UCLA

In this thesis I will examine the phenomenon of middle byzantine churches being erected over the ruins of Early Christian and Early Byzantine basilicas in Cyprus. These churches were all abandoned or destroyed in the seventh century following the Arab raids of 649/653. The term that I use to describe this phenomenon is reconstitution, as the new churches are erected over earlier remains but take on different forms. Despite the reconquest of the island by the Byzantines in 965 and a subsequent boom in church construction in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, only eight churches were constructed over the ruins of an earlier basilica. The churches within this unique subset are compared with one another to determine if they share similar characteristics or a unified purpose. After the middle byzantine examples have been examined, I consider the Late Byzantine site at Alassa to determine if the phenomenon of reconstitution continues into later centuries.