Sacred landscapes as economic central places in late antique Naxos and Cyprus

Central Place Theory Reloaded and Revised: Political Economy and Landscape Dynamics in the Longue Durée

“…When it comes to the Christian landscapes of the Mediterranean, for example, monumental/urban and humble/rural churches comprise the most obvious way that the sacred is manifested, exerting an influence over social and cultural experience [130] (p. 42). A number of relatively recent publications have focussed on early Christian monumental basilica churches of the 5th and 6th centuries AD as powerful expressions of Christian ideology in the process of Christianising the late antique landscapes of the Eastern Mediterranean [21,131,132]. The prominent siting of Christian basilicas, chapels and monasteries in Late Antiquity was intended to dominate the religious skyline of cities and their immediate countryside, in the same way that pagan sanctuaries on mountain tops and other prominent sites had done in the past [16,133].…”

“…The relationship between extra-urban sacred space and the formation of political and cultural identities was recently examined in the context of Iron Age Cyprus by employing a series of GIS analyses [50] (p. 542). An equivalent approach was followed for the first time in the case of the sacred landscapes of late antique Naxos [21] (pp. 265-271).…”

“…Moving away from model-bounded approaches, central place theory is used here more flexibly to include all the places that may have functioned as spaces of economic or ideological centrality (even in a local context) in the past, including urban centres, agro-towns, countryside settlements, burial and ritual topoi. The idea of this volume derives from the methodological and theoretical frameworks we employ when approaching landscape phenomena and archaeological evidence from the Xeros River valley in Cyprus, in the framework of our Settled and Sacred Landscapes of Cyprus (SeSaLaC) archaeological project [20][21][22]. Given that landscape archaeology and intensive field-survey methodologies have evolved, providing more spatial, functional and chronological detail about the archaeological record for a given region, combined with a constant revision and refinement of ceramic chronologies, settlement archaeology and pottery distributions prove accurate tools for the exploration of landscape transformations and settlement systems.…”

Landscape Archaeology and Sacred Space in the Eastern Mediterranean: A Glimpse from Cyprus

“…Our investigation in the region of Kofinou so far has indeed provided evidence for a much more intensive Late Antique settlement activity (in comparison to the preceding Roman era) around an Early Christian basilica (dedicated to Panagia, Virgin Mary) dated to the late sixth century AD (Figure 7). The archaeological evidence, topographic parameters, extensive surrounding agricultural territory and comparative evidence from other excavated and surveyed archaeological sites suggest that in Late Antiquity the site of Kofinou, around the church of Panagia, played a central role within its 'settlement chamber' or micro-region, coincidentally overlapping with our survey area [67,68]. Looking at population figures based on excavation and survey evidence, the site of Kofinou itself should have provided housing to approximately 250-300 families during its maximum size in the sixth and seventh centuries AD, when the built space around the basilica, according to surface ceramic scatters, reached almost 13 ha.…”

“…Excavated basilicas in Cyprus provide evidence for similar multiple roles. They appear to be encroaching civic public space, they are built close to gates and ports, in the periphery of cities and along major communication axes, but most importantly, some of them, especially urban ones, imply some kind of engagement in industry and water-management [68]. The basilica and agro-town of It becomes evident that basilica churches mark monumental space and feature prominently within settlements of some status in Late Antique Cyprus and beyond.…”