DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25181#0004
Ancient Tombs in the Island of Cyprus.
129
palace he was building at Nineveh, and amongst the countries enumerated Cyprus
is mentioned as contributing stone statues and vases for that object. As the empire
over which that monarch ruled embraced most of the then civilised world, it
would appear that the Cyprians had attained to the highest excellence in the
fictile art.a The accompanying Plates will give the reader an idea of the more
characteristic and interesting types of the vases brought to light, but they fail
altogether in conveying an adequate notion of the variety of form and pattern
devised by the ingenuity of the original artists.
Proceeding now to the classification of the pottery, we may separate them as
follows:—
I. A distinct and very remarkable style of pottery, consists of red vases,
highly glazed, with lines incised in the clay when soft, the patterns being formed
by a simple arrangement of lines both parallel and at various angles to each other
(PI. IX. figs. 4s, 5, 6). The white colour of the incised lines in some of the
specimens is simply due to lime contracted from the soil.
Much of this pottery is destitute of patterns, and is then much less highly glazed ;
a plain bowl without a handle being a frequent form, sometimes with holes pierced
in the edge for the purpose of being suspended against the wall either by a string
or nail. Some of the bowls are two feet in diameter, the clay being remarkably
fine and thin, considering their size, and slightly porous. A few of the vases are
black (PL IX. fig. 2), and sometimes the black and red are blended, as if pro-
duced in baking. Hitherto only three cemeteries containing this species of
pottery have been discovered, one a few miles from Dali (Idalium), and the
other two not far from Larnaka (Citium or Kittim), and I believe antiquaries
are disposed to consider it as the product of very early Greek art. The presence
of bronze or copper spear-heads in considerable abundance is a distinguishing
feature in these tombs, as well as of those next to be described.
II. Perhaps the most common form of vase found in the cemeteries of the second
class is the lecythus, Egyptian in character, of a delicate pale black pottery,
generally without any pattern, but sometimes having incised lines in patterns
similar to those of the preceding class, and often with raised lines winding snake-
like round the body of the lecythus; the lines in one instance terminate in what
appears to be the head of a snake (PI. IX. fig. 3). They are covered with a thin
a This ancient people was certainly singularly addicted, as we should infer from the above historical
notice, to the arts of the sculptor and the potter, since the soil of the island literally teems with fragments
of stone statues and of the products of the potter.
T 2
129
palace he was building at Nineveh, and amongst the countries enumerated Cyprus
is mentioned as contributing stone statues and vases for that object. As the empire
over which that monarch ruled embraced most of the then civilised world, it
would appear that the Cyprians had attained to the highest excellence in the
fictile art.a The accompanying Plates will give the reader an idea of the more
characteristic and interesting types of the vases brought to light, but they fail
altogether in conveying an adequate notion of the variety of form and pattern
devised by the ingenuity of the original artists.
Proceeding now to the classification of the pottery, we may separate them as
follows:—
I. A distinct and very remarkable style of pottery, consists of red vases,
highly glazed, with lines incised in the clay when soft, the patterns being formed
by a simple arrangement of lines both parallel and at various angles to each other
(PI. IX. figs. 4s, 5, 6). The white colour of the incised lines in some of the
specimens is simply due to lime contracted from the soil.
Much of this pottery is destitute of patterns, and is then much less highly glazed ;
a plain bowl without a handle being a frequent form, sometimes with holes pierced
in the edge for the purpose of being suspended against the wall either by a string
or nail. Some of the bowls are two feet in diameter, the clay being remarkably
fine and thin, considering their size, and slightly porous. A few of the vases are
black (PL IX. fig. 2), and sometimes the black and red are blended, as if pro-
duced in baking. Hitherto only three cemeteries containing this species of
pottery have been discovered, one a few miles from Dali (Idalium), and the
other two not far from Larnaka (Citium or Kittim), and I believe antiquaries
are disposed to consider it as the product of very early Greek art. The presence
of bronze or copper spear-heads in considerable abundance is a distinguishing
feature in these tombs, as well as of those next to be described.
II. Perhaps the most common form of vase found in the cemeteries of the second
class is the lecythus, Egyptian in character, of a delicate pale black pottery,
generally without any pattern, but sometimes having incised lines in patterns
similar to those of the preceding class, and often with raised lines winding snake-
like round the body of the lecythus; the lines in one instance terminate in what
appears to be the head of a snake (PI. IX. fig. 3). They are covered with a thin
a This ancient people was certainly singularly addicted, as we should infer from the above historical
notice, to the arts of the sculptor and the potter, since the soil of the island literally teems with fragments
of stone statues and of the products of the potter.
T 2