Report·PU-Mu 1050, Box 3, folder 17·c. 1955

Kourion Complex Palace (Mosaics) Fales, c. 1955 (1 of 2)De C. Fales (probably)

·

Typed and handwritten in English. Every line is transcribed, and the text sits beside the scan.

Scan 81 of report PU-Mu 1050, Box 3, folder 17 (Kourion Complex Palace (Mosaics) Fales, c. 1955 (1 of 2)), typed and handwritten in English. The transcription follows.

Scan: Penn Museum Archives, Philadelphia, PU-Mu 1050, Box 3, folder 17, Courtesy of the Penn Museum.

Page 80Scan 81 of 97

Continued from scan 80

… 80

spread fan. The rectangular part was encased by a guilloche border. The design was geometric in character except inside an approximately square frame. Inside this frame was the bust of a female holding and, presumably, sniffing a flower. She wears a white shawl or veil over her head and is labelled [handwritten: 'Ατολαυσις 549]. In the mosaic floor of the south portico, were octagons [handwritten: 550].

This building was, I think, used for baptism because of the octagonal plan of the frigidarium echoed in the octagonal shapes in the mosaics, the [handwritten: 'ΑΠΟΛΑΥΣΙΣ] crowned figure of [handwritten: Ζωτηρία], the [handwritten: ?] representation of [handwritten: 'Απολαυσις] and the three animals on the south side of the frigidarium. To begin with the all encasing architectural frame. The design of the plan of this building is almost identical with that of the martyrion of St. George [handwritten: of] Ax at Ezra. [handwritten: 551] There is the same octogonal arrangement with niches in four of the sides, in the other three, entrances, and in the fourth, a semicircular niche. Baptisteries were often octagonal. The [handwritten: six] eight interior [handwritten: columns] columns of the martyrion find their counterpart in the eight points tangent to the circle in the floor of mosaic of the bath. Whether the building at Ezra was a martyrion as is specifically stated in the [handwritten: ?] dedicatory inscription or whether it was, also, used as a [handwritten: ?] baptistery as is implied by the first four lines of the same

Handwritten: 552

Handwritten: 553

65 figures hard to readstruck struck outadded written in above” jug ditto, and what it repeatsword reading not certain

Spotted a wrong reading? Write to us or use alexis@ancientcyprus.com