| EARLY BRONZE (EARLY CYPRIOT) |
2500-2000 BC
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| From modest beginnings in the river valleys north of the Troodos Mountains, Early Bronze (or Early Cypriot) occupation spread widely throughout the island. Only the central plain, still heavily wooded at this early period, and the central mountain range remained vacant. The availability of water and arable land seem to have determined choice of location, while access to copper ore deposits in the Troodos foothills and to harbors on the coast were apparently of no importance. | ||
| Native copper was known and worked in the preceding Chalcolithic period, but the mining and smelting of copper ore in Cyprus did not develop until the Early Bronze Age, under the influence of more advanced technology on the Anatolian mainland to the North. Despite the growing importance of indigenous metallurgy and the export potential of copper, the economy and society of Early Bronze Age Cyprus remained primarily agricultural. The reintroduction of cattle, of the ox-drawn plough and of beasts of burden such as the donkey transformed the island's agriculture. | ||
| The Early Bronze Age is known from cemeteries throughout the island. Hundreds of burials have been discovered at Lapithos, Vounous, Kalavassos and Episkopi. The graves contained quantities of implements in copper or bronze (forged, cast, then hammered), along with Red Polished pottery, a new style recalling Anatolian prototypes characterized by multi-tiered shapes with long curving spouts and modelled decoration. Pottery models found in graves at the very end of the period depict Early Bronze Age life in miniature, from agricultural labor to cultic worship. Two settlements, Marki Alonia, south of modern Nicosia, and Sotira Kaminoudhia on the southwest coast, are the only ones so far excavated. |
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An Early Cypriot Tomb from Bellapais Vounous
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This tomb was found in Cemetery A at Bellapais Vounous near Kyrenia on the north coast of the island. It has a simple, rock-cut circular chamber containing two burials, each of a man, belonging to different time periods. The intact skeleton on the right is later than the fragmentary one on the left, which was pushed aside to make space; at this point, only its long bones can be clearly seen in the drawing. 16 tomb gifts were included: ceramic vessels and objects of metal. Object no. 16, in the top center, is a tanged copper blade very similar to the Semitic Museum's Cesnola Collection object no. 1995.10.1205.
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Last Modified: 11/15/99
