The Stone Age has left but few traces in Cyprus; no sites have been
found and even single implements are very rare. The "megalithic"
monuments of Agia Phaneromeni[1] and Hala Sultan Teke near Larnaca may
perhaps be early, like the Palestinian cromlechs; but the vaulted
chamber of Agia Katrina near Enkomi seems to be Mycenaean or later; and
the perforated monoliths at Ktima seem to belong to oil presses of
uncertain but probably not prehistoric date.
The Bronze Age, on the other hand, is of peculiar importance in an area
which, like Cyprus, was one of the chief early sources of copper. Its
remains have been carefully studied both on settlement sites at
Leondari Vouno and Kalopsida, and in tombs in more than thirty places,
notably at Agia Paraskevi, Psemmatismeno, Alambra, Episkopi and Enkomi.
Throughout this period, which began probably before 3000 B.C. and ended
about 1000 B.C., Cyprus evidently maintained a large population, and an
art and culture distinct from those of Egypt, Syria and Cilicia. The
Cypriote temper, however, lacks originality; at all periods it has
accepted foreign innovations slowly, and discarded them even more
reluctantly. The island owes its importance, therefore, mainly to its
copious supply of a few raw materials, notably copper and timber.
Objects of Cypriote manufacture are found but rarely on sites abroad; in
the later Bronze Age, however, they occur in Egypt and South Palestine,
and as far afield as Thera (Santorin), Athens and Troy (Hissarlik).
The Bronze Age culture of Cyprus falls into three main stages. In the
first, the implements are rather of copper than of bronze, tin being
absent or in small quantities (2 to 3%); the types are common to Syria
and Asia Minor as far as the Hellespont, and resemble also the earliest
forms in the Aegean and in central Europe; the pottery is all hand-made,
with a red burnished surface, gourd-like and often fantastic forms, and
simple geometrical patterns incised; zoomorphic art is very rare, and
imported objects are unknown. In the second stage, implements of true
bronze (9 to 10% tin) become common; painted pottery of buff clay with
dull black geometrical patterns appears alongside the red-ware; and
foreign imports occur, such as Egyptian blue-glazed beads (XIIth-XIIIth
Dynasty, 2500-2000 B.C.),[2] and cylindrical Asiatic seals (one of
Sargon I., 2000 B.C.).[3]
In the third stage, Aegean colonists introduced the Mycenaean (late
Minoan) culture and industries; with new types of weapons, wheel-made
pottery, and a naturalistic art which rapidly becomes conventional; gold
and ivory are abundant, and glass and enamels are known. Extended
intercourse with Syria, Palestine and Egypt brought other types of
pottery, jewelry, &c. (especially scarabs of XVIIIth and XIXth
Dynasties, 1600-1200 B.C.), which were freely copied on the spot. There
is, however, nothing in this period which can be ascribed to
specifically "Phoenician" influence; the only traces of writing are in a
variety of the Aegean script. The magnificent tombs from Enkomi and
Episkopi illustrate the wealth and advancement of Cyprus at this
time.[4]
It is in this third stage that Cyprus first appears in history, under
the name _Asi_, as a conquest of Tethmosis (Thothmes) III. of Egypt
(XVIIIth Dynasty, c. 1500 B.C.),[5] yielding tribute of chariots,
horses, copper, blue-stone and other products. It was still in Egyptian
hands under Seti I., and under Rameses III. a list of Cypriote towns
seems to include among others the names of Salamis, Citium, Soli,
Idalium, Cerynia (Kyrenia), and Curium. Another Egyptian dependency,
Alasia, has by some been identified with Cyprus or a part of it (but may
perhaps be in North Syria). It sent copper, oil, horses and cattle,
ivory and timber; under Amenophis (Amenhotep) III. it exported timber
and imported silver; it included a town Sikra, traded with Byblus in
North Syria, and was exposed to piratical raids of _Lykki_ (? Lycians).
The decline of Egypt under the XXth Dynasty, and the contemporary fall
of the Aegean sea-power, left Cyprus isolated and defenceless, and the
Early Iron Age which succeeds is a period of obscurity and relapse.
Iron, which occurs rarely, and almost exclusively for ornaments, in a
few tombs at Enkomi, suddenly superseded bronze for tools and weapons,
and its introduction was accompanied, as in the Aegean, by economic, and
probably by political changes, which broke up the high civilization of
the Mycenaean colonies, and reduced them to poverty, isolation and
comparative barbarism. It is significant that the first iron swords in
Cyprus are of a type characteristic of the lands bordering the Adriatic.
Gold and even silver become rare;[6] foreign imports almost cease;
engraved cylinders and scarabs are replaced by conical and pyramidal
seals like those of Asia Minor, and dress-pins by brooches (_fibulae_)
like those of south-eastern Europe. Representative art languishes,
except a few childish terra-cottas; decorative art becomes once more
purely geometrical, but shows only slight affinity with the contemporary
geometrical art of the Aegean.
Lingering thus in Cyprus (as also in some islands of the Aegean)
Mycenaean traditions came into contact with new oriental influences from
the Syrian coast; and these were felt in Cyprus somewhat earlier than in
the West. But there is at present no clear proof of Phoenician or other
Semitic activity in Cyprus until the last years of the 8th century.
No reference to Cyprus has been found in Babylonian or Assyrian records
before the reign of Sargon II. (end of 8th century B.C.), and the
occasional discovery of Mesopotamian cylinders of early date in Cyprus
is no proof of direct intercourse.[7] Isaiah (xxiii. 1, 12), writing
about this time, describes Kittim (a name derived from Citium, q.v.) as
a port of call for merchantmen homeward bound for Tyre, and as a shelter
for Tyrian refugees; but the Hebrew geographers of this and the next
century classify _Kittim_, together with other coast-lands and islands,
under the heading _Javan_, "Ionian" (q.v.), and consequently reckoned it
as predominantly Greek.
Sargon's campaigns in north Syria, Cilicia and south-east Asia Minor
(721-711) provoked first attacks, then an embassy and submission in 709,
from seven kings of _Yatnana_ (the Assyrian name for Cyprus); and an
inscription of Sargon himself, found at Citium, proves an Assyrian
protectorate, and records tribute of gold, silver and various timbers.
These kings probably represent that "sea-power of Cyprus" which precedes
that of Phoenicia in the Greek "List of Thalassocracies" preserved by
Eusebius. Under Sennacherib's rule, _Yatnana_ figures (as in Isaiah) as
the refuge of a disloyal Sidonian in 702; but in 668 ten kings of
Cypriote cities joined Assur-bani-pal's expedition to Egypt; most of
them bear recognizable Greek names, e.g. Pylagoras of Chytroi, Eteandros
of Paphos, Onasagoras of Ledroi. They are gazetted with twelve other
"kings of the Hatti" (S.E. Asia Minor). Citium, the principal Phoenician
state, does not appear by name; but is usually recognized in the list
under its Phoenician title _Karti-hadasti_, "new town."
Thus before the middle of the 7th century Cyprus reappears in history
divided among at least ten cities, of which some are certainly Greek,
and one at least certainly Phoenician: with this, Greek tradition
agrees.[8] The Greek colonists traced their descent, at Curium, from
Argos; at Lapathus, from Laconia; at Paphos, from Arcadia; at Salamis,
from the Attic island of that name; and at Soli, also from Attica. The
settlements at Paphos and Salamis, and probably at Curium, were believed
to date from the period of the Trojan War, i.e. from the 13th century,
and the latter part of the Mycenaean age; the name of Teucer, the
legendary founder of Salamis, probably is a reminiscence of the
piratical Tikkara who harried the Egyptian coast under Rameses III. (c.
1200 B.C.), and the discovery of late Mycenaean settlements on these
sites, and also at Lapathus, suggests that these legends rest upon
history. The Greek dialect of Cyprus points in the same direction; it
shows marked resemblances with that of Arcadia, and forms with it a
"South Achaean" or "South Aeolic" group, related to the "Northern
Aeolic" of Thessaly and other parts of north Greece.[9] Further
evidence of continuity comes from the peculiar Cypriote script, a
syllabary related to the linear scripts of Crete and the south Aegean,
and traceable in Cyprus to the Mycenaean age.[10] It remained in regular
use until the 4th century; before that time the Greek alphabet occurs in
Cyprus only in a few inscriptions erected for visitors.[11] In Citium
and Idalium, on the other hand, a Phoenician dialect and alphabet were
in use from the time of Sargon onward.[12] Sargon's inscription at
Citium is cuneiform.[13]
The culture and art of Cyprus in this Graeco-Phoenician period are well
represented by remains from Citium, Idalium, Tamassus, Amathus and
Curium; the earlier phases are best represented round Lapathus, Soli,
Paphos and Citium; the later Hellenization, at Amathus and
Marion-Arsinoe. Three distinct foreign influences may be distinguished:
they originate in Egypt, in Assyria, and in the Aegean. The first two
predominate earlier, and gradually recede before the last-named. Their
effects are best seen in sculpture and in metal work, though it remains
doubtful whether the best examples of the latter were made in Cyprus or
on the mainland. Among a great series of engraved silver bowls,[14]
found mostly in Cyprus, but also as far off as Nineveh, Olympia, Caere
and Praeneste, some examples show almost unmixed imitation of Egyptian
scenes and devices; in others, Assyrian types are introduced among the
Egyptian in senseless confusion; in others, both traditions are merged
in a mixed art, which betrays a return to naturalism and a new sense of
style, like that of the Idaean bronzes in Crete.[15] From its
intermediate position between the art of Phoenicia and its western
colonies (so far as this is known) and the earliest Hellenic art in the
Aegean, this style has been called Graeco-Phoenician. The same sequence
of phases is represented in sculpture by the votive statues from the
sanctuaries of Aphrodite at Dali and of Apollo at Voni and Frangissa;
and by examples from other sites in the Cesnola collection; in painting
by a rare class of naively polychromic vases; and in both by the
elaborately coloured terra-cotta figures from the "Toumba" site at
Salamis. Gem-engraving and jewelry follow similar lines;
pottery-painting for the most part remains geometrical throughout, with
crude survivals of Mycenaean curvilinear forms. Those Aegean influences,
however, which had been predominant in the later Bronze Age, and had
never wholly ceased, revived, as Hellenism matured and spread, and
slowly repelled the mixed Phoenician orientalism. Imported vases from
the Aegean, of the "Dipylon," "proto-Corinthian" and "Rhodian" fabrics,
occur rarely, and were imitated by the native potters; and early in the
6th century appears the specific influence of Ionia, and still more of
Naucratis in the Egyptian delta. For the failure of Assyria in Egypt in
668-664, and the revival of Egypt as a phil-Hellene state under the
XXVIth Dynasty, admitted strong Graeco-Egyptian influences in industry
and art, and led about 560 B.C. to the political conquest of Cyprus by
Amasis (Ahmosi) II.;[16] once again Cypriote timber maintained a foreign
sea-power in the Levant.
The annexation of Egypt by Cambyses of Persia in 525 B.C. was preceded
by the voluntary surrender of Cyprus, which formed part of Darius's
"fifth satrapy."[17] The Greek cities, faring ill under Persia, and
organized by Onesilaus of Salamis, joined the Ionic revolt in 500
B.C.;[18] but the Phoenician states, Citium and Amathus, remained loyal
to Persia; the rising was soon put down; in 480 Cyprus furnished no less
than 150 ships to the fleet of Xerxes;[19] and in spite of the repeated
attempts of the Delian League to "liberate" the island, it remained
subject to Persia during the 5th century.[20] The occasion of the siege
of Idalium by Persians (which is commemorated in an important Cypriote
inscription) is unknown.[21] Throughout this period, however, Athens and
other Greek states maintained a brisk trade in copper, sending vases and
other manufactures in return, and bringing Cyprus at last into full
contact with Hellenism. But the Greek cities retained monarchical
government throughout, and both the domestic art and the principal
religious cults remained almost unaltered. The coins of the Greek
dynasts and autonomous towns are struck on a variable standard with a
stater of 170 to 180 grs.[22] The principal Greek cities were now
Salamis, Curium, Paphos, Marion, Soli, Kyrenia and Khytri. Phoenicians
held Citium and Amathus on the south coast between Salamis and Curium,
also Tamassus and Idalium in the interior; but the last named was little
more than a sanctuary town, like Paphos. At the end of the 5th century a
fresh Salaminian League was formed by Evagoras (q.v.), who became king
in 410, aided the Athenian Conon after the fall of Athens in 404, and
revolted openly from Persia in 386, after the peace of Antalcidas.[23]
Athens again sent help, but as before the Phoenician states supported
Persia; the Greeks were divided by feuds, and in 380 the attempt failed;
Evagoras was assassinated in 374, and his son Nicocles died soon after.
After the victory of Alexander the Great at Issus in 333 B.C. all the
states of Cyprus welcomed him, and sent timber and ships for his siege
of Tyre in 332.
After Alexander's death in 323 B.C. Cyprus, coveted still for its copper
and timber, passed, after several rapid changes, to Ptolemy I., king of
Egypt. Then in 306 B.C. Demetrius Poliorcetes of Macedon overran the
whole island, besieged Salamis, and utterly defeated there the Egyptian
fleet. Ptolemy, however, recovered it in 295 B.C. Under Ptolemaic rule
Cyprus has little history. Usually it was governed by a viceroy of the
royal line, but it gained a brief independence under Ptolemy Lathyrus
(107-89 B.C.), and under a brother of Ptolemy Auletes in 58 B.C. The
great sanctuaries of Paphos and Idalium, and the public buildings of
Salamis, which were wholly remodelled in this period, have produced but
few works of art; the sculpture from local shrines at Voni and Vitsada,
and the frescoed tombstones from Amathus, only show how incapable the
Cypriotes still were of utilizing Hellenistic models; a rare and
beautiful class of terra-cottas like those of Myrina may be of Cypriote
fabric, but their style is wholly of the Aegean. It is in this period
that we first hear of Jewish settlements,[24] which later become very
populous.
In 58 B.C. Rome, which had made large unsecured loans to Ptolemy
Auletes, sent M. Porcius Cato to annex the island, nominally because its
king had connived at piracy, really because its revenues and the
treasures of Paphos were coveted to finance a corn law of P.
Clodius.[25] Under Rome Cyprus was at first appended to the province of
Cilicia; after Actium (31 B.C.) it became a separate province, which
remained in the hands of Augustus and was governed by a _legatus
Caesaris pro praetore_ as long as danger was feared from the East.[26]
No monuments remain of this period. In 22 B.C., however, it was
transferred to the senate,[27] so that Sergius Paulus, who was governor
in A.D. 46, is rightly called [Greek: anthypatos](proconsul).[28] Of
Paulus no coins are known, but an inscription exists.[29] Other
proconsuls are Julius Cordus and L. Annius Bassus who succeeded him in
A.D. 52.[30] The copper mines, which were still of great importance,
were farmed at one time by Herod the Great.[31] The persecution of
Christians on the mainland after the death of Stephen drove converts as
far as Cyprus; and soon after converted Cypriote Jews, such as Mnason
(an "original convert" ) and Joses the Levite (better known as
Barnabas), were preaching in Antioch. The latter revisited Cyprus twice,
first with Paul on his "first journey" in A.D. 46, and later with
Mark.[32] In 116-117 the Jews of Cyprus, with those of Egypt and Cyrene,
revolted, massacred 240,000 persons, and destroyed a large part of
Salamis. Hadrian, afterwards emperor, suppressed them, and expelled all
Jews from Cyprus.
For the culture of the Roman period there is abundant evidence from
Salamis and Paphos, and from tombs everywhere, for the glass vessels
which almost wholly supersede pottery are much sought for their (quite
accidental) iridescence; not much else is found that is either
characteristic or noteworthy; and little attention has been paid to the
sequence of style.
The Christian church of Cyprus was divided into thirteen bishoprics. It
was made autonomous in the 5th century, in recognition of the supposed
discovery of the original of St Matthew's Gospel in a "tomb of Barnabas"
which is still shown at Salamis. The patriarch has therefore the title
[Greek: makariotatos] and the right to sign his name in red ink. A
council of Cyprus, summoned by Theophilus of Alexandria in A.D. 401,
prohibited the reading of the works of Origen (see CYPRUS, CHURCH OF).
Of the Byzantine period little remains but the ruins of the castles of
St Hilarion, Buffavento and Kantara; and a magnificent series of gold
ornaments and silver plate, found near Kyrenia in 1883 and 1897
respectively. Christian tombs usually contain nothing of value.
The Frank conquest is represented by the "Crusaders' Tower" at Kolossi,
and the church of St Nicholas at Nicosia; and, later, by masterpieces of
a French Gothic style, such as the church (mosque) of St Sophia, and
other churches at Nicosia; the cathedral (mosque) and others at
Famagusta (q.v.), and the monastery at Bella Pais; as well as by
domestic architecture at Nicosia; and by forts at Kyrenia, Limasol and
elsewhere.
The Turks and British have added little, and destroyed much, converting
churches into mosques and grain-stores, and quarrying walls and
buildings at Famagusta.
_History of Excavation._--Practically all the archaeological discoveries
above detailed have been made since 1877. A few chance finds of vases,
inscriptions and coins; of a hoard of silver bowls at Dali (anc.
_Idalium_)[33] in 1851; and of a bronze tablet with Phoenician and
Cypriote bilingual inscriptions,[34] also at Dali, and about the same
time, had raised questions of great interest as to the art and the
language of the ancient inhabitants. T. B. Sandwith, British consul
1865-1869, had laid the foundations of a sound knowledge of Cypriote
pottery;[35] his successor R. H. Lang (1870-1872) had excavated a
sanctuary of Aphrodite at Dali;[36] and at the time of the publication
of the 9th ed. of the _Ency. Brit._,[37] General Louis P. di Cesnola
(q.v.), American consul, was already exploring ancient sites, and
opening tombs, in all parts of the island, though his results were not
published till 1877.[38] But though his vast collection, now in the
Metropolitan Museum of New York, remains the largest series of Cypriote
antiquities in the world, the accounts which have been given of its
origin are so inadequate, and have provoked so much controversy,[39]
that its scientific value is small, and a large part of subsequent
excavation has necessarily been directed to solving the problems
suggested by its practically isolated specimens. From 1876 to 1878 Major
Alexander P. di Cesnola continued his brother's work, but the large
collection which he exhibited in London in 1880 was dispersed soon
afterwards.[40]
On the British occupation of Cyprus in 1878, the Ottoman law of 1874 in
regard to antiquities was retained in force. Excavation is permitted
under government supervision, and the finds are apportioned in thirds,
between the excavator, the landowner (who is usually bought out by the
former), and the government. The government thirds lie neglected in a
"Cyprus Museum" maintained at Nicosia by voluntary subscription. There
is no staff, and no effective supervision of ancient sites or monuments.
A catalogue of the collections was published by the Oxford University
Press in 1899.[41]
Since 1878 more than seventy distinct excavations have been made in
Cyprus, of which the following are the most important. In 1879 the
British government used the acropolis of _Citium_ (Larnaca) to fill up
the ancient harbour; and from the destruction a few Phoenician
inscriptions and a proto-Ionic capital were saved. In 1882 tombs were
opened by G. Hake at _Salamis_ and _Curium_ for the South Kensington
Museum, but no scientific record was made. In 1883 the Cyprus Museum was
founded by private enterprise, and on its behalf Max Ohnefalsch-Richter,
who had already made trial diggings for Sir Charles Newton and the
British Museum, excavated sanctuaries at Voni and Kythrea (_Chytri_),
and opened tombs on some other sites.[42]
In 1885 Dr F. Dummler opened tombs at Dali, Alambra and elsewhere, and
laid the foundations of knowledge of the Bronze Age and Early Iron
Age;[43] and Richter, on behalf of officials and private individuals,
excavated parts of Frangissa (_Tamassus_), Episkopi and Dali.[44]
In the same year, 1885, and in 1886, a syndicate opened many tombs at
Poli-tis-Khrysochou (_Marium_, _Arsinoe_), and sold the contents by
auction in Paris. From Richter's notes of this excavation, Dr P.
Herrmann compiled the first scientific account of Graeco-Phoenician and
Hellenistic Cyprus.[45] In 1886 also M. le vicomte E. de Castillon de St
Victor opened rich Graeco-Phoenician tombs at Episkopi, the contents of
which are in the Louvre.[46]
The successes of 1885-1886 led to the foundation of the Cyprus
Exploration Fund, on behalf of which (1) in 1888 the sanctuary of
Aphrodite at _Paphos_ (Kouklia) was excavated by Messrs E. Gardner, M.
R. James, D. G. Hogarth and R. Elsey Smith;[47] (2) in 1889-1890 more
tombs were opened at Poli by Messrs J. A. R. Munro and H. A. Tubbs;[48]
(3) in 1890-1891 extensive trials were made at _Salamis_, by the
same;[49] (4) minor sites were examined at Leondari Vouno (1888),[50]
Amargetti (1888),[51] and Limniti (1889);[52] (5) in 1888 Hogarth made a
surface-survey of the Karpass promontory;[53] and finally, (6) in 1894
the balance was expended by J. L. Myres in a series of trials, to settle
special points, at Agia Paraskevi, Kalopsida and Larnaca.[54] In 1894
also Dr Richter excavated round _Idalium_ and _Tamassus_ for the
Prussian government: the results, unpublished up to 1902, are in the
Berlin Museum.[55] Finally, a legacy from Miss Emma T. Turner enabled
the British Museum to open numerous tombs, by contract, of the
Graeco-Phoenician age, in 1894, at Palaeo-Lemesso (_Amathus_); and of
the Mycenaean age, in 1894-1895 at Episkopi, in 1895-1896 at Enkomi
(near _Salamis_), and in 1897-1899 on small sites between Larnaca and
Limasol.[56]
For ancient Oriental references to Cyprus see E. Oberhummer, _Die
Insel Cypern_, i. (Munich, 1903); for classical references, W. H.
Engel, _Kypros_ (2 vols., Berlin, 1841); for culture and art, G.
Perrot and C. Chipiez, _Histoire de l'art dans l'antiquite_, vol. iii.
"Phenicie et Cypre" (Paris, 1885); L. P. di Cesnola, _A Descriptive
Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypr. Antiquities in the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York_ (3 vols., Boston, U.S.A.,
1884-1886); M. Ohnefalsch-Richter, _Kypros, the Bible and Homer_ (2
vols., London and Berlin, 1893); J. L. Myres and M.
Ohnefalsch-Richter, _Cyprus Museum Catalogue_ (Oxford, 1899). The
principal publications on special topics are given in the footnotes.
For Cypriote coins see also NUMISMATICS. See further the general
bibliography below. (J. L. M.)