The is located in the eastern Mediterranean Sea, south of Turkey, west of Syria and Lebanon, and southest of Greece, ideally located to become a major link between the Aegean and the Near East. A history of extensive trade contact and numerous immigrations of foreigners resulted in a local culture which bore many signs of foreign influence.听
The earliest evidence for human activity on Cyprus dates back to the Neolithic period, when seasonal hunters visited the island to hunt pygmy elephants and pygmy hippopotami.听The first significant contact with foreign cultures came during the Early Bronze Age (2,600-2,000 B.C.E.),听with a wave of new immigrants to the island. Some types of pottery from this period, specifically听, resembles Anatolian wares, a similarity that听has led to the theory that immigrants from Anatolia (modern Turkey)听were the impetus for Early Bronze Age culture on Cyprus. These newcomers are also thought to have introduced more advanced metallurgical practices, which allowed for the manufacture of objects of copper and its alloy, bronze听(1).听The island was famous in antiquity for .听
Other artifacts dating from this period attest to the presence of trade contacts with Crete and possibly Egypt听(2).
Trade contacts continued to grow throughout the Middle Bronze Age (2,000-1,600 B.C.E.)听and into 听(1,600-1,050 B.C.E.). This increase in trade spurred the development of a writing system for administrative and recordkeeping purposes and thus led to the emergence of what has been labeled by some scholars as a . Cypro-Minoan is labeled as such because scholars have compared it to the听听script of听Crete, home to the contemporary . This view is not universally supported and other evidence indicates Near Eastern influences on Cypriot culture, as well (3).
Around 1,400 B.C.E.,听 merchants, attracted by the potential for trade with the Near East, began immigrating to Cyprus. With them they brought听Mycenaean pottery, which introduced a plethora of new decoration schemes to Cyprus, including the Mycenaean听pictorial style, a famous example of which is the 听(4). Much of the Mycenaean pottery found on Cyprus seems to be imported听from the Greek mainland, but some scholars think there were Mycenaean potters living on Cyprus and interacting with local potters (5).听The existence of Mycenaean pots that imitate听traditional Cypriot shapes supports this theory (6).
In the CU Art Museum's collection is an Early Iron Age juglet from Cyprus听that demonstrates some of the blend of local and foreign influences in Cypriot art.
听on the east coast of Cyprus,听dating to the 8th and 7th centuries B.C.E., provide a perfect example of the island's central position between the Aegean and听the Near East. The tombs contain a wealth of grave goods from both east and west (7).听A large听Geometric period Greek krater听was found alongside with local Cypriot wares, Phoenician goods executed in an Egyptian manner, and a number of locally made and imported听Near Eastern-style bronze objects (8).听The most impressive of these are two massive听hammered bronze听tripod cauldrons. One of them is decorated with听griffin protomes听and听siren attachments, decorations that suggest it may have been locally made with influence from North Syria or听, providing听a crucial link between tripod听cauldrons found in the Aegean and Italy and their supposed Near Eastern origins (9).听
This essay was written to accompany a听collection of Greek artifacts at the CU Art Museum.听
Collections of Cypriot Antiquities Online:听
- 听at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York
- 听at the Institute of Cypriot Studies at SUNY Albany in New York
Footnotes
- Vassos 碍补谤补驳别辞谤驳丑颈蝉,听Cyprus from the Stone Age to the Romans听(London: Thames and Hudson Ltd., 1982): 40-41.
- 碍补谤补驳别辞谤驳丑颈蝉,听Cyprus from the Stone Age to the Roman:听46.
- 碍补谤补驳别辞谤驳丑颈蝉,听Cyprus from the Stone Age to the Roman:听63-66.
- Emily Vermeule,听Mycenaean Pictorial Vase Painting听(Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press,1982): 6-9.
- A. D. Lacy,听Greek Pottery in the Bronze Age听(London: Methuen & Co. Ltd., 1967): 167-168.
- 碍补谤补驳别辞谤驳丑颈蝉,听Cyprus from the Stone Age to the Romans: 79.
- 碍补谤补驳别辞谤驳丑颈蝉,听Cyprus from the Stone Age to the Romans鈥�:听112-113.
- 碍补谤补驳别辞谤驳丑颈蝉,听Cyprus from the Stone Age to the Romans鈥�: 130-134.
- Vassos 碍补谤补驳别辞谤驳丑颈蝉,听The Ancient Civilization of Cyprus听(New York: Cowles Education Corporation, 1969): 155-156.