Ancient CyprusAncient Cyprus

Scholar

Nota Kourou

fl. 1994–2017 · Greece

Greek archaeologist of the early Iron Age Aegean who co-authored the Leventis Foundation provenance studies of Cypriot-type statuettes found in the Aegean.

Biography

Nota Kourou was the first-named author of the Leventis Foundation's 2002 provenance study of limestone statuettes of Cypriot type found in the Aegean. In 2004 her affiliation was the Department of Archaeology of the University of Athens1.

The 2002 volume, Limestone Statuettes of Cypriote Type Found in the Aegean: Provenance Studies, was written with Vassos Karageorghis, Y. Maniatis, K. Polikreti, Y. Bassiakos and C. Xenophontos and published by the A.G. Leventis Foundation in Nicosia2. Counts calls it the only extensive petrographic study of Cypriot sculpture3. A paper of 2004 by Polikreti, Maniatis, Bassiakos, Kourou and Karageorghis applied EPR spectroscopy to quarry samples from Cyprus, Samos, Rhodes and Egypt and to statuettes in Nicosia, Samos and Copenhagen. All but one of the statuettes are said to be Cypriot limestone; one is probably Samian1. In 2009 she edited with Karageorghis, V. Kilikoglou and Michael D. Glascock the Foundation's companion volume, Terracotta Statues and Figurines of Cypriot Type Found in the Aegean5.

Her other papers on the subject include one on sceptres and maces in Cyprus (1994), one on Phoenicians, Cypriots, Euboeans and the foundation of Carthage in Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 32 (2002), and one on Potnia figures in the early Iron Age Aegean and Cyprus (2015)6,7,8. In 2016 she published "A Cypriot Sequence in Early Iron Age Crete", arguing that "Creto-Cypriot" should apply only to exact imitations of Cypriot imports9. A volume of studies in her honour, TERPSIS, edited by V. Vlachou and A. Gadolou, appeared in 201710.

Life and work

  1. 2002
    Co-authored the Leventis Foundation volume Limestone Statuettes of Cypriote Type Found in the Aegean: Provenance Studies (Nicosia) with Karageorghis, Maniatis, Polikreti, Bassiakos and Xenophontos; a petrographic/provenance study of Cypriot-type limestone statuettes found abroad.

    NicosiaKourou et al. 2002Toumazou et al. 2011, pp. 168

  2. 2004
    Co-author of the EPR-spectroscopy provenance paper on Cypriot-type limestone statuettes (Nicosia, Samos, Copenhagen samples); result: nearly all carved in Cypriot limestone, one probably Samian.

    Polikreti et al. 2004, p. 1

  3. 2009
    Co-editor with Karageorghis, Kilikoglou and Glascock of Terracotta Statues and Figurines of Cypriot Type Found in the Aegean (Nicosia, Leventis Foundation).

    Dissinger 2017

  4. 2015
    Published 'Potnia figures and cults in early Iron Age Aegean and Cyprus', Cahiers du Centre d'Etudes Chypriotes 45, on the Aegean-type raised-arms female figurine appearing in Cyprus in the 11th century BCE.

    Kourou 2015, p. 1

  5. 2016
    Published 'A Cypriot Sequence in Early Iron Age Crete: Heirlooms, Imports and Adaptations' (CCEC 46, pp. 51-69; Hommage a Antoine Hermary): Cypriot imports and exact 'Creto-Cypriot' local imitations in Crete form one sequence from the Late Bronze Age.

    Kourou 2016, p. 1

  6. 2017
    Honoured by the Festschrift TERPSIS. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology in Honour of Nota Kourou (Etudes d'Archeologie 10), eds V. Vlachou and A. Gadolou.

    Charalambidou 2017, p. 1

Connections

7 people
Vassos KarageorghisMichael D. GlascockK. PolikretiY. ManiatisY. BassiakosC. XenophontosV. KilikoglouNota Kourou
Scholarship

Scholarship

On Ancient Cyprus

3 pages

Sources

  1. 1.K. Polikreti, Y. Bassiakos, Y. Maniatis, N. Kourou et al. (2004). “Provenance of archaeological limestone with EPR spectroscopy: the case of the Cypriote-type statuettes”. Journal of Archaeological Science 31, 1015-1028. Online
  2. 2.N. Kourou, V. Karageorghis, Y. Maniatis, K. Polikreti et al. (2002). Limestone Statuettes of Cypriote Type Found in the Aegean: Provenance Studies. Nicosia, A. G. Leventis Foundation.
  3. 3.M. K. Toumazou (ed.), P. N. Kardulias (ed.), D. B. Counts (ed.) (2011). Crossroads and Boundaries: The Archaeology of Past and Present in the Malloura Valley, Cyprus.
  4. 4.Alicia Marie Dissinger (2017). “Cypro-Archaic Bird Iconography: Types, Uses, and Meanings”. University of Virginia.
  5. 5.V. Karageorghis (ed.), N. Kourou (ed.), V. Kilikoglou (ed.), M. D. Glascock (ed.) (2009). Terracotta Statues and Figurines of Cypriot Type Found in the Aegean. Nicosia, A. G. Leventis Foundation.
  6. 6.N. Kourou (1994). “Scepters and Maces in Cyprus Before, during and Immediately after the 11th Century”. Proceedings of the International Symposium Cyprus in the 11th Century B.C., 202-227. Nicosia, A. G. Leventis Foundation.
  7. 7.N. Kourou (2002). “Phéniciens, Chypriotes, Eubéens et la fondation de Carthage”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 32, 89-113.
  8. 8.N. Kourou (2015). “Potnia figures and cults in early Iron Age Aegean and Cyprus”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 45, 181-199.
  9. 9.N. Kourou (2016). “A Cypriot Sequence in Early Iron Age Crete: Heirlooms, Imports and Adaptations”. Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 46, 51-69. Online
  10. 10.X. Charalambidou (2017). “Ceramics, cultural interconnections and influences on Naxos”. TERPSIS. Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology in honour of Nota Kourou, 375-392.