Topic
Writing
The scripts used on Cyprus, from undeciphered Cypro-Minoan to the Cypriot syllabary, Eteocypriot inscriptions, Phoenician and the Greek alphabet.
10 entries in 4 sections
Jewelry
1 entrySection overview
Cultures
4 entriesSection overview
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 PhilistinesThe 12th-century BCE newcomers to the southern Levantine coast, whose Aegean-style pottery, hearths and houses derive most directly from Cyprus.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
2 entriesSection overview
Coins of Ancient CyprusThe coins struck in Cyprus from the late sixth century BCE by the city-kingdoms, then by Alexander, the Ptolemies and Rome, and what they record.Cypro-ArchaicCypro-ClassicalHellenisticRoman
Writing and Literacy in Ancient CyprusThe scripts of ancient Cyprus, from undeciphered Cypro-Minoan to the Cypriot Syllabary, Eteocypriot, Phoenician and the Greek alphabet, and who used them.Late Bronze AgeCypro-GeometricCypro-ArchaicCypro-ClassicalHellenistic
Chronology
3 entriesSection overview
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
Cypro-Geometric CyprusThe Early Iron Age of Cyprus, c. 1050–750 BCE, of new dromos tombs, early ironworking, the Cypriot Syllabary and the debated origins of the city-kingdoms.Cypro-Geometric
Cypro-Classical CyprusThe last phase of the Cypriot city-kingdoms, c. 480–310 BCE, under loose Persian overlordship, ending when Ptolemy I abolished the kings.Cypro-Classical