Topic
Trade
The exchange of goods between Cyprus and its neighbours, including copper, pottery and luxury objects, and the routes and networks that carried them.
54 entries in 7 sections
Pottery
29 entriesSection overview
Drab Polished WareDrab Polished is a hard-fired Bronze Age ware of western and south-western Cyprus, often with a blue-grey core, and a technological forerunner of Base Ring.Early Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze Age
White Painted WareThe hand-made, pale-slipped Bronze Age pottery of Cyprus painted with dark matt geometric motifs, flourishing in the Middle Bronze Age as WP I to VI.Early Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze Age
Red-on-Black WareRed-on-Black is a handmade Middle Cypriot ware with matt red lines on a dark slip, a regional speciality of the Karpas and north-east Cyprus.Middle Bronze AgeLate Bronze Age
Base Ring WareThe thin-walled, hand-made Late Bronze Age pottery of Cyprus with dark lustrous surfaces imitating metal, widely exported as jugs and juglets.Late Bronze Age
Monochrome WareAn undecorated, handmade Late Cypriot ware with a red to brown slip, best known from small carinated bowls with wishbone handles found at Enkomi and across the Levant.Late Bronze Age
Red Lustrous Wheelmade WareA fine, wheel-thrown, red-burnished Late Bronze Age ware of spindle bottles, flasks and arm-shaped vessels, found in Cyprus, the Levant, Egypt and Anatolia.Late Bronze Age
White Slip WareThe hand-made Late Bronze Age tableware with a thick white slip and dark painted decoration, mostly hemispherical bowls, widely exported from Cyprus.Late Bronze Age
White Shaved WareA Late Bronze Age Cypriot ware of pale handmade dipper juglets, shaved vertically with a knife to a pointed base and widely exported to the Levant.Late Bronze Age
Plain White WareThe undecorated, pale-surfaced pottery of Middle and Late Bronze Age Cyprus, made by hand and later wheel-shaped, the first Cypriot ware formed with the wheel.Middle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-ArchaicCypro-Classical
Bucchero WareA Late Cypriot ware of jugs and juglets with vertically ribbed bodies, close to Base Ring II, handmade at first and wheelmade by Late Cypriot III.Late Bronze AgeCypro-Geometric
Mycenaean Imports and Local ImitationsMycenaean pottery, mostly made in the north-east Peloponnese, was the largest body of imported fine ware in Late Bronze Age Cyprus, and Cypriot potters copied some of its shapes.Late Bronze Age
Bichrome WareBichrome is Cypriot pottery painted in black and red on a light surface, first a Late Bronze Age export ware and later a long-lived Iron Age class.Late Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-ArchaicCypro-Classical
Black-on-Red WareBlack-on-Red is a Cypriot Iron Age wheel-made fine ware with black geometric decoration on a burnished red slip, widely exported from about 900 BCE.Cypro-GeometricCypro-Archaic
Hellenistic and Roman Pottery in CyprusCyprus used a succession of slipped fine wares from c. 310 BCE to the 7th century CE, some made on the island and many imported from Syria, Cilicia and Pamphylia.HellenisticRoman
Greek Pottery in CyprusGreek painted and black-gloss pottery reached Cyprus from the late tenth century BCE, rising from a few Euboean and Attic cups to a flood of Attic ware by the fifth century.Cypro-GeometricCypro-ArchaicCypro-Classical
Medieval Glazed Sgraffito WareWheel-made red-clay tableware coated in white slip, incised through the slip and lead-glazed, made in Cypriot workshops from the 13th to the 16th century AD.
AmphoraA closed jar with two opposed handles, made in Cyprus in belly-handled and vertical-handled painted series and as a basket-handled transport jar.Late Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-Archaic
Baskets and Basket-Handled VesselsNot a standard Cypriot vessel class, "basket" names the arched basket handle, vessels that carry it, the kalathos and a few openwork bowls.Late Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-Archaic
BottlesA narrow-necked closed vessel with no handle or with two, made in Cyprus from the Early Bronze Age to the Hellenistic period, mostly as a small container for liquids.Early Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-ArchaicCypro-ClassicalHellenistic
Coarse Wares, Pithoi and Cooking PotsThe heavily tempered storage, cooking and utility pottery of Cyprus from the Chalcolithic to the Cypro-Classical period, classified mainly by fabric and function.ChalcolithicLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-ArchaicCypro-Classical
FlasksA closed vessel flattened from side to side, common in Cyprus from the Middle Bronze Age, revived as the lentoid pilgrim flask in the Late Bronze Age and made in the Iron Age.ChalcolithicEarly Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-Archaic
Jars and PithoiA symmetrical wide-necked vessel, the family of Cypriot storage and transport jars, pithoi and painted jars, including the amphora.ChalcolithicEarly Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-ArchaicCypro-ClassicalHellenistic
JugletsA juglet is a small one-handled jug with a narrow neck, made in Cyprus in most wares and widely exported as a container for perfumed oil.Early Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-Archaic
Jugs and JugletsA one-handled vessel with a neck, the commonest closed shape in Cypriot pottery, made from the start of the Bronze Age to the Cypro-Classical period.Early Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-ArchaicCypro-Classical
KratersA large open vessel for mixing and serving drink, imported from the Aegean and made locally in Cyprus from the Late Bronze Age onwards.Late Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-ArchaicHellenistic
ShipsThe ship as a pottery subject in Cyprus, modelled in clay from the Late Bronze Age to the Cypro-Archaic period and painted on Iron Age jugs.Middle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-Archaic
The Pottery of Ancient CyprusSectionThe pottery made and used in Cyprus from the Ceramic Neolithic onward, the island's most abundant artifact class and the basis of its chronology.NeolithicChalcolithicEarly Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-ArchaicCypro-ClassicalHellenisticRoman
Triple Crossing LinesGroups of parallel painted lines laid obliquely so that they cross one another, the defining motif of the Middle Bronze Age White Painted Cross Line Style.Middle Bronze Age
White Painted StylesThe decorative styles into which scholars divide handmade Bronze Age White Painted pottery, from WP I String-hole to the WP VI Soft Triglyphic Style.Early Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze Age
Statues
4 entriesSection overview
Archaic Limestone StatuesThe limestone votive statues and statuettes dedicated in Cypriot sanctuaries of the Cypro-Archaic period, many in Egyptianizing dress.Cypro-Archaic
Base Ring Bull VesselsHand-built Base Ring ware pouring vessels in the form of a bull, made in Late Bronze Age Cyprus and found in tombs, settlements and sanctuaries.Late Bronze Age
Herakles-MelqartA Cypriot limestone sculptural type of a god wearing a lion skin and often brandishing a club, fusing the Greek Herakles with the Phoenician Melqart.Cypro-ArchaicCypro-Classical
Temple BoysSmall limestone votive statues of crouching young children, dedicated in Cypriot sanctuaries from the mid-5th century BCE into the Hellenistic period.Cypro-ClassicalHellenistic
Tools and Technologies
7 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
Faience in Ancient CyprusA glazed quartz-paste material found on Cyprus as beads, vessels and amulets from the Chalcolithic onward, though no local workshop has been identified.ChalcolithicMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-Archaic
Glass in Ancient CyprusGlass vessels found on Cyprus from the Late Bronze Age to the Roman period, mostly from tombs, with local workshops argued but never excavated.Late Bronze AgeCypro-ClassicalHellenisticRoman
Gold, Silver, Tin, Arsenic and Iron in Ancient CyprusThe metals other than copper used by Cypriot smiths from the Philia facies to the Hellenistic period, including arsenic, tin, gold, electrum, silver, lead and iron.Early Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-ArchaicCypro-ClassicalHellenistic
Seafaring and Ships in Ancient CyprusThe evidence for boats and seafaring around Cyprus from the first crossings to the Classical period, from anchors, models and graffiti to wrecks and shipsheds.NeolithicEarly Bronze AgeMiddle Bronze AgeLate Bronze AgeCypro-ArchaicCypro-Classical
Stone VesselsContainers ground or carved from stone, the main vessel type of Neolithic Khirokitia and a prestige and cosmetic class again in Late Bronze Age Cyprus.NeolithicChalcolithicLate Bronze AgeCypro-Classical
Weights and IngotsCopper ingots, miniature votive ingots, balance weights and scale pans in Cyprus, from the Late Bronze Age into the Cypro-Geometric and Cypro-Archaic periods.Late Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-Archaic
Cultures
8 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
- Neo-Assyrian Empire and CyprusThe Mesopotamian empire to which the Cypriot kings submitted around 709 BCE, ruling them indirectly as tribute-paying clients.Cypro-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- The PhoeniciansThe Iron Age city-states of the Levantine coast, whose traders and settlers made Kition a Phoenician kingdom and shared a hybrid culture with Cyprus.Cypro-GeometricCypro-ArchaicCypro-Classical
- 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
Daily Life
1 entrySection overview
Chronology
3 entriesSection overview
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
Hellenistic CyprusThe Ptolemaic period in Cyprus, c. 310–31 BCE, when the city-kingdoms were abolished and the island was governed as one province from Nea Paphos.Hellenistic
Materials
2 entriesSection overview
Ivory, Bone, Shell and WoodIvory, bone, shell and wood were the organic raw materials of ancient Cypriot craft; the first three often survive, while wood is known mostly from traces.NeolithicChalcolithicLate Bronze AgeCypro-Archaic
Stone in Ancient CyprusCypriots worked local chert, igneous rocks, picrolite and limestone from the Neolithic onwards, and imported marble, alabaster and gemstones.NeolithicChalcolithicLate Bronze AgeCypro-ArchaicCypro-ClassicalHellenisticRoman