Sargon Stele
The Kition stele consists of basalt ( gabbro ) and has a height of 2.09 meters and 0.68 meters wide. You received is incomplete. It was discovered in the fall of 1845 in a garden in Kition in Larnaca on Cyprus in a pile of rubble. This was according to Louis Ross west of the salt lake, which at that time was the balance of the old harbor, between Larnaca and Marina, the new port city. Ross held the rubble of medieval, the stele was presumably shifted.
Fund history
The stone was the British Museum in London offered by the discovery in 1845, but wanted to pay only 20 pounds. Also, the French scholar Luis de Mas Latrie, the October 1845 had come to Cyprus, could not provide enough money to the finders. Finally, the German archaeologist Ludwig Ross and epigraphists acquired (1806-1859) the stele for 50 pounds for the Prussian Museum in Berlin. He had come in 1832 with a Danish scholarship to Greece and worked since the summer of 1833 as a curator in Nauplion and Sparta, in 1834 as chief curator in Athens. In 1845 he visited Rhodes, Kos, and for two months and Cyprus. Here he described archaeological sites and acquired next to the Kition stele also archaic limestone sculptures and terracottas from the temple district of Idalion, which he regarded as Phoenician.
The stele is now in the Staatliche Museen Berlin ( Inv. No.: 968 VA ). The gilded silver plaque which had been, together with the stele found M. de Saulcy bought on, it is now in the Louvre. The museum also has a cast of Kition stele. Only the inscription on the front is obtained, the back was cut off, perhaps to use the stone as spoils.
Content
The stele was probably on the Acropolis of Kition and describes the victory of Sargon II ( 721-705 BC) of Assyria 707/709 BC over the seven kingdoms of the island Ia ' in the area of Iadnana or Atnana. This victory is also described in his annals in Khorsabad:
"... And just listened to the seven kings of the land Ia of the deeds that I continually accomplished in the land Kaldu and in the land of Hatti, and his heart beat them in the throat, and fear overwhelmed them ... So they brought gold, silver and articles ebony and boxwood, products of their country, to me, to Babylon and kissed my feet. " ebony does not grow on Cyprus, its mention is thus an indication of the wide commercial relations of the island.
In the cities, it is located:
- Pa -ap -pa Paphos
- Ki- ( i) -su Salamis
- Si-il-li/lu solos
- Da-mu-u-si/su Limassol
- E- di' -il Idalion (Dali)
- Ki -it- ru -si Chytroi ( Kythrea )
- Pu -su -su Marion
- Li- di -ir Ledra (Nicosia)
- Ta-me-si/su Tamassos ( Politiko )
- (Quart Hadascht ) Kition
- Ku -ri -i Kourion ( Curium ) ( Kaloriziki )
Contemporary context
As the Assyrian administration looked Cyprus is unknown, so far no governor could be detected. Since the Assyrians did not have its own naval power, limited perhaps be sure to collect the tribute and left the rule locally native kings. It is believed that Kition, a foundation of Sidon, the seat of the Assyrian governor was.