GERONISOS ISLAND – EXCAVATIONS
 
Late Hellenistic pottery recovered during excavations at Geronisos Island suggests that a diet rich in liquids, soups, and strained foods was enjoyed there, and archaeologists also unearthed an unusual find, namely a unique miniature pinch pot.

Geronisos, meaning Holy Island, lies just off the coast at Agios Georgios tis Pegeias, Paphos District, and was an important place of devotion and pilgrimage during the Hellenistic period, when worshippers crossed the waters to visit its sanctuary of Apollo.

In early Byzantine times, a Christian basilica was built atop Geronisos, a partner to the three basilicas that sit just opposite on the mainland at Agios Georgios tis Pegeias.

Excavations by New York University have established that the island may have been regarded as “holy“ or at least as symbolically charged, already in the prehistoric period. A deposit of stone tools, a female figurine, and a bead was deliberately placed on Geronisos in a pit with ash during the early Chalcolithic period, around 3800 B.C.

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