YERONISSOS ISLAND, PAPHOS
When they think of Cyprus, most people think of it as an island – which it is. They also perhaps think of the lively night life and club scene of Agia Napa – which there is. Cyprus also tends to be associated with long stretches of clean sandy 
beaches basking in the sunshine of the Eastern Mediterranean – which is also true.
It is also the destination of choice for many thousands of British people who have bought their own apartment or villa on the island either as a holiday home or for permanent living. As a former British colony, Cyprus today reflects many aspects of this more recent heritage – English is widely spoken, there are dual language street names and you drive on the left hand side of the road!
Yet Cyprus and its heritage goes back into antiquity and mythology. Apart from its association with a host of invading and ruling powers across the centuries, it is also the reputed birthplace of Aphrodite, the mythical goddess of love. Aphrodite’s rock is the name assigned to a rock which juts out from the waters of the Mediterranean Sea near Paphos in the west of the country.
Although Cyprus is the third largest island in the Mediterranean, it has a scattering of tiny islands off its own coastline. These in turn have their own heritage and reputation carried through to the modern day. One of these places is the small island of Yeronissos, just off the coast of Agios Georgious, near Peyia in Paphos. Only a few decades before Christ, pilgrims flocked here to worship an ancient god, probably Apollo, and enjoy banqueting. This island is also known as the ‘Sacred Island’ and today is a popular dive site for many active visitors to Cyprus.
Archaeologists from New York University under the direction of Professor Joan Breton Connelly digging on the southern coast of the island have discovered open-air kitchen and washing-up facilities facing out to the sea, while the dining rooms, equipped with sitting benches seemed to be located inland, according to a report published in 2005.
The report also said that south of a diagonal wall a hearth and many cooking pots were found, along with a washing basin at floor level, made of re-used broken amphora shards smeared with a thick baked clay lining.
Built up against and respecting the diagonal wall were found a series of substantial stone rubble walls, oriented along north/south and east/west axes, apparently representing a very slightly later phase in construction and defining a series of rooms measuring roughly 4.5 by 4.5 metre.
Two of the rooms were equipped with stone platforms that rose some 40cm above floor level. The area surrounding these platforms or benches was literally filled with pottery, lamps, and other objects.
In a nearby room two stone slabs were inscribed with the Greek monogram Eta Gamma, around which many pots were similarly deposited.
The 2005 season on Yeronissos resulted in the excavation of many cooking pots, drinking bowls and cups, jugs and lagynoi, stone pierced disks, bronze needles, a bronze fish hook and three limestone amulets.
The material recovered during previous seasons can be comfortably dated within the years 80-30 BC, but an even narrow chronology is likely and it is during the third quarter of the 1st century BC that the island enjoyed its most robust period of activity. The precise nature of activity in late Hellenistic Yeronissos is not yet fully understood, though evidence points to the worship of Apollo.
These remarkable discoveries are firm evidence that Cyprus is rooted in the very essence of ancient civilisation – and the sometimes mystical attachments our current knowledge has of where the modern island has come from in its heritage trail.
The Yeronissos Island is regularly captured and plays an important role as part of the perfect sunset enjoyed from Agios Georgious…
