A Land for Strangers
Non-Native Individuals and Communities in Cyprus
open access | peer reviewed
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edited by
- Carlotta Brignone - Università di Torino, Italia - email
- Lorenzo Calvelli - Università Ca’ Foscari Venezia, Italia - email orcid profile
- Giulia Gollo - Universität zu Köln; KU Leuven, Deutschland - email
- Lorenzo Mazzotta - Università di Pisa, Italia - email
Abstract
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.
Keywords Interdisciplinary studies • Migration • Coexistence • Community culture • Levantines • Church • Mobility • Functional analysis • Identity • Antiquities in contemporary art • Greek inscriptions • French consuls • Venetian Consuls • Ionian Islands • Multilingual inscriptions • Iron curtain • Public diplomacy • Village culture • Ottoman Cyprus • Extractive archaeology • Writing systems • Soviet history • Cyprus • Decolonial art practices • Intercultural contacts • Ottoman Empire • Late Helladic • Contemporary history • Cultural history • Human interaction • Late Cypriot • Aegean pottery • Hala Sultan Tekke • Epigraphic habit • Hellenistic History • Marianna Christofides • Materiality of texts • Khrushchev’s thaw • Cyprus archaeology • Larnaca • Archaeology of Cyprus • History of literacy • Zantiots • Cold War • Cypriot society • Palma di Cesnola • Soviet archaeology • Sergey Kisselyoff • Intermediaries • Protection of France • Ptolemaic administration • Cyprus issue • Priest • Connectivity
Permalink http://doi.org/10.30687/978-88-6969-917-7 | e-ISBN 978-88-6969-917-7 | ISBN (PRINT) 978-88-6969-852-1 | Published July 24, 2025 | Language it, en
Copyright © 2025 Carlotta Brignone, Lorenzo Calvelli, Giulia Gollo, Lorenzo Mazzotta. This is an open-access work distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction is permitted, provided that the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. The license allows for commercial use. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.