DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4759#0011
X POTTERY OF CYPRUS.
supplanted stone there at an earlier date than in the Troad, whither it had
to find its way by means of commerce. It was doubtless mainly due to the
existence o( its copper ores that Cyprus so early showed an advance in its
civilisation.
The shapes of the earliest Cypriote pottery are purely indigenous, and very
characteristic, but the technique may well have been learned from elsewhere ;
the vases being invariably hand-made, an Egyptian origin is altogether pre-
cluded, owing to the early use of the wheel for pottery in that country. There
is a general tendency to fantastic and unsymmetrical modelling, with a preference
for complicated forms, such as two or three vases joined together. Some vases
imitate gourds or vessels of straw and basket-work, such as are used in Cyprus
at the present day. They have no foot or "base-ring" to stand upon; and
another characteristic is the frequent absence of handles, the place of which is
supplied by small ears or " string-holes," by means of which the vase was hung
up or carried by cords. Sometimes these ears cover almost the whole outline
of the vase. The plastic principle is always popular in the Bronze Age pottery,
and manifests itself in more than one direction. Almost from the first it is
exhibited in the tendency, so common in early art, to combine the vase and the
statuette, a tendency which is even stronger in the pottery of Hissarlik. It
also takes the form of designs in relief covering the surface of, or moulded to,
the vase.
In one point Cyprus is fully abreast of the rest of the Aegean world, and
that is the decoration of thfe pottery. Even in the earliest specimens a good
decorative effect is obtained by the employment of a fine bright red or polished
black slip to cover the surface. In these vases the designs, where they occur,
are confined to simple geometrical patterns, usually rectilinear, incised through
the slip before baking ; but they were soon to be supplemented by the
employment, first of a matt-white pigment, secondly of a brownish-black paint
obtained from the native umber. The introduction of this method, though
beginning in pre-Mycenaean times, is not of course earlier than its appearance
in the pottery of the Cyclades or in Crete. The earliest Cypriote examples are
probably only contemporary with the comparatively late Cretan Age known as
Later Minoan II. Down to this point, moreover, there is a marked absence of
Cretan, or indeed of any other Aegean influence.1
In the later Bronze Age pottery, namely that which is found in tombs
together with vases of Mycenaean style, we see various modifications of the
indigenous art, and witness its eventual transformation by the introduction of
new processes and ideas from various sources. The main streams of influence
are three in number, coining from the east, south, and west respectively. Of
these the first represents the Asiatic civilisations of Babylonia and the Hittites,
to whom are due in the first place the engraved cylinders frequently found in
these tombs, and at a comparatively late date such objects as the ivory draught-
box from Enkomi in the British Museum, which affords points of comparison
1 The fragment A 231 found at Curium is quite exceptional.
supplanted stone there at an earlier date than in the Troad, whither it had
to find its way by means of commerce. It was doubtless mainly due to the
existence o( its copper ores that Cyprus so early showed an advance in its
civilisation.
The shapes of the earliest Cypriote pottery are purely indigenous, and very
characteristic, but the technique may well have been learned from elsewhere ;
the vases being invariably hand-made, an Egyptian origin is altogether pre-
cluded, owing to the early use of the wheel for pottery in that country. There
is a general tendency to fantastic and unsymmetrical modelling, with a preference
for complicated forms, such as two or three vases joined together. Some vases
imitate gourds or vessels of straw and basket-work, such as are used in Cyprus
at the present day. They have no foot or "base-ring" to stand upon; and
another characteristic is the frequent absence of handles, the place of which is
supplied by small ears or " string-holes," by means of which the vase was hung
up or carried by cords. Sometimes these ears cover almost the whole outline
of the vase. The plastic principle is always popular in the Bronze Age pottery,
and manifests itself in more than one direction. Almost from the first it is
exhibited in the tendency, so common in early art, to combine the vase and the
statuette, a tendency which is even stronger in the pottery of Hissarlik. It
also takes the form of designs in relief covering the surface of, or moulded to,
the vase.
In one point Cyprus is fully abreast of the rest of the Aegean world, and
that is the decoration of thfe pottery. Even in the earliest specimens a good
decorative effect is obtained by the employment of a fine bright red or polished
black slip to cover the surface. In these vases the designs, where they occur,
are confined to simple geometrical patterns, usually rectilinear, incised through
the slip before baking ; but they were soon to be supplemented by the
employment, first of a matt-white pigment, secondly of a brownish-black paint
obtained from the native umber. The introduction of this method, though
beginning in pre-Mycenaean times, is not of course earlier than its appearance
in the pottery of the Cyclades or in Crete. The earliest Cypriote examples are
probably only contemporary with the comparatively late Cretan Age known as
Later Minoan II. Down to this point, moreover, there is a marked absence of
Cretan, or indeed of any other Aegean influence.1
In the later Bronze Age pottery, namely that which is found in tombs
together with vases of Mycenaean style, we see various modifications of the
indigenous art, and witness its eventual transformation by the introduction of
new processes and ideas from various sources. The main streams of influence
are three in number, coining from the east, south, and west respectively. Of
these the first represents the Asiatic civilisations of Babylonia and the Hittites,
to whom are due in the first place the engraved cylinders frequently found in
these tombs, and at a comparatively late date such objects as the ivory draught-
box from Enkomi in the British Museum, which affords points of comparison
1 The fragment A 231 found at Curium is quite exceptional.