The South Basilica at Polis on Cyprus

by William Caraher, R. Scott Moore and Amy Papalexandrou

Hesperia, Volume 88, Issue 2
Page(s): 319-364
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2972/hesperia.88.2.0319
Year: 2019
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ABSTRACT:

This article publishes the architecture and ceramics from the earliest phases of the South Basilica of Polis, Cyprus. The basilica transitioned from a wood-roofed to barrel-vaulted church in the 7th century. The excavations produced an assemblage of Late Roman fine wares that indicates the site was an entry point for Cypriot Red Slip onto the island. This assemblage complicates longstanding arguments for Late Roman decline and identifies the construction of a mid-sized and well-appointed basilica on Cyprus as characteristic of the transformation of Hellenistic and Roman cities into prosperous trade centers during the 6th and 7th centuries A.D.