The Forests of Cyprus from Prehistory to the End of Ottoman Rule

In this lecture, given in Greek at the Archaeological Research Unit of the University of Cyprus, forester and botanical researcher Georgios Hadjikyriakou presents his book on the history of the island's forests from geological time to the end of Ottoman rule. Opening with the emergence of the Troodos and Kyrenia ranges from the Tethys Sea, he distinguishes unchanged relic plants such as oleander, myrtle and carob from palaeoendemics like the Cyprus cedar (Cedrus brevifolia) and Bosea cypria, and from paired schizoendemics that diverged between the igneous soils of Troodos and the limestones of the Pentadaktylos range.

Hadjikyriakou then presents Pliocene plant fossils and leaf impressions from the Nicosia Formation near Potami, including pine cones resembling Pinus brutia and Pinus pinea alongside 16-centimetre cones that may represent extinct endemic species, resinous heartwood, and impressions of plane, wild olive and oleander leaves. Alongside the Pleistocene extinction of dwarf elephants and hippopotami, he compiles published archaeobotanical wood and seed data from the Neolithic to the Roman period, tracking the continuity of pines and oaks and noting the absence of pre-medieval evidence for cypress on Cyprus.

Turning to written and indirect sources, he examines Theophrastus (identifying his Cypriot pitys as Pinus brutia and peuke as Pinus nigra subsp. pallasiana), Eratosthenes as quoted on ancient forest clearance, the cult of Apollo Hylates, and texts from the Byzantine, Frankish, Venetian and Ottoman periods on timber, shipbuilding, pitch, resin and labdanum gathered on goats' beards.

To test what drove deforestation, Hadjikyriakou maps over 400 ancient sites, 180 Byzantine sites, and medieval and Ottoman villages against the 500-metre contour and modern state forests. Although copper smelting consumed timber equivalent over time to sixteen times the island's area, mines and slag heaps lay below 500 metres and regenerated when left alone, as did the coastal shipbuilding zone between Soli and Marion. He argues that permanent deforestation was caused instead by settlement, agriculture and grazing, which cleared the Mesaoria and lowland zones below 500 metres in antiquity and pushed higher into the Troodos range with Byzantine monasteries and Frankish villages.

The final part of the talk covers forest ownership from the Cypriot kings to the Ottoman Forest Law of 1870, the logistics of hauling 13-fathom cedar timbers down the Limnitis valley for the eleven-banked ship of Demetrius Poliorcetes, fire and grazing history, and monumental centuries-old trees. In the discussion afterwards, audience members and the speaker consider Phoenician versus endemic origins for the Cyprus cedar, timber transport routes, reforestation, and charcoal studies from ancient slag heaps.