KOURION Cyprus / Local Archaeological Kourion Museum in Kourion

KOURION Cyprus / Local Archaeological Kourion Museum in Kourion
Region: Lemesos (Limassol)
Address: Kourion, 19km west of Lemesos on the road towards Pafos (Paphos)
Contact No: Tel: +357 25 934 250
Operating Hours: September 16 - April 15, daily: 08.30 - 17:00 April 16 - September 15, daily: 08:30 - 19:30

Kourion (Ancient Greek: Koύριov; Latin: Curium) was an important ancient Greek city-state on the southwestern coast of Cyprus. In the twelfth century BCE, after the collapse of the Mycenaean palaces, Greek settlers from Argos arrived on this site.

In the seventeenth century, Kourion suffered from five heavy earthquakes, but the city was mostly rebuilt. The acropolis of Kourion, located 1.3 km southwest of Episkopi and 13 km west of Limassol, is located atop a limestone promontory nearly 100 metres high along the coast of Episkopi Bay.

The Kourion archaeological area lies within the British Overseas Territory of Akrotiri and Dhekelia and is managed by the Cyprus Department of Antiquity.
The earliest identified occupation within the Kouris River valley is at the hilltop settlement of Sotira-Teppes, located 9 km northwest of Kourion.[1][2] This settlement dates to the Ceramic Neolithic period (c. 5500–4000 BCE). Another hilltop settlement from the same era has been excavated at Kandou-Kouphovounos on the east bank of the Kouris River. In the Chalcolithic period (3800–2300 BCE), settlement shifted to the site of Erimi-Pamboules near the village of Erimi. Erimi-Pamboules was occupied from the conclusion of the Ceramic Neolithic through the Chalcolithic period (3400–2800 BCE).

Occupation in the Early Cypriot period (c. 2300–1900 BCE) is uninterrupted from the preceding Chalcolithic period, with occupation continuing along the Kouris River Valley and the drainages to the west. Sotira-Kaminoudhia, located to the northwest of Sotira-Teppes, on the lower slope of the hill, was settled. It dates from the Late Chalcolithic to EC (Early Cypriot) I (c. 2400 – 2175 BCE). In the ECIII-LC (Late Cypriot), IA (c. 2400–1550 BCE) a settlement was established 0.8 km east of Episkopi at Episkopi-Phaneromeni. The Middle Cypriot (1900–1600 BCE) is a transitional period in the Kouris River Valley. The settlements established during the MC flourished into urban centres in the Late Cypriot II-III, especially Episkopi-Bamboula.[3]
In the Late Cypriot I-III (1600–1050 BCE), the settlements of the Middle Cypriot period developed into a complex urban centre within the Kouris Valley, which provided a corridor in the trade of Troodos copper, controlled through Alassa and Episkopi-Bamboula. In the MCIII-LC IA, a settlement was occupied at Episkopi-Phaneromeni. Episkopi-Bamboula, located on a low hill 0.4 km west of the Kouris and east of Episkopi, was an influential urban centre from the LC IA-LCIII.[4][5] The town flourished in the 13th century BCE before being abandoned c.1050 BCE

The Kingdom of Kourion, a Southern Cyprot kingdom, was established during the Cypro-Geometric period (CG) (1050–750 BCE) though the site of the settlement remains unidentified. Without Cypro-Geometric settlement remains, the primary evidence for this period is from burials at the Kaloriziki necropolis, below the bluffs of Kourion. At Kaloriziki, the earliest tombs date to the 11th century BCE. (Late-Cypriot IIIB) with most burials dating to the Cypriot-Geometric II (mid-11th to mid-10th centuries BCE). These tombs, particularly McFadden's Tomb 40, provide a picture of an increasingly prosperous community in contact with mainland Greece.[8]

Although Cyprus came under Assyrian rule, in the Cypro-Archaic period (750–475 BCE) the Kingdom of Kourion was among the most influential of Cyprus. Damasos is recorded (as Damasu of Kuri) as king of Kourion on the prism[9] (672 BCE) of Esarhaddon from Nineveh.

Between 569 and ca. 546 BCE, Cyprus was under Egyptian administration.

In 546 BCE, Cyrus I of Persia extended Persian authority over the Kingdoms of Cyprus, including the Kingdom of Kourion. During the Ionian Revolt (499–493 BCE), Stasanor, king of Kourion, aligned himself with Onesilos, king of Salamis, the leader of a Cypriot alliance against the Persians. In 497, Stasanor betrayed Onesilos in battle against the Persian general Artybius, resulting in a Persian victory over the Cypriot poleis and the consolidation of Persian control of Cyprus.

In the Classical Period (475–333 BCE), the earliest occupation of the acropolis was established, though the primary site of settlement is unknown. King Pasikrates (Greek: Πασικράτης) of Kourion is recorded as having aided Alexander the Great in the siege of Tyre in 332 BCE. Pasikrates ruled as a vassal of Alexander, but was deposed in the struggles for succession amongst the diadochi. In 294 BCE, the Ptolemies consolidated control of Cyprus, and therefore Kourion came under Ptolemaic governance.