The Classical period in Cyprus: up to the end of the kingdoms

The frame

The chronological table of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus dates the Classical period to 475-312 BCE, for the whole island, and the site adopts it as its frame for Cyprus. The boundary at its end is the abolition of the kingdoms, which the Department's page on Tamassos dates to 312-311 BCE. 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. Sources 1, 2.

Boundaries and overlaps

The Department of Antiquities page on Idalion frames the Classical period as about 450-310 BCE, later than the table at both ends. Dates given in centuries cross 312: the ostraca from Kition-Pampoula are dated to the 4th century BCE, that is, up to 301, and the sale of Tamassos to the second half of the 4th century. The articles keep that wording and do not shorten it. The abolition of the kingdoms itself is given as two years, 312-311, and the table uses the first. Sources 3, 4, 2, 1.

On this site

The period has three items: "Kition-Pampoula: ostraca of the 4th century BCE", on 99 ostraca counted at the end of the 2022 season; "Tamassos: a city sold to Kition"; and "Idalion: a royal palace that became an administrative centre", which also appears in the Archaic period. The Cypriot amphora with a Phoenician inscription, which the museum dates to the 6th-5th century BCE, crosses 475 and is shown on the group page "Cyprus from the Geometric to the Classical period". Sources 4, 5.