High-resolution laser scanning of a temple wall in Larnaca, Cyprus, added 23 ship images to the known corpus and suggests the carvings were made over several centuries by different maritime traditions.
Laser scans uncovered 23 new ship carvings on the southern wall of the Kition Kathari temple, supplementing 19 recorded in 1982.
One carved block was later inserted into the wall as a repair about 150 years after the original construction, indicating some images postdate the primary work.
Styles of the carved boats—identified as Levantine merchantmen, Minoan sailing ships, Carmel Coast galleys, and a local Cypriot vessel—suggest production across a span of several centuries.
The southern wall of a temple at Kition Kathari in Larnaca overlooks the bay where the ancient city's harbor likely stood. Earlier field work in 1982 recorded 19 ship images carved into that wall. Recent high-resolution laser scanning, undertaken to document ashlar masonry and Late Bronze Age construction methods on Cyprus, identified 23 additional carved ship images that had not been noticed before.
The new work revealed a larger and more complex set of ship carvings than previously recorded. A block that had been added as a repair roughly 150 years after the original construction also bears a ship carving. Because that block is a later insertion, researchers infer that the carvings on the wall were made over an extended period—potentially as long as 300 years—rather than in a single campaign.
The presence of multiple vessel types on a single temple wall indicates sustained maritime activity and cross-cultural contact at Kition over an extended period. Graham Braun (University of Cincinnati) commented that the images allow us to imagine ships and seafaring as an ordinary part of daily life in the community that used this temple. The discovery also shows how non-invasive documentation methods can surface overlooked iconography on well-known monuments.
What this changes for Kition and maritime studies
The extended chronological range implied by the carved images strengthens the case that the Kition harbor area sustained long-term maritime engagement with neighboring regions. The variety of vessel types represented on the wall provides a compact visual record of the different ship technologies and trading links that reached Cyprus. For specialists, the assemblage offers a comparative reference for iconographic and typological studies of eastern Mediterranean seafaring over several centuries.
Continued analysis of the laser-scan dataset, detailed stylistic comparison with securely dated ship imagery elsewhere, and contextual study of the temple repair history will refine chronological assessments. The study also points to opportunities for targeted conservation and further non-invasive recording at other walls and nearby sites where carved or worn imagery might have been previously overlooked.
На Кіпрі лазерне сканування виявило десятки стародавніх зображень кораблів <p>У храмі Кітіон-Катарі виявили 23 нові різьблення кораблів. Їх створювали протягом до 300 років, зображуючи судна різних культур.</p>
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