Idalion: the Berlin-Idalion-Project

In 2022 excavation on the upper eastern acropolis of Idalion uncovered, within a 5 x 5 m area, densely packed rows of votives that included six pairs of life-size terracotta feet standing directly on bedrock, and rectangular negatives for huge limestone statues¹. The work belonged to the Berlin-Idalion-Project, based at Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin and led by Stephan G. Schmid, in partnership with the Department of Antiquities and the University of Cyprus^1,2. A 2026 exhibition invitation names George Papasavvas as co-project leader³. The project set out to test the long-held hypothesis that the great goddess's sanctuary of Idalion stood on the upper part of the eastern acropolis, Moutti tou Arvili⁴.

The votive area also held many broken terracotta female votive statues of Cypro-Archaic and Cypro-Classical type and large numbers of limestone statue fragments, and the excavators distinguish an earlier Cypro-Archaic phase of the sanctuary¹. At the eastern end of the dug zone lay an inscribed limestone statue "plinth", at 300.05 m asl, 60 cm above the negatives for the stone votives and 45 cm below the modern walking level¹. Daniela Summa and Schmid call it possibly the first inscribed object from Moutti tou Arvili and state that its Hellenistic date attests the sanctuary's continued functioning until at least the Ptolemaic period¹. They argue that a wall built round the upper part of Moutti tou Arvili in the 4th century BCE brought the sanctuary within the fortification, and they judge Aphrodite the most likely goddess worshipped there in Hellenistic times¹.

The 2024 season ran from 10 September to 10 October on the upper plateau and exposed an east-west wall thought to be the sanctuary's northern boundary and two adjoining buildings, with an alley between them later closed by an adobe wall^4,5. Consecutive floors and ash layers held mainly Hellenistic pottery and limestone and terracotta figurines, and a Cypro-Archaic floor of about 500 BCE carried limestone statuettes set in mortar^4,5. An incised sherd carries the letters ΑΦΡΟΔ; the Department of Antiquities announcement of the season says the inscription leaves little doubt about the main deity and supports the old hypothesis⁴.

The inscribed plinth, composed of two fragments, and the inscribed lower part of a life-size limestone statue with a Greek alphabetic inscription, both found in 2022, are stored in the Department of Antiquities storerooms at Larnaca-Terra Umpra¹.