The website devoted to Cypriot archaeology.
Cyprus Archaeology
Information on examples of Cypriot artefacts as taken from the British Museum website
Red Polished Ware bowl
This bowl shows the prowess of Cypriot potters of the Early Bronze Age
From tomb 105 in the cemetery (site A) on the eastern slope of Vounous, Cyprus
About 2300-2100 BC
Red Polished Ware was the dominant pottery of the Early and Middle Bronze Age (2300-1650 BC) in Cyprus. The first examples were, however, produced some two centuries earlier, when the culture of the northern part of Cyprus showed strong affinities with that of southern Anatolia (modern Turkey). In this part of the island momentous changes took place around 2500 BC, perhaps precipitated by the arrival of refugees from southern Anatolia who were escaping from earlier catastrophes. Nevertheless, Early Bronze Age culture soon spread throughout the island, and is typified by finds from cemeteries at Vounous on the north coast.
Red Polished pots were always handmade. They were covered by a slip (a specially prepared clay solution) which was burnished (polished) and then often decorated with patterns incised with a sharp cutting tool before being fired. The final colour of the slip, and so the appearance of the vessel, depended on the amount of iron oxide in the solution (more was needed for the pot to become red, less for black) and the condition and temperature of firing. By controlling the cooling as well as the firing conditions, potters were able to produce vessels that were either mottled or, as this example, two-coloured. Two-coloured pots were often red on the outside with a black rim and interior.
Although found in a tomb, this vessel probably originally had a practical purpose and could have stored dried items such as seeds or grains.
Height: 12.600 cm (to rim)
Diameter: 11.350 cm
Excavated by J.R. Stewart
GR 1939.2-17.11
Room 72: Ancient Cyprus
Pottery stemmed bowl decorated with a procession of riders in chariots
A 'Chariot Krater'
Mycenaean, about 1400-1300 BC
From Maroni, Cyprus
This vase is a fine example of Mycenaean Pictorial Style pottery. Such vases, painted with scenes of humans and animals, were popular exports from Mycenaean Greece to the island of Cyprus, where many of them, including this one, have been found. This is a particularly fine example of the group known as 'Chariot Kraters' after their subject-matter and shape, which were particularly popular in the fourteenth century BC. A krater is a wide-mouthed bowl for mixing wine and water.
The upper zone of the vase is painted with a frieze of chariots, pulled by elongated horses, in which ride a charioteer and a passenger. Such chariot processions on vases may well have been inspired by contemporary fresco-paintings which decorated the walls of Mycenaean palaces.
Height: 42.000 cm
GR 1911.4-28.1
Room 12b: Greece: Mycenaeans
Painted terracotta head from a statue of a worshipper
A head in true Cypriot style
From the Sanctuary of Apollo at Phrangissa, Tamassos, Cyprus
About 600 BC
This head is in true Cypriot style with an Assyrian type beard, wide open eyes, a severe expression and prominent nose. A number of other male heads have Assyrian style beards like this one - hardly surprising as Cyprus was under Assyrian control from about 707-612 BC. The tallest of these large-scale terracotta statues discovered so far measures 260 cm in height and comes from the same site as this head: the Sanctuary of Apollo at Phrangissa, Tamassos on the island of Cyprus.
The first large-scale statues of terracotta in Cypriot style are recorded from the island of Samos in the middle of the seventh century BC. They were first produced in Cyprus in the later seventh century BC. The statues continued to be made into the sixth century, though production had ceased by about 550 BC when sculpture in stone became more popular. The city of Salamis may have led the way in the creation and diffusion of this terracotta art to other parts of the island, but finds from the site at Tamassos are impressive.
All Cypriot large-scale terracotta statues were assembled from several separate pieces made by different techniques. Bodies were thrown on a potter's wheel; those of larger figures were made in two parts and assembled after firing. Legs were hollow and either handmade or made of clay coils; sometimes legs were wheel-made. Arms were either handmade and solid or wheel-made and hollow. Heads were normally hollow and turned on a wheel or made of coils; the faces were moulded. Accessories such as jewellery and beards were added and facial features formed. The figure was painted as required before being fired.
Height: 36.000 cm
GR 1910.6-20.1
Room 72: Ancient Cyprus
Terracotta figure of a woman in Greek dress
A Cypriot version of an Athenian type of terracotta From Tomb 105 at Amathus, Cyprus About 300-250 BC This terracotta belongs to the time when Cyprus was part of the large Hellenistic state of Egypt. Cypriot artefacts of this period generally reflect the styles that were wide-spread throughout the eastern Mediterranean, where Greek influence was dominant. This woman belongs to a series of terracottas known as the 'Tanagra' group after a site in Boeotia, northern Greece, where they were first found. It is, however, now clear that the style developed in Athens from where it spread to all corners of the Hellenistic world. Tanagra figures have small heads and lean bodies which are tightly draped. This figure of a woman wears a chiton (tunic) with a himation (cloak) draped tightly across her body and right shoulder, covering her arm. Her hair is typically arranged in the 'melon coiffure', divided on the crown into segments and combed into a bun at the back. She wears a thick wreath made from the heads of hundreds of tiny flowers threaded onto a rope of grass. Many such wreaths have been found in tombs at Hawara in Egypt, which must be credited with their origin.
Height: 21.000 cm
Miss E.T. Turner Bequest excavations
GR 1894.11-1.303 (Terracotta A 410)
Room 72: Ancient Cyprus
Marble portrait head from a statue of a Julio-Claudian prince
A rare sculpture carved in Cyprus of imported marble.
From Kyrenia, Cyprus
Perhaps made in Cyprus, about AD 20-40
The marble of this piece has a slightly greyish tinge. It resembles, and may be, Proconnesian marble from the sea of Marmara. The back of the head was never finished and is now partly split away and partly hewn out, though the neck is worked to fit a complete statue. The flat planes of the carving suggest that it was made by a sculptor familiar with the carving of limestone. Thus it was possibly carved in Cyprus alongside other Roman sculptures of imported marble.
The portrait has the characteristics of the younger Drusus (15 BC - AD 23), son of Emperor Tiberius, as shown on his coins. Note in particular the slightly curving nose, the arching eyebrows and the hair that falls down low over the forehead. Portraiture played a vital role in establishing the public identity of the first imperial family of Rome. This must have been important even in a provincial backwater like Cyprus, since the island was exploited for its natural resources, notably grain and copper.
Height: 37.000 cm
GR 1886.11-13.1 (Sculpture 1882)
Room 72: Ancient Cyprus
Silver bowl from the first Cyprus treasure
The bust of a military saint
Early Byzantine, AD 641-51
From Constantinople or possibly Tarsus (modern Turkey); found west of Kyrenia, Cyprus on the ancient site of Lambousa
This bowl, together with a paten, hexagonal censer and twenty-four spoons, was found at the end of the nineteenth century by villagers quarrying the ruins of ancient Lambousa for building materials.
In the centre of the bowl is a half-length image of a saint, possibly Sergius, an officer in the Roman army who incurred the anger of Emperor Maximian (died AD 310). He is shown beardless and with short curly hair, wearing a military costume which includes a chlamys (cloak) held by a crossbow fibula (brooch) at the shoulder and a type of torc called a maniakion. He holds a Latin cross and is nimbed. A band of engraved and nielloed wave scrolls and linked circles surround him. Another decorated band of acanthus leaves and beading runs along the upper rim of the bowl.
Although the subject matter is Christian, the bowl itself was probably made for domestic use, perhaps by a military man devoted to this particular saint.
This is one of the last silver objects to bear the control stamps which were placed on silver made in official workshops of the Byzantine Empire. Five stamps dated to the reign of emperor Constans II (AD 641-51) are arranged inside the foot-ring. Tarsus in Asia Minor is named twice on one stamp, thus the bowl may have been made there.
Diameter: 24.300 cm
Height: 7.800 cm
Weight: 922.000 g
M&ME 1899,4-25,2
Room 41: Europe AD 300-1100