδ᾽ ἅλιον ("look, the sun"), the city is said to have derived its name, Ιδάλιον.

The original inhabitants were natives of the island, known to scholars as the " Eteocypriots ". The original city lay on the northern side of the Gialias River in modern "Ayios Sozomenos". During the 13th century BC the people of Ed-di-al began manufacturing operations on the south side of the river in what is now modern Dali. From there the city grew to the major urban and copper-trading centre founded by the Neo-Assyrians at the end of the 8th century BC.

The city was the centre of the worship of the Great Goddess of Cyprus, the "Wanassa" or Queen of Heaven, known as Aphrodite and her consort the " Master of Animals ". This worship appears to have begun in the 11th century BC and continued down through the Roman period.

The city was located in the fertile Gialias valley and flourished there as an economic centre due to its location close to the mines in the eastern foothills of the Troodos Mountains and its proximity to the cities and ports on the south and east coast. Idalion prospered and became so wealthy that it was listed as the first among the ten Cypriot kingdoms on the prism (many-sided tablet) of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (680–669 BC).

The city included two acropolises while houses were in the lower city. The fortified palace was built in 750–600 BC on Ampileri Hill, the west acropolis of the city, and rebuilt in 600–475 BC against attacks by Kition. The Temple of Athena was also located there. The east acropolis on Moutti tou Arvili Hill functioned as a sacred centre and included the temples of Apollo, Aphrodite and other gods. The lower city was also fortified, at least during the 5th century BC.

The first evidence of non-Cypriot presence (Greek, Phoenician, and others) appears in the Archaic Period ( c. 550 BC ) in Phoenician inscriptions found in the Adonis Temenos on the East Acropolis.

Production by the mint dating from 535 BC shows the city's authority and prosperity. The fortified palace was also a sign of this prosperity as it is one of the few, and the largest known, in Cyprus. The first kings of Idalion were Greek as shown from coin inscriptions and the Idalion Tablet. The tablet also shows that the last king, Stakyspros, was democratic in governing by decisions taken with a council of citizens and the resulting documented laws discovered in the temple of Athena. It also shows that there was a social welfare system during the sieges of the city by the Persians and Kitions of 478–470 BC. The king was the biggest landowner and borders of plots were registered.

The city was conquered by Kition, a Phoenician city at the time, c. 450 BC. The palace became their administrative centre; the archive of tax payments was discovered here. Under Kition the city became the centre of a cult of Aphrodite and of the Helleno-Phoenician deity Resheph -Apollo.

From 300 BC the palace and west acropolis were abandoned and the city became centered on the east acropolis, around the special sanctuaries for Aphrodite and Adonis which continued their importance.

The city existed in Hellenistic and Roman times but its extent is not yet known.

"Rosemary scented Idalium" appears in the poetry of Propertius and others as the place where Venus (or Aphrodite, the original pre-Greek Queen of Heaven) met Adonis (the original pre-Greek consort of the Queen of Heaven, or 'Lord').

Cypro-Syllabic script (11th to 2nd century BC) was deciphered based on the Cypriot-Phoenician bilingual text of Idalion which is now in the British Museum 's collection. Starting with the Cypriot-Phoenician bilingual text of Idalion (a dedication to the god Reshef Mikal – identified as Apollo Amyklos – 4th century BC), George Smith carried out a first attempt at interpretation in 1871, later developed and improved, thanks also to the Idalion Tablet, by the Egyptologist Samuel Birch (1872), the numismatist Johannes Brandis (1873), the philologists Moritz Schmidt, Wilhelm Deeke, Justus Siegismund (1874) and the dialectologist H. L. Ahrens (1876).

The original inhabitants were natives of the island, known to scholars as the " Eteocypriots ". The original city lay on the northern side of the Gialias River in modern "Ayios Sozomenos". During the 13th century BC the people of Ed-di-al began manufacturing operations on the south side of the river in what is now modern Dali. From there the city grew to the major urban and copper-trading centre founded by the Neo-Assyrians at the end of the 8th century BC.

The city was the centre of the worship of the Great Goddess of Cyprus, the "Wanassa" or Queen of Heaven, known as Aphrodite and her consort the " Master of Animals ". This worship appears to have begun in the 11th century BC and continued down through the Roman period.

The city was located in the fertile Gialias valley and flourished there as an economic centre due to its location close to the mines in the eastern foothills of the Troodos Mountains and its proximity to the cities and ports on the south and east coast. Idalion prospered and became so wealthy that it was listed as the first among the ten Cypriot kingdoms on the prism (many-sided tablet) of the Assyrian king Esarhaddon (680–669 BC).

The city included two acropolises while houses were in the lower city. The fortified palace was built in 750–600 BC on Ampileri Hill, the west acropolis of the city, and rebuilt in 600–475 BC against attacks by Kition. The Temple of Athena was also located there. The east acropolis on Moutti tou Arvili Hill functioned as a sacred centre and included the temples of Apollo, Aphrodite and other gods. The lower city was also fortified, at least during the 5th century BC.

The first evidence of non-Cypriot presence (Greek, Phoenician, and others) appears in the Archaic Period ( c. 550 BC ) in Phoenician inscriptions found in the Adonis Temenos on the East Acropolis.

Production by the mint dating from 535 BC shows the city's authority and prosperity. The fortified palace was also a sign of this prosperity as it is one of the few, and the largest known, in Cyprus. The first kings of Idalion were Greek as shown from coin inscriptions and the Idalion Tablet. The tablet also shows that the last king, Stakyspros, was democratic in governing by decisions taken with a council of citizens and the resulting documented laws discovered in the temple of Athena. It also shows that there was a social welfare system during the sieges of the city by the Persians and Kitions of 478–470 BC. The king was the biggest landowner and borders of plots were registered.

The city was conquered by Kition, a Phoenician city at the time, c. 450 BC. The palace became their administrative centre; the archive of tax payments was discovered here. Under Kition the city became the centre of a cult of Aphrodite and of the Helleno-Phoenician deity Resheph -Apollo.