Cahiers du Centre d’Études Chypriotes 43, 2013

THE TROODOS MOUNTAINS OF CYPRUS IN THE BYZANTINE PERIOD

Archaeology, Settlement, Economy

Tassos PAPACOSTAS

“ In the mountains of Cyprus [...] there stretched one of the most characteristic no-man’s-lands of the Mediterranean, the refuge of the poor, bandits, and outlaws”. Fernand Braudel (1902-1985) reached this conclusion about the Troodos massif, which he does not explicitly name, a long time ago, while studying the networks and economic patterns prevailing along the coastline of the larger Mediterranean islands, contrasting these networks with the precariousness of highland pastoralism. 1 Today, archaeologists and historians of Cyprus mostly identify these same mountains not with life on the margins of society but primarily with a large and artistically significant body of Byzantine monumental painting. Dozens of frescoed chapels from the medieval through the early modern period survive in the mountain valleys and indeed no fewer than ten are included in the UNESCO world heritage list. 2

There is obviously a discrepancy between the rich evidence of these monuments and the rather bleak assessment of the great French historian. When Braudel was writing in the 1940s, however, he could not have known about this material that was still largely unpublished. His statement certainly does not apply to the late medieval period or to the