ExcavationForeign missions

Salamis: the French mission of Lyon

Name: Salamis: the French mission of Lyon
Start: 1964
End: 1974

1964–1974 · Salamis

Also known as Mission archéologique française de Salamine de Chypre; Lyon mission; Institut Fernand-Courby mission

The University of Lyon's mission at Salamis, 1964 to 1974: Tomb I with more than 250 vases, the Campanopetra basilica, the Temple of Zeus and the Huilerie residence, ending with the spring campaign of 1974.

Map of Cyprus

Where the work took place

Main site
Also worked at
Ground above 200, 500, 1,000 m

Sites

1Salamis
2Salamis-Campanopetra (approx.)

Modern coastline (OpenStreetMap) and relief (Copernicus DEM).

The project

In 1965 a Roman house at Salamis was found to stand over a chamber tomb holding more than 250 vases, which the annual report places in the Proto-Geometric period and relates to the earliest settlement at Salamis¹. The tomb was found by the French mission of Lyon, which worked on the south side of the city from 1964 until the spring of 1974^2,3.

Founding and method

Jean Pouilloux founded the mission and directed it until 1972². It was conceived as a training excavation able to host Lyon students and young researchers of different nationalities². The Institut Fernand-Courby was its host, and the University of Lyon its sponsor; the CNRS and the French Foreign Ministry were funders and the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus a partner^2,3.

The initial programme sought the city's foundation date and early history, the classical city known from literary sources, an analysis and date for the temple of Zeus, and a stratigraphy for the site³. In October 1964 Pouilloux and Jean Jehasse walked the concession with the Munro and Tubbs report and plan, and made a few trial soundings^2,4. The reconnaissance included an altimetric survey and a 100 m grid marked on the ground, subdivided into 10 m squares for recording where excavation took place^3,5.

Campaigns followed each year from 1965 to the spring of 1974. In 1965 work concentrated on the Temple of Zeus area and on Campanopetra, with a stratigraphic sounding (Z) near the dunes; Georges Roux co-directed^1,2. The 1966 season included the construction of a mission house and store, which reduced exploration⁶. Heavy dune sand over Campanopetra was removed over several seasons with a small Decauville railway and lorries³. Marguerite Yon says she took responsibility for the mission in 1972, although the annual notice for that year still names Pouilloux as director; the notice for the two campaigns of 1973 describes the mission as directed by her^3,7,8.

Tomb I and the early town

Tomb I came to light in 1965 under a Roman house and made Roux break off the temple dig and Yon break off sounding Z^2,3. A Byzantine well partly cut it¹. Two of its vases carry catalogue numbers: a duck-shaped black-glazed askos, Sal. T. I/127, and a bichrome jug, Sal. T. I/144¹. Yon published it as La tombe T I du XIe s. av. J.-C.⁹. She argues that this tomb and a nearby coastal installation of the 11th century indicate a new coastal Salamis, distinct from the Bronze Age settlement at Enkomi-Alasia, which declined at that time².

South of Campanopetra the mission dug an archaic quarter. The 1972 work distinguished three superimposed levels, the latest Archaic, with bothroi containing ash, pottery and votives, an apparent altar, a pithos interpreted as a possible libation installation, a street and the town wall; the excavators identified the area as a place of cult⁷. Against the southern rampart, a rock spur buttressed with brick and stone construction was dated to at least the 7th century, and an intentional filling held Archaic, Classical and Hellenistic terracottas and pottery⁶. Yon says the fieldwork did not locate organised buildings of the classical city associated with Evagoras, and that much classical material came from mixed levels and fill³.

In May 1968 trenches over about 250 square metres at Ayios Varnavas, site A, outside the urban concession, found a dump of more than 180 broken limestone and terracotta statuettes. Most were female figures holding flowers, branches or fruit; an Apollo with a lyre and two kouros heads were also recorded, and no sanctuary building appeared in the trenches⁵. Yon published the deposit in 1974¹⁰.

Campanopetra, the Temple of Zeus and the Huilerie

At Campanopetra the mission uncovered a Christian basilica complex with atria, a peristyle court, galleries and annexes. The peristyle court was probably earlier than the church, and later phases included reuse and lime kilns¹¹. The south gallery held a cemetery chapel; the 1968 report records sarcophagi T. 3 and T. 5, a northern ossuary T. 1 and a southern three-compartment ossuary, T. 2, T. 4 and T. 6⁵. The mission worked with the Department of Antiquities on consolidation and anastylosis of the basilica¹². D. D. Triantaphyllopoulos argues that the church housed a relic of the Holy Cross and was a pilgrimage destination¹³.

At the Temple of Zeus, the 1970 report records a podium measuring 22.22 by 27.52 metres and states with certainty that the monument is Ptolemaic, with three building states and later Byzantine occupation; the 1974 report dated its construction between the mid-2nd century BC and the 1st century AD^14,15. Later work recorded a church in the cella and Byzantine houses. The name and divine attribution are those used by the excavators¹⁵. A bronze head found in the temple area may represent the Emperor Claudius¹⁶.

The Huilerie, dug from 1971 to 1974, was a residence built in its first form in the 5th century and organised around a courtyard, with corridors, rooms and an upper floor. The mission recorded painted and moulded stucco, inhabited capitals, hunting friezes and a marble table; an oil press, a farm and an oven belonged to later changes^7,15. Gilbert Argoud, Olivier Callot and Bruno Helly published it as Une résidence byzantine, l'Huilerie¹⁷.

After 1974

The last campaign ran from 25 May to 6 July 1974 and found 26 silver coins of Vespasian and Titus at the Temple of Zeus; the planned September to October continuation was not held^2,15. The Campanopetra complex lies at the south-east end of Salamis, and the mission's own account says that the occupation since the summer of 1974, following the Turkish invasion, has made the site inaccessible to research^3,18. Triantaphyllopoulos states that the site has been legally inaccessible for scientific research since 1974¹³. A letter of the Republic of Cyprus (2024), as summarised on a United Nations page of the Republic, says the French dig house became inaccessible to its owners after 1974 and that Turkish excavations began there in August 1999; it relies on a Turkish Cypriot press report¹⁹. Karageorghis recounts that when Pouilloux returned in October 1974 he was refused permission to take the mission's excavation notebooks from the dig house, which were called war booty²⁰. The mission continued from 1976 as the Kition and Salamine mission, with fieldwork at Kition¹⁸.

The digraphic Evagoras inscription (inv. Sal. 12), found by the mission, is captioned as formerly in the Famagusta museum³.

Sixteen volumes appeared in the series Salamine de Chypre, eleven of them after 1974¹⁸. They include Roux's La basilique de la Campanopetra (1998)²¹ and Callot's volume on the coins from the city excavations, 1964–1974 (2004)²². The primary archives are in Lyon at the Maison de l'Orient, under the scientific responsibility of the HiSoMA laboratory: about 16,000 negatives, over 5,000 slides, over 9,000 object cards, about 5,000 object drawings, over 70 excavation notebooks and over 250 plans and surveys^18,23. The SalamiNe project digitised much of this for open access¹⁸.

Directors and team

Directed by

Jean Pouilloux1964–1972
Marguerite Yon1972–1974
Georges RouxTemple of Zeus and Campanopetra sectors1965–1974

Team

Institutions

Université Lumière Lyon 2Sponsor
Université de LyonSponsor
Institut Fernand-CourbyHost
Mission archéologique française de SalamineSponsor
CNRSFunder
French Foreign MinistryFunder
Department of Antiquities of CyprusPartner
Maison de l'Orient, LyonPartner
Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée Jean PouillouxPartner

Seasons

10 seasons

1965April-May and September-November 1965
Rich Proto-Geometric rock tomb with 250+ vases; soundings show settlement from the 11th century BCE; Archaic levels and fire layer at the south; a peristyle court of a late building, perhaps a basilica atrium; inscriptions, an Archaic kouros head, 156 coins.
Directed by J. Pouilloux[13]
1966spring and later 1966 (spring campaign mentioned)
Two operations continued: the rampart (east-west wall with spurs and a brick-and-stone buttress on the rock spur, 7th c. BC or earlier) and stratigraphic sondage Z (Archaic bothros with Geometric amphora and Phoenician vases); heaps of Attic, Ionian, Rhodian and Protocorinthian pottery, a dump of terracottas pointing to an Artemis sanctuary, a ram-forepart rhyton, and over 280 lamps.
Directed by J. Pouilloux[9]
1967spring and autumn 1967
Excavation of the peristyle court and narthex of the Campanopetra basilica: lime kilns, late reuse as housing, successive phases from a 1st-c. AD court; soundings west and east; deep trench found Geometric habitation on bedrock and an archaic well; stratigraphic sondage Z reached 11th-c. BC Proto-White Painted occupation; 36 stamped amphora handles and inscriptions including a marble disc naming a John.
Directed by J. Pouilloux[10]
1968spring 1968
Nave and eastern atrium cleared; plan now complete: courtyard with octagonal phiale, tetrastoon, three-aisle basilica with three apses and side galleries, second eastern atrium; marble placage, 600 marble fragments inventoried, a cemetery chapel in the south gallery with sarcophagi and ossuaries. Roman cist tomb of early 2nd c. AD exposed by sea erosion; two burials, the second a woman with a glass flask, bronze coin (perhaps Gordian), gold earrings, silver rings, bone pin. Southern rampart explored: rock cut into a zigzag scarp with a brick-and-stone wall on a stone socle, built first in the Geometric/early Archaic period and widened in the late 6th and 3rd c. BC; the fill contained thousands of Archaic and Classical figurines from a female fertility sanctuary; deep wells, Canaanite jar infant burial, N-S section; 1,245 finds recorded incl. 738 terracottas, 122 vases, 117 coins. Trial trenches over c. 250 sq m located a dump of over 180 broken limestone and terracotta statuettes of late Archaic date, mostly females holding flowers or fruit with Attic influence, plus an Apollo with lyre and two kouroi heads; no building found. Inscriptions recorded for publication: bases from the gymnasium north side (Diogenes governor of Cyprus and Cilicia), a Latin dedication to Julian, some twenty fragments, theatre and museum texts incl. six on the family of Sulpicius Panclès Verianus, and five chance finds at Ayios Sergios (a 16-line funerary epigram, dedications to Zeus Olympios and Aphrodite, a Latin epitaph).
Directed by Jean Pouilloux[16]
1969spring and autumn 1969
Two campaigns (autumn reported): Campanopetra basilica corridor, north annexes and east atrium with probable baths; archaic quarter KV with Hellenistic fill and Byzantine graves over 8th to mid-6th c. BC houses and Corinthian, Ionian and Rhodian imports, abandoned c. 550; rampart fill with terracotta goddess figurines cleared.
Directed by J. Pouilloux[21]
1970
Two campaigns (spring and autumn): baths and surroundings of the Campanopetra basilica, atrium cleared, soundings showing Geometric and Archaic levels under the Byzantine church and the early rampart (11th-10th c.); the 'Oil Press' monument; the temple of Zeus, a Ptolemaic peripteral podium 22.22 x 27.52 m, with inscriptions and a gold coin.
Directed by J. Pouilloux, G. Roux[23]
197115 April-14 May; 17 August-9 October 1971
Two campaigns on three sectors: Campanopetra basilica, atria and a large western court with porticoes finished and plan taken; the 'huilerie' building (5th-7th c.) with central court, stucco, ionic and corinthian capitals, a hunt frieze and a painted inscription about St Barnabas; and the Temple of Zeus where earlier work by the late J. Bruchet is recapitulated.
Directed by Jean Pouilloux[26]
197220 August - 10 October 1972
Excavation of a cult quarter: three superimposed levels (Geometric I 10th c., Geometric II-III, Cypro-Archaic II) with large bothroi of ash and over 250 CA II vases in one, a probable sanctuary, a libation pithos, a clay altar and the town wall with its street. Complete clearance of a 5th-century Byzantine mansion later turned into an oil press and farm: courtyard house with painted and moulded stucco, upper floor, inhabited capitals, over a hundred fragments of sculpted plaster hunting friezes (lion/bear and hare/deer), a lobed marble table; a Hellenistic circular foundation below.
Directed by J. Pouilloux[17]
1973August - September 1973
August-September campaign: three phases of a sanctuary from Cypro-Geometric I through Archaic, with a large central room, courtyards, workshops, wells and offering pits; abandoned after the mid-6th century BC. May-June campaign: the east half of the Hellenistic-Roman Temple of Zeus and its ramp with statue of Claudius; later Byzantine houses; and the so-called oil-press building identified as a late Roman villa with atrium and portico, enlarged in the 5th century.
Directed by M. Yon[30]
197425 May - 6 July 1974
Three foreign missions finished a season before the invasion: the French mission of Lyon at Salamis, the Canadian Laval mission, and the Dumbarton Oaks mission at the Kourion basilica. Detailed reports follow in section C. Campanopetra basilica: north part explored, no baptistery, limits fixed, medieval lime kilns. Temple of Zeus: east side and podium top worked, 26 silver coins of Vespasian and Titus, chronology refined, church in cella. Oil-press building: south-east plan completed, courtyard basins, bread oven.
Directed by Marguerite Yon[19]

What was found

Periods

Features and finds

Protogeometric tomb; Campanopetra peristyle court; kouros head; rampart; sondage Z; bothros; Campanopetra basilica; peristyle court; octagonal phiale; sondages D and Z; phiale; nave; south gallery cemetery; atrium; south rampart; wells; terracotta votives; T 1 region soundings; statuette dump; trenches I-VIII; archaic quarter; south rampart pit; thermae; Oil Press monument; temple of Zeus; west atrium and court; building of the 'huilerie'; Temple of Zeus; bothroi; sanctuary; altar; town wall; oil press building; plaster hunting friezes; Geometric sanctuary; offering pits; ramp; oil-press building / villa; oil-press building.

Tombs

T. 1, T. 2, T. 3, T. 4, T. 5, T. 6

Publications

10 items

Chronique des fouilles (Bulletin de correspondance hellénique)

References

1.V. Karageorghis, 1966, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1965, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 90.
2.Marguerite Yon, 2014, Salamine 1964–2014 : un bilan, Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 44.
3.Marguerite Yon, 2019, Un cinquantenaire. La mission de l'université de Lyon à Salamine, Salamis of Cyprus: History and Archaeology from the Earliest Times to Late Antiquity.
4.Jean Jehasse, 2014, Première mission à Salamine, 1964, Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 44.
5.V. Karageorghis, 1969, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1968, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 93.
6.V. Karageorghis, 1967, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1966, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 91.
7.V. Karageorghis, 1973, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1972, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 97.
8.V. Karageorghis, 1974, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1973, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 98.
9.Marguerite Yon, 1971, La tombe T I du XIe s. av. J.-C., Salamine de Chypre II.
10.Marguerite Yon, 1974, Un dépôt de sculptures archaïques. Ayios Varnavas site A, Salamine de Chypre V.
11.V. Karageorghis, 1968, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1967, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 92.
12.V. Karageorghis, 1970, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1969, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 94.
13.D. D. Triantaphyllopoulos, 2019, The Basilica of Campanopetra in Salamis/Constantia: Theories on its Function and Archaeological Data, Salamis of Cyprus: History and Archaeology from the Earliest Times to Late Antiquity.
14.V. Karageorghis, 1971, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1970, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 95.
15.V. Karageorghis, 1975, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1974, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 99.
16.V. Karageorghis, 1972, Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1971, Bulletin de correspondance hellénique 96.
17.Gilbert Argoud, Olivier Callot, Bruno Helly, 1980, Une résidence byzantine, l'Huilerie, Salamine de Chypre XI.
18.HiSoMA / Maison de l'Orient, 2016, SalamiNe. Les archives d'une fouille archéologique à Chypre (1965–1974) à l'ère numérique.
19.Republic of Cyprus, United Nations page, 2024, April 23, 2024.
20.V. Karageorghis, 2014, Jean Pouilloux à Salamine de Chypre, Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 44.
21.Georges Roux, 1998, La basilique de la Campanopetra, Salamine de Chypre XV.
22.Olivier Callot, 2004, Les monnaies, fouilles de la ville 1964–1974, Salamine de Chypre XVI.
23.Maison de l'Orient et de la Méditerranée, service des Archives, 2022, Le Mensuel des Archives, avril 2022, no 13: Le fonds de la mission archéologique française de Kition et Salamine (Chypre).

Sources

1.Première mission à Salamine, 1964, pp. 2–3; p. 26.
2.De l'Université de Lyon à Salamine (1964–2014): introduction.
3.Salamine 1964–2014 : un bilan, p. 6; p. 33.
4.Jean Pouilloux à Salamine de Chypre, pp. 4–5; p. 21; p. 20.
5.Archaeology in Cyprus, 1961–66, p. 32.
6.Un cinquantenaire. La mission de l'université de Lyon à Salamine, p. 42.
7.Céramique trouvée à Salamine (fouilles de la ville), p. 9.
8.Greek Geometric and Archaic Pottery Found in Cyprus, p. 9.
9.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1966, p. 325; pp. 52–54; p. 53; p. 326.
10.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1967, p. 322; p. 63–68.
11.Aspects peu connus de la contribution de Jacqueline Karageorghis à l'archéologie chypriote, p. 27; p. 4.
12.La naissance de la mission de l'École française d'Athènes à Amathonte (1969–1975), p. 58.
13.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1965, pp. 51–56; p. 346.
14.Salamis of Cyprus: History and Archaeology from the Earliest Times to Late Antiquity, p. 38; p. 42; p. 35; p. 507; p. 298; p. 295.
15.The Basilica of Campanopetra in Salamis/Constantia: Theories on its Function and Archaeological Data, p. 730.
16.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1968, p. 535; pp. 108–111; p. 111; pp. 112–117; pp. 109–110; pp. 111–112.
17.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1972, p. 682; pp. 85–86; pp. 83–85.
18.The Ancient Civilization of Cyprus, p. 150.
19.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1974, p. 836; p. 2; pp. 39–41.
20.Salamine et Kition. Mission française 1964–2004, p. 71; p. 75.
21.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1969, pp. 72–80; p. 80.
22.Avant-propos [Annie Caubet], p. 3; p. 8.
23.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1970, pp. 61–68; pp. 66–67; p. 67; p. 400; p. 399.
24.Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1970, p. 4; p. 313.
25.Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1972, p. 7; p. 430.
26.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1971, pp. 64–66; p. 1067.
27.Copper metallurgy in Iron Age Kition, p. 73.
28.Archaeological News from Cyprus, 1973, p. 132.
29.La basilique de la Campanopétra en Chypre, p. 767.
30.Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1973, pp. 60–62; pp. 57–61; p. 876.
31.Le temple de Zeus à Salamine de Chypre, pp. 504–505.
32.Le temple de Zeus à Salamine.
33.From ten to naught. Formation, consolidation and abolition of Cyprus' Iron Age polities, p. 85.
34.Le culte impérial à Salamine, p. 293; p. 292.
35.Tables chrétiennes en marbre découvertes à Salamine, p. 150; p. 179.
36.The Archaeology of Cyprus: Recent Developments, p. 13.