The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art: Terracotta Oil Lamps
The Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art: Terracotta Oil Lamps

Author: Christopher S. Lightfoot

Publisher: Metropolitan Museum of Art

Published: 2021-05-21

Total Pages: 368

ISBN-13: 1588397246

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The fourth catalogue in a series that documents the renowned Cesnola Collection of Cypriot Art, this book focuses on the collection’s 453 terracotta oil lamps dating from the Classical, Hellenistic, Roman, and Early Byzantine periods. The rich iconography on many of these common, everyday objects provides a rare look into daily life on Cyprus in antiquity and highlights the island’s participation in Roman artistic and cultural production. Each lamp is illustrated, and the accompanying text addresses typology, decoration, and makers’ marks on each of these objects that provide new insights into art, craft, and trade in the ancient Mediterranean.

A Study of the Circulation of Ceramics in Cyprus from the 3rd Century BC to the 3rd Century AD
A Study of the Circulation of Ceramics in Cyprus from the 3rd Century BC to the 3rd Century AD

Author: John Lund

Publisher: Aarhus Universitetsforlag

Published: 2015-10-26

Total Pages: 390

ISBN-13: 8771244514

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This is the first monograph devoted solely to the ceramics of Cyprus in the Hellenistic and Roman Periods. The island was by then no longer divided into kingdoms but unified politically, first under Ptolemaic Egypt and later as a province in the Roman Empire. Submission to foreign rule was previously thought to have diluted - if not obliterated - the time-honoured distinctive Cypriot character. The ceramic evidence suggests otherwise. The distribution of local and imported pottery in Cyprus points to the existence of several regional exchange networks, a division that also seems reflected by other evidence. The similarities in material culture, exchange patterns and preferential practices are suggestive of a certain level of regional collective self-awareness. From the 1st century BC onwards, Cyprus became increasingly engulfed by mass produced and standardized ceramic fine wares, which seem ultimately to have put many of the indigenous makers of similar products out of business - or forced them to modify their output. Also, the ceramic record gradually became less diverse during the Roman Period than before - developments which we today might be inclined to view as symptoms of an early form of globalisation.

Tomb Robberies at the End of the New Kingdom
Tomb Robberies at the End of the New Kingdom

Author: Valentina Gasperini

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Published: 2018-06-21

Total Pages: 340

ISBN-13: 0192550810

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At the end of the 19th century W.M.F. Petrie excavated a series of assemblages at the New Kingdom Fayum site of Gurob. These deposits, known in the Egyptological literature as 'Burnt Groups', were composed by several and varied materials (mainly Egyptian and imported pottery, faience, stone and wood vessels, jewellery), all deliberately burnt and buried in the harem palace area of the settlement. Since their discovery these deposits have been considered peculiar and unparalleled. Many scholars were challenged by them and different theories were formulated to explain these enigmatic 'Burnt Groups'. The materials excavated from these assemblages are now curated at several Museum collections across England: Ashmolean Museum, British Museum, Manchester Museum, and Petrie Museum. For the first time since their discovery, this book presents these materials all together. Gasperini has studied and visually analysed all the items. This research sheds new light on the chronology of deposition of these assemblages, additionally a new interpretation of their nature, primary deposition, and function is presented in the conclusive chapter. The current study also gives new information on the abandonment of the Gurob settlement and adds new social perspective on a crucial phase of the ancient Egyptian history: the transition between the late New Kingdom and the early Third Intermediate Period. Beside the traditional archaeological sources, literary evidence ('The Great Tomb Robberies Papyri') is taken into account to formulate a new theory on the deposition of these assemblages.