Cypriot Phoenicians and their cultural identity

• Authors: Katarzyna Zeman-Wiśniewska

Title variants

PL

Cypryjscy Fenicjanie i ich tożsamość kulturowa

Abstracts

PL

Tożsamość fenicka wiąże się z silnym poczuciem przynależności do miasta-państwa, w przypadku Cypru jest to zwłaszcza Kition, gdzie można rozpoznać „fenicką” dynastię panującą. Innym wyróżnikiem jest język fenicki i pismo alfabetyczne, z licznymi przykładami inskrypcji znalezionych na wyspie. Trzecim jest religia i kult, z bóstwami noszącymi imiona fenickie, ale wyraźnie zsynkretyzowanymi zarówno z ich helleńskimi odpowiednikami, jak i lokalnymi tradycjami. Przez około sto lat po śmierci ostatniego króla Kitionu ślady społeczności, którą identyfikuje się jako Cypryjscy Fenicjanie, wciąż można odnaleźć w materiale archeologicznym, a zwłaszcza w inskrypcjach. Jednak wraz z upływem pokoleń pozbawionych opieki „fenickiego państwa-miasta” na Cyprze i nadzorowanego przez nie kultu zachowane pozostaną tylko niektóre stare tradycje rodzinne, takie jak imiona i szacunek dla przodków.

EN

Phoenician identity is associated with a strong sense of belonging to the city-state; in the case of Cyprus, it is especially Kition, where the “Phoenician” ruling dynasty can be recognised. Another distinctive feature is the Phoenician language and alphabetic writing, with numerous examples of inscriptions found on the island. The third one is religion and cult, with deities bearing Phoenician names, but apparently syncretised with both their Hellenic counterparts and local traditions. For about a century after the death of the last king of Kition the community, which we identify as Cypriot Phoenicians can still be found within the archaeological material, and especially through inscriptions. However, as generations pass, and a new order grows without the ‘Phoenician city-state’ in Cyprus and the cult overseen by it, only some old family traditions are carried on, such as personal names, and regard towards ancestors.

Keywords

PL

Cypr; Fenicjanie; Cypryjscy Fenicjanie; Kition; Astarte; tożsamość

EN

Cyprus; Phoenicians; Cypriot Phoenicians; Kition; Astarte; identity

• Publisher: Uniwersytet Kardynała Stefana Wyszyńskiego w Warszawie
• Journal: Saeculum Christianum. Pismo Historyczne
• Year: 2023
• Volume: 30
• Issue: 1

Dates

published

2023

Contributors

author

Katarzyna Zeman-Wiśniewska

• Institute of Archeology, Cardinal Stefan Wyszyński University in Warsaw

• https://orcid.org/0000000245152142

References

• Astuti R., The Vezo are not a kind of people: identity, differences and ‘ethnicity’ among a fishing people of Western Madagascar, “American Ethnologist”, 1995, vol. 22/3, pp. 464-482.
• Counts D.B., Master of the Lion: Representation and Hybridity in Cypriote Sanctuaries, “American Journal of Archaeology”, 2008, vol. 112/1, pp. 3-27.
• Demetriou A., Phoenicians in Cyprus and their Hellenisation: The Case of Kition, “Archeologia Cypria”, 2001, vol. 4, pp. 135-144.
• Fourrier S., The Iron Age topography of Kition, in: Kyprios Character. History, Archaeology & Numismatics of Ancient Cyprus, published on-line 2015, kyprioscharacter.eie.gr/en/t/AY (accessed: August 04, 2020).
• Giusfredi F., On Phoenicians in Ptolemaic Cyprus: A Note on Cis I 95, “Vicino Oriente”, 2008, vol. 22, pp. 111-120.
• Gordon J.M, Between Alexandria and Rome: a postcolonial archaeology of cultural identity in Hellenistic and Roman Cyprus, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Cincinnati 2012.
• Handler R., Is ‘identity’ a useful cross-cultural concept?, in: Commemorations: the politics of national identity, ed. J.R. Gillis, Princeton 1994, pp. 27-40.
• Hadjicosti M., The Kingdom of Idalion in the Light of New Evidence, “Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research”, 1997, vol. 308, pp. 49-61.
• Hogg M., Abrams D., Social identifications: a social psychology and intergroup relations and group processes, London 1988.
• Iacovou M., ‘Greeks’, ‘Phoenicians’ and ‘Eteocypriots’. Ethnic identities in the Cypriot kingdoms, in: “Sweete Land…” Lectures on history and culture of Cyprus, eds. J. Chrysostomides, C Dendrinos, Camberley 2006, pp. 27-59.
• Ioannou C., Cypriotes and Phoenicians, in: Kyprios Character. History, Archaeology & Numismatics of Ancient Cyprus, published on-line 2015, kyprioscharacter.eie.gr/en/t/Ac (accessed: August 04, 2020).
• Jenkins R., Social Identity, London 1996.
• Knapp A.B., Prehistoric and Protohistoric Cyprus. Identity, Insularity and Connectivity, Oxford 2009.
• Lipiński E., Phoenicia and the East Mediterranean in the First Millennium BC, Leuven 1987.
• Maier F.G., Factoids in Ancient History: The Case of Fifth-Century Cyprus, “Journal of Hellenic Studies”, 1985, vol. 105, pp. 32-39.
• Masson O., Sznycer M., Recherches sur les Phéniciens à Chypre, Paris–Geneva 1972.
• Mitford T.B., The Cults of Roman Cyprus, “ANRW II”, 1990, vol. 18.3, pp. 2176-2211.
• Orsingher A., Kition: a long-term perspective on the cemeteries, “Carthage Studies”, 2018-2019, vol. 11, pp. 27-50.
• Papantoniou G., Cyprus from Basileis to Strategos: A Sacred-Landscape Approach, “American Journal of Archaeology”, 2013, vol. 117, pp. 33-57.
• Quinn J., In search of the Phoenicians, Princeton 2018.
• Sherratt S., Visible writing: questions of script and identity in Early Iron Age Greece and Cyprus, “Oxford Journal of Archaeology”, 2003, vol. 22/3, pp. 225-242.
• Steele P., A Linguistic History of Ancient Cyprus: The Non-Greek Languages, and their Relations with Greek, c.1600-300 BC, Cambridge 2013.
• Sznycer M., Idalion, capitale économique des rois phéniciens de Kition et d’Idalion, ”Cahiers du Centre d'Etudes Chypriotes”, 2004, vol. 34, pp. 85-100.
• Sznycer M., Yon, M., A Phoenician Victory Trophy at Kition, “Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus”, 1992, pp. 157-165.
• Vonhoff C., Phoenician bronzes from Cyprus reconsidered: intercultural exchange in ancient Cyprus from a pan-Mediterranean perspective, in: Ancient Cyprus today: Museum Collections and New Research Approaches to the Archaeology of Cyprus, eds. G. Bourogiannis, C. Mühlenbock, Uppsala 2016, pp. 273-284.
• Yon M., Kition dans les textes, Paris 2004.
• Zeman-Wiśniewska K., Geneza i początki kultu Afrodyty, “Saeculum Christianum”, 2020, vol. 27/2, pp. 5-18.

Identifiers

DOI

10.21697/sc.2023.30.1.1

Biblioteka Nauki

28407941