Last night, rather than spending the evening in the Sergeant’s Mess, we had a communal meal round at one of the houses, followed by Diarmaid’s Pub Quiz. I was on a team with the two James, with James E now rechristened ‘Jim-Bob’ to avoid confusion (he’s from Suffolk, so it seems appropriate). I’m glad to say our team, “Baldy, Beardie and Big-‘Ead”, was narrowly victorious, and claimed the no-expense-spared-whatsoever prizes (some t-shirts Diarmaid appears to have got from a drinks promotion somewhere). Jim-Bob was very proudly wearing his on site today.
This morning, my first visit to the excavation where most of the crew are working. The site is a small part of an absolutely massive monastery, run by a Cypriot archaeologist, Elana, who is doing a quite remarkable job on a budget of virtually zero. We also had a couple of high-profile military visitors in the form Colonel Roe, commander OPTAG who oversees all the training for service personnel deployed by British Armed Services, and WO1 Rafferty, the Regimental Sergeant Major for OPTAG. Elana gave the three of us a tour of the excavations. The site is huge, with the area which has so far revealed being just one small part of a massive complex which was in its hey-day in the 7th century. She showed us photos of the mind-bogglingly high-quality mosaics which cover most of the excavated area, which sadly (for us) have been temporarily reburied under gravel to stabilize them until they can get a conservation team in and get a roof put over the excavations. A lot of loose tesserae (mosaic tiles) are being found all the time, most of which are absolutely tiny, always a sign of very high quality. They’ve also found loads of very exquisite carved marble which almost certainly came from workshops in Constantinople, and it’s pretty clear from the size of the place and the quality of the finds that this is one of the most important sites in the early Christian world, arguably only behind Constantinople and Jerusalem in its importance.
The site itself is in a natural bowl in the hills, and is very sheltered, so even though the temperature today is probably only in the mid-high 20s, it feels a lot, lot hotter on site. At the end of the tour we were taken to the ‘saloon’, a little cluster of tables and chairs under a tree behind the spoil-heap, and given coffee and lemonade by the two relentlessly cheerful Cypriot ladies who do the finds-washing on site. The amount of finds is simply staggering; the monastery was abandoned sometime in the 640s after a major earthquake, and a some point not long afterwards, the roof collapsed. Consequently, there is a huge amount of roof-tile, every single piece of which has been washed by the cheerful Cypriot ladies, and carefully piled up into a huge, carefully-constructed heap. There isn’t actually much in the way of finds which weren’t part of the original structure, as they’re working in an area which would have been inside the building which during its period of use, and would have been kept spotlessly clean, but they have had coins and pottery out of the foundations and make-up layers which tie-in nicely with the historical evidence. The business end of the church area ("The Martyrium") has a series of five apses, which probably originally contained burial of holy relics and/or saints. Four of these were emptied when the place was abandoned and the relics taken to Constantinople, including a piece of the True Cross, but one was still intact and contained a burial that was either deemed not important enough, or was buried under rubble after the earthquake. The grave had a carved slab over it with a hole in it so people could pour oil in as an offering. It’s a truly awesome site, with about a century or so’s worth of digging left.
Work finished about one, and we all headed off for lunch. The afternoon trip today was to see St Nicolas’s Monastery of the Cats. For reasons which will become clear, we didn’t really get to find out too much about the history of the place, but its name derived from the fact that someone had established it to help rid the island of a plague of snakes. So, into the Landie and off we go. The monastery is a couple of kilometres outside the main gate, so the journey was a short one. We arrived about 2.45pm. The main entrance appeared closed, but the displayed opening times were 2.30pm in summer and 3pm in winter. A side gate was open, so we wandered in there. There was a small church ahead of us, with a definitely open gift shop next to it. One of our party went into the gift shop and asked if the place was open. The lady behind the counter assured him it was, and to let ourselves in and wander around, so we did.
Behind the church was a porticoed walkway typical of the average medieval monastery, and some reasonably well-tended gardens, and as the name of the place suggested, lots and lots of cats, in a bewildering range of size, shapes and colours. The monastery itself appeared to be medieval, but with bits of classical/Byzantine sculpture incorporated into it. I’m guessing that these came from a pile of rubble and bits of wall located in the courtyard in front of the church which looked very archaeological, but that’s about as far as we got as we began to hear very angry shouting coming from the far end of the garden. There then appeared an ancient nun who looked and sounded like a cross between the Mad Cat Lady in “The Simpsons” and Brian’s mother in “Life of Brian”. She was very, very angry with us indeed, and was gesticulating and shouting in Greek (possibly), which none of us speak. A small group of locals had wandered in at this point as well, and they also got the full hair-dryer treatment from her, so it wasn’t just us it would seem. Jim-Bob, James and I slid into the church to have a look and managed to get a few pictures of the beautifully-preserved medieval interior and the icons, before MadCatLadyBrian’sMum found us and began shouting at us, and very pointedly closing and bolting the church doors. We took the hint, and left. Someone went back into the gift shop and asked what was going on, and lady behind the counter just shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes. So, we appear to have been thrown out of a monastery, although none of us has the faintest idea why. I reckon one of the cats grassed us up. Still, at least she didn’t throw any at us.
Again, I’ve put the pictures which go with today on my Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.759651124082361.1073741875.169284376452375&&uploaded=25
The weekend should see us going a bit further afield to do some sight-seeing. Unless we all wake up in the morning and find we’ve been turned into cats.
This morning, my first visit to the excavation where most of the crew are working. The site is a small part of an absolutely massive monastery, run by a Cypriot archaeologist, Elana, who is doing a quite remarkable job on a budget of virtually zero. We also had a couple of high-profile military visitors in the form Colonel Roe, commander OPTAG who oversees all the training for service personnel deployed by British Armed Services, and WO1 Rafferty, the Regimental Sergeant Major for OPTAG. Elana gave the three of us a tour of the excavations. The site is huge, with the area which has so far revealed being just one small part of a massive complex which was in its hey-day in the 7th century. She showed us photos of the mind-bogglingly high-quality mosaics which cover most of the excavated area, which sadly (for us) have been temporarily reburied under gravel to stabilize them until they can get a conservation team in and get a roof put over the excavations. A lot of loose tesserae (mosaic tiles) are being found all the time, most of which are absolutely tiny, always a sign of very high quality. They’ve also found loads of very exquisite carved marble which almost certainly came from workshops in Constantinople, and it’s pretty clear from the size of the place and the quality of the finds that this is one of the most important sites in the early Christian world, arguably only behind Constantinople and Jerusalem in its importance.
The site itself is in a natural bowl in the hills, and is very sheltered, so even though the temperature today is probably only in the mid-high 20s, it feels a lot, lot hotter on site. At the end of the tour we were taken to the ‘saloon’, a little cluster of tables and chairs under a tree behind the spoil-heap, and given coffee and lemonade by the two relentlessly cheerful Cypriot ladies who do the finds-washing on site. The amount of finds is simply staggering; the monastery was abandoned sometime in the 640s after a major earthquake, and a some point not long afterwards, the roof collapsed. Consequently, there is a huge amount of roof-tile, every single piece of which has been washed by the cheerful Cypriot ladies, and carefully piled up into a huge, carefully-constructed heap. There isn’t actually much in the way of finds which weren’t part of the original structure, as they’re working in an area which would have been inside the building which during its period of use, and would have been kept spotlessly clean, but they have had coins and pottery out of the foundations and make-up layers which tie-in nicely with the historical evidence. The business end of the church area ("The Martyrium") has a series of five apses, which probably originally contained burial of holy relics and/or saints. Four of these were emptied when the place was abandoned and the relics taken to Constantinople, including a piece of the True Cross, but one was still intact and contained a burial that was either deemed not important enough, or was buried under rubble after the earthquake. The grave had a carved slab over it with a hole in it so people could pour oil in as an offering. It’s a truly awesome site, with about a century or so’s worth of digging left.
Work finished about one, and we all headed off for lunch. The afternoon trip today was to see St Nicolas’s Monastery of the Cats. For reasons which will become clear, we didn’t really get to find out too much about the history of the place, but its name derived from the fact that someone had established it to help rid the island of a plague of snakes. So, into the Landie and off we go. The monastery is a couple of kilometres outside the main gate, so the journey was a short one. We arrived about 2.45pm. The main entrance appeared closed, but the displayed opening times were 2.30pm in summer and 3pm in winter. A side gate was open, so we wandered in there. There was a small church ahead of us, with a definitely open gift shop next to it. One of our party went into the gift shop and asked if the place was open. The lady behind the counter assured him it was, and to let ourselves in and wander around, so we did.
Behind the church was a porticoed walkway typical of the average medieval monastery, and some reasonably well-tended gardens, and as the name of the place suggested, lots and lots of cats, in a bewildering range of size, shapes and colours. The monastery itself appeared to be medieval, but with bits of classical/Byzantine sculpture incorporated into it. I’m guessing that these came from a pile of rubble and bits of wall located in the courtyard in front of the church which looked very archaeological, but that’s about as far as we got as we began to hear very angry shouting coming from the far end of the garden. There then appeared an ancient nun who looked and sounded like a cross between the Mad Cat Lady in “The Simpsons” and Brian’s mother in “Life of Brian”. She was very, very angry with us indeed, and was gesticulating and shouting in Greek (possibly), which none of us speak. A small group of locals had wandered in at this point as well, and they also got the full hair-dryer treatment from her, so it wasn’t just us it would seem. Jim-Bob, James and I slid into the church to have a look and managed to get a few pictures of the beautifully-preserved medieval interior and the icons, before MadCatLadyBrian’sMum found us and began shouting at us, and very pointedly closing and bolting the church doors. We took the hint, and left. Someone went back into the gift shop and asked what was going on, and lady behind the counter just shrugged her shoulders and rolled her eyes. So, we appear to have been thrown out of a monastery, although none of us has the faintest idea why. I reckon one of the cats grassed us up. Still, at least she didn’t throw any at us.
Again, I’ve put the pictures which go with today on my Facebook page.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.759651124082361.1073741875.169284376452375&&uploaded=25
The weekend should see us going a bit further afield to do some sight-seeing. Unless we all wake up in the morning and find we’ve been turned into cats.