Series·Swedish Cyprus Expedition

Vouni: metalwork and jewellery

199 object photographs

Sites: Vouni, Idalion

These 199 object photographs show metalwork and jewellery from Vouni, the hilltop site on the north-west coast that Alfred Westholm excavated for the Swedish Cyprus Expedition in 1928–1929. The largest group is the Vouni hoard, no. 292, found in a jar hidden under a staircase in the palace before it was destroyed. It held three silver bowls, four gold and about fifteen silver bracelets, two lumps of gold, a silver pendant, four gold coins and 248 silver coins, 150 of them struck at Marion. The photographs show the bowls and the bracelets, some with animal-head or snake-head ends, several of them before cleaning.

The bronzes include the cow, no. 152, found in the Temple of Athena, and a relief of a bull attacked by two lions, no. 150, shown before restoration. There are also bronze and iron arrowheads and spearheads, some from the same temple, fittings, utensils and personal ornaments. Two group photographs mix pieces from other excavations with Vouni numbers. As with most of the expedition's gold, the originals stayed in the Cyprus Museum when the finds were divided, and Stockholm received casts. See the temples, the palace and finds in situ and the excavation.

Sources

Gjerstad, E., Lindros, J., Sjöqvist, E. and Westholm, A. 1937. The Swedish Cyprus Expedition: Finds and Results of the Excavations in Cyprus 1927–1931, vol. III. Stockholm, pp. 109, 238–249, 278, 287.
Hellström, P. 2009. "The Palace of Vouni Revisited". In Medelhavsmuseet: Focus on the Mediterranean 4. Stockholm, pp. 28–42.
Göransson, K. 2012. "The Swedish Cyprus Expedition: The Cyprus collections in Stockholm and the Swedish excavations after the SCE". Cahiers du Centre d'Études Chypriotes 42, pp. 399–421 (p. 411).