The Archaic period in Cyprus: a palace and a lampstand

The frame

The chronological table of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus dates the Archaic period to 750-475 BCE, for the whole island, and the site adopts it as its frame for Cyprus. The Department of Antiquities pages cited here could not be opened for checking on 24 October 2026; the details from them follow notes taken from those pages at an earlier stage and were not re-checked. Source 1.

Boundaries and overlaps

The Department of Antiquities page on Idalion describes a building that served as the seat of the royal dynasty from about the 7th century to 450 BCE, that is, 25 years after the end of the period in the table; the same page frames the Classical period as about 450-310 BCE. The Cypriot amphora with a Phoenician inscription, which the museum dates to the 6th-5th century BCE, also crosses 475 BCE, so it is shown on the group page "Cyprus from the Geometric to the Classical period" rather than here. Sources 2, 3.

On this site

The period has two items. The Cypriot bronze lampstand is dated by the museum to the "late 6th century BCE" and assigned to the "Archaic" period; its range, 525-500 BCE, lies wholly inside the period, and its findspot is not stated. "Idalion: a royal palace that became an administrative centre" appears here and in the Classical period, by two documented phases. Source 4.