by halil » Tue Mar 11, 2008 12:41 pm
the information on names of the settlement locations of Cyprus is based on written materials originated from Egypt, Middle east (Mesopotamia) and Anatalian (Hittite) sources exending to II or III thousand B.C. In these materials the name of Cyprus, which was famous of her copper was mentioned as ''he country middle of the sea '' and ''Alasya''. In Assyrian resources mentioned as ''Ia,Iatna and Yadama''. In the documents dating back to year one thousand B.C than names of the towns ''Kittim'' and ''Tarsis'' were metioned.
In XIII-XII B.C. When Aegean migrationes had started and during the following perids when colonization was active , in addition to eastern culture , locations with Hellenic names were also established. Especially during Assyrian regn, cities and city kingdoms had mostly Hellenic names and it is recorded that among these were some Syrian,Phoenician and also Hebrew names . It is recorded in the sele of Sargon II, in Kition that, during that period of Sargon II(720-705 BC) and Asarhaddon (681-669 BC) the name of Cyprus was '' Yadana '' and there excisted 10 city kingdoms named Edi'li (Idalion),Kitsuri (Chytros), Silua (Salamis) , Papa (Paphos) , Sillu(Soloi) , Kuri (Kourion) , Tamesu(Tamassus) , Karti (Kition ) , Lidu (Ledra) and Nuri ( Urania) in this country.
It is clearly understood that the reason of slight differences in the names of these city kingdoms were originated from the difference languages, accents and pronunciations in between them.The information about the names of the cities established or demolished in following the Assyrian reign,during Persians , Alexander The Great, Egypt (Ptolemaios), Roman ,Early Christianity,Byzantium,Lusignan , Venetions ,Ottoman and even British , are based on meterial written on the walls of the temples,to the manuscripts of travelers and historians visited the island in different periods and to the maps drawn by cartographs.In despite a few location names in the oldest map of Cyprus , drawn in Roman period which managed to survive to uor day. It is interesting to note the vast amount of location names in the maps drawn during XVI th century and onwards.
While the location names were defined one by one by a map of Cyprus detailed in 15 sheets by Lord Kitcheners on 1885 and by other cartography works afterwards due to desolution of some locations because of immigrations during the period of 1950-1960 and the change in the names of 21384 locations with in the territories of TRNC in pre 1964 and post 1974 period were entered to official records as well.
