Gastvortrag von Gabriele Koiner
In the small village of Amargeti, Cyprus, an excavation was carried out by D. G. Hogarth as early as 1888. The sanctuary excavated aroused particular interest because of the inscriptions dedicated to Apollo or Opaon Melanthios, a deity not otherwise known in Cyprus. The exact location of the sanctuary is uncertain due to a lack of photographs and mapping. However, survey campaigns were carried out in 2019, 2021 and 2022 by the University of Graz, in cooperation with the Department of Antiquities in Nicosia, the Archaeological Museum of the Paphos District and the Cyprus University of Technology in Lemesos. Surprisingly, two sites, located in the areas Petros Anthropos and Asomatos, produced finds which are strong indicators for religious activities.
In the course of these activities on the Asomatos site, a large number of small-format as well as a small number of large-format terracotta fragments came to light. They belong to Archaic, Classical, and Hellenistic human and animal figurines which probably were dedicated as votives to a specific deity. Apart from body fragments and limbs a considerable number of heads were collected. These heads depict only males, thus corroborating a cult of a male deity on this site. The analysis of the Asomatos figurines will contribute to a more concise understanding of the kind and duration of votive activities on this site and its entanglement in the dense network of Cypriot sanctuaries.