Ancient Cyprus

8/22/2019 Ancient Cyprus

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ANCIENT CYPRUS

OEPARTMENT OF ANTIQUITIES'ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM, OXFORD

COVERLimestone head of a bearded man, C y p r o . A ~ h a i c , Gh'en byProfulOl' R, G. Collingwood from the collection of John Ruskin.Ht, O 298 11938.3471.


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FRONTISPIECE

Terracotla statuette of a naked woman, details in black and redpaint. Late Cypriot II. From Ayill Par(lskel'i, Nicosia, from thecollection of M. Ohnefalsch-Richler. Ht. O 204 rJ896,21.

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UNIVERSITY OP OXPORDASHMOLEAN MUSEUM

ANCIENT CYPRUSBY

A. C. BROWN(Ashmolean Museum)

ANDH. W. CATLlNG

(British School at Athens)

OXFORD

PRINTED FOR THE VISITORS

AND SOLD AT THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM1986


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Ted ,.nd ilIuMl1llionsAshmole3n MlI!oeum, O ~ r o r d 1975All "Rill!! reservedISDN 0 9000 901119

0 1 H U l Tn L U 'I'" n u s S E ' - 1 6A n e ~ n l EJ),plArchaeology. AnefaclS and tbe BibleAncient IranAncient IraqAnCIent Iialy

TI"" unRill/l1 1975 oo;lion wa' oct in pt,"!nn Times and f l r i n l ~ in Greal BOlam atlilt Alden Press. Oxford. This 19t16 reprint hu also been produced b)' lite AldenPress from COPICS of tile original. ,",'ilh amendments 10 p;ige viii and "n " .. tcndedhihliogral"hy and index o f excavate


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PrefaceThe Department exhibits perhaps the most representative collectionof Cypriot antiquities to be seen outside the island. Ruskin, Myres,Collingwood and Schaeffer have been among those who helped tofound and augment it. J commend this booklet not only as a guide tothe exhibition, but also as a concise ifllrodUClion to a field of studyin which those associated with the Ashmolean have figuredprominently.

May 1974

v

HUMPHREY CASEKeeper.Department ofAntiquities.


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AcknowledgementsWe afc most grateful to Dr. Y. Karageorghis and his colleagues forevery assistance in Cyprus; to two successive Keepers of theDepartment ofAntiquities. Mr. R. W. Hamilton and Mr. H. J. Case,and to many of our colleagues there and in the Heberden CoinRoom, for help and encouragement. Mrs. Pat Clarke drew the mapsand diagrams and Miss O. M. Godwin and the staff of theAshmolean's photographic studio prepared the other illustrations.

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ContentsPREFACE ACKNOWLEDGEMBNTS .,NOTES VIII

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE "INTRODUCTION I

I The Neolithic and Chalcolithic Periods 8II The Bronze Age; The Early, Middle and LatcCypriO! PeriodsIII The Iron Age; The Cypro-Gcometric. Archaicand Classic PeriodsIV Hellenistic and Roman CyprusV Early Christian, Byzantine, Medieval andLater Cyprus

SELECT BIBLIOGRAPHYINDEX OF EXCAVATED MATI:iRIAL FROMCYPRUS IN THE ASHMOLEAN MUSEUM

V"

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3763

7180

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IntroductionTHE ASHMOLEAN COLLECTION

The remains ofncarly 8.000 years of human history lie in the soil ofCyprus, remains that have stimulated the interest and curiosity ofhistorians and archaeologists for over a hundred years.The most famous of the early collectors of Cypriot antiquitieswas General Luigi Palma di Cesnola, an Italian-American who hadserved successfully in the wars of 1848 in Austria, the CrimeanWar and The American Civil War before being appointedAmerican consul in Lamaka in 1865, at the age of 33. He was tohold simullaneously the post of Russian consul.For the next 12 years Cesnola spent much of his time exploringancient sites on the island and amassing a vast collection ofantiquities. The siory is entertainingly told by Cesnola himself inCyprus, its Ancienl Cities, Tombs and Temples (1817), how as

American consul he was forbidden by the Turkish rulers of Cyprusto expon his collection, but as Russian consul he contrived toremove the greater part to London in 1812. He sold some objects tomuseums and private collectors, including General Pitt-Rivers, andsome or thc$e antiquities are now in the Piu Rivers Museum,Oxford. The bulk of the collection was sold to the MetropolitanMU$Cum of Art, New York. Previously John Ruskin, SladeProfessor of Art at Oxford, had visited the antiquities when theywere temporarily exhibited in London and probably met Cesnolahimself. He was deeply distressed by Ihe sale to America, and waslater to write that the collection had been'. . , offered for an old songto the British Museum and the authorities (my own impression isthrough pure and mere jealousy) offered an older song for lill, andlet it be bought over their heads by New York, where doubtless theenlightened public will soon break it all up for son buildingmaterials'. His disgust at the apathy of the British authorities andthe deep impression whieh the Cypriot antiquities had made on himled Ruskin about 2 years later to give Cesnola 1,000 to pursue his'researches'. He received in return a number of antiquities of various

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ANCIENT CYPRUSsorts, some ofwhich passed direct to the University. Others, sent byCesnola to Ruskin, were long afterwards given to the Ashmolean byProfessor R. G. Collingwood, whose father had been Ruskin'ssecretary and biographer. Though the Ruskin episode seems aminor one in the Cesnola sLory, it marked the beginning of Oxford'sinterest in Cyprus.The Cypriot gallery in the Ashmolean is called the 'Myres Room'after Sir John linton Myres. Wykeham Professor of AncientHistory at O;l:ford (1910-1939). who went out to Cyprus as a youngman in 1894. He was first &Uached to the British Museum'se;l:c8vations at Amathus. and later in the year he excavated for theCyprus Exploration Fund, which had been formed to channel thegrowing inLerest in Cypriot archaeology. He was the first to dig inCyprus to reconstruct the history of the island, rather than to lindmuseum-worthy objects_ Myres gave his share of the finds to theUniversity of Oxford where it now forms the nucleus of theAshmolean's Cypriot collection_ The Index of Excavated Material(p. 83) gi'"cs details of the sites from which his finds came. lind ofother Cypriot excavations either promoted directly by LheAshmolean or by closely associated authorities. In a Cala/ogue ofthe Cyprus Museum (1899). Myres, in collaboration with theGerman archaeologist Max Ohnefalsch-Richter. for the first timeanempted to present an orderly account of the material civilisationof Cyprus in relation to events in neighbouring regions, and somake possible a framework of absolute chronology.Myres revised and improved this fundamental work in 1914.when he published the Hundbook of the Cesnola Collec/ion ofAntiquities from Cyprus (the Metropolitan Museum of Arl. NewYork). In the introduction to his handbook. he wrote that in 1865,when Cesnola was appointed consul the moment certainly was nearwhen Cyprus must be won for archaeology, and "digging" betransformed from a mischievous pastime into a .... a p o n of historicalscience'. This transformation had been achieved by Myres himself.Though not directly involved in Cypriot archaeology after 1913, heacted in an advisory capacity in drafting a new Antiquities Lawunder the British administration of the island, and in setting up theDepartment of Antiquities which was established in 1935.Since 1935 this Departmem has been responsible for many of themost important e;l:cavllions carried out on the island and the results

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INTROOUCTIONare published not only in the Report o f the Departmmt ofAntiquities. Cyprus but also in a number of monographs onindividual sites. The Ashmolean has received objects from some ofthese excavations and from excavations carried out by foreignmissions on the island. notably the French mission under ProfessorC. F. A. Schaeffer at Enkomi.Foreign archaeological missions have had a profound effeci onthe d e ~ ' e l o p m e n t of Cypriot archaeology. none greater than theSwedish Cyprus expedilion of 1927-1931 which. under ils leaderProfessor Einar Gjerstad. undertook a series of e1tcavntions at sitesof all periods from Neolithic to Late Roman, reporting the results ina series of volumes-$wedish Cyprus Expedition I-IV (19341972}-which forms one of the main foundations of Cypriotscholarship.

The Ashmolean has laken great interest in Cypriot fieldarchaeology both by mounting its own expeditions and bysupporting excavations otherwise sponsored. It has in many casesreceived in return a share of the finds. a process which began withMyres and continues to Ihe presenl day (sec: Index of Exc8vat.c:dMaterial. p. 83). In addition to material from excavations theMuseum has acquired many objects. both by gift and purchase, ofwhose find circumstances naturally much It.-ss is known. There isalso a large study collection of pottery fragments assembled fromsites throught the island.

GEOGRAPHICAL POSITIONCyprus lies tucked in Ilt the eastern end of the Mediterranean Sea,the third largest of its islands. The SyroPalestinian coast is littlemore than 50 miles away to the cast. and in clear weather thesouthern mount.ains of Turkey can be seen across the water from thenorthern shore. To the south, Egypt is a relativel)' close neighbour.Greece and the Islands of the Aegean arc easily accessible to thewest. So it is no surprise that the island's history reflects the fortunesof her mon. powerful neighbours. Inevitably as a bridgeheadbetween Europe and Asia, Cyprus became involved. in a seeminglyunending process. in the sl.ruggle ror political and ~ o m i cdomination. This involvement is well illustrated by the ambivalentnature of the island's material culture; in part it is European, in partAsiatic. But always the amalgam is completed and given

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ANCIENT CYPRUSindividuality by a third clement, that ofCyprus herselr.The areas of human settlement have always been closely relatedto the physical features of the island. There are two dominantmountain systems. In the north the Kyrenia range runs parallel tothe coast for about 60 miles; it is relatively well watered and thenarrow plain between its foothills and the sea is very fertile. Thisstrip of land attracted some of the is!ands earliest hunters andfarmers. The greater part of western and central Cyprus is occupiedby the Troodos mountain range. Copper ores are found on itsnorthern and eastern slopes. These ores were easily eKtracted andhave been eKploited since the Early Cypriot period (the EarlyBronze Age). Along the south-west coast is a succession oftorrent beds, full only in the rainy season. which drain the massif bycutting through the foothills to the sea. Here. on the terraces of theserivers, early seltlers found very favourable conditions for bothhunting and farming.Between the Kyrenia and Troodos ranges there is II wide plain,very fertile in parts, which crosses the island from north-west tosomh-ellst. I t may once have been forested, but apart from its citrusgroves, it is now treeless. The western part of the plain betweenNicosia and Morphou Bay is drained by a number of watercoursesand seems to have been quite densely populated even during theEarly Cypriot period. The eastern section from Nicosia to SalamisBay may have been more heavily wooded, for fewer sites have beenfound there.Only at Famagusta are there now deep water berths for modernships. A number of river mouths and deep inlets that made fine portsin antiquity have long since silted up. Ancient ships. too, wouldhave been well enough served by the small coves and beaches of theexposed north coast and by the beaches of the more sheltered southcoast. We are reminded of early Cypriot seafaring by a little claymodel of a boat, now in Paris, datable to the Middle Bronle Age.with eight sailors on board.Internal communications in much of Cyprus have always beenreasonably good. except between the far west and the rest of theisland. Easy passes give access from the north coast through theKyrcnia mountains to the central plain. The plain ilself offered noreal obstacles to travellers; pack animals (pI. IV), carts and evenchariots could have been used here without trouble. Travellers in

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ANCIENT CYPRUSCyprus from Strabo in Roman times through the Middle Ages, whenpilgrims chronicled their visits, journeyed from city to citythroughout the island. They complained of the heat, of the risk offe\'er, of the obstinacy of their mules, but very seldom of difficultterrain.

SOURCES AND CHRONOLOGYBefore the regular survival of wrinen records, the development ofhuman settlement and civilisation in Cyprus can only bereconstructed piecemeal from archaeological evidence; long afterthe first written recorus, archaeology also provides vitalsupplementary information.Unlike Anatolia. Palestine or Mesopotamia, the remams ofhuman settlements in Cyprus do not form conspicuous artificialmounds, or tells (such as Tell es Sultan, at Jericho), whose stratifieddeposits and their contents, properly excavated and correctlyinterpreted, may offer an almost uninterrupted record of humanactivity from the earliest times to the present. Although some areasin Cyprus were continuously occupied over a long period. the actualsites changed location and no long sequence of settlement was builtup on anyone of them. When Sir John Myres formulated hispioneer scheme for the relative chronology of prehistoric Cyprus,by far the greater part of the evidence consisted of potlery and smallfinds from cemeteries. His method was to establish a sequence ofpottery styles, using better known foreign imports as a guide 10 thesequence and to establish absolute dates. The scheme which hedevised is continually being revised and adapted to take account ofrecent finds, yet it still remains workable; in recent years. theabsolute dating of the earliest periods of human settlement has cometo depend on Carbon 14,

In Cyprus, as in other parts of the Old World, historical dates arenot applicable before about 2000 Be. Approximations of theabsolute ages of earlier events depend on radiocarbon dating.Basically this method consists in measuring the residual level ofactivity of the radioactive carbon (C-14) in organic substances suchas charcoal. The experimental uncertainty in the method used ise ~ p r e s s e d as a standard deviation (thus 3875 be 14.5) whichimplies thai there is about a 66% chance that the true age of thesample Jay within the limits expressed (4020-3730 be) and about

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INTRODUCTION95% chance that it lay within twice these limits (4165-3585 be).Naturally too the usefulness of a particular determination forarchaeological or historical purposes depends on the degree ofcertainty with which the sample can be associated with well-definedcultural stages. (The notation be instead of Be indicates that a datehas been obtained by radiocarbon.)The earliest foreign pottery found in Cyprus comes from Syria,and is dated to the third millennium BC; a little Minoan potteryfrom Crete can be dated to the first half of the second millennium.Increasing quantities of Mycenaean pottery from Greece reachedthe island during the second half of the second millennium.Imported artefacts continue to provide a roughand-ready measureof passing time well into the first millennium. when Cyprus becamesuccessively involved in the military and diplomatic activities ofEgypt, Assyria and Persia, which were recorded either incontemporary royal annals or later by classical historians. Of theearly geographers, Strabo was one of the first actually to visitCyprus; he completed his Geographica about AD 23 and de-scribes the island in the fourteenth book, 'in excellence it fallsbehind no one of the islands. for it is rich in wine and oil. and useshome-grown wheat. There are mines of copper in plenty .. .'.

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Notes1, Although the following account is as comprehensive aspossible within obvious limitations of space, it is necessarily biasedtowards the Ashmolean collection of Cypriot Antiquities whichincludes many outstanding pieces acquired in recent years through

lhl: generosity of the lale Mr. James Romford.2. The numbers which appear in brackets in the captions are the

~ r i i l l numhers of the ohjccts in the accessions registers of theDCpllrtmcnt of Antiquities.

3. Measurements are expressed in metres or parts ora metre. Thefollowing abbreviations arc used in references to dimensions: HI.Height; L. Length; D. Diameter.4. The spelling of pJal.'(:-names follows as far as possible that usedin the Survey of Cyprus Administration and Road Map.

5. This reprint includes some additions to the Select Bibliographyand to Ihe 1m/ex of Excavawd Material from CJ'pn/s in theA ~ h m u l e a n Mu.\,'um. It does not include changes 10 the Chronologi-cal Table 10 take account of the earlier datcs for Prehistoric Cyprussuggested by recent excavations and additional C 14 dales. A rccenlchronological lablt: setling oUl dilTen:nL dating r.:an be found in V.Karageorghis. Cyprus from the Stolle Age (0 the Romans (Thamesand Hudson, London, 1982). A fully revised edition of AllcielltCyprus is in course of preparation.

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(Early Iron Ale c, IO.so-9(0)(Middle Iron Age I 9 0 0 - 7 2 ~ )(Middle Iron Age 11125-600)(Lale Iron Age c. 600-Hellenistic)

1184-1191)

415- .l2S3 2 ~ - SO

~ O 8C-AO 3\l5.0.0395-1191

J

Chronological Table(Be dates are approximate)

I 5800-5250II 3.500-3000J JOOO...2500II 2.500-2300I 2)()()-2200II 2200-2100III 2100-20002000-1600I 1600-1400" 1400--1200III 1200-10501 1050- 950II 950- 850

IIJ 8$0- 100r 700- 600II 600- 475

Neolithic

Middle CypriotLale Cypriot

ChaloolilhicEarly Cyprioc

Cypro-GmmetrH:CyproArchaic

Cypro-Cl.ssicHellenillicRom.nBFant;ne(baat Comnenus, Emperor ofCyprus(Richard I of Ena1and.. Lord ofCyprus 1191-1192)LI.lsipan Dynast)' 1192-1489Vtnelian 1489-1571Turkish 1571-1878

NOit. ArehaeoloJi,sts QCHIventionally divide Cypriot prehistory into a series ofmajor phua approxim.lillJ to rcchnologi("a1 stales: Neolilhic., ClWeolitbic,Bronu and Iron Ages. This traditional 19th-cenlury te:rminology is JI,owty Ixin.modified, 'Cypriot' now rqularly replacu 'Bronte' in the Early. Middk and Late8rot1le All:. For the: early periods Neolithic to tbc: Middle Cypriot the I ' ~ .1xN...fol1owJ H.-o. Bilchbolz and V. Karqcorahis, Prdisloric G r ~ rUld ()pnIJ(1913>. the a1rrml views on Mmo.n ..hronolol1 au theufore tum into KODIInt,but this is . t variance wil.h the c:hrooolocini scheme of many Cypriol &reh-acoloaisls. T'ht: dating of the later B r ~ c Ale and the Iron AI1= follows, forthe mosl part, tim Kl OUt in the various volumes of the SlfIfi/ish CyP'l'SExfHdition. For the Iron Age the S ~ devised a laminolOSY. essentially 10dcsc:ribe chaniina pottery styles. akin to thai ulied ror these periods in MainllndGreece, thus Cypro-Georndric. Archlic, .cll"ic. A modificltion of thesedivisionlhu bom J\II&esled by J. Birmin,ham. 'The Chronology or Some Earlyand Middle iron Ale Sites' in Amrr/CaJI JQurruJ 0/ Arc1uuology 6'7 (196]).These are noted above, although the Swedish terminology has ~ n rollowedin Ihe tC,'(I. Seo:: ~ I w nOle 5 on p. viii.


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I. The Neolithic And Chalcolithic PeriodsThe first senters in Cyprus arrived not long after 6000 Be andestablished themselves at a number of widely separated coastal andinland sites. They were farmers and hunters, allractcd by fertile landand perennial springs. Their well-developed and distinctive cultureis called 'Neolithic 1'. The best-knuwn site of this period is thepartly excavated settlement of Khirokitia in southern Cyprus.

Flint sickle blades and stone querns found on the site show thaigrain was harvested and ground into "our; sheep and goat bonessuggest that animals may have been domesticated; flint arrowheadsand the antlers of deer and moumon (wild sheep) prove that huntingsupplemented the meat supply. Fragments of obsidian have beenfound. which analysis indicates may have come from Ihe


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THE NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC PERIODS

bPlate I: a. Slone Spouled bowl. Neolilhic. Perhaps from Khirokilia, L.o 136 [1954.41. h. FragmenlS of RedonWhile ware bowls. decoratedIlo'ith circles and lines from Troulli. and wilh 'combed' pallerns fromSotira. Neolithic. HI. o f l a r ~ e s t sherd 0055.

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ANCieNT CYPRUSinvestigated, where a date has been obtained from hearth material inone of the housc$., 3875 be 145 (Bnn-182)_ The settlement, whichdlows evidence of occupation over a long period, consists of slonebuilt houses of irregular plan, denscly packed together in groups ona narrow, windy, headland; paved passageways separated thegroups_ Some of the buildings seem to have been partiallysUbterranean. Although the house walls were thin, some still standto a height of 3 metres. Inside. the houses were equipped with stonebenches and containers built of upright stones; often there was alarge circular hearth on the floor. The houses were also used asworkshops for bone working and the making of stone axes andchisels. Much pottery has been found, painted wilh a variety ofpatterns (pI. II). As at Khirokitia. the settlers were farmers andhunters. Behind the settlement lay fertile land between the Kyrcniafoothills and the sea; evidence of wheat. barley, lentils, grapes andolives has all been found in the settlement. It seems from the Carbon14 date that this community flourished between the abandonmcnt ofKhirokitia and the arrival of the Neolithic 11 people.

It is probable that these newcomers who built villages mainlyalong the south coast. came from outside the island: links with southPalestine have been suggested. One of the scttlements, on a hill-topat Sotira. near Epislopi. has been excavated. In it was found a seriesof closely packed houses of various shapes, built partly of stone,partly of mud brick, each with its own hearth. The dead were buriedin a small cemetery on the slope of the hill. The Neolithic II peopleused a pauery ('combed ware') with a red slipped surface decoratedby drawing a comb-like tool over the surface (pl. Ib); stone was usedfor tools and domestic vessels. The Neolithic II sites so farinvestigated seem to have been abandoned by about 3000 Be.II is possible that even before this date a further group ofnewcomers came to the island. The material civilisation of the newsettlers is termed 'Chalcolithic' (from the Greek word for copper)because of their use. however limited. of copper tools. TheChalcolithic site of Erimi in south Cyprus, close to Episkopi. is wellknown: the houses were round and the walls built partly of stone.partly of mud-brick; a copper chisel was found. The dead wereburied in small pit.graves inside the huts. The pottery was carefullypainted, the vessels being decorated with a wide range of linearpallerns in a dark paint on a light background. Another type of

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THE NEOLITHIC AND CHALCOLITHIC Pf!RIODSpottery had a red slipped surface. Small and very stylised humanfigures with outstretched arms, carved in soft stone are typical ofthis period, especially in south west Cyprus. Only the upper part ofone of these figures and fragments of pottery are represented in thecollection.The large number of coastal and inland sites found distributedthroughout the island suggests that these people were moresuccessful settlers than their predecessors; indeed, in some areas,

Plate II: Fragments of vases, one spouted, of Red-on-White ware.Neolithic. From Vrysi, Ayios Epiktitos. HI. of largest sherd 013811972.919-9221.such as the Akamas peninsula in the far west, population seems tohave been greater than at any subsequent time. The Chalcolithic 1period lasted until somewhere about 2500 ac, when many of thesites were deserted. Some such natural catastrophe as a plague orprolonged drought may have been responsible.There is a period after this disaster when archaeological evidenceis at the moment extremely scanty; the site of Ambelikou ne1!'rSoloi, on the west coast. possibly helps to fill the transition betweenthe Chalcolithic I period and the Early Bronze Age.

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II. The Bronze AgeTHE EARLY, M IDDLE AN D LATE C YP RI OT P ER IO DSII is not certain how metal technology first reached Cyprus, thoughit may have been introduced by new arrivals from overseas whocame from Anatolia as refugees from the disturbances which markthe end of the Early Brom.c Age n period in that area (c. 2300 BC).Certainly these " ' 'eft men versed in metal working, who wereprobably attracted by the rich deposits of c o p p e r ~ b e a r i n g rocks inthe Troodos foochills. They sellied first in the rivcr valleys fromNicosia westwards to the sea, also near the sea al the west end of theKyrenia mountains. and possibly in a small area of soulh Cyprus.Besides their tools and weapons, the Early Cypriot settlers broughtwith them new burial customs and new Iypts ofponery.No occupation site has yet been investigated, but a number oftombs, made either in natural clefts or in chambers cut out of therock, halle been excallated, and many objects, particularly pottery.left as giflS for the dead, halle been found. Most of the pottery is RedPolished ware. Much of it is undecorated, but some of the vesselshalle simple linear patterns incised on them. A typical lIesselshapc:is the jug with ftat base. high ntck and cutaway spout. Red Polishedware was to halle a long history and the final traces of ilS influencedid not disappear until c. 1500 BC.The three phases into which the Early Cypriot period is dividedcorrespond largely to changes and development in pottery. The bestknown Early Cypriot I site is in the Vounous cemetery, nearBellapais. in the foothills behind the fertile coastal plain ofKyrenia. But the Early Bronze Age period is still somewhat confused and it is most likely that Early Cypriot t. in spite of theterminology, is not the earliest stage. The so-called Philia culture.which takes its name from one of a group of sites in the westernhalf of the central plain in the Ovgos lIalley. has produced copperobjects. and pottery which are lIery probably antecedent to theearliest material found at VounQu$; Early Cypriot I shouldtherefore be regarded as secondary to the Philia stage culture.

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THl! BRONZE AGE

Plate Ill: Black-lOpped Red Polished bottle and conical cup. EarlyCypriol. From tomb 92. Vounous, Bellapais. Ht. O 262 [1940.16] I: HI.01511940.1661.

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oC> 0

ANCIENT CY, 'US

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THE BRONZE AGE

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ANCIENT CYPIl,USExcavations at Vounous have recovered a series of tomb groupsbelonging not only to Early Cypriot [ but also to the whole of theEarly Cypriot and Middle Cypriot periods. It is notewonhy thatduring this long period the: shapes of the stor-age vessels-jugs. ju sand amphorae--change so that gradually the flat bases thatdistinguished Early Cypriot I arc replaced by the completely roundbodied vC$scls of Early Cypriot m. This must reflect a change notonly in taste but in the amenities in the homes of those for whom

these polS were made--t lat-based pots belong where there areshelves and well-made tables. and level. paved floors; round basessuggest a rougher home, where pot-hollows ean be scraped in earthfloors. This change in shape is illustrated by the bottle fromVounous Tomb 92 (pl. lII), on the one hand, and the doublenecked gourd-jug (pI. V) of Early Cypriot III on the other (see alsot ip. la, Ib). By Early Cypriot III the use of incised ornament hadbecome more common. and the pattern-work more intricate. Afilling of gypsum paste in the incisions helped the designs to standout from the lfoundcoIour o f the pD(s. 8y controlling the firing oftheir warcs_ the potters producing Red Polished ware could alsomake a two-colour fabric-red and b l a c k - s o that many vessels(e.g. pI. J1I) have black tops and red bodies. Many small bowls havea rod body, black lip and black interior. A completely black fabric(Black Polished ware) was popular in Early Cypriot HI; the vesselsare nearly always small and invariably have incised patterns (seefig. lb, 9-11). The potters were also gifted modellers, as can be seenboth in the figures of animals, birds and snakes added in the roundor in relief to normal types of vessel (e.g. the stags on the largebasin, and the bulls on the pyxis. fig. lb. 2-3) and in the vesselsmade in the shapes. sometimes rather stylised, of animals, like thestagvase (pI. VI) and the double bullvase (fig. lb. 6), even morestylised are the 'plank-shaped' human figures (fig. lb. 7). many ofwhich ....-ere found in the Early Cypriot III tombs at Lapithos.

The wide distribution of Early Cypriot III sites suggests steadyexpansion throughout the period. Our understanding of the processwould be greater .....ere more known of the occupation sites throughexcavation. A partly dug site at Alambra. in central Cyprus, revealed a two-room house with courtyard and pens for domesticanimals. Some insight into the daily activities of these EarlyCypriots can be gained from a series of clay models found in tombs16


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..%~ZN>o

Plate IV: Pack. donkey witll panniers and 1\\"0 women broken from 'csscls.Ill. L. 00911888.6231; HL 0-0811888.6431. Euly C)'priot


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ANCIENT CYPRUS

Plate V: Red Polished III double-spouted lourd-shaped jUI- Early CypnotIII_ Gi,-en by MI"$. Guy Dic,:kens. HI. 024511916.531_

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THE BRONZE AOE

Plate VI: Red Polished vase in the shape of a stylised stag. Early CrpriolIII. HI.O 1711888.6241.

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ANCIENT CYPRUSat VounoU$ and elsewhere. Some of the more e1abonate genremodels show men ploughing with oI-teams, worshippers with theirofferings at open air shrines, and even a complete sacred enclosurein which we see penned animals ready to be offered to the godswhose images are modelled on the wall. and a whole aTTay of seatedand standing officiants and worshippers; there is even an outsidershown peering over the top of the wall at what is tak.ing place withinthe sanctuary. Some of these genre scenes either in relief or theround, decorate large basins or great jugs; there are representationsof women grinding corn, making bread and pouring liquids, of mentending animals and tilling the land. The lillie pack donkey of pI. IVis broken from the vase it once decorated, as are the two roughlymade figures ofwomen illustrated on the same plate.Before the end of the Early Cypriot period there is clear evidencefor occasional trade between C)'prus and the Syro-Palestinian area,Egypt and Crete. This evidence is of chronological importance, forthe find of an Early Minoan IJl painted pot in an Early Cypriot IIItomb at Lapithos. and a Middle Minoan I (Kamares ware) cup in aMiddle Cypriot J lomb at Karmi suggest that the end of EarlyCypriot III must be close to 2000 ac.

The Early Bronze Age passes imperceptibly into the MiddleAronze Age in Cyprus, so that the main distinction between EarlyCypriot 1lI and Middle Cypriot I is the appearance of pouery withpainted ornaments ('White Painted' ware), though its emergence hadbeen foreshadowed already in Early Cypriot III. Burial customscontinued unchanged. Red Polished ware continued throughout theMiddle Cypriot period, though its quality became increasinglyinferior both in form and fabric (fig. 113, 10-11). Vases of WhitePainted ware were decorated with red brown or dark brown paintlaid on a light ground: though originally the paint was burnishedand had a glossy finish, much of the later work was executed in mattpaint. The designs are almost invariably linear; shapes (whichoverlap to some extent with Red Polished ware) grow fussier withthe passing of t i ~ h e clear line and firm paltetnwork. of theMiddle Cypriot I jug (pI. VII). was replaced in Middle Cypriot III bya degree of over-elaboration that is almost baroque. The love ofmodelling in the round and in relief that is so characteristic of theEarly Cypriot period largely vanished in Middle Cypriot times.

Our knowledge of the Middle Cypriot period depends very20


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THE! BRONZE! AGE!

Plate VII: White Painted jug, the decoration in lustrous red paint.Middle Cypriot. Given by Sir Philip Antrobus. HI. O 248 [1963. 1638J.21


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ANCIENT CYPRUSlargely on the evidence of cemeteries. Only at Kalopsidha, in theeast half of the central plain. has an occupation site beeninvestigated in any detail, though traces of Middle Cypriot IIIoccupation have been studied in the lowest levels of a number ofLate Cypriot settlements (e.g. Enkomi and Mynou, Pigadhes). AtKalopsidha a house of ten rooms, including storerooms, workshopsand a courtyard was uncovered, revealing a very much moresophisticated complex than the simple two-room house from theEarly Cypriot III site at Alambra, mentioned above.The Middle Cypriot period does not seem to have been peaceful,to judge both from the profusion of weapons recovered fromcemetery sites, and from the fortification of a number of occupationsites. Many of these fortified sites are too far from the coast tosuppose that they were built for protection from sea-borne enemies,and it seems probable that the island was disunited for much of theMiddle Cypriot period. One important fort which may have beenfirst built in the Middle Cypriot period is, in fact, ncar the coast, atNitollikla, on the south side of the Karpas peninsula.

In the Middle Cypriot period there is increasing evidence for theisland's contacts with her overseas neighbours. During MiddleCypriot ItT in particular, Cypriot goods (especially pottery)travdled to the Syro-Palestinian area. while many items made inthat region, and in Anatolia. have been found in Cyprus. The copperofCyprus must have been an important element in this trade, whichseems to have encouraged the founding of many sites on or near thecoast, particularly in the south-east. Many of the wealthy towns ofthe succeeding Late Cypriot period owed their foundation to thismovement, which illustrates the end of the island's isolation fromthe world of her neighbours, and the first of the steps by which shewas increasingly to lose that 'Kyprios character', to whichAeschylus long aner referred. There are hints of regionalism at thistime, seen most clearly in the prt:ference in eastern Cyprus for thepottery fabric called Red-on-Black ware (pI. VIII). The surface ofthese vessels is covered in a black wash, with simple linear patternsadded in red paint, by the use of a multiple brush. Certain metaltypes. including dress pins. more characteristic of eastern Cyprusthan elsewhere (pl. IX) reinforce this suggestion.The beginnings of the Late Cypriot period belong to the sixteenthcentury BC; the period, divisible into three main and several sub-

22


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THE BaONZE AGE

Pllte VUI: Rcd-on-Black tankard.shlped jug, typical of East Cyprus.Middle Cypriol:. HI. 019$ [19$3.220).

2J


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ANCIENT CYPRUSphases, lasted for some five centuries, and saw Cyprus drawnfurther and further into international trade and hence internationalpolitics. By its close, foreign inftuences on the island had beenstrong enough to extinguish almost completely its own distinctivecultural traits; this process was to be repeated more than once inCyprus' later history. Yet the Late Cypriot period began without

Plate IX. Middle Cypriot Bronzes: a. Mushroom-headed toggle pin(tip missing). From Eylenja, Leondari Vouno. given by the CyprusExploration Fund. L 010811888.13181. b. Pin. given by G. J. Chester. L.009 11883.1601. c. Rat-tanged dirk. the upper part of the midribdecorated with herringbone pattern. L. 0303 [1918.28). d. Pair oft w e e z e r ~ . Given by Sir Arthur Evans. L. 012 11927.13951.any apparent change of population or dramatic change in a materialculture in which Early Cypriot antecedents are still to be seen. LateCypriot I seems to have been an uneasy period. in which thefortresses remained in use, some of them SUffering destruction;graves containing mass burials found both in east and west Cyprusmay imply the ravages of war, though a lethal epidemic may havebecn equally responsible. Perhaps because the times were unsettled,there was little development or innovation in material civilisation inLate Cypriot I. The mctal industry made few technical advances,

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THE BRONze Aoe

bPlate X: a. White Slip Utrater (mixing vessel). Late CypriOI II. From theCesnola Collection. HI. 023411911.3331. b. Base Ring 1 bowl with wavyband in relier. Late Cypriot I. Given by Sir Leonard Woolley. (rom theSandwith Collection. D. 0161 IC. 86].

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ANCIENT CYPRUSalthough evidently abundant copper was available to the smiths;weapons. tools and personal ornaments were of plain design andsimple technique (pl. IX). Much pottery continued to be made in theold hand-made traditions of Early and Middle Cypriot times. eventhough potters in neighbouring countries were almost all using thewheel; wheel-made pottery was imported in appreciable quantities.But the beginning of the Late Cypriot period is marked by theappearance of two important new pottery fabrics, which betweenthem supplied most of the fine table-ware through much of the LateBronze Age. The first is known by the name 'Base Ring' ware (fig.Ub, 4-7) given to it by Sir John Myres from the very characteristicring bases that are a feature of nearly every vessel in this fabric. It isa hand-made fabric, produced with great care., the vessels havill&extremely thin walls, fired at high temperature, usually covered by athin but highly polished dark brown slip, often decorated in relief(pIs. Xb. Xlb). The commonest shapes are bowls with wishbonehandles. jugs with tall necks and flaring mouths (pI. Xlb) and jugletswhose shape has been thought to resemble a poppy seed head, implying perhaps that these vessels had been designed to hold opiumdissolved in liquid. Many of these Base Ring ware juglets wereexported from Cyprus to the Levant (examples in the Near Easterngallery) and Egypt (examples in the Dynastic gallery); theirpresence in Egyptian contexts. in particular, provides importantsynchronisms between the chronology of the Late Cypriot periodand the XVIII Dynasty in Egypt. The second fabric, 'White: Slip'ware, is also of some technical excellence. Its narne comes from thethick white slip used by the potters to cover their rather coarse fabric; this slip was lightly polished, and may be lustrous. Decorationis invariably linear, in orange, brown or black paint; in some of thefinest examples a twocolour scheme was employed. but this technique was nut l.:ommon. The most popular shape was a round-basedbowl with a wishbone handle (the so-called 'milk-bowl') (fig. lIb, 3)but jugs and juglets (fig. Ub. 1-2) craters (pI. Xa) and tankards (pI.Xla) were more occasionally made. As the years passed. the qualityof both Base Ring ware and White Slip ware deteriorated, thoughthey continued to be made in enormous quantities until the end ofLate Cypriot II, c. 1200 BC. or later.Some Cypriots. at least. could relld and write: from a dale early inthe Late Cypriot period: regular and close contacts with their more

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..="0~ ZN>0

bPlitt XI: . . Whilt Slip I tankard 1o\.ith animal head spur on handle and shoulder. Late Cypriot J.From Mqouooa, PaphoL. HI. 02) [1968.1154]. b. BlUe Ring I jug with incised relief decoration.Late C)"Priot II. HI. 0)) 1 11968.851.


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MIDDLE CYPRIOT

"

9

6

Red-oo- blackware (67)

>zn~ '0 z~ 1 -


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LATE CYPRI OT

,-- ,1475

~ 0 .;%, 0~ Z4 6 N>0White Slip w"re

II -3)Bl lse Ring ware


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ANCIENT CYPRUSadvanced continental neighbours would have taught them the advantages of writing. It is not yet known by exactly what means theydeveloped their own system of dosely related scripts still knownto scholars as 'CyproMinoan' from resemblances to the syllabicscripts of Minoan Crete. This script has been found in the form ofcontinuous texts on baked clay tablets (the earliest of c. 1500 HC.from Enkomi), as well as very brief inscriptions incised or paintedon pottery vessds. impressed on metal objects and included in thedesign of seal stones. No satisfactory decipherment has yet beenproposed. bur intensive study continues, handicapped chiefly by the.scarcity of texts of any length. Even if the script itself shows affinitieswith that of the contemporary Aegean, the cushion-shaped tablets,and the fact that they are kilnbaked imply the influence of the NearEast. Although the tablets known so far have been discoveredat Enkomi, oone styli of the type that must have been used forwriting have been found at Kouklia (Palaeopaphos) and Hala SultanTekke (near Larnaka), and it seems probable that literacy, tboughvery limited, was general. at least in the major towns. Use of thescript persisted, at Enkomi at least, until tbe very end of tbe LateCypriot period; it is difficult to believe there is no direct link witb theCypriot syllabic script of the Archaic and Classical period (below,p. 42) used for writing Greek, but this has yet to be demonstratedsatisfactorily.At much the same time. Cypriots discovered the advantages ofusing seals. no doubt from the same sources as they learned thevalue of writing. Seals had for long been in use in the Near East 10identify ownership of property, to endorse contracts and toauthorise actions in societies where only a ,-cry small group ofhighly privileged administrators could read and write. A number ofNear Eastern cylinder seals were brought to Cyprus from early inthe Late Cypriot period, and a school of Cypriot seal-cuttersappeared whose work reflects. sometimes rather crudely, the stylesof the cylinder seals of Syria and elsewhere (for the developedimpression of one of these seals. see pl. XIla). Before long. sealstyles were also 10 show Aegean influences, sometimes, as in thecase of some stamp seals of Late Cypriot III (twelfth century BC),very strongly.The use of seals and the development of writing are but two ofmany indications that show Cyprus' increasing particips.tion in the

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THR 8kONZR "OR

a (Enlarged)

bPlale XII: a. Impression ora cylinder seal. Latc Cypriot. From Pyla. M.Ohneralsch-Richter Collection. HI. of cylinder 0028 11896.51. b. Goldrunerary frontlet, decorated with embossed spirals. circles and flowers.Late Cypriot II. Perhaps from Enkomi. L. 0223 [1962.2441.

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ANCU!NT CYPRUSsophisticated commercial and political life of the EastMediterranean in the period orthe New Kingdom in Egypt (c. 1558-1075 BC). From the middle of the fifieenth century BC, Cyprusbecame of increasing importance to Mycenaean Greece, so that, inplace of the tiny trickle of goods that had reached Cyprus from theWest in the previous centuries., imported Mycenaean pottery in enormous quantities appeared in the island throughout the fourteenthand much of the thirteenth centuries BC (6g. Ub, 8-13). Suchpottery has been found at sites throughout the island, both insettlements, and in tombs. Il is particularly abundant at the richsites of the east (Enkomi), south east (Pyla, Larnaka, Hala SultanTekke) and south coasts (Maroni, Episkopi and Kouklia) whichmay reasonably be regarded as the chief ports that handled overseastrade. Yet the sheer mass of Mycenaean pottery is so great thatsome scholars suppose that Mycenaean colonies were set up inCyprus during the fourteenth century BC and that this pottery waslocally made. Against this view must be set the fact that there isvirtually no other indication of the presence of Mycenaeans in thefourteenth and thirteenth centuries. The more probable Cllplanationseems to be that Cyprus was of immense economic importance tothe Mycenaeans, who both sought the raw copper obtainable in itsmanufacturing towns and valued the island as an entrepOt for theirother commercial activities in the Near East. Very regular tradingvoyages were made between Mycenaean ports (especially those ofthe Peloponnese) and Cyprus, and part, at least, of this trade wasconcerned with the supply to Cyprus of fine table-wares made inMycenaean factories---especially the large craters (mixing bowls)decorated in the 'pictorial style' (sec fragments on display and fig.lib, 9) on which were painted processions of chariots, and bulls andbirds. Cypriots evidently treasured sueh vases and often chose to beburied with them_The trade of which we are speaking meant an increase of realwealth in Cyprus. The wealth of the dead was no longer expressedonly in terms of the locally made goods that were laid in theirlTavcs. but in objects of gold and silver. in bijouterie from Egyptand the Levant. in luxury objects. of such exotic materials asEgyptian calcite, Near Eastern or African ivory, and Levantinefaience. Cypriots worked in these new materials, as witness the(rather crude) gold frontlet (pI. Xllb) used to cover the eyes of the

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THE BRONZE AGEdead, probably found at Enkomi; the material may well beEgyptian. the style of ornament learned from the Mycenaeans. butthe workmanship is unmistakably Cypriot.

Cyprus in Late Cypriot II (fourteenth and thirteenth centuries ac)developed upon a scale that has seldom been repeated. Thesettlement and cemetery sites already identified throughout theisland suggest a very substantial population, with a sharp contrastbetween urban communities with a strong industrial element in theireconomy (copper-working, in particular) and rural settlementswhere a more traditional way of life continued. But even here therewas change, for many areas of virtually virgin land (many squaremiles in the Kormakiti peninsula. for example) were occupied andbrought into cultivation for the first time. Such a development isentirely consistent with the greal expansion of urban populatiunselsewhere. Between the rural settlements and the manufacturing andport towns of the coastal areas arc a number of inlandsites-Nicosia for example, and Ayios Sozomcnos-whose obviousprosperity seems likely to have come from their control of theinland communications by which the products of the copper mineswere brought down to the manufacturing centres.If Cyprus was indeed of such economic imporlance and soprosperous, the object of attention from both her European andAsiatic neighbours, should there not be reference to her incontemporary texts? In fact, a majority of scholars believe thatCyprus must be identified with the A/ashiya to which there aremany references in documents from Egypt, Syria and Anatolia.These documents show that A lash/yo sent copper to Egypt, andreceived silver, ebony and other merchandise in exchange; shetraded with Syria and Anatolia in copper in return for manufactured goods. A/ashiya was a country with its own king; near theend of the thirteenth century BC it was important enough to have itsown fleet. Early in the twelfth century BC it was overrun by thePeoples of the Sea. Cyprus and A/ashiya may have been one andthe same. but the final and convincing proof is still elusive.These halcyon days lasted for nearly twO centuries, until theclosing years of the thirteenth century BC, when Cyprus was calledupon to share in the tribulations of her more powerfUl neighbours;the vicissitudes through which she passed brought first a greatcatastrophe, datable to c. 1200 BC (seen particularly clearly in a

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ANCIENT CYPRUSgreat destruction at Enkomi and other major centres). then 8 veryremarkable renaissance: that can be seen in every aspect of materialcivilisation. It is very tempting to connect these events with thecontemporary uphea\'als in Mycenaean Greece in which many ofthe great centres (Mycenae. Sparta. Pylos) suffered destruction,followed by a partial diaspora of the surviving population. Some ofthe fugitives undoubll:dly reached Cyprus c. 1200 BC. where theyintroduced many features of their own material culture of whichCyprus had previously known nothing, even at the height of hertrade contact with Greece. Their presence has been most clearlyestablished al Enkomi as a result of the very extensive excavation ofthat sileo but their traces can also be seen at Maa, KoukJia, Pyla,Sinda. Larnaka and Ayios Sozomenos. Their arrival coincided withthe development of new and sophisticated architectural schemes andbuilding techniques. panicularly the use of ashlar masonry. Arevolution took place in the metal industry, involving theintroduction of new technical expcnise as well as the appearance ofa whole new rcpenory of design and ornament, much of it having itsroots in Mycenaean Greece. It was probably at this date that theso"Called 'oxhide' ingots were introduced, as an administrativeconvenience for handling the newly smelted copper both in thehome market, and for overseas shipment. The new-found versatilityof the bronu-smiths and bronze-founders is particularly clearlyseen in their tripod stands (examples are on display), vessels andminiature sculpture, where the advantages of the eire-perdue processwere exploited to the full. Notice in particular the statuette of anaked woman (pI. X111) standing on an 'oxhide' ingot. perhaps thefemale counterpart of the more famous statuette of aspear-brandishing warrior standing on an ingot, now in the Nicosiamuseum, found at Enkomi. It has been suggested that these twofigures may represent male and female deities who between themboth protected the metal industry and guaranteed its productivity. Itis even possible that the temple authorities in some of the Cypriotmanufacturing towns were responsible for the manasemcnl of themetal industry.

If it is true that Mycenaean refugees played a leading part in thecultural renaissance of Cyprus in the tweInh century BC, it must berecognised that their own character had been somewhat altered bytheir change of home. Apart from the infl.uence ofCyprus itself, they

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THE BRONZE AGEwere affected by other refugees from Syria and Palestine who, intheir tum, had much to contribute. The twelfth century Be inCyprus saw the brief flowering of a material civilisationconspicuous for the excellence not only of its architecture, bronze-working, and ceramic production but also of its jewellery, ivory-carving and seal'cutting, an excellence for which Cypriots,

Plate XIII: Bronze statuelte of a naked woman, perhaps Ihe goddess'ASlane', standing on an 'oxhide' ingot. Late Cypriot 111. From theBomford Collection. Ht. 0099 (1971,8881.Levantines and the peoples of the Aegean were collectivelyresponsible. It is clear from the continued appearance in Cyprus ofsuccessiye styles of Mycenaean pottery that other groups of refugeesfrom Greece and, probably, from Crete too, found their way toCyprus during the course of the twelfth century He. Conditions inthe island seem to haye deteriorated steadily as the century

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ANCIENT CYPRUSadvanced, so that the population dwindled almost to the point ofextinction in all but a few of the old urban centres, such asKouklia, Episkopi, Larnaka, wpithos and, perhaps, Dhali. Thetransition between the end of the Late Bronze Age (Late Cypriot)and the start of the early Iron Age (Cypro-Geometric) is analmost imperceptible process. dated c. 1050 Be, the best index ofwhil.:h is a relatively slight change in the style of painted pottery(the replacement of Proto-White Painted ware by White Painted Iware). Iron had keen known and used for over a century already; lilechange was marked by no violent catastrophe-before ithappened, but not long before. the Greek language took firm root,not, indeed, as the sole language, but perhaps already the mostimportant. The first, and most vital step in the Hellenisation ofCyprus had been taken.

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III. The Iron AgeTHE CYPRO-GEOMETRIC ARCHAIC AND CLASS1C

PERIODSTHE CYPRO-GEOMETRIC PERIOD

The cnd of the Bronze Age, c. 1050 BC, had coincided with thedisappearance of nearly all the old-established settlements inCyprus, and a consequent greal n:duction in the island's population,and in the virtual extinction of overseas contacts. Not since the endof the Chalcolithic period had there been so severe a reverse in theisland's affairs. For the next three centuries-the Early IronAge-we know much less of what went on in Cyprus than we do forthe Late Bronze Age. This is the 'Dark Age', and its obscurity maybe compared with a similar phenomenon in most neighbouringregions at this period, not least in Greece. What little we do knowcomes very largely from the excavation of cemeteries. There is agreat need for excavation at a number of selllement sites occupiedfrom the latcr cleventh cenfury BC onwards; unfortunately, suitablesites have been difficult to identify.The period from c. 10.50 to 700 BC is called the 'CyproGeometric ' period, further subdivided into Cypro-GeomelTic I, IIand lIi. The name is taken from the characteristic linear-omamentused for pollery decoration---.-.triangles, zig-zags, hatched lozenges;it is not to be confused with the term 'Geometric' which is applied toapproximately the same period in Greece. It is indeed a paradox ofCypriot history that the island's links with Greece should havegrown so slender so soon after the ar.rival of the last contingent ofrefugee immigrants from Greece. As we have just seen everythingpoints to the fact that it was t h e ~ immigrants who introduced theGreek longue to Cyprus, where over the coming generations itestablished itself as tht;: dominant (but not the only) language.

Although nearly all the scttlements, large and small, of the lateBronze Age had been abandoned before the middle of the eleventhcentury BC, many of the known Cypro-Geometrie I sites are in the37


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A N C I E N T cypausVICInity of imponant Bronze Age predecessors. Salamis wasestablished close to Enkomi; at Curium, Palaeopaphos andLapithos. CyproGeometric I cemeteries have been found near LateBronze Age sites. On the other hand. the Cypro-Geometric Isettlement at Kitian was built direaly on Late Bronze Agc ruins. AtAmathus and probably at PolistisKhrysokhou. completely newsites were chosen. Each of these was lalcr to develop into one of theisland's city-kingdoms.In the cemeteries of Curium and Lapithos, at least, the design ofsome rockcut CyproGeometric I tombs, with squarish chambersand long entrance: passages narrower at the top than the boltom,closely rer.;al1s a standard Mycenaean type, and symbolises thestrength of the Mycenaean inheritance with which the periud stans.And though much had changed, burial customs themselvescontinucd prcvious Cypriot tradition, where the chamber-lombserved as a family scpulchre, one tomb sometimes continuing in uscover many generations. Offerings of pottery vC$SCls, sometimes filledwith food or drink, continued to be buried with the dead, sometimesin great numbers: other gifts were offered more sparingly. Theseincluded weapons of iron. bronze vessels and, in II few cases.personal ornaments of gold.CyproGeometric I pottery. both in shape and decoration, showscontinuity with the Mycenaean past. There is much that recallsProtoWhite Painted ware of Late Cypriot 11I8, and inftuence fromsub-Minoan Crcte has also been recognised. Nearly all fine potterywas now thrown on the fast whccl. The decorated pollery of the IronAge in Cyprus has been studied systcmatically by Swedish scholars,in particular Profes.,or Einar Gjerstad. Seven 'Types' have beendistinguished. which between them cover the whole period from thebeginning in CyproGeometric J (c. 1050 BC) until the end of theClassical period. c. 325 BC. Within each 'Type' a number ofdifferent fabric!! are represented, some of which (for e u m p le 'WhitePainted') last throughout the period. Roughly speaking, potleryTypes I, II and III coincide with the division of the CypriotGeometric period into I (1050-950 Be), II (950-850) and III (850700). But it should be noted that Type I, notionally characteristic ofCypro-Geometric I, continued into CyproGeometric II andoverlaps Type II; there is a similar relationship between Types IIand 111. There are hints in this, surely, of the co-cxistence of

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THE IRON AGE

Plate XIV; White Painted I - I I barrel-shaped jug. CyproGcometric 11.Gi,'en by P. Uubsoo from the Goldie Collection. lit. 0 2011961.4511.

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ANCIENT CYPRUS

b

Plate XV: a. Bichrome III stemmed cup, decorated with birds. CyproGeometric III--cypro-Archaic I. Ht. 0105 11961.4131. b. Bichrome Istemmed cup decorated wifh panels of geometric ornament. CyproGeometric I. From the Flower Collection. Ht. 011 11885.5221.40


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THE IRON AOEsuccessive workshop traditions in pottery-making.

The best-known pottery fabric is 'White Painted' ware, distinguished by the use of a matt dark brown to black paint as ~ -ation on the light ground colour of the clay (pI- XIV). Very closelyrelated., though less common.. was 'Bichrome' ware, in which a mattred paint was also used to enliven the dark brown of the dominantpauemwork (pI. XV-XVI. fig. 1JIa. ilia, 6-7). Care should be taken

Plate XVI: Bichrome II-III twohandled plale. Cypro-Geometric III.From the Flower Collection. D. 02311885.S45 l-not to confuse the 'White Painted' pottery of the Geometric periodwith the 'White Painted' pottery of the Middle Bronze age (see p.20). 'Black Slip' (see fig.. lila. 8-9) and 'Plain White' are less comman wares, confined to a limited range of shapes. Rather later thanthe first appearance of these fabrics is 'Black-on-Red' ware, thoughtto have been introduced from southern Anatolia or Syria (pI. XXI isa late example: tig. l ila, 4-5).Popular vessel shapes. in tomb material at least, include largeamphorae (some with handles on the neclt, others on the belly),craters. barrelshaped jugs (pI. XIV), cups and plates (pl. XVI). Asthe Cypro-Geometric perrod advanced, the austerity of the linear

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ANCIENT CYPRUSdecoration relaxed, and White Painted III and Bichrome III designssometimes include birds (pI. XVa, fig. IlIa, 7), animals or, morerarely, human beings. Vases in the shape of animals or birds areoccasionally found (fig. IlIa, 6).It is very doubtful whether Geometric Cyprus was politicallyunified. though the lines of division can hardly be discerned fromarchaeological evidence alone. Pottery, and later sculpture. in eastCyprus have certain characteristics that distinguish that regionfrom the western part of the island. But other evidence suggestssomething much more complex than this. The very existence of thecity-kingdoms in the early Archaic period implies separateterritorial identities; such a system almost certainly developed in the'darkness' of the Geometric period. It may even be that kingship asan institution was a Mycenaean legacy. There is a Geometriccemetery near the cities of Salamis, Kition, Paphos, Amschus,Curium, Marion, Soloi. Tamassos, Idalion, Lapithos andKyrenia-strongly suggesting that their foundation dates lie withinthe Geometric period. Moreover, the division of language which isto be seen from the Archaic period certainly goes back to an earlierdate, and we may suppose that the divisions of race implicit inArcado-Cypriot Greek, in the undeciphered Eteo-Cypriot, andPhoenician also imply political division.We saw above (p. 30) that a syllabic script ('Cypro-Minoan') wasused by literate Cypriot communities in the Late Bronze Age; itsurvived until the very end of that period. The script isundeciphered, but the language it expresses is not Greek. Before theend of Cypro-Geometric III (c. 700 Be), a similar syllabary wasagain in use in Cyprus. Though proof of continuity is lacking,we may suppose that the later syllabary-the 'Cypriot'syllabary-depends in some way upon Cypro-Minoan. In theseventh century. when the Cypriot syllabary becomes common itwas used to express two unrelated languages-Arcado-CypriotGreek (apparently introduced at the end of the Bronze Age) andEteo'Cypriot, perhaps the surviving indigeneous language ofCyprus in the Bronze Age.

A syllabary is a method or language notation in which each sign representsnOi a single ~ o u n d (as in an alphabet) but a syllabl_Le. a consonant-plusvowel, or on occasions II ~ o ....d alune. For eump[e, separate signs will be: used toreprc,


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THE IRON ....GEThe Cypriot syllabary has between 50 and 60 symbols. which\'ary somewhat in different parts of the island. and at differentperiods. Most texts are shon; the majority are funerary, though

many royal names and titles. usually abbreviated. appear on coins(pI. XXVc). The Greek alphabet eventually appeared in Cyprus c.400 BC. but the syllabary was still in use late in the third centuryBC. Thereafter it seems to have been abandoned.

The dccipherment of the Cypriot syllabary was achieved in the1870s. much assisted by a number of 'bilingual' inscriptionssyllabic and Phoenician inscriptions on thc same stone. The mainoutline uf the deciphennent was thc work of the EnglishAssyriologisl. George Smith.E t ~ y p r i o t . though most common at Amathus (traditionallythe home of the 'autochthonous' Cypriots) and in its neighbourhood(e.g. pI. XXVII. founh century Be, from Polemidhia) is not confinedto that city. as recent finds at Paphos havc shown. The existence oftwo languages in one city may here be a special case, since Paphoswas a shrine ofgreat sanctity, with an international reputation.The eminence achieved by some cities even before the end of theGeometric period is exemplified by recent discoveries in the

necropolis of Salamis: a large cemetery dating from thc earlyeighth century Be. It included a number of monumental tombs withstone-built burial chambers sunk in the relatively soft bedrock; thetomb-entrance was set in a fine monumental facade reached by abroad. sloping entrance passage. in some cases up to 20 metreslong. Although cvery tomb chamber had, unfonunately, beenlooted, ncarly all the passages were undisturbed with their offeringsintact. These included the remains of the vehicles used to bring thedead to the tomb. and the skeletons of the teams of horses that drewthem. The horses lay with their iron bits still in their mouths, andtheir rich trappings of bronze still on their bodies. This type ofburial was practised for more than a century at Salamis and, on amOfe modest scale. is attested elsewhere in Cyprus-at Idalion,Papnos and Patriki. for instance. The tomb architecture suggestslinks with Gol"dion. the Phrygian city in central Anatolia, whilesome of the vehicle-fittings and horse-trappings are very similar toAssyrian equipment seen on palace-reliefs at Nimrud andelsewhere; some of the carved ivories which once decorated woodenfurniture 3re of Phoenician style. One of the: earliest of these 'royal'

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t

CYPRO'GEOt/ETRIC

,

2While Painted wall 11-3)

, Fig. lila Bichrome ware (6-7)B\IC(he,o wale(black slip)(8-9)

>zn-mZ-


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CYPRO-ARCHAIC

Black-on-Redware (1-2)

3

White Painted ware(3-4) Bichrome ware (5-7)Fig. IUb

_.- - 10Phoenician Pottery (&10)

-z>o


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ANCIENT CYPRUStombs contained over twenty painted vases made in Athens and theEubocoCycladic area during the second quarter of the eighthcentury Be. Such diversity of foreign contact marks the end of the'Dark Age' and a return of the conditions which had broughtCyprus much prosperity in the Late Bronze Age.This is not Ihe only respect in which recent excavation haschanged our understanding of events in Cyprus during Geometrictimes. At Kition (modern Larnaka), Dr. Karageorghis hasuncovered the remains of a very large Phoenician temple first builtduring the ninth century Be, evidently the work of thosePhoenicians who colonised Kition from Tyre. Inscriptions suggestthat this building was dedicated to Astarte. The temple wasrectangular, 3Sx22 metres; its roof was carried on four woodencolonnades, each of seven piers set in square slone bases. Thesurviving masonry includes a facing course of superbly dranedashlar blocks. each 3S0x [50 metres. There were four distinctphases in the life of Ihe building, which was only finally abandoned al the end of the fourth century BC. coinciding with theexecution, at the orders of Ptolemy. of Pumiathon. last king ofKition, in 312 BC.

lt was at one time thought that the Phoenicians had exercised anallpervasive influence on Cyprus from early in the Bronze Ageonwards. Later, ideas changed, and they came to be regarded as'mere carriers of other people's goods'. The Kition evidence showsthat the truth lies somewhere between the two extremes. Despite thecompletely Phoenician character of the Kition temple, and of manyminor antiquities (cf. pottery from the Turabi Tckke cemetery ondisplay, see also fig. IIIh, 8-10), syllabic inscriptions recentlyfound show that both Arcado-Cypriol and Eteo-Cypriot werespoken as well as Ihe Phoenician language in which the rulingPhoenician dynasts inscribed their coins (pI. XXVb).By the end of the eighth century BC Cyprus had, nominally,become subject to Assyria; this slatus probably encouraged thespread of Phoenician influence, particularly in the south and eastparts of the island, the area of many of the best harbours. Amonumental stele ofSargon II, King of Assyria (721-705 BC), saidto have been found at Larnaka (now in the Staatliche Museen, EastBerlin) records the submission of the Cypriot kings. Furtherconfirmation of the subject status of the island (which the Assyrians

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II

THE IRON AGEknew as Yatnana) occurs in documents of the reign of Sennacherib(704-681 Be) and again on the prism of Esarhaddon (680-669 Be)in the British Museum. commemorating the rebuilding of a Palaceat Nineveh.

THE CYPRO-ARCHAIC PERIODThe ascendancy of Assyria began just before the conventional date,c. 700 Be. for the start of the Cypro-Archaic period. This stage(divided inlo two phases. Cypro-Archaic 1 and Cypro-Archaic 11)covers the seventh and sixth centuries BC, and was one of the mostprosperous and vigorous in the island's history. Though it was to bea period when the influence of the Orient was strong in Cyprus,

Plate XVII: Bichrome III cup decorated with fishes. Cypro-Archaic I.0.013 [1969.2111.mainland Greece and Ionia also had a vital pan to play. In materialculture there was no marked break with the past, though thedifferences between the east and west halves of the island in paintedpouery and sculptural slyles can be seen more ckarly. WhitePainted IV and Bichrome IV wares appeared: Type III fabrics forsome time continued in produclion side by side (see above, p. 38).The popularity of Black-on-Red grew, particularly for small vessels(fig. IlIb. 1-2). The occasional attempts at figure-drawing made bythe Cypro-Geometric IIJ potters were greally expanded so Ihat aschool of vase-painters who specialised in representalional designsarose. Their work is called 'Free-Field' from their liking for a singlebold design placed in isolation on the otherwise reserved surface ofthe vase. Much of their work was Bichrome ('Bichrome IV').

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ANCIENT CYPRUS

Pille XVIII: Bichrome III jug with a strainer spout. deoon.led withconcentric circles and a bird. Cypro-Archaic I. From the SpencerChurchill Collection. HI. 0 232 II96S.1381.

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THE IRON AGE

Plale XIX: Bichrome IV jllg, decorated in 'Free-Field' style, a bird andIOlllS blossom_ Cypro-Archaic I. From the Cesnola Collection. HI. 018511967.10881.

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ANCIENT CYPRUS

Plate XX: 8ichrome 1\1 jug. decorated in 'FreeFidd' style. II gaulle andslylised lree. Cypro Archaic I. HI. 0 250' 1967.8391.

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THE IRON AGE

Plate XXI: Black-on-Red ware flask, decorated with a bird facing frontaland concentric circles. Cypro-Archaic II. Perhaps from Dhall, CesnolaCollection. Ht. 0185 (1933.16181.51


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ANCIENT CYPRUSThough h i r d ~ (pIs. XVIII, XIX, fig. IIIb. 7), were their mostpopular themes ('Cypriot bird-jugs'), there was much more besides-bulls. gazelles (pl. XX). horses. warriors or huntsmen on foot ormounted in their chariots. fights. and ships. The cup (pl. XVII)decorated with a zone of fish imitates an East Greek shape, but ilsfish are local. The Black-on-Red flask (pl. XXI) with perching birdis a very unusual example of the influence of the Free-Fieldpainters on a completely different school of polters.Evidence of religious activity in Cyprus occurs from the EarlyCypriot period onwards. but it is most abundant in Archaic times.Many sanctuaries have been found. quantities of votive offeringshave been recovered. Many of these shrines lay outside lhesettlements to which they belonged, and have a distinctly rusticatmosphere. There are very few temples in lhe normal sense;worship was an out-door affair, though the holy place (the temenos)was enclosed by a wall. The gods were honoured by a variety ofofferings at or near the altar; worshippers frequently left behindsmall painted statuettes of stone or terracotta. either representingthemselves as suppliants, or the deity in whose honour lhey hadvisited the shrine. Occasionally, these votive figures were life-size orlarger. More rarely, bronze statuettes. jewellery, sealstones andscarabs were dedicated. In some cases, dedications were recordedby brief inscriptions in the Cypriot syllabary.Thousands of votive offerings were found in some sanctuaries.The best known is at Ayia Irini and was excavated by the SwedishCyprus Expedition. More than 2,000 objects, chiefly terracottastatues and statuettes. dating from the end of the Late Bronze Ageuntil Cypro-Archaic II. were found in silu. Notice. in the MyresRoom. a group of statuettes from Kamelarga at Lamaka, a verysmall fraction of a votive deposit found by Myres in one of theArchaic sanctuaries of Kition. Similar statuettes (e.g. the horsemen.pI. XXII) were used as tomb-gifts.Minor sculpture in terracotta had already been developed in theGeometric period but became more popular and more diverse inArchaic times. The Bichrome technique of decoration was commonon the myriad figures of worshippers, horsemen (pl. XXII) andanimals. There was much variety in technique. including completelyhand-made figures (pI. XXlIb). figures whose bodies were wheelmade, heads and limbs hand-made. others with mould-made heads

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THE IRON AGE(pI. XXlla) on wheel or hand-made bodies, or figures that werecompletely mould-made. Not all the life-size figures were painted(but noLice the large bearded head from Salamis, on display). Usc ofmoulds brought greater realism; notice the head of a boy (pl..XXIVb) with short cropped curly hair and feathered eyebrows.Archaic terraCOltas are an important guide to contemporaryCOSlume and ornament. especially in the case of female figures; thewoman's head (pl. XXIVa) is decked with an elaborate necklace,pendant and earrings.

Plate XXII: Tenacotla slatuettes of horsemen. Cypro-Archaic. FromAmathus. given by the Trustees of the British Museum. I . Ht. 0149IC.2611: b. Ht O t21 IC.2621.The first sculptors in stone, whose work appears c. 600 BC. usedthe soft local limestone; the marble of the Kyrenia mountains wunot carved before Ptolemaic times. The ease with which thislimestone can be cut produced a mass of very bad work, much of itreminiscent of the poorer kind of peasant wood carvings. and, evenin work of higher quality. a blandness that is missing whensculptors have to slruggle with a material that makes grealer

demands upon them. Archaic Cypriot sculpture refteeu theinfluence of neighbouring countries whose successive politicalascendancies left their mark upon the island. After the collapse of53


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ANCIENT CYPRUSAssyria in 612 BC. Cyprus became involved with Egypt. ThcPharoah Apries (c. :188-568 BC) first defeated the combined forcesof Cyprus and Phoenicia on land and sea; it was left to hissuccessor Amasis (568-525 BC) to reduce the Cypriot cities tosubmission. The Egyptianising period that followed these events inCyprus is to be seen most closely in sculpture found in midsixthcentury sanctuaries in the south and east; the effect may be seen. inminiature, in the bronze statuette (pI. XXIII) of a yuung man

Plate XXIII: H r o n ~ . c staluelte ofa youth wearingan Egyplianising wig andkill (the kgs are missing). CyproArchaic II. HI. 0063[1968.89].wearing the characteristic Egyptian kilt and wig. But Egyptiandomination was short-lived, for in 545 BC the kings of Cyprusvoluntarily submitted to Cyrus of Persia on tenns that ensured theirsurvival in semi-independence. Although the island was includedwithin the Fifth Satrapy. the city kings were sufficiently free to issuetheir own coinages. This new political status stimulated contactbetween Cyprus and the Greek world. in panicular with EastGreece. The evidence of this is to be seen, for instance. in limestonesculpture such as the large bearded head (cover). Fine tablepottery made in several Greek centres, particularly Athens. and

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bPlate XXIV: L Terr.cotta head of I woman weariDS je,,-ellery. Cypro-Arcbaic.Gh'm by L. Bowen. Hl. 014 [1926.5511. b. TerTicoUa head of a youth with shoncurly hair. Cypro-Archaic. From Salamis. Ji\'en by the Cyprus Exploration Fund.Ht 01) 11891.4151.


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ANCieNT CYPRUSimported to Cyprus pointll lu the same development (pI. XXVn.The Gruk link seems to have been slroogest at Manum (modernPolis-tisKhrysokhou). but similar evidence has been found atSalamis. Kition and Amathus. Cyprus, no doubt. produced copperfor the west, as well as providing an invaluable entrep6t for Greektrade with the rich territories further eut.

In the l a ~ t years of the sixth century BC and the beginning of thefifih, Cyprus. to her great disadvantage, was drawn into a strugglefor power between Greece and Persia which ebbed and flowed forthe next 250 years. For the Greeks, conlrol over Cyprus would havevirtually ensured naval domination of the East Mediterranean andthe c o n ~ u e n t neutralising of the fleets of Persia and her allies(particularly Phoenicia). The history of Cyprus over this period isan index of the many vicissitudes through which this struggle was topass. In 499 BC. Onesilus King of Salamis persuaded all his brotherkings (except Amathus) to join thc Greek cities of Ionia in theirre\'olt against Persia. As a result. the Persians sent a powerful navaland military expedition to Cyprus and the Cypriots were heavilydefeated in a land battle. A few months after that defeat the last cityto resist. Soloi. had been reduced and the whole island passed underI'crsian rule. At Kouklia (Palaeopaphos) excavation has revealedthe remains of a siege mound erected in 498 He by the Persians bythe north-west gate of the city; in the: debris were found manyfragmentary sculptures and dedications from some extramuralsanctuary overrun by the besiegers. The results of this debacle wereseen a generation later when a flotilla of 150 C)'priot ships foughtwith the Persian fleet against the Greeks at the famous naval battleoff the Greek island of Salamis in 480 BC. From what the ancientsources say, the hearts of the Cypriot sailors were not in the light.

THF. CYPRO-CLASSIC PERIODAfter the Persians had been defeated in Greece on land and sea in480 and 479 BC. and withdrew. the Athenians made a great effort LOreduce Cyprus and deny it to the Persian King. A particularlydetermined attempt was made by an expedition led by Cimon_ ALleast three of the suongest cities-Marium. Kition and Salamisoffered resistance. Marium was captured, but Kition was still undersiege when Cimon died (probably of the pestilence that was rife inhis fleet). In the face of this reverse the Greeks raised the siege and

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THE IRON AGE

~' ~ ; J J .. . ( l l " ~

; : ~ I ' ~ ~ r : . . ~ ~ , , . '~ __ ~ . ,..f!J'r.. .'.. .." .-. . . . " .." ' I " ~ .j......""Co.:.. . '

b

,Plate XXV: a. S a l a m i ~ . Silver stater. Obverse, ram and uncertain royalname. Reverse. syllabic ~ i 8 n s . 'of the king'. c. 460 Be. b. Kition. SilverSlater of King A7.baal. O b v e ~ , Herades. Reverse. lion and $lag. inscribedwith the king's name in Phoenician. Third quarter of the 5th century IC. c.Salamis. Silver stater of E\'agoras I. Obverse. Herades. ReverK, goat.grain of corn above. inscribed with the king'S name in Greek and theCypriot syllabic script. 41 1374/3 HC. (Enlarged.)"


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ANCII!NT CYPRUS

Plate XXVI: Attic Red-Figure Ickythos by the Achilles Painter.Aphrodite riding on a swan c. 440 BC. From Polis tis Khrysokhou(Marium). Westem Necropolis. Tomb 57. given by the CyprusExploralion Fund. Ht. 0-310 [1891.45 II.S8


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THe IRON AGE!returned to the west. leaving Cyprus. at least for the time. underPersian control. But. although the throne of Salamis passed at thistime to a Phoenician usurper. and Idalion (apparently Hellenised)was conquered and absorbed by Phoenician Kition. trade linkswith Greece persisted; during the second half of the fifth centuryBe some fine Athenian red-figure V ~ $ reached Manum (note thelekythO$ showing Aphrodile riding over the waves on a swan.attributed by Beazley to the Achilles Painler, pI. XXVI). In 41 J BCthe Phoenician interlude at Salamis was brought to an end byEvagoras I, a member of the ancient family of Teucrid kings of the

Plate XXVII: limestone inscription in undcciphered Eteo-Cypriot. 4thcentury Be. Perhaps from a tomb al Polemidhia, Limaswl, given by J. L.Myres. L 068 [Inscription no. 1191.city, who quickly and deservedly won a reputation as a friend ofGreece. For nearly 40 years he dominated Cypriot politics andplayed a considerable role in international affairs. The Athenians,indeed. were sufficiently grateful for his help after their seavictoryover the Spartans at Cnidus to erect a bronze statue to him in frontof the Stoa BasileiO$ in the market place in Athens.Evagoras was successful in subjecting all the Cypriot cities to hisauthority. For the rest of his reign he was involved in a struggle withPersia. intent upon reasserting its authocity in the EastMediterranean. His position was weakened after the Peace ofAntakidas in 386 BC, when Athens acknowledged the claim of thePersian king to the cities of Asia and the islands ofClazomenae andCyprus. The Persians attacked Cyprus with determination anddespite Evagoras' initial success eventually overwhelmed him. Even

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ANCIENT CYPRUS

PI.te XXVIII: Bichrome Red wan: jU& with the mould-made fi,urc o r .WQfTl&n canyinJ a jUI on the shoulder. Cypro-Clauic. From Polis tisKhrysokhou (Marium), K'parga, Tomb 37, liven by the CyprusEJ:ploration Fund. ilL 0274 [1890.690].

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THE IRON AGESO. he contrived to negotiale a seulement with W Persians lhat Jefthim in control of Salamis. He was required to pay tribute. )'etseemed to treat the Persian king as an equal. He minled his owncoinage in silver and gold inscribed with his name in both Greekand the Cypriot syllabic script (pI. XXVc). He concluded peace in380 BC, but was murdered six or seven years later. His successorswere lesser men, who continued an uneasy relationship with

Plate XXIX: Gold earring with bull-head finial. Hellenistic. D. 0039(1942.2101. (Enlarged.)Persia. By 330 BC Persian dominalion had been removed for everin the wake of the victories ofAlexander the Great.The years from the battle of Salamis in 480 BC until the death ofAlexander in 323 were, as we have seen, turbulent ones for Cyprus.Little evidence of this turbulence appears in what has beenrecovered of contemporary material culture. The long establishedclasses of decorated pottery developed in a largely unbrokensequence; White Painted ware was still popular, though itsdecoration grew increasingly slovenly. There was much lessBichrome pottery. PI. XXVIII shows a characteristic jug of thisperiod. of a type much liked at Marium, with an affix on the

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ANCIt :NT CYPRUSshoulder in the form of a kore (girl) with wine-jug. Other jugs hadbull-head spouls (fig. IVa, 3). Almost certainly these arc ratherpedestrian copies of bronze jugs to which bronze statuettes of thewine-hearing girls were attached; none of these hypothetical metalvessels have survived. Some ceramic decoration-leaf-bands andpalmcttcs in particular-were derived from Greek ornament, andserve as a further reminder of Greek influence. Jewellery and metalwork show Persian influence. exemplified by the so-called treasurefrom Vouni Palace, a Persian-type building set on a coastal hill-topdominating SaloL Throughout the Hellenistic period into Romantimes a particularly attractive type of earring was fashionable, withanimal-head terminals-lions, bulls (pl. XXIX), goats, gazelles and.later. dolphins. Many were picked out with filigree-work (pI.XXIX): the hoops were made of twisted or plaited wire; sometimesbeads of glass or hard stone were threaded on the hoops.

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IV. Hellenistic And Roman CyprusTHE HELLENISTIC PERIOD

Despite the notional freedom from Persian authority that resultedfor the Cypriots, the conquests of Alexander marked the end ofindependence for Cyprus for centuries to come. After Alexander'sdeath in 323 BC, Cyprus became involved in the struggles of hisSuccessors. eventually falling to the share of Ptolemy I of Egypt andthose who followed him. This was the end of the little city-states andtheir kings. Nikokreon, the last king of Salamis, fell foul of PtolemyI and was forced into suicide; at the instigation of Nikokreon's wife,Axiothea, the whole royal family followed his example, firing theroyal palace as they did so in a final gesture of defiance. A veryremarkable burial mound was excavated ncar Salamis by Dr.Karageorghis in 1965 and 1966 which has been very convincinglyidentified as the cenotaph of this royal household. The mound hadbeen raised over a platform built ofmud-bricks on which h'ad been apyre; surrounding it, still on the platform, a number of life-sizehuman figures modelled in clay had been set up on wooden posts.These figures may have represented the royal suicides, whose bodiescould not be recovered for more normal burial. The ceremony at thepyre on the platform would thus have been a symbolic re-enactmentof their end, and at the same time a funeral ceremony designed toensure their passage to the underworld. This event took place in311 or 310 BC. For the two-and-a-half centuries that followed,Cyprus was part of the Ptolemaic kingdom, administered as amilitary command and governed by an official with the title ofSlralegos.Under the Ptolemies Cyprus lost nearly all that remained of itsown distinctive character in material civilisation, and appears as asomewhat provincial version of the wider Hellenistic world. Insculpture, for instance, poor imitations of Greek work werecommon (for example, the tomb relief, pI. XXXa). Notice pottery,terracollas and jewellery on display from tombs of this period atTsambres and Aphendrika, near Rizokarpaso (see fig. IVb, 1-5).

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Ua:: -~c

'"xu'"'"


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lUlLLENISTIC AND ROMAN CYPRUS

--- ~-~! 'm

z


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ANCIENT CYPRUSOne of the last traces of the old Cyprus is a series of dedicationsmade during the late third century BC at the hill-shrine of a nymphat Kafizin. near Nicosia. Here. an official, Onesagoras. son ofPhilounios. offered IX>ttcry vessels inscribed. in many cues, in theold Cypriot syllabary. Some of his offerings were also inscribed innormal alphabetic Greek. and it is interesting that the Greek of thesyllabic inscriptions is the old dialect of lhe island, ArcadoCypriot. while the alphabetic inscriptions aTC straightforwardHellenistic Greek.

Cyprus must have been of considerable value to the Ptolemies; itwas an important military base, as well as a useful source of copper,timber (particularly for ship-building) and grain. Archaeologically,the period has been relatively little explored, and is known chieflyfrom the investigations of sanctuaries and cemeteries. In manycases, subsequent Roman activity has largely covered or obliteratedHellenistic buildings, domestic or public, in the principal towns ofCyprus.

THE ROMAN PERIODIn .s8 BC Cyprus was annelled by Rome., at the instigation ofPublius Clodius Pulcher. The motive was expansionist, forming as itdid an important step in the encirclement of Eg)'Pt. Its legality wasexuemely dubious, resting in large part on the alleged terms of awill supposed to have been made by the last legitimate Ptolemy. Theincorruptible Marcus Pard us Cato was sent from Rome (where hisabSt'nct: was a great relief to his political opponents) to supervise theannexalion. and the sale of the very substantial royal treasure ofCyprus. Cato eventually took back to Rome the huge sum of 7.000ralcnts as the proceeds of these transactions; the money wasswallo'ol.'ed up in the Civil War.The island was administered as a praetorian province. attached atfirst to Cilicia. There was a brief interval of resumed Egyptiandominance when, as pan of the intrigue surrounding the Romancivil wars. Julius Caesar returned Cyprus to Ptolemaic Egypt. In36 BC Marcus Antonius gave the island to Cleopatra as a present:on her death in 30 BC it revened to Rome. From 22 BC onwards itwas administered as a senatorial province, governed by a pmPraetor with the title of Proconsul. On the reorganisation of theEmpire under Diocletian. carried further by Constantine the Great,

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HELLENISTIC AND ROMAN CYPRUS

bPlate XXX: a. Limestone tomb relief, abo\'e a bearded baoque!er withboy attendant. below a seated woman. Hellenistic. Given by John Ruskin.HI. 183 (Michaelis 1271. b. Marble statue of Athena. Roman, first half ofthe 2nd century AD from the Gymnasium. Salami", Given by the CyprusExploration Fund. HI. 110(1891.734).

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Plate XXXI: . Goldring setting showing theShrine of Aphrodite atPaphos. From theNelidotr Collection. Ht .0022 11931.5481. b.'Cypriot sigillal1' jug.Late 1st-2nd century AD.Given by T. 8ur101lBrown. Ht.. O 188 [1935.S80]. c. Mould-madelamps. lst century AD.Given by J. L. Myrea. L.0085

Ancient Cyprus

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Transcript of Ancient Cyprus