Idalium (Dali) has a most extensive Phoenician necropolis; the interments have a most archaic character; and their Phoenician origin is indicated both by their close resemblance to interments in Phoenicia proper and by the discovery, in connection with them, of Phoenician inscriptions.[515] At Golgi the remains scarcely claim so remote an antiquity.

They belong to the time when Phoenician art was dominated by a strong Egyptian influence, and when it also begins to have a partially Hellenic character.

Some critics assign them to the sixth, or even to the fifth century, B.C.[516] West of Citium, also upon the south coast, and in a favourable situation for trade with the interior, was Amathus.

The name Amathus has been connected with "Hamath;"[517] but there is no reason to suppose that the Hamathites were Phoenicians.

Amathus, which Stephen of Byzantium calls "a most ancient Cyprian city,"[518] was probably among the earliest of the Phoenician settlements in the island.