Land Transport in Cyprus

in A. Georgiou (ed.), Cyprus, an Island Culture

2004

The earliest roads in Cyprus go back to the Bronze Age, and by the end of the Hellenistic period the road network encircled the entire island. More roads were added and older roads rebuilt during the Roman period to serve the needs of the provincial administration as well as of the individual cities. This book, the first on its subject, traces the development of the Cypriot road network over a period of a thousand years, drawing on a combination of archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources. Separate chapters deal with travellers and life on the road, transport technology and the legal and administrative context of road building. It is often assumed that the primary purpose of Roman road building was military domination, but, as this study demonstrates, road development in Cyprus is best understood in terms of communication between cities and their territories and the day-to-day exchanges between town and countryside.

Leidwanger, J. 2014. "Integrating an Empire: Maritime Trade and Agricultural Supply in Roman Cyprus." Skyllis: Zeitschrift für Unterwasserarchäologie 13.1 [2013]: 59-66.

Archaeological surveys off Cyprus have brought to light evidence for complex seaborne exchange networks during the Roman era. A shipwreck explored off the island’s southeast coast at Fig Tree Bay offers a profile of a commercial venture that may have been typical of one level of maritime economic integration: a small cargo of primarily Cilician and North Syrian amphoras, along with a handful of more exotic exports. The mixed assemblage hints at broader patterns in the background distribution of agricultural goods between major imperial centers, regional emporia, minor port towns, and outlying non-urban coastal areas. Viewed alongside local maritime activity at two small opportunistic ports, this material record provides a window into the dynamics of seaborne exchange and the intersection of small-scale and short-haul with larger-scale and longer-distance trade. The interplay of these models of exchange bears directly on the role of markets that brought local and international goods and information to a quiet Roman province, and in turn opened Cypriot agricultural produce for consumption across the Roman world. Together, these scattered remains help to fill out a picture of limited maritime economic integration and market development in the northeast Mediterranean and beyond.

The proximity of the Levantine coast to Cyprus is at the origin of the multiple connections between these two regions and their polities over millennia. Their relationship during the Iron Age (ca 12th–6th century BC) is usually analysed from the perspective of the central Levant, a region conventionally identified with ancient Phoenicia, and under the premise that the Phoenicians played a major role in the island. Conversely, this paper attempts to reverse the perspective by analysing the Iron Age Cypriot decorated wares that were imported in Phoenicia, which represent the main marker of the relations between these two regions, and providing their first diachronic overview. Although their provenance can currently only tentatively be suggested on stylistic grounds, a major role for Salamis and Amathus emerges in these maritime connections.

Sessions 4 – 5, Single Contributions. Archaeology and Economy in the Ancient World 54 (Heidelberg, Propylaeum 2023), 2023

Parion Studies III: Propontis and Surrounding Cultures I. (International Symposium of Propontis and the Surrounding Cultures, 2020

The aim of this paper is to present the import of goods in the Pontic area of the Roman province of Thrace, according to the distribution of transport amphorae. As an evidence for overseas trade, they provide an opportunity to trace the commercial relations of one of the coastal zones of the province. The examination of the amphorae, which were delivered to the markets of Marcianopolis, Mesambria, Anchialus, Apollonia Pontica, Deultum and their administrative territories, indicates certain differences concerning the regional significance of the cities. Compared to the old colonies, the newly established cities reveal as main redistributive centres providing the inland supply. Considering Thrace was part of the Pontic region, its trade with the North and South Pontic area, the Aegean Islands and Western Asia Minor was intensive. The integration of the province in the imperial trading system resulted in the expanding of its long distance commercial relations.