BRONZE AGE

BRONZE AGE (c. 2300-1050 B.C.) History of Cyprus

Now that the production and export of copper was a well organized industry, Cyprus assumed a position of great commercial importance in the civilized Mediterranean world. The island also laid itself open to infiltration from abroad the first step towards the successive occupation by foreign powers which persisted until A.D. 1960. Though infiltration at first was insidious, it may be recognized at this early stage. The influence of Anatolia was the first to be implanted, and has survived in the pottery of the period. But at this stage of history Cyprus was not conquered. She assimilated the foreign culture and adapted it to her own requirements. By c. 2000 B.C. tholoi had been superseded by dwellings on a rectangular plan, and there is evidence of trade relations with Syria, Crete and Palestine. Bronze was by now in more general use than copper.

The religious practices of the Bronze Age in Cyprus are represented by a fascinating terracotta model of a sacred enclosure, discovered during the excavation in 1931-2 of a tomb at Vounous. The group appears to demonstrate that the sacrifice of bulls (and probably infants) played an important part in honouring the dead. In the cult of a snake goddess there could also be a link with the Minoan culture of Crete. An interesting companion piece, also in terracotta, of two pairs of oxen ploughing gives an indication of the high standard of husbandry among the people of the time.

During the Late Bronze Age, which as far as Cyprus is concerned is taken to have begun c. 1600 B.C., the island began to assume the historical role which her geography made inevitable, and which has persisted from those early days right through the centuries (and particularly during the Crusades) until the present time, and will no doubt continue into the future. Cyprus became a meeting point of Eastern and Western civilizations, and therefore an important piece in the chess game of international power politics. Though prosperity and peace frequently accrued from relations with outside powers, independence came to be forfeited. When Thothmes III, perhaps the greatest of the great Pharaohs of Egypt, came to the throne c. 1500 B.C. he had to contend with widespread revolt from his tributaries in Phoenicia, Syria and Mesopotamia. As was characteristic of this ruler, his victorious campaign was followed by programmes of reconstruction and stabilization. Though encircled, Cyprus appears to have suffered little from the concentration and consolidation of Egyptian power beyond her shores. She agreed to pay tribute, mainly in the form of copper, but the situation carried with it a large measure of protection, and it is clear that the island benefited from cultural as well as commercial exchange. Tombs of the period have yielded important finds, including gold, jewels, ivories and Egyptian scarabs.

The dependence of Cyprus upon Egypt lasted into the fourteenth century B.C., as evidenced in the Tell-el-Amarna tablets, a group of which consists of letters from the King of Alasiya to the King of Egypt, referring to the dispatch of consignments of copper. Alasiya is also mentioned in contemporary Hittite texts, and has been identified with the settlement of Enkomi, near Salamis, which was at that time engaged in the manufacture of metal goods for export.

The Egyptians were rulers rather than settlers, and therefore they left behind little in the way of architecture or monuments. But the island was not without colonists. Many of these were drawn from the surplus population of Mycenae, and from the fourteenth to the twelfth centuries Greeks returning from wars abroad established themselves first in the eastern districts of Cyprus and later spread across the island. In this way Paphos was founded by Agapenor, Kourion (Curium) by the Argives and Lapithos by the Laconians. By the time of the break up of the Mycenaean Empire these settlers had formed themselves into powerful city kingdoms which remained in existence until the period of Ptolemaic rule. The principal Greek settlements were at Salamis, Soli, Marion (Polis), Paphos and Curium. It should be remembered that though these colonists set themselves to reproduce the conditions of their native country by introducing kingship and bringing with them their own Greek cultural standards, religion, democracy, language and script, they maintained no political connection with the Greek State.

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