Cyprus has a long and eventful history. The island lies in the eastern Mediterranean, where the cultures of Anatolia, Assyria, the Levant, Egypt, and Greece flourished in antiquity. Each of these great civilisations has left its mark on the history of Cyprus, through commercial ties, migration, conflicts, and technological innovations. The mining of copper in the Troodos Mountains led to lively trade, greatly boosting the prosperity of the island's various kingdoms. These independent states maintained relations with all the neighbouring states, leading to a cultural melting pot of languages, customs, and religions. Yet certain elements can be seen as truly Cypriot down the ages: the widespread veneration of the goddess Aphrodite, who was born from the foam of the waves off the island's west coast, the unique character of the arts in the Bronze and Iron Ages, and a marked capacity to absorb foreign influences without sacrificing the island's own distinctive character.0This book introduces readers to the main landmarks in the history of Cyprus. Various topics in the island's archaeological past are discussed, each one written by a leading expert. You will meet the first inhabitants of the island, who crossed the sea from the mainland in tiny boats and rafts, bringing their livestock with them. And you will read about the ships, which started their journey across the Mediterranean laden with cargoes of copper ingots. Discussions of the history of archaeological investigations of the island range from random acts of plunder in the nineteenth century to ongoing scientific investigations. Several chapters focus on the highlights of Cypriot art in the collections of the museums of Cyprus, Stockholm, and Leiden.00Exhibition: Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, Leiden, the Netherlands (11.10.2019-15.3.2020).

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.

By focusing on religion, this monograph represents the first extended attempt to explore how the socio-cultural infrastructure of Cyprus was affected by the transition from segmented administration by many Cypriot kings to the island-wide government by a foreign Ptolemaic correspondent.

Edited by G. Papantoniou, D. Michaelides and M. Dikomitou-Eliadou, Hellenistic and Roman Terracottas is a collection of 29 chapters with an introduction presenting diverse and innovative approaches (archaeological, stylistic, iconographic, functional, contextual, digital, and physicochemical) in the study of ancient terracottas across the Mediterranean and the Near East, from the Hellenistic period to Late Antiquity. The 34 authors advocate collectively the significance of a holistic approach to the study of coroplastic art, which considers terracottas not simply as works of art but, most importantly, as integral components of ancient material culture. The volume will prove to be an invaluable companion to all those interested in ancient terracottas and their associated iconography and technology, as well as in ancient artefacts and classical archaeology in general.

The earliest roads in Cyprus go back to the Bronze Age, and by the end of the Hellenistic period the road network encircled the entire island. More roads were added and older roads rebuilt during the Roman period to serve the needs of the provincial administration as well as of the individual cities. This book, the first on its subject, traces the development of the Cypriot road network over a period of a thousand years, drawing on a combination of archaeological, epigraphic and literary sources. Separate chapters deal with travellers and life on the road, transport technology and the legal and administrative context of road building. It is often assumed that the primary purpose of Roman road building was military domination, but, as this study demonstrates, road development in Cyprus is best understood in terms of communication between cities and their territories and the day-to-day exchanges between town and countryside.

"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

Cyprus was a crossroads in the ancient eastern Mediterranean, a key location between east and west, in which Judaism, Greco-Roman religions, and Christianity intersected, and where Christianity came to flourish. Bringing together scholars of religion and archaeology to study Cyprus in antiquity, this volume's contributions cover a myriad of topics, including the mosaics of Cyprus, its silver treasures, religious tensions between Christians and others, the role of Epiphanius, the story of St. Barnabas, the powerful position of Cyprus as autocephalous within emerging orthodoxy in antiquity, those who used so-called magical texts, those who worked in a harbor, those involved with the transport of building materials, and early representations of Cyprian saints. By drawing on literary, archaeological, and art historical evidence from the first century CE to the medieval period, the volume elucidates the diversity of Christianity in late antique Cyprus, while also discussing relations between Christians, Jews, and members of Greco-Roman religions.

In Revaluing Roman Cyprus, Ersin Hussein provides a study of local identity formation in Roman Cyprus addresses its traditional characterisation as a weary, uneventful, and insignificant province and champions it as a rich case study for investigations of the Roman Empire. Hussein collates well-known, overlooked, and newly uncovered evidence to revaluate local responses to, and experiences of, Roman rule. The investigation opens with a look at the island as a real and imagined space to explore its marginalisation in ancient and modern scholarly narratives. Hussein revisits the events surrounding the annexation of the island by Rome from Ptolemaic Egypt and its subsequent administration to establish the dynamics between the inhabitants of the island and their rulers. The spread and impact of Roman citizenship across the island is assessed through an exploration of the strategies employed by individuals to distinguish themselves in local and regional contexts. Hussein examines the poleis of Roman Cyprus, notably the preservation of their myths in literary records and the production of these in the material record, are examined to explore collective identity formation. Roman Cyprus is revealed as an active and dynamic participant in negotiating its identity and status in the Roman Empire. An island was poised between multiple landscapes, Hussein shows how Cyprus maintained deep-rooted connections between mainland Greece, Egypt, Asia Minor, and the Near East.

A landmark contribution to our knowledge of the Roman glass industry in the Western Mediterranean