Ancient Idalion was one of the city kingdoms of Iron Age Cyprus, its capital bearing the same name and located in the immediate neighbourhood of the modern village of Dali in the Republic of Cyprus. Especially the rich necropoleis did attract antiquity searchers such as Luigi Palma di Cesnola from the mid-19th century onwards. The earliest systematic excavations at Idalion were carried out by Max Ohnefalsch-Richter in the 80s and 90s of the 19th century, but they were never properly published. The present project is based on a series of unpublished documents issued from Max Ohnefalsch-Richters activities there, mainly a large part of an unpublished manuscript, photographs and drawings relating to his excavations and preserved at the Antikensammlung in Berlin (Germany) as well as an album of corresponding photographs preserved at the National Archaeological Museum in Saint-Germain-en-Laye (France). The project aims at studying and publishing two aspects of these activities, a sanctuary of Aphrodite on the Eastern acropolis of Idalion and various tombs excavated in the necropoleis around Idalion.
The publication project is directed by Prof. Stephan G. Schmid