Non-Native Individuals and Communities in Cyprus

A Land for Strangers: Non-Native Individuals and Communities in Cyprus

Carlotta Brignone - Università di Torino, Italia -

Lorenzo Calvelli - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia -

Giulia Gollo - Universität zu Köln; KU Leuven, Deutschland -

Lorenzo Mazzotta - Università di Pisa, Italia - 

 

Series | Studi ciprioti

What happens when ‘strangers’ become part of the very fabric of a place? In Cyprus, newcomers have never been a rarity. Owing to the island’s strategic position at the crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean, they have long played a central role in its history. Far from disrupting the cohesion of local society, their presence has often enriched Cypriot culture, fostering coexistence and diversity rather than friction and division. This volume comprises seven essays that explore the diverse circumstances, narratives and contributions of non-native individuals to Cypriot society, economy, politics and culture – from prehistory to the present day. The authors, whose expertise spans archaeology, epigraphy, history and anthropology, apply distinct methodologies to a broad range of topics: the circulation of Aegean pottery; epigraphic practices in Hellenistic inscriptions; the presence of Greek Orthodox Venetians in mid-eighteenth-century Larnaca; the activities of French consuls in Cyprus during the mid-nineteenth century; the 1962 visit of Soviet professor Sergey Kisselyoff, marking the first contact between the USSR and Cyprus; the service of Václav Ježek as a priest in twentieth-century rural Cyprus; and a reflection on Cypriot antiquities collections through the work of contemporary artist Marianna Christofides. A thought-provoking preface and an introspective afterword provide the broader interpretive frame for the volume. A Land for Strangers offers insight into Cyprus’s identity as a meeting ground for human encounters, while also proposing a model of fruitful coexistence of lasting relevance to contemporary societies. 

 

• Preface
  Stranger for a Day, Cypriot for a Lifetime. By Way of a Foreword
• Luigi Silvano
• July 24, 2025

• Introduction
• Carlotta Brignone, Giulia Gollo, Lorenzo Mazzotta
• July 24, 2025

Prehistory

• The Role of Aegean Pottery in the Community of Late Bronze Age Hala Sultan Tekke, Cyprus
• Lorenzo Mazzotta, Laerke Recht
• July 24, 2025

Classical Antiquity

• Inscribing Texts in Hellenistic Cyprus
  Epigraphic Habit as a Tool for the Study of Social Interactions Under Ptolemaic Rule
• Anaïs Michel
• July 24, 2025

Early Modern and Modern Times

• “Venetian Reaya”
  Greek Orthodox Zantiots in Cyprus in the Eighteenth Century
• Theoharis Stavrides
• July 24, 2025

• French Consuls in Cyprus, 1840-70
  Their Roles and Impact, with Archival Evidence
• Lucie Bonato
• July 24, 2025

Contemporary Times

• A Stranger’s Visit from the ‘Iron Curtain’
  Cyprus as an Unrealised Project of Soviet Archaeology in the 1960s
• Pavel A. Evdokimov
• July 24, 2025

• Some Reflections of a Foreign Orthodox Priest in Cyprus
• Václav Ježek
• July 24, 2025

• Unbuffered Zones
  Here let me stand di Marianna Christofides e il loop dell’archeologia estrattiva
• Luca Bombardieri
• July 24, 2025

Afterword

• A Land for Strangers, A History of Encounters
• Lorenzo Calvelli
• July 24, 2025

dc.identifier.doi	10.30687/978-88-6969-917-7
dc.publisher	Edizioni Ca’ Foscari - Venice University Press, Fondazione Università Ca’ Foscari
dc.issued	2025-07-24
dc.identifier.uri	http://edizionicafoscari.it/en/edizioni4/libri/978-88-6969-917-7/
dc.identifier.issn	2724-279X
dc.identifier.eissn	2724-3648
dc.identifier.isbn	978-88-6969-852-1
dc.identifier.isbn	978-88-6969-917-7
dc.identifier.isbn
dc.rights	Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International Public License
dc.rights.uri	http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
item.fulltext	with fulltext