The port of the kingdom of Marion

Topography

The kingdom of ancient Marion was at the valley of the modern Polis tis Chryxochous, at the northwest littoral of Cyprus. Both the ancient and the modern settlements are located on approximately the same point on the south of the shore, in the cove of Chrysochou bay. Extended cemeteries from the Early Geometric Period down to Roman and Byzantine Times have been well recorded occasionally or by systematic excavations. The first period of the city’s life was truculently interrupted in 312 BC, when Ptolemy Soter totally devastated the town and moved the population to the newly established Nea Paphos. At about 270 BC the city was rebuild from Ptolemy Philadelphos and renamed Arsinoe in honour of Arsinoe Philadelphos (Childs 1988, 121).
It was once a rich kingdom with several resources located as it was in a fertile, well irrigated valley, abundant pastoral land, rich forests, and with control of the copper and perhaps gold mines of Limni area. The city played a significant historical role having mainly Aegean orientation, although occasionally "philopersian" kings took on or were deputed to the throne. The excavations, artifacts, and moreover the history of the kingdom clearly indicate this tension (Nicolaou 1964, 131-187 and Childs 1988, 121-130).

This geopolitical tension can be easily explained by taking into account the position of the city, which is the nearest Cypriot harbour to the sea-route from Rhodes. With the construction of the larger harbour at (Nea) Paphos during the Hellenistic period, the importance of Marion as the primary harbour on the Rhodes-Cyprus sea route was dramatically lessened. In the following years the sea route that connected Rhodes with the Near East was undertaken using the harbours of Paphos, Limassol, and Kition.

Ancient Written Sources

The first ancient written source mentioning the city of Marion having a harbour is Pseudo-Skyllax who says that it has an "erimos" (deserted) harbour "…Marion Greek, Amathus (they are autochthonous). All of them have deserted harbours…". The next reference comes from Strabo who mentions the city as Arsinoe, as Marion was renamed, without noting any kind of port facilities. Finally Stadiasmos by the end of Roman Period or the beginning of Byzantine Times mentions Arsinoe again having an "erimos" harbour devastated from adverse north winds "…Arsinoe… it is a city having a deserted harbour, suffering from north wind…"

History of Research

Excavations of the area have been undertaken by the Swedish Cyprus Expedition (Gerstad 1937, 287-288), the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus (Nικολάου 1964,131-187), and since 1983 the Princeton Cyprus Expedition (Childs 1988, 121-130, Childs 1999, 223-237). E. Linder and A. Raban carried out the only investigation of the remains of the harbour in 1971 (Raban 1995, 165).

Installations

The remains of the ancient harbour can be detected 3km west of the settlement, at Lachi, which is the modern fishing shelter.

Mole

According to Raban the northwest mole is still visible consisting of ashlars measuring 08x0.8x2m, whereas Nicolaou in 1966 mentions measurements of 2.5x1x0.7m . The first section is visible on the shore extending seaward for 40m. The mole is now submerged, especially the northern part, although during its use it may have been 1.5m. higher. On the well-arranged ashlars Raban notes iron and lead clamps of the "Dovetail" type. The modern mole of the fishing shelter now covers the east side of the ancient mole. The investigators also found tumbled ashlars north of the modern north seawall, apparently from the ancient breakwater, which was at the same position, having the same east-west direction.

Quay

In the basin, at the south side of the seawall, under 0.6m. of water a quay was detected over 2m. wide, surviving in two sections of 30m. and 58m.

The modern seawall has from 1971 undergone several reinforcement and additions, thus it is possible that the ancient features of the north side are not visible anymore.

Chronology

Several questions are raised from the comparison of the results of the investigation and the references to ancient written sources. Firstly, it is not known whether Pseudo-Skyllax’s information is of the mid forth century BC, or rewritten from earlier writers. However, the kingdom’s wealthy presence during the Classical Period, along with its port facilities, is a fact that could not have been easily overlooked. Furthermore, according to the researcher, the harbour at Latsi was abandoned early in the Hellenistic period, when the "Dovetail" clamps resemble those used in the Amathous harbour, thus enabling the dating of the Amathous harbour to the early Hellenistic period.

Summary

Several proposals could be undertaken such as the inclusion of the port in the "Amathus Project" or "Paphos Project", or perhaps to search somewhere else on the Marion coast for the Classical port. These proposals could answer basic questions concerning the marine oriented Kingdoms, however nothing can be sure without further investigation. It is certain, however, that Marion – Arsinoe had a port or harbour until the end of Ancient Times witnessed by Stadiasmos. From then on, although the town existed, there is no reference to its harbour.

Bibliography

Θεοδούλου Θεοτόκης / Theodoulou Theotokis