New Light on Prehistoric Cyprus

P. Dikaios

doi:10.2307/4241665

New Light on Prehistoric Cyprus

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 12 April 2016

P. Dikaios

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The object of these notes is to give an account of the recent archaeological discoveries which have thrown considerable light on most ancient Cyprus. A good number of problems concerning the prehistoric culture of this island have been solved, while simultaneously others have emerged opening a good field for future archaeological work and speculation on the origins of Cypriot culture. As Professor Myres states in his most recent general review of the origin of Cypriot civilization, ‘A neolithic chapter has been added at the head of the long island story…’. This naturally does away with the previous theory that the red-ware culture of Bronze Age Cyprus, thought of Anatolian origin, is the earliest in the island. But even with the discovery of earlier cultural stages the problem of the origin has not yet been solved. Whether, however, the red-ware culture of the Bronze Age will continue to be considered as ‘suddenly introduced as a ready-made and a different culture’, as Professor Myres states in the above-mentioned survey, is a matter which should be examined in the light of new discoveries.

Type: Research Article
Information: IRAQ , Volume 7 , Issue 1 , Spring 1940 , pp. 69 - 83

DOI: https://doi.org/10.2307/4241665 [Opens in a new window]
Copyright: Copyright © The British Institute for the Study of Iraq 1940

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^{page 69 note 1} See Iraq, VI. 1. 75 Google Scholar.

^{page 69 note 2} Hogarth, , Ionia and the East, 86 ff.Google Scholar; Casson, , Ancient Cyprus, p. v Google Scholar.

^{page 69 note 3} J.R.A.I., L; also, Anthropologischer Anzeiger, Jahrg. VII, 1931 Google Scholar.

^{page 69 note 4} Anthropologie.

^{page 69 note 5} Iraq, VI. 1. 75 Google Scholar.

^{page 70 note 1} Iraq, VI. 1. 62 Google Scholar.

^{page 70 note 2} Missions, 22.

^{page 70 note 3} Ugaritica, 4 ff.

^{page 70 note 4} I have already urged a warning against such comparisons in Erimi, 41.

^{page 70 note 5} Erimi, 45.

^{page 70 note 6} About this see also R.B. XLVIII, 1939, 477 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 71 note 1} Les Découvertes de Ras-Shamra, 63. About early seafaring in the eastern and western Mediterranean see also Myres, , Who were the Greeks?, 217 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 71 note 2} Iraq, VI. 1, 75 Google Scholar.

^{page 71 note 3} Erimi, 72 ff. The Swedish Cyprus Expedition discovered three settlements during their activity in Cyprus in the years 1927-30. See S.C.E. 1.

^{page 71 note 4} Myres, , Handbook, xxviii Google Scholar.

^{page 71 note 5} Erimi, 76.

^{page 72 note 1} The nearest sites are Maroni (Erimi, 78) and Psematismenos ( Myres, , C.M.C. 11)Google Scholar.

^{page 72 note 2} Erimi, 78.

^{page 73 note 1} A comparison between the Khirokitia tholoi and those discovered in the mound at Arpachiyah by Mr. M. E. L. Mallowan follows later on.

^{page 73 note 2} This is nothing else than ground rock of the same quality as the bed-rock of the Khirokitia hill, which is of a calcareous nature.

^{page 73 note 3} I.L.N., 12 26th, 1936, p. 1174 Google Scholar; Rep. of the Dep. of Antiq., Cyprus, 1936, I. 82 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 73 note 4} Garstang, , ‘Jericho’, L.A.A.A., XXIII. 70 Google Scholar.

^{page 74 note 1} I.L.N., 27th 01, 1940, pp. 128–9Google Scholar. Infant sacrifices are also attested in different sites in Palestine: see Vincent, H., Canaan, 188 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 74 note 2} Independent heads of alabaster were found at the Tall Brak by Mr. Mallowan, who thinks that they were fitted to complete figures in the round or to poles or standards of some kind ( B.M.Q., XIII. 3. 101)Google Scholar.

^{page 74 note 3} The snake as attribute of the chthonian deities occurs also in Cyprus in the Bronze Age (see my article on the discoveries in the Vounous cemetery, Syria, XIII, 1932, 345)Google Scholar.

^{page 74 note 4} Iraq, II, 1935, 25 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 75 note 1} B.A.S.O.R., LXXII, 12 1938, 27 Google Scholar.

^{page 75 note 2} It is interesting to notice that terra-cotta figures representing ‘Mother-goddess’ types were found in the close neighbourhood of tholoi in the Erimi settlement, a fact which recalls the Arpachiyah find of a large number of similar figures near one of the outlying tholoi (Mallowan, op. cit. 34). Burials associated with tholoi, as at Arpachiyah, were also found at Erimi.

^{page 75 note 3} Mallowan, op. cit., pl. 1b.

^{page 76 note 1} Erimi, 27.

^{page 76 note 2} L.A.A.A., 1936, 71 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 76 note 3} It is to be observed that it is in this non-ceramic age of Jericho that the interment showing violent death and already compared to the Khirokitia interments was found.

^{page 76 note 4} Erimi, 8 ff.

^{page 76 note 5} L. H. Vincent compares these depressions with the first installations in the virgin soil at Beisan and elsewhere in Palestine ( R.B., XLVIII., 479)Google Scholar.

^{page 77 note 1} Erimi, 28 ff.

^{page 78 note 1} Erimi, 41 ff.

^{page 78 note 2} Ibid. 45.

^{page 78 note 3} Ibid. 51 ff.

^{page 78 note 4} L.A.A.A., XXIV, 1937, 52 Google Scholar.

^{page 78 note 5} Erimi, pl. xxix. Amulets in the shape of axeheads are also found at Merimde. See G. Childe, New Light on the Most Ancient East, fig. 16, pendants in the shape of a double axe occur in Arpachiyah; see Mallowan, op. cit., fig. 51, 5.

^{page 79 note 1} Man, 06 1938, 91–2Google Scholar. In this respect see also Myres, , Who were the Greeks?, 59 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 79 note 2} Anthropologie, 101 ff.

^{page 79 note 3} Gjerstad, , Studies, 324 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 80 note 1} Archaeologia, LXXXVIII, 1938, 1ff.(forthcoming)Google Scholar.

^{page 80 note 2} Missions, 26 ff.

^{page 80 note 3} P.E.Q., 07 1939, 162 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 80 note 4} This bowl comes from a site opposite Erimi on the right bank of the river Kourzis.

^{page 80 note 5} Handbook, xxviii.

^{page 80 note 6} Studies, 300 ff.

^{page 80 note 7} See Hall, , Civilization of Greece in the Bronze Age, 33 Google Scholar.

^{page 81 note 1} See Bittel, K., P.F.K., 103 Google Scholar.

^{page 81 note 2} Bittel (ib.) expressed doubts even before the discovery of the Neolithic culture. Myres in his latest consideration of the matter ( Iraq. VI. 1. 75)Google Scholar finds it difficult to discover what Cyprus received from Asia Minor.

^{page 81 note 3} Iraq, loc. cit.

^{page 81 note 4} Studies, 11. 79 Google Scholar PubMed.

^{page 81 note 5} Bittel, op. cit., 103.

^{page 82 note 1} P.E.Q., 07 1939, 162 ff. and pl. xxviiGoogle Scholar.

^{page 82 note 2} Gjerstad, , Studies, 267 Google Scholar.

^{page 82 note 3} Antiquity, 12 1938, 500 Google Scholar. Myres considers that pot-painting in Cyprus (of the Bronze Age) may be noted between 2500 and 1500 B.C. ( Iraq, VI. 1, 82)Google Scholar.

^{page 82 note 4} Frankfort, , Studies, 11. 80 ffGoogle Scholar.

^{page 82 note 5} See final publication of my Vounous Excavation: Archaeologia, LXXXVIII.

^{page 83 note 1} Ugaritica, III. 53 Google Scholar.

^{page 83 note 2} See also Vincent's remarks in R.B., XLVIII, 1939, 480 Google Scholar.

^{page 83 note 3} This vase, which is now in the Cyprus Museum, will, I understand, appear in the final publication of the excavations. It has been, however, recorded by Casson, S., Ancient Cyprus, 207 Google Scholar.

^{page 83 note 4} Xanthoudides, Mesara, pl. xxivb and others.

^{page 83 note 5} Mr. J. D. S. Pendlebury, to whom I have shown photographs of this dagger, is strongly of the opinion that it is an imported Minoan type. Analysis of the metal has shown that it is of bronze. According to Xanthoudides there are two types of long daggers, the early one of pure copper and the late one of bronze, which alloy seems to have been known in Crete from the middle of EM III onwards. He also thinks that the long dagger flourished in EM III-MM I.

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