Glossary Architecture and settlements
Siege mound
A ramp of earth and stones heaped against a city wall by attackers; in Cyprus, the Persian mound at Palaepaphos of 498 BCE.
When the Persians put down the Cypriot revolt, their army besieged Palaepaphos and built a ramp of stones, rubble and earth against the north-east wall. The fill included broken limestone sculpture from a destroyed Archaic sanctuary, and over a thousand stone fragments have come from it. The defenders drove four tunnels beneath it to bring it down. Some researchers now argue that part of the mound may be a votive deposit built against the inner face of the wall. See fortifications.
Related terms
- Acropolis
The high, often fortified part of an ancient city, holding its main temples or palace; from the Greek for 'upper city'.
- City-kingdom
One of the small independent kingdoms, each ruled from a city, into which Iron Age Cyprus was divided until about 310 BCE.