Antiquities Exhibits

In her book, Animals in Roman Life and Art, the late professor Jocelyn Toynbee explains that the appearance of animals in Greco-Roman art, especially funeral art, are not allusions to a particular occupation or favorite food item but symbolize the existence of idyllic peace and plenty in paradise, either existing within the home or in the anticipated afterlife.  The Greek word for paradise derived from the eastern term "paradeisos" was first used by Xenophon to describe the extensive parks of the Persian kings that were planted with luxuriant flora and stocked with a variety of wild creatures. This symbolism extends back as the Chalcolithic period.  Scholars have noted a marked preference for askoi of zoomorphic forms on Cyprus suggesting that, at least there, askoi had a cultic and ritual use.  They point to the vessel's ancient name reflecting an object made of animal leather as proof of further assocation with animals, enough so that the term is now primarily used to s...

According to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, spirals with ornate animal-head terminals are frequently found in Cypriot tombs of the Classical period. Terracotta and limestone votive statues illustrate that from the Archaic through the Classical period it was customary for Cypriot men and women to wear such ornaments in large holes pierced through their earlobes. When I saw these earrings, I wondered if this Cypriot practice of making large holes in their earlobes to accommodate these ornaments was a local fashion or adopted as a result of Persian rule beginning in 545 BCE, especially since most examples I have seen  are dated between the late 6th century to the 5th century BCE. I managed to find images of Achaemenid bracelets similarly made of gold tubing but each example of similar earrings I found in my research were all labeled Cypriot. Since the Cypriots were ruled by the Assyrians and even the Egyptians for a short time, I researched the jewelry of those cultures as well but f...

I've photographed a number of huge bronze cauldrons, including spectacular examples found in the Midas Mound Tumulus at Gordion in Turkey. But I had never given any thought as to how these huge vessels were transported when full.  I had assumed they were carried manually by servants.  But today, while researching something else, I came across images of wheeled stands that were used to transport large cauldrons in ancient Cyprus.  Somehow I must have overlooked these interesting objects on my visits to both the British Museum and the Neues Museum in Berlin.   Bronze wheeled stand for a cauldron with an animal frieze on the ring and figures in the side panels. The panels depict a seated harp-player approached by a musician and a serving boy, a winged sphinx, a lion gripping a water bird by its neck, and a chariot, Cypriot, 13th or 12th century BCE, at the British Museum courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor George Groutas. Wheeled stand for a cauldron, bronze,...

Although the Hellenistic Egyptian historian Manetho portrayed the Hyksos invasion of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period as violent and brutal, archaeology points to an Asiatic presence at Avaris, which would become the center of Hyksos activity for over 150 years before the beginning of Hyksos rule.  Evidence indicates a gradual Canaanite settlement beginning during the 12th Dynasty around 1800 BCE.  Egyptologist Manfred Bietak points out that Egypt had long depended on the Levant for expertise in areas of shipbuilding and seafaring, with possible depictions of Asiatic shipbuilders being found from reliefs from the Sixth Dynasty ruler Sahure. The Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt is known to have had many Asiatic immigrants serving as soldiers, household or temple serfs, and various other jobs. Avaris in the Nile Delta attracted many Asiatic immigrants in its role as a hub of international trade and seafaring. When the last pharaoh of the Egyptian 13th Dynasty, Sobekhotep IV d...

The Persians did not use cavalry to a great extent until Cyrus the Great  gave the Persian nobility both horses and the wealth to maintain them from the proceeds of his western conquests. He encouraged them to ride and it became a source of disgrace for a Persian noble to be seen walking.  Cyrus then recruited his cavalry from the nobles, creating a regiment of 15,000 men drawn from the Huvaka or “kinsmen.” These kinsmen adopted brightly-colored trousers and shorter tunics that were more suitable for riding from the Medes.  Cyrus adopted cavalry tactics from the Khorassan horsemen of northeastern Iran, parts of modern Afghanistan and the southern parts of Central Asia. He initially armed his cavalry with the standard weapons of the Persian infantrymen: bows, battle-axes, and oval shields. Later, they were re-equipped with short stabbing swords and throwing javelins instead. Long lances and spears made of wood or entirely of metal were used too. In the mid-5th century Pers...

Despite rule by artistically sophisticated cultures including the Assyrians and the Egyptians, some Cypriots of the Archaic Period produced simple handmade figurines with crude faces, cylindrical bodies and plain clay trail or pellets to form hats, eyes, ears, etc., known as the snowman technique. Predominantly found in a sanctuary context, these models included not only priestesses and worshipers, but scribes, actors, musicians, mythological creatures, animals, and scenes of rural life. "Male figurines (soldiers, horsemen, charioteers, worshipers) are usually associated with sanctuaries of male divinities. A characteristic example is the sanctuary of Ayia Irini on the northwest coast of Cyprus. Here, a huge number of terracotta figurines of various sizes (even life-size) were found placed around the altar. Dated in the Cypro-Archaic period (7th-6th c. BCE), they are considered dedications associated with a male divinity that seems to have been worshiped in more than one capacity....

Only a handful of these funerary colonettes, referred to as cippi, decorated with portrait busts, have been recovered from Roman Cyprus.  The Museum of Cycladic Art points out that this type of grave marker was used commonly from the Late Hellenistic to the Late Roman period in several parts of Cyprus, such as Limmasol (Amathous), Larnaca (Kition), Famagusta (Ammochostos) and Kyrenia but the majority are simply inscribed with the deceased name, sometimes the name of the father or spouse, and expressions of condolence such as "no one is immortal."  The Metropolitan Museum of Art compares their appearance during this period to the development of personalized Egyptian painted portraits around the same time. I couldn't help but see the resemblence of these grave markers to chess pieces, though.There may be absolutely no connection at all but I found it interesting that the game of chess is thought to have originated around the same time (or possibly earlier) in the Gupta Empi...

Cyprus, the third largest island in the Mediterranean, located north of Egypt and west of the Levant, was considered a strategic site  in the ancient world and subsequently occupied by the Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans.  During the Cypriot Archaic Era (c. 750 BCE to 475 BCE), the island was ruled by Sargon II of Assyria, starting in 709 BCE when the Assyrians extorted taxes from Cyprus in exchange for their independence.  But, by 699 BCE the Assyrians withdrew because of conflicts elsewhere and the Egyptian Pharaoh Amasis II (also known as Ahmose II) claimed the island around 560 BCE. According to Herodotus, Amasis was of common origins and originally an officer in the Egyptian army. He campaigned in Nubia under the Pharaoh Psamtik II in 592 BCE and rose to the rank of general.  Psamtik II was succeeded by his son, Apries (also known as Waphres of Manetho). Apries led an expedition in an attempt to protect Libya from incursions by Dorian Greek in...

The early documented history of Cyprus begins with an inscribed stele commemorating a victory by Sargon II (722–705 BCE) of Assyria there in 709 BCE.  Assyrian domination of Cyprus appears to have begun earlier than this, though, during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III (744–727 BCE), and ended with the fall of the Neo Assyrian Empire in 609 BCE, whereupon the city-kingdoms of Cyprus gained independence once more. Following a brief period of Egyptian domination in the sixth century BCE, Cyprus fell under Persian rule. Royal palaces excavated on Cyprus resemble the architecture of Achaemenid examples like Persepolis, with audience chambers, open courtyards, bathhouses, and stores.  Town fortifications and houses were built of mudbrick walls on stone foundations. Early Greek influence is reflected in Cypriot sculpture, however.  Archaic Greek art with its attractive smile on the face of the statue is found on many ritual pieces dating between 525–475 BCE although portrait sc...

The island of Cyprus has been inhabited by humans since at least 10,000 BCE.  During the late Bronze Age the island experienced two waves of Greek settlement, around 1400 BCE, and,  following the Bronze Age collapse of Mycenaean Greece, from 1100 to 1050 BCE.  Literary evidence also suggests an early Phoenician presence at Kition which was under Tyrian rule at the beginning of the 10th century BCE. It is thought Phoenician merchants colonized the area and expanded the political influence of Kition. Then, Cyprus was conquered by Assyria, first during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III (744-7242 BCE), then by Sargon II (722-705 BCE). Assyrian hegemony ended with the fall of the Neo Assyrian Empire in 609 BCE.  The city-kingdoms of Cyprus gained their independence for a short time before domination by Egypt in the sixth century BCE, followed by Persia in 545 BCE.  In 499 BCE, the Cypriots, led by Onesilus, king of Salamis, joined the Greeks in the unsuccessful I...

Terracotta jug in the shape of an African head, Roman Cyprus, 3rd century CE at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. The unique geographic location of Cyprus at the crossroads of seafaring trade in the eastern Mediterranean made it an important center for trade and commerce in antiquity. Already in the Early Bronze Age (ca. 2500–1900 B.C.) and Middle Bronze Age (ca. 1900–1600 B.C.), Cyprus had established contacts w ith Minoan Crete and, subsequently, Mycenaean Greece, as well as with the ancient civilizations of the Near East (Syria and Palestine), Egypt, and southern Anatolia. In 570 BCE, Cyprus was conquered by Egypt under Amasis II. This brief period of Egyptian domination left its influence mainly in the arts. Some ceramics recovered on Cyprus feature men wearing Egyptian wigs and Assyrian-style beards. The influence of Egypt would continue during and after the wars of Alexander's successors. The largest city and kingdom of Cyprus, Salamis, strongly supported P...

Cyprus: Island on the Move through March 15, 2020 at the Rijksmuseum Van Oudheden in Leiden, Netherlands. More than four hundred objects including three hundred archaeological masterpieces from the national collections of Cyprus are presented in this exploration of the history and cultural diversity of this archaeologically rich island. A story covering more than nine thousand years, visitors will see Aphrodite statues of marb le, luxury goods from the Near East and Egypt, gold jewelry, imaginative pottery with lively animal figures, decorated bronze kettles and weapons, colorful mosaics and a silver-inlaid king throne. Image: Dated between 460-450 BCE, this Cypriot male portrait with almond-shaped eyes and the 'archaic' smile is typical of a Greek image of the period. However, the curled beard reflects the fashion of the Persian court as 5th century BCE Cyprus was ruled by the Persians. Image courtesy of the museum.