This headless statuette represents another type of mother goddess figurine, known as the perforated plate type. A short section of the neck is preserved, joining raised shoulders, with linear arms bent horizontally to join at the hips. On her trapezoidal bust, the breasts are depicted in a conical shape. The part of the body corresponding to the lower limbs has a flat ovoid shape, without the characteristic posterior swelling of the buttocks.
The figurine, excavated from the necropolis of Porto Ferro, Alghero, is made of white marble and belongs to the Filigosa culture on the island of Sardinia, which flourished from around 3000-2400 BCE. The populations of this culture lived mainly in parts of central-southern Sardinia. They still used obsidian to produce tools and weapons but copper objects, such as daggers were becoming common. Lead and silver were also smelted. Their economy was focused on pastoralism and agriculture and part of their identity included the worship of warrior ancestors and the creation of megalithic monuments.
A baby crawls on all fours. Though the feet and hands are crudely shaped, and there is little facial detail, the maker has perfectly captured the effort of movement, as the baby tries to move forward using its legs. The figurine was cast, with molten metal poured into a mould and left to solidify. After the metal had cooled off, details were chiselled on the body and face.
Here we get a glimpse of emotions in Bronze Age Crete (c. 3200- 1200 BCE) one of the rare depictions of the young in Minoan art and objects. The figurine was discovered in the Psychro Cave, an ancient Minoan sacred cave in the Lasithi plateau in eastern Crete and is associated with the Diktaean Cave where the god Zeus was born. In use as a sacred place from around 1600 BCE to 700 BCE, the lower of the two chambers at Psychro was filled with many small bronze objects left by dedicators, such as toy double-axes, knife-blades, needles, and figurines, including this figurine of a baby. Human figurines were mostly dedicated in Cretan peak sanctuaries (open air worship sites), but the caves of Psychro and Ida stand out as the only sacred caves that have yielded human figurines.
The necklace is composed of pieces of cardium shell, two atrophic deer canines, a shell-shaped bead and numerous discoidal and elliptical beads cut from shells. The necklace was excavated together with many other types of grave offerings, such as cups, bowls and tripods and a stone brasier in Tomb I, in the locality of Is Calitas Soleminis in Southern Sardinia. The tomb was dug as a pit with unworked walls and could have originally been a natural deposit of clay, emptied and used by the community as a tomb. These types of tombs contained multiple burials with bodies placed one above the other separated by a small quantity of soil. The people who used this cemetery were part of the Bonnanaro culture, a protohistoric culture that flourished between 2200-1800 BCE in Sardinia, considered to be the first stage of the Nuragic civilization. It takes its name from the modern-day community of Bonnanaro in the province of Sassari where in 1889 the eponymous site was discovered. The Bonnanaro sites, mostly burials, are scattered throughout Sardinian, with a higher concentration near the mining regions of Nurra and Sulcis-Iglesiente and in the Campidano. These societies produced high quality ceramics, and they increasingly produced and used metal objects such as swords.
This cylindrical cup with a vertical handle from the palace of Phaistos in south-central Crete, dating to the Middle Minoan period (c.1700-1600BCE). It was used at social events with symbolic connotations. The cup bears impressive Kamares Style polychrome decoration, consisting of geometric and abstract designs painted, in this case, in white and red on dark ground. The Kamares Ware, characteristic of Middle Bronze Age Central Crete, is named after the Kamares Cave on the southern slopes of Mt Psiloritis in south-central Crete, where it was first discovered. Examples of this elaborate and prestigious ware have also been found at the palace of Knossos, in mainland Greece and in Egypt, proof of the strong contacts Minoans had outside Crete in the first half of the second millennium BCE.
Ovoid libation rhyton with black decoration of corals and nautili against a net pattern perhaps representing the seabed, rockwork and seaweed, on a polished buff slip. It was found in the town of Palaikastro in East Crete. It belongs to the Marine Style of the special palatial tradition of the Late Minoan period (c. 1500-1450 BCE). It has a tall neck with a bulky relief collar around the base, a flat everted rim and a small vertical handle. The ovoid body may have been thrown upside-down on the potter’s wheel (in two or more parts made on the wheel or with a combination of wheel and coil technique), producing the narrow conical tip. The upper part of the vase (collar, neck/rim and base) was then added while the body was still damp. The pouring hole in the bottom of the rhyton was used for decanting liquids on special occasions, perhaps libation ceremonies, whose aim was probably the religious and political consolidation or reinforcement of the ruling class of Neopalatial Cretan society. The pictorial theme highlights the role of the sea for the Minoans, who rose to become one of the most important maritime powers of the East Mediterranean during the Neopalatial period (1700-1450 BC).
This signet ring is made with a slightly oval bezel and a hollow loop, with pieces of gold sheet joined together with delicate skill so the joins are not visible, giving the impression of a solid gold object; the lower sheet of the bezel has a lengthwise groove for the finger. The heavy wear to the details of the engraved figures indicates that the signet ring was used frequently before being placed in the tomb with the deceased. The composite scene is an epitome of three key ritual enactments of the “divine epiphany,” the appearance of the divine in earthly objects in order to commune with mortals. In the religion of Minoan Crete (c. 3200- 1200 BCE), the epiphany of a god is often linked visually with a tree. In this ring, a kneeling central figure, wearing a loincloth, is embracing an oval mass (a baetyl, or sacred rock); the second, standing figure, clad in a fine, floor-length garment, is leaning sharply back while shaking the tree; lastly, at the other end of the scene, a large flying bird is associated with a structure, probably made of wood. The bird, the rock and the tree are natural elements believed to be associated with the communion of the divine world with mortals, so the figures may represent priestly figures performing ceremonies/rites invoking the divine. These rings were used to certify their owners’ identity when sealing clay surfaces, which does not exclude the possibility that this precious piece of jewellery was worn on the finger of a priest or priestess who took it with them to the grave. Objects such as signet rings as well as Minoan paintings, statuettes, vessels for rituals and seals give a unique glimpse of key elements of Minoan religion and customs during the Bronze Age period (c. 3200- 1200 BCE).
This copper figurine shows the goddess Astarte as nude female figure with her hair plaited and resting over one of her shoulders. Cast in solid bronze using the lost-wax technique, the figurine’s gesture and nudity relate to her cult as a fertility goddess, like the Cypriot terracotta ‘bird-shaped’ figurines. Astarte was worshipped over thousand of years, from the Bronze Age into Classical antiquity, and from the Levant to Egypt, Cyprus and even as far west as the Iberian Peninsula. Her cult became particularly widespread during the Late Bronze Age (c1200-1100 BCE) period when Phoenician people in the Mediterranean introduced her worship in their colonies.
She is shown standing on a miniature ‘oxhide-ingot’: the form in which copper was shipped between the islands. Only one other ‘Astarte-on-the-Ingot’ figure survives, perhaps thought to ensure the productivity of the mines and protecting the island’s copper industry, at its heyday in the 12th century BCE. We don’t know the exact find spot of this figurine, but it might be part of a group of solid bronze figurines found at Enkomi. Many bronze statuettes, like this one were presented as cult offerings in the shrines of large towns such as Enkomi, where copper smelting took place.
This bronze statuette represents a standing male figure armed with four arms and holding two shields. He wears a long tunic and has his knees protected by greaves. The head is covered by a crested helmet and the hair is styled in long braids that hang down on the chest. Four eyes are depicted on the face. The statuette was presented as an offering to the Iron Age (c. 1000-700 BCE) sanctuary of Abini Teti in Sardinia, during the late phase of the Nuragic culture. A great number of bronze rings, votive swords, bracelets and daggers were excavated at the same site, together with a fascinating repertoire of bronze figurines depicting personages of the Nuragic culture; warriors with spears, shields and helmets with long curved horns, archers, supplicants and people at prayer, a selection of which is presented in this volume, all from the collections of the National Archaeological Museum in Cagliari, Sardinia. This statuette belongs to a popular type, representing the so-called ‘demonic beings’, that is individuals with four eyes, four arms and two shields. This type is interpreted as the expression of the mythical-religious vision which was central to the Nuragic cultural universe. The time of the production of these statuettes spans the end of the Nuragic culture, from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age.
This small stone altar originates from the site of Sulci Tophet, island of Sant’Antioco, off the coast of Sardinia, and contains a dedicatory inscription to Baal Hammon. Baal Hammon, literally meaning “Lord Hammon”, was one of the chief Phoenician deities, whose cult spread from Carthage. He was a weather god considered responsible for the fertility of vegetation and esteemed as King of the Gods, often depicted as a bearded older man with curling ram’s horns.
This inscription dates from the 4th – 3rd ce. BCE, from the Phoenician /Punic phase of the site of Sulci. Sulci was one of the most considerable cities of ancient Sardinia, situated in the southwest corner of the island, on a small island, now called Isola di Sant’Antioco, which is, however, joined to the mainland by a narrow isthmus or neck of sand. South of this isthmus, between the island and the mainland, is an extensive bay, which was known in ancient times as the Sulcitanus Portus. The foundation of Sulci is attributed to the Carthaginians and subsequently became one of the most considerable cities of Sardinia, and one of the chief seats of the Phoenician presence in the island.
A chance discovery by the Swedish Cyprus Expedition in 1929, led to the excavation of a sanctuary of Agia Eirini, in the north-west coast of Cyprus. The uncovered open- air shrine which revealed over 2,000 clay votive figurines, was in use between the Late Bronze Age (1650-1050 BCE) and the end of the 6th ce BCE. Most of the figurines are dated between 625BCE and 500 BCE and they include human figures, sphinxes, minotaurs, priests with bull-masks chariots and four-horse drawn chariots such as the one pictured here. It appears that the god worshiped in the sanctuary combined many attributes, like the modern-day saints celebrated in small rural sanctuaries of modern-day Cyprus. The representation of chariots and quadrigas such as the one pictured here relate with the representation of the god as war god. The rest of the representations (minotaurs, priests) relate with how deeply rooted in Cypriot religion was the worship of fertility.
This rectangular plaque contains a well-carved 10-line dedicatory inscription by Philotas, son of Genthios, to Zeus Soter and Tyche Protogeneia Aienaos in Itanos, a city at the northeast end of Crete. The name and patronym of the dedicator show that he is a Hellenized Illyrian from Epidamnos/Dyrrachium, an old Greek colony on the Adriatic coast (modern Epidamni in Albania), a garrison commander and chiliarch with the honorific title “of the first friends” for his services to the Ptolemaic dynasty of Hellenistic Egypt. His presence in the Cretan city confirms the existence there of a Ptolemaic mercenary force, also attested by earlier (3rd c. BCE) epigraphic testimonies. The city’s key position on the maritime route from the Aegean to the southeast Mediterranean made it ideal for exercising control, together with others selected by the Ptolemies in an attempt to preserve their influence in the wider area. The city of Itanos guaranteed its protection against any overseas or internal Cretan threats as well as its independence and integrity, without compromising on its autonomy, by employing mercenaries. While Zeus Soter was known throughout Greece as a defender of state institutions, Tyche Protogeneia Aienaos, as a hypostasis of Isis, appears to have been introduced to Itanos by the Egyptian troops who considered her their protector.
The statue depicts the birth of Aphrodite as she rises from the sea. One version of the myth of Aphrodite’s birth is that Cronus castrated his father, Uranus, and cast the genitals into the sea. They rose to the surface producing a white foam out of which Aphrodite arose. She was carried on the sea and finally came to rest on the shores of Cyprus. Anadyomene means “rising from the waters”. In this graceful pose, she would have been portrayed with her arms raised (now lost) and holding long tresses of her wet hair in both hands, as though she were just emerging from the sea. This statue type had a profound impact on later artists. The Italian Renaissance painter Sandro Botticelli (1445 – 1510 CE) interpreted the myth of Aphrodite’s Sea birth and created the famous painting The Birth of Venus. In the 1960s a very similar statue found by a farmer while ploughing his field in 1902 became the image that symbolised Cyprus’s ancient connection to Aphrodite. Reproduced in promotional material for tourism, it would also be linked to the famous beach Petra tou Romiou, in the region of Limassol, Cyprus.
The marble statue of Dionysus, originally placed at the Gymnasium of the Roman City of Salamis, at the Northeast of Cyprus, preserves a marble torso, while the head, lower legs and arms are lost. Though made around 100-200 BCE, this was a form created by the Greek sculptor Praxiteles around 400 BCE: the cloak is flung over the left shoulder and draped in various ways over the forearm. It became popular for portraying Hellenistic and Roman rulers. The ancient city of Salamis on the East Coast of Cyprus, where this statue was found in 1891, was occupied from around 1100 BCE, mentioned as a kingdom in Assyrian inscriptions and became a centre for Greek culture in the 4th century BCE. Following the Roman conquest of the island, it became part of the province of Cilicia, and was furnished with a theatre, a stadium, and public baths. This statue was dedicated in the Gymnasium of the city, a public building adorned by numerous statues, extensively rebuilt by Emperors Hadrian and Trajan. The style reflects the fascination of second century CE artists with earlier Greek sculptural forms, meeting the appetite of the city’s elite.
The finely carved relief decoration on the front of this stone coffin depicts Dionysus standing in a chariot, wearing a panther skin, crowned with an ivy wreath, and holding a wooden wand. He is shown returning from India, with an elephant, having given the gift of the grape to the East. Dionysus is accompanied here by a group of human and semi-human revelers. To the left, a female follower (menead) holds a tambourine as her clothes are whisked off in the slipstream of the god’s chariot. A young satyr - the wild and lustful drinking companions of the god - huddles under his protective arm. The chariot is powered by 2 centaurs, often associated in Greek myth with drunkenness and violence. In front of the centaurs the god Pan raps a tambourine while Silenos, the most senior of the satyrs, is shown in an advanced state of drunkenness supported by his Companions. A panther is seen at the head of the procession looking back. The triumphant return of Dionysus from the East was an event celebrated and re-enacted by worshippers of the god at spring festivals and associated with rebirth and new life. Carved in Italy, and then shipped to Crete for the burial of a wealthy individual around 100-200CE, this marble sarcophagus reflects the taste amongst the island’s elite for finely decorated objects in the Roman
This model of a dagger and its sheath belong to a wider tradition of terracotta models made to resemble their real-world counterparts. They are found in tombs and come almost exclusively from the site of Bellapais-Vounous. Despite the obscurity of their meaning as non-functional objects imitating functional ones, these artefacts offer insights on features that are often not preserved on their prototypes, due to their organic nature. In this case, they depict a complete dagger paired with its sheath. We can thus admire all those details that are normally precluded to us by time which leaves archaeologists finding only a metal blade in place of a multi-material, more complex object. Therefore, these models offer precious insights on cross-craft interactions associated with the production of the actual artefacts. Experienced metalsmiths produced the blade of the dagger, which was then attached to a wooden grip, made by mastering wood working crafts. Simultaneously, the various relief and incised motives on the modelled sheath resemble leatherworking, while the two pierced holes found close to the upper part of the sheath imply that it was tied to the rest of the outfit using vegetable threats, hand-spun with spindles. All these suggest that numerous crafts co-operated withing the community of Bellapais-Vounous to produce a ‘simple’ dagger with its sheath.
In the pottery of Early Bronze Age Cyprus, the idea of embellishing a vessel with moulded or plastic decoration was very popular. On this boat shaped pyxis, human figures on the two ends are facing each other, one a man, the other a woman holding a baby at her breast. They symbolise the concept of fertility, so frequently depicted in the art of the period. The entire surface of the vessel is covered with incised decoration. When the craftsmen create pottery of this kind, they were not only making utilitarian objects, but also represented artistic trends and religious beliefs. All three unique objects come from the excavations of the cemetery of Bellapais –Vounous, is located along the central north coast of the island of Cyprus, we will be visiting the site during our press trip. The cemetery was explored in the 1930s by three expeditions revealing two groups of tombs, one with fifty-six tombs and the other with 109 tombs, all dating in the Early Cypriot to the Middle Cypriot period.
This Cypriot barrel-shaped jug was made to carry substantial amounts of liquids, perhaps wine or olive oil. It has an almost perfect elliptical shape, round-bottomed, with a central, cylindrical neck and a large handle strap. The jug is decorated with two symmetric bands of concentric circles around the body, right and left of the handle. Stylised birds or fish fill the remaining space directly beneath the handle. This pottery style, covered in cream-coloured slip and then decorated with black or reddish-brown lines in known as the Cypriot Bichrome ware. Floral, animal, or linear motifs were also painted as part of the style, which was initiated in Cyprus, but also found frequently in the Levant and in Egypt. Bichrome pottery was produced either by hand or on a wheel. The style is also a great marker of the increased mobility, trade, and dissemination of Cypriot artefacts in the neighbouring mainlands and north Africa during the Iron Age period. We know little about the exact function of this peculiar object, which became more well-known between 750-480 BCE, in the ceramic workshops of central and eastern Cyprus, especially at Salamis and Idalion, two of the island’s major urban centres during the Archaic period. Its intricate shape and the advanced skill and special effort the potter who produced it had applied while making it, makes us assume that these barrel-jugs were prestige objects that would have taken a vital role in a feasting occasion, while their owner was alive and an equally vital role in an élite funerary setting, after his/her death. The size of the jug and the volume of liquid it could hold would have made it quite difficult to handle or to pour from. This supports the idea that such jugs, if used at all, were designed for ceremonial, rather than everyday occasions.
The outline of a dolphin or a large fish, is scratched on this naturally curving rock, together with a short inscription in Greek. The inscription gives the name, now mostly lost, of the artist followed by the Greek for ‘drew me.’ The fins are not perfectly correct for a dolphin, but other dolphin carvings are known from south Crete where this was found. The curving shape and colour of the rock may have suggested a diving dolphin. Dolphins.
The pale green jug (oinochoe) was blown out of molten glass and then manipulated while still hot to create the spout and footed base. The ring around the neck and the handle with a thumb plate, are made of a fine aubergine-coloured thread of glass and were added later. Ancient glass production begun during the Bronze Age throughout Western Asia, Egypt, Cyprus, and the Aegean. Early glass vessels often imitated simple forms of stone vessels (particularly a group of vessels called alabastra, used for holding oil or perfume), just like ceramic vessels often imitated metal vessels. The earliest glass production in Cyprus goes back to around 1500 BCE, but the industry died out at 1300 BCE only to resume somewhere around 800 BCE. There are many ways to manufacture glass, but all of them require key ingredients such as silica oxide (sand), alkali (soda ash or natron) and lime (limestone). Cyprus’ abundance in all the above ingredients might account for what gave an important rise to the glass industry on the island. The glass could also be coloured by using metallic oxides of copper or iron, to create green tones such as with this jug. Between 325-58 BCE the Cypriot glass making industry developed rapidly, but the great leap occurred around 100- BCE- 100CE with the discovery of blowing and mould-blowing techniques. Glass artisans discovered that the rod used for core glass could be inflated as with the case of this oinochoe (jug). Glass was one of the commodities of life in roman Cyprus, furnishing people with tableware such as drinking cups, plates, bowls, bottles, and jugs. Their frequent use in life is reflected in how often they are found as grave offerings together with different types of perfume bottles, used as part of the funerary ceremonies.
