The name of a winery and its products are important decisions, and a lot of time and energy can be spent in the search to find just the one. Winery names tend to fall into a number of distinct styles. They are usually named after their founder and family origins, after geographical names, after some particular symbol of the area, and, of course, after religious names (monks, monasteries), especially if they contributed to its establishment. It is also widely acknowledged that the most difficult thing about buying wine is remembering the name of the producer. Most of us are able to recall easily the wine type – Cabernet or Merlot – but what about the winery?
We were lucky enough to have selected a name for our winery that offered something special: a story! Behind every good winery there is typically a traditional legend. Stories have been with man since the beginning of time, and for good reason. They add substance to the challenges of everyday life, captivate us with the range of human experience, and add texture to the objects that fill our days. Telling a story is a lot easier when there’s a story to tell, and most wineries like to use names that have some meaning. The name “Monolithos” is intended to bring to mind the local myths surrounding these magical stones, standing with their strange stature in various parts of the island of Cyprus and particularly near the region of Pachna where our winery is located.
The most important reason for our choosing “Monolithos” as the name of our family winery has to do with a notion which embraces commitment and devotion to our heritage combined with a memorable name, a name that means something to us and hopefully to you after reading this short article.
The secrets of the perforated monolithic stones of Cyprus
Stones and monoliths were highly admired and feared by prehistoric peoples primarily because of their usefulness, robust structure and complex shapes. A monolith is a single massive stone or rock, or a single piece of rock placed as, or within, a monument. The word monolith is derived from the Greek word “monolithos”, a combined word from “mono” (meaning “one”, “only”, “single” or “lonely”) and “lithos” (meaning “stone”). There are natural and manmade monoliths. Ayers Rock in Australia is the world’s largest natural monolith, rising 318m above the desert floor with a circumference of 8km, and is considered one of the great wonders of the world.
Standing stones and megaliths are solitary stones set vertically in the ground. Megaliths denote formations consisting of rocks in definite shapes for special purposes. Perhaps the most famous megalithic structure is Stonehenge in England , although many others are known throughout the world. Most European megaliths were constructed during the Neolithic and Bronze Ages, and are believed to range in date from 4,000 to 1,100 B.C. There are gaps in our history that have never been explained, and standing stones are often found in several continents of the world with no known or documented history.
Legends, myths and tales of superstitions revolving around monoliths are actually part of the Cypriot popular culture since antiquity. Often, these structures are associated with hidden treasures which make these ancient remains more attractive and mysterious. There were cases where people assumed that the monoliths were instruments of “trial” and that the person who was able to pass his/her body through the hole of the standing stone would have won one prize or another.
Several such monoliths are found to be related to local traditions which deal with the goddess Aphrodite, the notorious hero Dighenis, or with the famous and mysterious Rigaina (queen) of Cyprus . Very often, popular imagination made myths and narratives about them. This was until modern times, when the “mysterious” no longer held the curiosity of people, and did not provoke popular imagination with questions any more. For this reason, many monoliths were left alone in the wilderness and were forgotten.
The Cypriot monoliths are huge stones with a symmetrical large hole in their middle or upper part, planted by unknown hands firmly into the land in many parts of the island. Their abandonment for many years has resulted in the people of the island completely forgetting the use and usefulness of these huge stones. Several centuries later, different “explanations” and “interpretations” about the existence of these strange structures found in isolated locations that are elegant and, perhaps, a little mysterious, have been offered. Several still stand, rooted it seems in the soil, while others are uprooted by unknown imaginative or desperate seekers of lost and buried treasures. Archaeologists for centuries were unsure of these stones. Who planted them into the soil of Cyprus ? Who carved them, when and why? Who made the large holes in them? And what purposes were served by carving, transporting and setting them up, which evidently must have been very laborious and hard work.
Their presence has been a well-known secret for centuries. However, it was during the 19th century that many researchers and grave robbers were attracted by the mystery that surrounded their existence, and that’s when the search for clues as to their secret began to draw interest for interpretation and solution. Most looters thought that the monoliths were “signs” which showed locations of large amounts of hidden treasures. There were rumours and speculations going around that at a certain time of day, sunlight passed through the holes of these monoliths and illuminated a point on the ground where the treasures were hidden. Consequently, it is not surprising that archaeologists, professional and amateur explorers have been looking for hidden treasures in their vicinity.
The year was 1874 when Luigi Palma di Cesnola (that notorious grave robber, adventurer, diplomat and collector who was without doubt the most famous looter and who, in the last decades of the 19th century, amassed more than 35,000 items in his 10 years in Cyprus as a member of the American Consulate) came across the two huge perforated monoliths, popularly known as “Stillarka”, only a few kilometres south west of the temple of Aphrodite in Palaipaphos (modern Kouklia). He was aware of the rumours regarding mythical “treasures” and of the many who attempted to discover them.
Cesnola subsequently dealt with the issue of the standing pierced monoliths, and carried out research as well as “excavations” on them. Having failed to locate any hidden treasures, he eventually concluded that they were related to the worship of the goddess Aphrodite, and were even parts of her temples. General di Cesnola’s luxuriant imagination created an image of a Temple of Aphrodite Anadyomene (Aphrodite emerging from the sea) with the upright monoliths as part of it. He concluded that the pilgrims from the province of Paphos passed through the temple before ascending to the main place of worship of Aphrodite at Palaipaphos ; he also identified the remains of an adjacent building as the house of a priest or priestess. Aphrodite was the goddess of love, beauty and procreation. According to legend, Aphrodite rose from the sea foam on the southern coast of Cyprus . Her temple, situated at Palaipaphos, became an important religious centre of the Greek and Roman worlds.
General di Cesnola is not the only traveller who has sought a religious explanation for these monoliths; in view of the shape of certain monoliths and the superstitions connected with them, some archaeologists consider they are parts of religious rituals.
The unique pair of monoliths at “Stillarka” attracted special interest and has been the subject of speculation since the last quarter of the 19th century. The Greek Athanasios Sakellarios (“Cypriot Studies”, Volume A, 1890, pp 78-79) describes the monoliths of Kouklia in the province of Paphos and adds that other such monoliths were found at the village and around the valley of Anogyra, near Pachna, in close proximity to the chapel of Ayios Stephanos and the locality Despotica, in the village of Dora, behind the village of Pissouri, near Saint Photios on the hills of Panagia and many others in various parts of the island. The local people had, and in some villages still have, strong beliefs in the powers of the pierced stones.
Sakellarios has also written about a tradition that “the women from the villages of Cyprus , who could not bear children, went to visit these monoliths to get cured from their sterility”. Some monoliths were therefore considered as having therapeutic powers by barren Cypriot women. Sakellarios tells us also that certain monoliths were considered to have healing qualities: “They are found all over the island and these monoliths have holes in them. The natives considered them as deterrents for fever and other diseases, and the patients who came to these monoliths hung parts of their clothes on the stones, believing that in this way the disease would be left behind. They also believed that sick children would get well after passing through the hole of these monoliths.”
Dr. F.H.H. Guillemard, in the Athenaeum of 14 April 1888, has put forward a far more realistic theory, that they are the remains of ancient presses, a use the modern Cypriot has forgotten about. Later, D.C. Hogarth (1889), made a comprehensive research on the matter. He confirmed that although Cypriots considered various monoliths sacred, he gave a more practical point of view which connected the objects with the production of olive oil and identified them as olive presses, agreeing with the view first expressed by Guillemard earlier. However, Max Ohnefalsch-Richter (1891) disagreed with the theory of olive presses and insisted that they were objects related with ancient cults and mysteries. He argued that the two Paphos monoliths were beyond any doubt objects of worship. Others followed as well, and in turn they put forth their views and developed their own theories.
Monoliths are cut from the ordinary limestone of the island. The dimensions vary indefinitely and show no significant coincidences, and they face impartially all points of the compass. They are found generally singly, sometimes in groups of two or more. All the monoliths are shaped more or less the same, tapering in some cases slightly to the top, which is either rounded or square, each pierced with a rectangular hole that in most cases is large enough to allow an adult to pass through. They usually stand between two and two and a half metres above the present ground level but some are about one metre wide and 70 cm thick. They stand in many cases at the corner of a platform of masonry or rubble, apparently intended to resist weight or pressure, and near them are often foundations of small, many-chambered buildings, like those of a farm. Near the platform cisterns are often found, lined with cement or cut in the solid rock, and small gutters lead into them: this is especially noticeable near the Pissouri village and Ayios Stefanos (near Pachna) stones. More than 50 perforated monoliths have so far been recorded in Cyprus , the majority of which are located in the south-western region of the island. This fact is not surprising as they are formed from dense calcarenite (a type of limestone) which is abundant in the region (Pachna formation).
Recent excavations showed that the most significant accessories of many of the monoliths are mill-stones. Consequently, the function of the monolith may be conceived to have been something like the following: a massive bulk of timber was passed through the rectangular hole, suspended at one end by a heavy upper mill-stone: at the other end, projecting beyond the monolith, ropes would be attached to pull that end down, and thus the mill-stone at the other end up. The latter could then be lowered at will “with a run” on to the olive berries lying on the nether stone. To resist the strain of alternately raising and lowering such a beam with such a weight at the end, a very massive fulcrum would be required, and this was supplied by the monolith, whose long slit allowed for a good deal of “play”. The latter was at first made horizontal, but later the slope was introduced to facilitate tilting the beam: in these cases, the press would be on the side towards which the slope falls. Their use was abandoned and soon forgotten on the introduction of the screw-press, but this was probably not until Byzantine times, judging from the pottery and other remains which were found near so many of the monoliths. The modern Cypriots have utilised a few of the mill-stones, but the majority are much larger than those in use nowadays, and thus have simply remained in situ.
All the surroundings of the monoliths therefore point to their being connected with olive or grape culture, but it is not easy to determine the part played by the upright pierced stone itself in the operations of crushing or pressing. As Dr. Guillemard has shown, the crushing is done by means of a beam with the roller attached, made to revolve from a peg in the centre of the circular stone. In this operation, the monolith was not required. It must be connected, accordingly, with the pressing, and be a relic of days before the modern screw was invented where the operation had to be effected by simple impact of weight or of a lever. This would amply account for the modern Cypriot’s ignorance of the character of the monoliths.
Unfortunately, no parallels exist in any of the countries of the Levant: and only the occurrence of remains of wine-presses and circular stones near certain of the so-called “menhirs” of Moab (Conder, Heth and Moab, pp. 253, 254) leads one to believe that some of these mysterious stones are not unconnected to the press.
Concluding, it worth mentioning that even today, local people in a number of locations still lend special powers to the monoliths. Typical examples are: the “Agia Trypiméne” monolith near Yerovasa village, around which bushes and stumps bear countless rags, a custom used by Cypriots (and also other eastern and Mediterranean countries) as a means of driving away evil spirits and maladies. Ailing children are said to have been passed through the Paphos monoliths, and barren women through one of those near Anoyira. Men who are unable to pass through the hole in the Ayios Stephanos monolith near Pachna are said to have unfaithful wives. The natives of Ayios Photios call their monoliths the “aγίαι πέτραι” (holy stones). Most of these monoliths are to be found at the south-western part of the district of Limassol and specifically in the area enclosed between the villages of Dora, Anogyra, Plataniskia, Prastio and Pachna. Many are also to be found in the district of Paphos, in areas of the villages of Kouklia, Archimandrita, Salamiou, Pano Arodes and other places.
Our winery’s name is therefore associated to the large monolith which stands close to the ruins of the chapel of Ayios Stephanos. It is just probable that in this area, an oil and or wine press was erected centuries ago by the natives. Our winery logo proudly displays our local pierced stone which is used as a symbol of the inexplicable. Like the monoliths, the making of wine is just a big mystery, one not yet fully understood.
Today, modern archaeological research believes that these monoliths – which for centuries were connected with legends, myths and a number of supernatural properties – are parts of special presses for olive oil production or perhaps grape crushers. But are they really?
That’s the story of the Cyprus monoliths. May their legend live happily ever after!
Wine News and Information
* Sales of the once super-fashionable rosé have stalled in the UK , latest statistics show. Supermarkets, which sell 83 out of every 100 bottles sold in the UK market, have seen a significant fall in rosé sales in the last year. The number of bottles sold increased just 1% compared to 13% a year earlier. Inflation has led to the net price of rosé increasing by just 4% compared to 17% a year earlier, according to the latest figures from market analysts Nielsen. The slowdown in sales of rosé, which since the heat wave summer of 2003 have been on a seemingly unstoppable upward curve, indicated a worrying trend according to Nielsen’s Stewart Blunt. “The market for rosé has slowed down, but people are not switching their preference to red or white wine. The economic downturn has had an effect on all wine sales, which is worrying.”
* Overall, wine sales have seen a 3% increase in net price but a 1% decline in the number of bottles sold. Average bottle prices have increased by 15p to £4.44, but Blunt said this did not necessarily reflect rising duty levels.
* Marchese Piero Antinori, the leading producer and former Decanter Man of the Year, reckons that 30% of Italy ’s vines are making wines unacceptable in today’s markets. According to Antinori, the problem is particularly acute in central Italy , where there are thousands of hectares planted to Trebbiano, “a not very interesting grape”, and in southern Italy – particularly Sicily and Puglia – where many vineyards are producing huge yields of 250hl/ha (hectolitres per hectare). “For centuries, viticulture in Italy was geared to quantity rather than quality, and a large part of its plantings still reflect that old approach,” said Antinori. “In the past, the wines were either blended and exported, largely to France , as very cheap ‘vin ordinaire’ style wine, or used as a base for vermouth. Now, vermouth doesn’t sell and these producers have to find new markets.” Antinori said that thousands of hectares are owned by small producers who have neither the resources nor the desire to change. “Transforming these thousands of inefficient acres that aren’t geared to the market is a big challenge, and more difficult than you might think. The only solution is to offer incentives to grub up the vines or replant.” Such incentives were introduced in Italy by the EU two years ago, and should bring about big changes within the next four to five years.
* Premium American domestic wineries are increasing their use of cork closures, with brands using cork showing higher annual sales growth over those using alternative closures, according to a survey released recently by the Cork Quality Counsel (CQC) based on data from A.C. Nielsen. The survey found that of the 100 top selling wine brands, the number of brands using cork closures rose by 7.5% to 72 brands during the past five months. During the same period, those same brands sealed with cork closures posted an average annual sales increase of 10.2%, compared to annual growth of 3.7% for alternative closure types, according to the survey.
Real cork is recyclable, biodegradable and creates a powerful incentive for sustainable stewardship of Mediterranean cork oak forests, which provide one of the world’s richest ecosystems. Metal screw caps and plastic stoppers produce 10 to 24 times more greenhouse gases, and consume as much as five times more non-renewable energy than real cork over their life-cycles, according to a peer-reviewed study by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
* A large prospective study of 5,033 men and women in the Tromsø Study in northern Norway has reported that moderate wine consumption is independently associated with better performance on cognitive tests. The results of this study support findings from previous research on the topic. In the last three decades, the association between moderate alcohol intake and cognitive function has been investigated in 68 studies comprising 145,308 men and women from various populations with various drinking patterns. Most studies show an association between light to moderate alcohol consumption and better cognitive function and reduced risk of dementia, including both vascular dementia and Alzheimer’s disease. Such effects could relate to the presence in wine of a number of polyphenols (antioxidants) and other micro elements that may help reduce the risk of cognitive decline with ageing. Mechanisms that have been suggested for alcohol itself being protective against cognitive decline include effects on atherosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), coagulation (thickening of the blood and clotting), and reducing inflammation (of artery walls, improving blood flow).
Monolithos Monthly News
Seven years ago (2003), the Pericleous family purchased a vineyard of 14,000 sq metres to accommodate their new Monolithos Winery. The land sits 724 metres above sea level and is located only 500 meters north-west of the current building with a spectacular view of the Troodos mountain range. However, plans to build a winery in Pachna turned sour when the existing access road was considered inadequate for building permission. Over the last seven years, we have been striving to acquire passage to the new location. Following a long and bureaucratic procedure, and having mobilised central and local authorities including court procedures and the office of the Ombudsman, we finally reached a workable arrangement which will allow us to proceed with the construction of the winery: not too big and not too small, but enough to make perhaps 50,000-100,000 bottles per annum. We are currently putting down the last details of the architectural plans and it is hoped that the works will start early next year. The first phase of the construction is expected to be completed before the end of 2011. The new winery will allow us to have complete control over every step of the winemaking process.
If at any time you are passing near the village of Pachna and wish to visit the winery or purchase any of our products, Martin Wood will be pleased to meet and assist you at his “Fig Tree Villa” in Pachna, so do not hesitate to phone him at 25-816212 or 99-165995. We thank you for your continued support. Take care, and remember the Spanish proverb:
”With wine and hope, anything is possible.”
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