Glossary Architecture and settlements
Acropolis
Also called: acropoleis
The high, often fortified part of an ancient city, holding its main temples or palace; from the Greek for 'upper city'.
Many Cypriot kingdoms had an acropolis above a lower town. Idalion spread over two hills, the western and eastern acropoleis; the bronze tablet of Idalion was found on the western one in 1850. At Amathus the acropolis carried the palace and the sanctuary of the goddess. See fortifications for the walls that enclosed them.
Related terms
- City-kingdom
One of the small independent kingdoms, each ruled from a city, into which Iron Age Cyprus was divided until about 310 BCE.
- Siege mound
A ramp of earth and stones heaped against a city wall by attackers; in Cyprus, the Persian mound at Palaepaphos of 498 BCE.
- Megaron
A large rectangular hall entered through a porch, with a central hearth; the main room of a Mycenaean palace.
Where it appears
- Iron Age Cities and Palaces
- Cypro-Classical Cyprus
- Fortifications in Ancient Cyprus: From Khirokitia to the Siege of Paphos
- Hellenistic and Roman Houses
- Theatres, Baths and Public Buildings
- Achaemenid Persia
- Earthquakes in Ancient Cyprus
- Flasks
- Gold, Silver, Tin, Arsenic and Iron in Ancient Cyprus
- Iron Age Sanctuaries
- Luigi Palma di Cesnola: The Largest Export of Cypriot Antiquities
- Max Ohnefalsch-Richter: Excavator, Dealer and the Divided Finds of British Cyprus
and 4 more compendium pages