From the contents:00I. Introduction0II. Archaeological Background0III. Neolithic figurines0IV. Chalcolithic stone figurines0V. Chalcolithic pottery figurines0VI. Chalcolithic picrolite figurines0VII. Chalcolithic figurative pendants0VIII. Further observations and considerations0IX. The Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cypriot figurines in their entirety0X. Summary0XI. Appendices0XII. Catalogue0Maps0Plates.
This collection of papers presents the results of a symposium held at the Getty Museum in February 1990. Recent archaeological excavations provide evidence that Cyprus had a great cultural and economic importance during the Bronze Age. The contributors discuss aspects of the Bronze Age as they relate to Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean. Topics include the economy of the period, its basis in the exploitation of metals and stone, Cyprus’s international influence on trade, and religion and evidence of that influence though interpretation of archaeological sites and artifacts.
"The Cesnola Collection in The Metropolitan Museum of Art is the richest and most varied representation, outside Cyprus, of Cypriot antiquities. These works were purchased by the newly established Museum in the mid-1870s from General Luigi Palma di Cesnola, a Civil War cavalry officer who had amassed the objects while serving as the American consul on Cyprus." "This catalogue is published on the occasion of the opening of the Museum's four permanent galleries for ancient art from Cyprus. It is also the first scholarly publication since 1914 devoted to the Cesnola Collection (which totals approximately six thousand objects). The volume features some five hundred pieces from the collection, illustrated in new color photography. Dating from about 2500 B.C. to about A.D. 300, these works rank among the finest examples of Cypriot art from the prehistoric, Geometric, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. Among the objects are monumental sculpture; weapons, tools, and domestic utensils; vases, lamps, and ritual paraphernalia; dedicatory figurines; engraved sealstones and jewelry; and luxury objects."--BOOK JACKET.Title Summary field provided by Blackwell North America, Inc. All Rights Reserved
The Cesnola Collection of antiquities from Cyprus preserves the island’s artistic traditions from prehistoric through Roman times and represents the first large group of ancient Mediterranean works to enter the museum’s collection. This catalogue, which focuses on Cypriot terracottas, was originally published in 2004 as a CD-ROM, and is now available in a more accessible format. It contains nearly 500 works dating from between about 2000 B.C. and the 2nd century A.D. from one of the most expansive collections of Cypriot art in the world. Illustrations of each object are accompanied by a detailed catalogue entry, including a brief bibliography. In addition, fifteen commentaries make the catalogue a perfect introduction to Cypriot terracottas and the colorful world of ancient life and mythology.
Since the division of Cyprus in 1974, fieldwork has carried on unabated in the south although relatively few excavation or survey projects have been undertaken in the north. This is therefore an important publication presenting results from field survey in the area around Kyrenia. Muege Sevketoglu begins with the background to the history of survey in Cyprus before outlining his own research design, survey methodology and aims. This survey project, focusing on the Aceramic Neolithic, Neolithic and Chalcolithic periods, aimed to reassess and re-survey known sites, monitor the condition of existing sites and discovered a number of new ones. The resultant data, and the methodology used, are assessed at the end. More than half of the volume is occupied by figures.
The latest finds--architectural remains, burial objects, stone artifacts, pottery, and copper objects--from recent excavations indicate that Cyprus played a more pivotal role in pre-Bronze Age socioeconomic development than was previously thought. This book describes findings from excavations at Lemba, the site where the most important new information about this period has been uncovered. Included are illustrations of many previously unpublished or unexhibited materials from both the Cyprus Museum and the J. Paul Getty Museum. This book serves as a catalog to the February 1990 exhibition held at the J. Paul Getty Museum.
The Chalcolithic period in Cyprus has been known since Porphyrios Dikaios’ excavations at Erimi in the 1930s and through the appearance in the antiquities market of illicitly acquired anthropomorphic cruciform figures, often manufactured from picrolite, a soft blue-green stone. The excavations of the settlement and cemetery at Souskiou Laona reported on in this volume paint a very different picture of life on the island during the late 4th and early 3rd millennia BC. Burial practices at other known sites are generally single inhumations in intramural pit graves, only rarely equipped with artifacts. At Souskiou, multiple inhumations were interred in deep rock-cut tombs clustered in extra-mural cemeteries. Although the sites were also subjected to extensive looting, excavations have revealed complex multi-stage burial practices with arrangements of disarticulated and articulated burials accompanied by a rich variety of grave goods. Chief among these are a multitude of cruciform figurines and pendants. This unusual treatment of the dead, which has not been recorded elsewhere in Cyprus, shifts the focus from the individual to the communal, and provides evidence for significant changes involving kinship group links to common ancestors. Excavations at the Laona settlement have furnished evidence suggesting that it functioned as a specialised center for the procurement and manufacture of picrolite during its early phase. The subsequent decline of picrolite production and the earliest known occurrence of new types of ornaments, such as faience beads and copper spiral pendants, attest to important changes involving the transformation of personal and social identities during the first centuries of the 3rd millennium BC, a topic that forms a central theme of this final report on the site.
