Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Scholar · Cataloguer

Christine Kondoleon

fl. 1982–1997

Author of Domestic and Divine (1995), the study of the Roman mosaics of the House of Dionysos at Nea Paphos, and of the mosaics chapter in Swiny's 1982 Kourion guide.

Biography

Christine Kondoleon is the author of the study of the mosaic floors of the House of Dionysos at Nea Paphos, Domestic and Divine: Roman Mosaics in the House of Dionysos (Cornell University Press, 1995)1. Her earliest Cyprus work is "The Mosaics - Areas I and II" in H. W. Swiny's An Archaeological Guide to the Ancient Kourion Area and the Akrotiri Peninsula (Nicosia, 1982)2. In 1990 she published "A Case for Artistic Invention: A Cypriot Pyramos and Thisbe" in Archaeologia Cypria 23.

A review summarises the book: Kyriakos Nicolaou excavated the house between 1962 and 1974, finding 16 figural and 5 geometric mosaics. Kondoleon dates the mosaics to the late second century AD on archaeological evidence and reconstructs a visitor's itinerary through the rooms; the excavator marked no doors on his plan. She argues that the mosaics stress pleasure, luxury and hospitality, and that a workshop working from model books adapted western models to an eastern setting5. A survey of Cyprus archaeology calls the book the comprehensive study of "the most spectacular group of mosaics in Cyprus"6.

In 1997 she co-wrote an article on mosaics with Lucille A. Roussin in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East, which lists her as Curator of Ancient Art at the Worcester Art Museum7.

Life and work

  1. 1982
    Contributed 'The Mosaics - Areas I and II' (pp. 98-105) to H. W. Swiny (ed.), An Archaeological Guide to the Ancient Kourion Area and the Akrotiri Peninsula (Nicosia 1982).

    KourionRogge et al. 2019

  2. 1990
    Published 'A Case for Artistic Invention: A Cypriot Pyramos and Thisbe', Archaeologia Cypria 2, pp. 109-112.

    Nea PaphosRogge et al. 2019Kondoleon 1995

  3. 1995
    Published Domestic and Divine: Roman Mosaics in the House of Dionysos (Cornell University Press, Ithaca and London), a study of the major mosaics in the public rooms of the house excavated at Nea Paphos by K. Nicolaou between 1962 and 1974. She dates the mosaics to the late second century AD on archaeological evidence and reconstructs a visitor's route through the rooms; she argues the mosaics stress pleasure, luxury and hospitality and adapt western models to an eastern setting, from a workshop using model books.

    Nea PaphosReview of Christine Kondoleon,… 1999, p. 2Herscher 1998, p. 37

Connections

3 people
Kyriakos NicolaouHelena Wylde SwinyJ. W. HayesChristine Kondoleon
ScholarshipColleagues

Scholarship

Colleagues & contacts

On Ancient Cyprus

1 page

Sources

  1. 1.Christine Kondoleon (1995). Domestic and Divine: Roman Mosaics in the House of Dionysos. Ithaca and London, Cornell University Press.
  2. 2.Christine Kondoleon (1982). “The Mosaics - Areas I and II”. An Archaeological Guide to the Ancient Kourion Area and the Akrotiri Peninsula, 98-105. Nicosia.
  3. 3.Christine Kondoleon (1990). “A Case for Artistic Invention: A Cypriot Pyramos and Thisbe”. Archaeologia Cypria 2, 109-112.
  4. 4.S. Rogge (ed.), Ch. Ioannou (ed.), Th. Mavrojannis (ed.) (2019). Salamis of Cyprus: History and Archaeology from the Earliest Times to Late Antiquity. Münster, Waxmann.
  5. 5. (1999). “Review of Christine Kondoleon, Domestic and Divine: Roman Mosaics in the House of Dionysos”. Classical World 92. Online
  6. 6.Ellen Herscher (1998). “Archaeology in Cyprus”. American Journal of Archaeology 102, 309-354. Online
  7. 7.Eric M. Meyers (ed.) (1997). The Oxford Encyclopedia of Archaeology in the Near East. New York, Oxford University Press.
  8. 8.“The Kourion Mapping Project: a contextual ... (bibliography)”. scan 20.
  9. 9.“Review of Kondoleon, Domestic and Divine”. Journal of Roman Archaeology. Online