Cypriot Ceramics at the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology

Produced by the Kelsey Museum of Archaeology as part of its Artifact Explorations series, this three-minute video introduces Cypriot ceramics in the museum and the overseas contacts that shaped them.

The narrator begins with Cyprus's position in eastern Mediterranean trade networks from the Early Bronze Age, stating that settlers from Turkey brought knowledge of copper working to an island with plentiful mines. Copper exports linked Cyprus to Egypt, Syria, the Levant, Turkey and Greece. To illustrate reciprocal cultural influences on the island, the video points to finds made of foreign materials such as Egyptian alabaster and a Cypriot sculpture combining an Egyptian-style headdress with a Greek-style beard.

Turning to the Middle Bronze Age, the narrator presents White Painted ware, a light-ground pottery decorated with abstract motifs in dark red or black. Although Cypriot potters probably knew how to use the potter's wheel, they often opted for hand-formed vessels like those on display, which were shipped across the eastern Mediterranean. The video also highlights ring-base ware and milk bowls, explaining that the milk bowl takes its name from a modern Cypriot vessel still used for milking sheep and goats, and that some archaeologists argue its near-perfect hemispherical shape was formed over gourds.

The final segment covers the arrival of Greek refugees from collapsing Mycenaean centres by 1000 BCE and Phoenician settlers by the 9th century BCE. Potters of this period produced Bichrome wares painted in two distinct colours and decorated with concentric circles applied using a compass with multiple brushes, as seen on an oinochoe in the display.