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"Landscape archaeology Cyprus."
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The rural landscapes of archaic Cyprus : an archaeology of environmental and social change
\"Using various archaeological, environmental, and historical data, this book argues that changes in landscapes, climate, and rural practices were instrumental to Iron Age political formations on Cyprus. It offers new insights into landscape archaeologies and contributes to current debates about society's relationships with changing environments\"-- Provided by publisher.
Book
Digitizing Challenging Heritage Sites with the Use of iPhone LiDAR and Photogrammetry: The Case-Study of Sourp Magar Monastery in Cyprus
Documenting and preserving cultural heritage assets is increasingly important, with threats from natural disasters, conflicts, climate change, and neglect, and some sites are both contested and physically difficult to access or document, posing the issue of “challenging heritage”. A range of innovative digital methods have emerged, offering practical, low-cost, efficient techniques for the 3D documentation of threatened heritage, including smart phone-based mobile light detection and ranging (LiDAR) and photogrammetry. Such techniques offer quick, accessible, and cost-effective alternatives to terrestrial laser scanners, albeit with reduced accuracy and detail, offering practical solutions in cases with restricted funding, limited time for access, complex architectural geometries, or the unavailability of high-end equipment on site. This paper presents a real-world case study integrating iPhone LiDAR with aerial photogrammetry for the rapid documentation of Sourp Magar Monastery, a Medieval site located in a forested slopes of the Kyrenia Range, Cyprus. Due to its poor state of preservation and years of abandonment, as well as its remote nature and location, the monastery is considered a “challenging heritage” monument. In the context of a recent international restoration initiative, a preliminary digital survey was undertaken to both document the current condition of Sourp Magar and contribute to a better understanding of its construction history. This paper outlines the workflow integrating the use of smartphone LiDAR and aerial photogrammetry, evaluates its efficacy in challenging heritage sites, and discusses its potential implications for rapid, low-cost documentation. Finally, the present paper aims to show the multifaceted benefit of easy-to-use, low-cost technologies in the preliminary study of sites and monuments.
Journal Article
Cypriot cultural details: proceedings of the 10th Post Graduate Cypriot Archaeology Conference
There are countless references to Cyprus in Venice: in palaces, primarily that of Queen Caterina Corner, in the church of Saints Giovanni e Paolo, where the skin of Mark Antonius Bragadin (the staunch defender of Famagusta) is guarded, in the spices, and especially in the wine of Cyprus (Commandaria), that is today still recalled in Venetian sayings. The Venetian past, too, has many references in Cyprus where evidence is focused on the fortresses and fortifications of Nicosia, Famagusta and Kerynia and in the lions that adorn them as well as in traditional dishes and language. The papers presented here have been selected from 30 given at the 10th Annual Meeting of young researchers in Cypriot archaeology (POCA 10), held in Venice where it celebrated two important events: the 500th anniversary of the death of Caterina Cornaro (1454-1510) and the twinning of the cities of Venice and Larnaca. Papers cover a wide range of subjects reflecting the many centuries of trade in products (especially textiles) and the cultural exchange in ideas, religious practices and people between the island and City at various times from prehistory to the Ottoman period. Archaeological and historical data are brought together to showcase recent research.
eBook
Evaluation of Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS Level-2 and Sentinel 2 Level-1C Fusion Techniques Intended for Image Segmentation of Archaeological Landscapes and Proxies
The use of medium resolution, open access, and freely distributed satellite images, such as those of Landsat, is still understudied in the domain of archaeological research, mainly due to restrictions of spatial resolution. This investigation aims to showcase how the synergistic use of Landsat and Sentinel optical sensors can efficiently support archaeological research through object-based image analysis (OBIA), a relatively new scientific trend, as highlighted in the relevant literature, in the domain of remote sensing archaeology. Initially, the fusion of a 30 m spatial resolution Landsat 8 OLI/TIRS Level-2 and a 10 m spatial resolution Sentinel 2 Level-1C optical images, over the archaeological site of “Nea Paphos” in Cyprus, are evaluated in order to improve the spatial resolution of the Landsat image. At this step, various known fusion models are implemented and evaluated, namely Gram–Schmidt, Brovey, principal component analysis (PCA), and hue-saturation-value (HSV) algorithms. In addition, all four 10 m available spectral bands of the Sentinel 2 sensor, namely the blue, green, red, and near-infrared bands (Bands 2 to 4 and Band 8, respectively) were assessed for each of the different fusion models. On the basis of these findings, the next step of the study, focused on the image segmentation process, through the evaluation of different scale factors. The segmentation process is an important step moving from pixel-based to object-based image analysis. The overall results show that the Gram–Schmidt fusion method based on the near-infrared band of the Sentinel 2 (Band 8) at a range of scale factor segmentation to 70 are the optimum parameters for the detection of standing visible monuments, monitoring excavated areas, and detecting buried archaeological remains, without any significant spectral distortion of the original Landsat image. The new 10 m fused Landsat 8 image provides further spatial details of the archaeological site and depicts, through the segmentation process, important details within the landscape under examination.
Journal Article
Ecclesiastical Economies: The Integration of Sacred and Maritime Topographies of Late Antique Cyprus
This article focusses on the relationship of the church with productive landscapes and coastal topographies within numerous Cypriot contexts of the 4th–8th centuries. Through synthesising the archaeological research and architectural remains of these aspects and categories, the coastal settlements of the island are recontextualised in terms of their mercantile, religious, and cultural networks, on inter- and intraregional scales. The advantages of researching late antique insular societies on local, individual scales and within economic contexts are therefore highlighted. These integrative approaches can illuminate the constructions of religious identity across many coastal contexts, particularly in larger islands with micro-regions and trans-Mediterranean connectivity, like Cyprus. By considering the importance of the administrative and economic roles of the late antique church within these maritime topographies, future archaeological research can integrate both the monumentality and pragmatic aspects of sacred landscapes.
Journal Article
The Use of Sentinel-1 Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) Images and Open-Source Software for Cultural Heritage: An Example from Paphos Area in Cyprus for Mapping Landscape Changes after a 5.6 Magnitude Earthquake
Active satellite remote sensors have emerged in the last years in the field of archaeology, providing new tools for monitoring extensive cultural heritage landscapes and areas. These active sensors, namely synthetic aperture radar (SAR) satellites, provide systematic datasets for mapping land movements triggered from earthquakes, landslides, and so on. Copernicus, the European program for monitoring the environment, provides continuous radar datasets through the Sentinel-1 mission with an almost worldwide coverage. This paper aims to demonstrate how the use of open-access and freely distributed datasets such as those under the Copernicus umbrella, along with the exploitation of open-source radar processing software, namely the sentinel applications platform (SNAP) and SNAPHU tools, provided respectively by the European Space Agency (ESA) and the University of Stanford, can be used to extract an SAR interferogram in the wider area of Paphos, located in the western part of Cyprus. The city includes various heritage sites and monuments, some of them already included in the UNESCO World Heritage list. The interferogram was prepared to study the effects of an earthquake to the buildings and sites of the area. The earthquake of a 5.6 magnitude on the Richter scale was triggered on 15 April 2015 and was strongly felt throughout the whole island. The interferogram results were based on Differential Synthetic Aperture Radar Interferometry (D-InSAR) methodology, finding a maximum uplift of 74 mm and a maximum subsidence of 31 mm. The overall process and methodology are presented in this paper.
Journal Article
Optical Remote Sensing Potentials for Looting Detection
Looting of archaeological sites is illegal and considered a major anthropogenic threat for cultural heritage, entailing undesirable and irreversible damage at several levels, such as landscape disturbance, heritage destruction, and adverse social impact. In recent years, the employment of remote sensing technologies using ground-based and/or space-based sensors has assisted in dealing with this issue. Novel remote sensing techniques have tackled heritage destruction occurring in war-conflicted areas, as well as illicit archeological activity in vast areas of archaeological interest with limited surveillance. The damage performed by illegal activities, as well as the scarcity of reliable information are some of the major concerns that local stakeholders are facing today. This study discusses the potential use of remote sensing technologies based on the results obtained for the archaeological landscape of Ayios Mnason in Politiko village, located in Nicosia district, Cyprus. In this area, more than ten looted tombs have been recorded in the last decade, indicating small-scale, but still systematic, looting. The image analysis, including vegetation indices, fusion, automatic extraction after object-oriented classification, etc., was based on high-resolution WorldView-2 multispectral satellite imagery and RGB high-resolution aerial orthorectified images. Google Earth© images were also used to map and diachronically observe the site. The current research also discusses the potential for wider application of the presented methodology, acting as an early warning system, in an effort to establish a systematic monitoring tool for archaeological areas in Cyprus facing similar threats.
Journal Article
The Cypriot Extra-Urban Sanctuary as a Central Place: the Case of Agia Irini
This article contributes to the ongoing debate on the relationship between sanctuaries and the territoriality of the Iron Age polities of Cyprus. The sanctuary site of Agia Irini, at the locality Alonia, is used as a case-study to test hypotheses regarding the connection between extra-urban sacred space and the formation of political and cultural identities. After a short introduction to the theme, a combination of archaeological (context and iconography) and geographic data is implemented in Geographic Information Systems (GIS) analyses in order to contextualise the centrality of this sanctuary within its political, economic, cultural and symbolic landscapes. The discussion proceeds with the examination of pottery evidence from the sanctuary, both published and unpublished, in order to reveal if and how site based analysis of a category of material may help to further reveal the significance of this sanctuary as a central place, albeit lying in an un-central landscape.
Journal Article
Reconstructing an ancient mining landscape: a multidisciplinary approach to copper mining at Skouriotissa, Cyprus
Extensively worked in antiquity, Skouriotissa remains the only active copper mine on the island of Cyprus. The modern, open-cast operation, however, has almost completely obliterated the earlier mining landscape. Here the authors report the results of investigations, including dating, of the ancient topography of the mine. They incorporate spatial data derived from archival sources, recent fieldwork and absolute dating into a geographical information system to reconstruct the ancient mining landscape around Skouriotissa. Their approach holds promise for understanding other mining regions in Cyprus and beyond, by providing an example of how diverse source material can be used to reconstruct landscapes now destroyed or buried by open-cast mining operations.
Journal Article
Landscape Archaeology and Sacred Space in the Eastern Mediterranean: A Glimpse from Cyprus
This article aims to raise issues for discussion about the change in the use and concept of sacred landscapes, which were originally constructed in the era of the Cypriot kings (the basileis), but then continued to function in a new imperial environment, that of the rule of the Ptolemaic strategos and later of the Roman proconsul and the various Christian bishops. Our archaeological survey project in the Xeros river valley, titled ‘Settled and Sacred Landscapes of Cyprus’, reveals that these new politico-economic structures were also supported by the construction of symbolically charged sacred landscapes. Thus, while outlining the long history of the island as manifested from the diachronic study of Cypriot sacred landscapes, we identify three pivotal phases: first, the consolidation of the Cypriot polities and the establishment of a ‘full’ sacred landscape; second, the transition from segmented to unitary administration under the Ptolemaic and Roman imperial rule and the consolidation of a more ‘unified sacred landscape’; and finally, the establishment of a number of Christian bishoprics on the island and the movement back to a ‘full’ sacred landscape. Moving beyond the discipline of Cypriot archaeology, this contribution aims to serve as a paradigm for the implications that the employment of the ‘sacred landscapes’ concept may have when addressing issues of socio-political and socio-economic transformations. While it is very difficult to define or capture the concept of landscape in a pre-modern world, it offers a useful means by which to assess changing local conditions. We have also attempted to situate the term in archaeological thought, in order to allow the concept to become a more powerful investigative tool for approaching the past.
Journal Article