Texts of the biblical and classical traditions and inscriptions recovered during recent French and Cypriot excavations give Kition an important place among the Cypriot cities of thefirst millennium B.C. Kition is distinguished by its Phoenician character. There are two phases in the history of the city in thefirst millennium: thefirst from the Phoenician colonization to the arrival of the Persians (ninth to the end of the sixth century B.C.), the second including the Classical period to the Ptolemaic conquest (fifth to the beginning of the third century B.C.). Although Kition probably played a role in Cyprus' relations with the Assyrian kings, the city's name apparently is absent from the seventh-century tributary lists of Esarhaddon and Ashurbanifalfound at Nineveh-that is, unless the lists refer to Kition as Kartihadast ("New Town"). Phoenician texts as well as inscriptions on coins refer to kings by name from 500 B.C. on. Literary texts and inscriptions suggest that by the Classical period Kition was one of the principal local powers, along with its neighbor Salamis. Between the ninth and fifth centuries B.C., Kition, whose wealth test)fies to its position in Mediterranean commerce, is certainly an important city. Despite lack of proof, one is tempted to believe that there existed in the city a royal power connected with Tyre. However, it is also possible that the advent of the Persians, whose political aims in the eastern Mediterranean were supported by Kition, made it possible for a royal power to play a role of major importance for 200 years.

Amathus appears as a true city in Cypro-Geometric IB, at the dawn of the Iron Age, but its origins may date from the beginning of the 1Ith century B.C. Its prosperity in the Iron Age may be due, at least in part, to its location, which allowed it to control the Kalavassos mines. Its religion blended scarcely Hellenized Cypriot tradition with Syro-Palestinian tradition.

From the Cypro-Geometric IB period on, the tombs contain many Phoenician, and later Euboean, imports attesting to increasing foreign relations. A Phoenician necropolis confirms the presence of a sizable Phoenician colony.

At the end of the Cypro-Geometric and in the Cypro-Archaic period, goldsmith shops produced remarkably cosmopolitan work. The existence of a Near Eastern type royalty, shown by recent excavations of the palace, refiects these infiuences. Despite the Greek names of the earliest kings, the politics of the kingdom was almost constantly proPersian, so the Archaic period saw greatly improved economic life, exemplified by the local goldsmith industry and rich deposits of local and imported ceramics.

The historical and archaeological evidence for the kingdom of Kourion in the Early Iron Age consists of inscriptions in Assyrian and Greek documents; and archaeological evidence from the necropolis of Kaloriziki, rock-cut inscriptions in the area, and the Sanctuary of Apollo. Further information can be cautiously extrapolated from objects in Cesnola's "Treasure of Curium" in view of recent reassessment of the evidence, as well as from the discovery of a "royal " tomb at Ayios Ermoyenis.

Excavation of the Archaic Precinct in the Sanctuary of Apollo in the 1980s provides detailed information on the earliest use of the precinct, what the precinct looked like in the Archaic period, and how the cult functioned. The finds of Archaic date from the sanctuary provide information about contact with lands to east and west, as well as within the island. This supplements and to some extent confirms what can be learned from the evidence of the necropolis.

Princeton University archaeology teams have been digging at Polis Chrysochous (ancient Marion and Arsinoe), Cyprus, since 1983. Good evidence for the Iron Age is limited to sanctuaries of the seventh and sixth centuries B.C. but there are also scattered traces of earlier periods. The rare domestic remains are very poorly preserved in shallow deposits. Foreign contacts begin in the seventh century butfirst become important in the sixth century, a conclusion confirmed by over 100 years of excavation in the large cemeteries surrounding the site. The political structure of the Archaic kingdom of Marion has left no archaeological traces, but the similarity of pottery found throughout the Chrysochou Valley from the sixth century B.C. on indicates a cohesive geographic unit. The tombs provide no insight into social stratification. The one well-preserved sanctuary (B.D7) does provide good evidence on cult and the range of Attic imported pottery aids the study of trade in the eastern Mediterranean.

Idalion lies in the center of Cyprus, near the copper mines of the eastern Troodos foothills. The earliest settlement dates to the late 13th-early 12th century B.C. Its prosperous economy probably depended on copper exploitation and on trade with the coastal cities of Enkomi and Kition.

The early Iron Age has been attested by tomb groups and unstratified pottery, but not yet by architectural remains. However, archaeological excavations conducted near the ancient town since the 19th century have revealed architectural, numismatic, and epigraphic evidence for Idalion in the Archaic and Classical periods. Foreign imports and Phoenician influence in art and artifacts point to trade between Idalion and the outside world.

A large building complex, excavated by the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus in 1991-1995, has been identified as the Phoenician administrative center, dated to the fourth century B.C. The identification is supported by two groups of Phoenician inscriptions found on the J?oor of three rooms in two areas of the building.

.. Cyprus, whose name excites the ideas of elegance and pleasure....
-E. Gibbon, The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. 6, ch. 60 (1788).

This essay briefiy examines trends in current research on the Iron Age kingdoms of Cyprus, with reference to recent discoveries at Amathus, Idalion, Kition, Kourion, and Marion, all subjects of articles in this issue of BASOR. In addition, it suggests ways of furthering the present understanding of the histories of these kingdoms. On the one hand, it is gratifying that more than 110 years after the publication of Cesnola's large, three-volume Descriptive Atlas of the island's antiquities, multivolume atlases are now neededfor each of the kingdoms, and that Cypriot archaeology has, so to speak, entered a "subatomic" age. Whereas a previous generation of scholars had simply to study "Cyprus" as one "atom" within a larger "Mediterranean molecule," it is now possible to examine more clearly the subatomic particles of the larger whole-the electrons, positrons, and quarks, one might say, of the island itself Cyprus in the past was excavated primarily to understand its relationships with what were known as "greater" powers and civilizations: Greece, Phoenicia, Egypt, Assyria, and Persia. But we can now properly study the histories of the individual kingdoms, using the evidence of tombs, sanctuaries, and even settlements, although the last remain notoriously few. On the other hand, given this achievement, a question necessarily follows: how is the progress made in understanding the island to continue?

The Iron Age of Cyprus, while treated in various degrees at various international conferences over the past 30 years, seldom has been the focus of them. The session on Iron Age kingdoms at the 1995 Archaeological Institute of America meeting in San Diego represented one of the few gatherings devoted exclusively to the island's Iron Age remains. The meeting allowed one to review the present praxis of research concern with sites that date primarily to ca. 1150-450 B.C.E. While the excavations of these sites are executed with the traditional high standards and objectives of classical archaeology, the goals and scope of the investigations tend to be circumscribed. Future field work and analyses, however, present researchers with other possibilities and directions for their investigations of the Cypriot Iron Age. The suggested holistic conjunctive/contextual approach to the study of this seminal period in the island's cultural development would ensure that future results would be in the mainstream of archaeological thought and praxis in the Mediterranean region and beyond.

A Cypro-Archaic sanctuary in Polis-Peristeries discovered by the Princeton Cyprus Expedition preserves a wide range of material in primary archaeological contexts. Examined in relationship to previous studies of Iron Age sanctuaries on Cyprus and more general archaeological studies of cult spaces, the Polis-Peristeries site provides new and rich information about the ways in which ancient sanctuary spaces were used. Chronological and functional details distinguished among the four architectural phases within the temenos parallel patterns among deposits of waste materials found in a large bothros outside of the temenos area. Evidence for the segmentation of space, display and disposal of votives, consumption of food and drink, industrial activities, and large-scale storage at the site highlights the role of the Cypriot Iron Age sanctuary as a focus of wealth disposal and economic control in the community.