Copper
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Cyprus had, in relation to its size, the richest copper deposits in the ancient world, making it the major supplier in the Mediterranean. From the prehistoric period until the Christian era, the island produced an estimated 200,000 tons of copper. The name for the metal may have come from the name of the island.
Copper metallurgy developed rapidly on Cyprus during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Artifacts made of copper or copper alloy, using imported tin, or local arsenical copper, were extremely numerous. Most were simply manufactured, utilitarian implements, cast in open molds and then forged into a range of shapes. Characteristic were daggers (or knives), razors, axes, chisels, tweezers, awls, as well as large spearheads, many of which had prototypes or parallels in Anatolia.
Cypriot facility in copper metallurgy and the island's wealth in the raw material helped draw Cyprus out of isolation and onto the international scene during the late Bronze Age. At Enkomi statuettes of both male and female deities standing on miniature oxhide ingots have been found. At Kition and Tamassos copper workshops incorporated into temple complexes suggest a connection between religion and metalworking. Even with the coming of the Iron Age, copper was much sought after. The Phoenicians of Kition and their Persian allies seized control of the native production network that connected the mines at Tamassos and the smelters at Idalion. The Hellenistic rulers of Egypt, the Ptolemies, took over the mines and put their own officials in charge. Later, the Romans leased the mines to the highest bidder.
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 An
intact twin of this metal double-spouted lamp appears in Plate XLIV of
Volume III in Cesnola's Atlas. Now in the Metropolitan Museum of
Art (no. CB 414), this is one of only a few metal double-spouted lamp
in Cesnola's collection. Ceramic lamps with double spouts are common across
the Mediterranean, especially at Phoenician sites in North Africa, Sicily,
Sardinia, and Spain. The Semitic Museum's Cesnola collection has over
100 single-spouted ceramic lamps dating from the Late Bronze Age to the
Byzantine era. |
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 These
items were once incorrectly called swords, but they are more properly
identified as spearheads. Distinctive for their long tangs (the small
portion that was fitted into the handle), with a turned end to hold it
in place, they were used in daily life and also were gifts for the dead.
Sets of weapons and tools - a spear, dagger/knife, a whetstone, and sometimes
an awl - occur regularly though not frequently in Early and Middle Bronze
Age tomb groups, suggesting that they may be status symbols of an elite
class of warriors or head men. There is one example in the bottom of this
case in which a spearhead was deliberately broken before being placed
in the tomb, to prevent it from being taken and reused. |
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 This
slightly irregularly shaped round disk is an ancient mirror - once, in
its prime, bright and shiny! We are not sure of its exact metal composition.
The disk was normally convex on the reflective side, producing an image
that was smaller than life. The mirrors in the Semitic Museum's collection
range in date from the Early Iron Age to the Roman period. Mirrors in
the ancient world are known in three forms: first, those that were held
in the hand; second, those attached to a handle or stand; and third, some
that were made into or placed inside of a small box, rather like a modern
compact. Mirrors were found in tombs of both men and women. |