Abstract

The Monastery of Ayia Napa is considered to this day one of the most important pilgrim sites at the island of Cyprus and a landmark of the local community, with archaeological evidence dating its architectural development as early as the 13th century AD.  Archeological research within the Monastery of Ayia Napa was initiated in 2019, mainly focusing on three different areas of interest. The present paper aims to draw a complete picture of the area/ sounding west of the 14th century church, which relates to strata of the 16th to the late 18th and 19th centuries, and to suggest a working theoretical model for its study.

West of the 14th century church and in front of the entrance to the underground chapel, primary and secondary burials were unearthed from three different strata. I will present the recently published anthropological data in the light of their contextual significance for the history of the Monument, taking into account historical sources, such as traveler accounts. My aim is to address a number of theoretical questions that I will attempt to answer by establishing the identity of the people interred. The main question I will try to tackle is the establishment of a terminus for the local belief systems. Special reference will be made to the modern belief that wants infertile women to conceive with the help of the icon of Virgin Mary of the Ayia Napa Monastery, as well as to Medieval accounts describing the Holiness of the local icon. Finally, adopting the basic principles of our discipline, based on the stratigraphical data, I will propose a chronological sequence for the material culture associated with the burials.

Polina Christofi