L’architecture funéraire à Chypre du Ier au Xe siècle

Abstract

There is no clear evidence to suggest the presence of Christianity in Cyprus during the first three centuries AD. No Christian tombs or cemeteries were found on the island, with the exception of merely six crypto-Christian tombstones with pagan inscriptions. The use of + or symbol instead of the letter X is the only characteristic that differentiates Christian from pagan inscriptions. In the cemeteries of Tsambres and Aphendrica at Rizocarpasso and at Vasa of Kilani, lamps decorated with Christian symbols were found in rock-cut pagan tombs. From this it has been inferred that both pagan and Christian members of the same family shared the same tombs. Elaborate rock-cut tombs of an earlier age were later sanctified by Christians who either painted or carved crosses on their walls. Purely Christian cemeteries have not been found in Cyprus. From as early as the 4th century, box-shaped tombs were used by Christians for the burial of their dead, always facing east-west. In AD 403, Saint Epiphanios was buried in a similar tomb lined with marble slabs. Perhaps this burial was the first intra muros burial, since before that, burials inside the walls of the city were prohibited. However, the prohibition of burials within the walls continued at least down to the 7th or 8th century. Burials within the walls and in churches were reserved for saints or famous bishops. As a rule, saints were buried in sarcophagi of marble, stone or ceramic, which were placed either in tombs or churches. In Cyprus, relics were not deposited under the altar ; they were deposited in chapels attached to the sanctuary of the basilicas. Despite of the fact that almost all Early Christian basilicas in Cyprus have a narthex, this was very rarely intended for burial use. Two cases of built arcosolia inside churches (Ayia Paraskevi at Yeroskipou, and Ayia Athanasia at Rizocarpasso) have been dated to the 8th century. From the 7th century onwards, the immediate area around the churches was used as a Christian cemetery, as was the case with the basilica of Chryssopolitissa in Paphos, which was seized and destroyed by the Arabs in AD 653, at which time the middle aisle of the basilica, which lay outside the small 8th-century church built on its ruins, was used as a burial site. This practice appears to have been applied in several other subsequent cases.