Kition-Bamboula VIII - Les néoria du port de guerre

PUBLISHED 2022.

Prof. Jean-Christophe Sourisseau's main interests are trade networks and colonial encounters in the Ancient Mediterranean (first millennium B.C.). He is more particularly specialised in ceramics and especially commercial amphorae, from the Archaic to the Hellenistic period. He has a long experience in archaeology, with excavations in the ancient harbour of Marseilles (France). He is involved in various field and publication programs, in Sicily (Camarina and Megara Hyblaea) and Etruria (Gravisca). He is the holder of the UNESCO chair for Maritime and Coastal Archaeology (2017-2020). His implication with the Kition project started in 1996 and he has directed three field-campaigns in the Bamboula harbour.

The ancient military harbour of Kition-Bamboula lies at the heart of the modern city of Larnaca, Cyprus (34°92’’ North, 33°63’’ East). Excavations conducted by the French Archaeological Mission (dir. M. Yon) between 1987 and 1998 cleared impressive shipsheds dating to the Classical period (5th-4th cent. B.C.), among the best preserved in the Mediterranean. The military vocation of the building was demonstrated through its dimensions and special features, designed for long and light ships (triremes). Environmental studies in the harbour basin revealed the long-term maritime vocation of the site (now located inland) and its evolution from the Bronze Age until Late Roman times. The publication team is comprised of various specialists (archaeologists, architect, ceramicists, geomorphologists) who have a first-hand experience of the site and of the material. The volume will appear in the series Kition-Bamboula (the last volume to date, Kition-Bamboula VI. Le sanctuaire sous la colline, A. Caubet, S. Fourrier and M. Yon, ed., was published in 2015 with a grant from the Leon Levy Foundation, New York).