Ancient Cyprus during the Bronze and Early Iron Age

Produced by the History with Cy channel, this short video surveys the history of Cyprus from around 3000 BCE to the Roman takeover in 58 BCE. It opens with the island's geography and copper resources, tracing how early farming communities entered Eastern Mediterranean maritime trade networks dealing in metals, grain, ceramics, ivory, alabaster, and precious stones.

From 0:02:00 the narrator turns to the earliest written references to the island as Alashiya, starting around 1900 BCE in the archives of Mari and continuing in Egyptian and Hittite texts. He notes how longboats and harbours connected Cyprus to Ugarit, Byblos, Tyre, southern Anatolia, the Nile Delta, Sicily, and Sardinia, and mentions the Akkadian correspondence between the kings of Alashiya and Pharaoh Akhenaten in the Amarna Letters alongside the local Cypro-Minoan script, attested on around 250 clay tablets and objects from Cyprus and Ugarit.

At 0:04:00 the video summarizes debates over Mycenaean settlement versus trade, the presence of Greek-speaking communities after the 13th and 12th century BCE collapse, and the disputed account of Ramesses III regarding destruction by the Sea Peoples. Moving into the first millennium BCE, it cites Esarhaddon's prism, which names the island Yadnana and records ten kingdoms there, before contrasting Phoenician trading cities such as Kart Hadasht (Kition) with the Greek centre at Salamis.

The final section (0:06:26) outlines Persian rule from 525 BCE, the Cypriot revolt of 499 to 497 BCE, Cimon's campaign around 450 BCE, the contribution of 120 Cypriot warships to Alexander the Great's siege of Tyre in 332 BCE, and Ptolemy's takeover of the ten kingdoms, retaining only Nicocreon of Salamis, until Roman rule in 58 BCE.