Topic
Copper
The island's copper ores, how they were mined and smelted, and how the metal shaped the wealth, trade and foreign relations of ancient Cyprus.
20 entries in 7 sections
Weapons and Armour
2 entriesSection overview
Weapons and Armour of Ancient CyprusSectionThe weapons, armour and fortifications of ancient Cyprus, from Neolithic projectile points to the iron swords and war imagery of the Iron Age kingdoms.NeolithicChalcolithicEarly Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-Archaic
Weapons of Bronze Age CyprusThe copper and bronze weapons of Bronze Age Cyprus, from Philia hook-tang spearheads and riveted daggers to the Naue II swords and greaves of Enkomi.Early Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze Age
Tools and Technologies
2 entriesSection overview
Copper Metallurgy in Ancient CyprusThe mining, smelting and casting of the Troodos sulphide ores, from hammered Chalcolithic native copper to Late Bronze Age oxhide ingots and Archaic slag heaps.ChalcolithicEarly Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-Archaic
Tools and Technologies of Ancient CyprusSectionThe crafts and technologies of ancient Cyprus, from Neolithic stone and bone toolkits through copper metallurgy and the potter's wheel to early iron.NeolithicChalcolithicEarly Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-Geometric
Cultures
6 entriesSection overview
EgyptAncient Egypt, Cyprus's partner in copper, pottery and prestige goods from the Middle Kingdom to the Ptolemies, who annexed the island.Middle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-ArchaicCypro-ClassicalHellenistic
Hittite Empire and CyprusThe Late Bronze Age Anatolian empire that claimed Alashiya as a tributary but left almost no material trace on Cyprus.Late Bronze Age- Neighboring CulturesSectionCyprus's relations with Anatolia, the Levant, Egypt, the Aegean and the Near Eastern empires, from the Chalcolithic to the Cypro-Archaic period.ChalcolithicEarly Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-Archaic
The MinoansThe palatial Bronze Age civilization of Crete, which took Cypriot copper and passed writing to Cyprus in the early Late Bronze Age.Early Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze Age
The Mycenaeans and CyprusThe palatial Late Bronze Age societies of mainland Greece, whose pottery flooded Cypriot coastal towns in the 14th and 13th centuries BCE.Late Bronze Age- Ugarit and the LevantThe Syrian port kingdom of Ugarit and the wider Levantine coast, Cyprus's closest Bronze Age trading partners across the water.Middle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-Geometric
Mortuary Practices
1 entrySection overview
Daily Life
3 entriesSection overview
Village Life in Middle Bronze Age CyprusEveryday life in Middle Cypriot villages, where households farmed, herded and made their own pots, copper tools and thread in courtyard compounds.Middle Bronze Age
Village Life in Late Bronze Age CyprusRural life in Late Cypriot Cyprus outside the towns, pieced together from a few excavated farming, mining, storage and pottery-making sites.Late Bronze Age
Medicine and Healing in Ancient CyprusDisease, drugs, doctors and healing cults in ancient Cyprus, from Neolithic skeletons to the physician Onasilos of Idalion in the early fifth century BCE.NeolithicLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-ArchaicCypro-Classical
Environment
1 entrySection overview
Chronology
5 entriesSection overview
Chalcolithic CyprusThe period c. 3900–2500 BCE of circular villages, Red-on-White pottery, picrolite cruciform figures and the island's first small-scale copper working.Chalcolithic
Early Bronze Age CyprusThe period c. 2500–1950 BCE, from the Philia phase through Early Cypriot I–III, of rectilinear villages, Red Polished pottery and chamber-tomb cemeteries.Early Bronze Age- Middle Bronze Age CyprusThe Middle Cypriot period, c. 1950–1650 BCE, of multi-roomed village houses, White Painted pottery, growing copper production and the first overseas trade.Middle Bronze Age
- Late Bronze Age CyprusThe Late Cypriot period, c. 1650–1050 BCE, when copper exports made Cyprus an urban, literate trading power before the crisis around 1200 BCE.Late Bronze Age
Roman CyprusCyprus as a Roman province from 58 BCE to the fourth century CE, governed from Nea Paphos, mined for copper, and finally wrecked by earthquakes.Roman