Series·Swedish Cyprus Expedition

Ayia Irini: seals and gems

334 object photographs

Site: Ayia Irini-Palaeokastro

These 334 object photographs show the scarabs, scaraboids and other seals from the sanctuary of Ayia Irini, near the north-west coast of Cyprus. The site was found in November 1929, when the village priest brought a terracotta statue from his field to the Cyprus Museum, and the Swedish Cyprus Expedition excavated it with Erik Sjöqvist in charge. SCE II traces the cult from Late Cypriote III to the end of the Cypro-Archaic period.

Apart from the sculptures, SCE II names scarabs first among the votive offerings. They were found with small objects of iron, bronze, faience, glass, stone and bone, mainly on the floors of shelters built along the west and north walls of the Archaic temenos, together with animal bones and shells. The volume suggests they were hung in these shelters to commemorate ritual meals. Its object register describes each seal by material (steatite, faience, white paste, stone), by a type code, and by the scene or signs cut on the base.

Many of the prints are close views of the engraved bases; 81 are drawings or sketches. Most labels give only "Glyptic" and the find number (A.I.2280), which leads to the entry in SCE II. The terracotta figures and the fieldwork photographs cover the rest of the site.

Sources

Gjerstad, E., Lindros, J., Sjöqvist, E. and Westholm, A. 1935. The Swedish Cyprus Expedition: Finds and Results of the Excavations in Cyprus 1927–1931, vol. II. Stockholm, pp. 642 and 820–824.