DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25181#0007
Ancient Tombs in the Island of Cyprus.
131
whose remains they contain were of Asiatic origin; while, on the other hand, the
character of the cylinders and scarabsei sometimes picked np by the workmen,
and above all the circumstance, which I shall presently mention, of the identity
of the pottery with that found in Sais, plainly prove them to have been largely
subjected to Egyptian influences. As stated before, bronze or copper spear-heads
are frequently found in this class of tombs as well as in the preceding, hut
in no others, a distinction of no slight inrportance in any attempt to fix their age.
These cemeteries are more commonly met with than those of the preceding class,
the existence of eight or ten being already known, chiefly in the east and south-
east of the island, one being in the neighbourhood of Dali, two more in the
central plain of the island, and two a few miles from Larnaka.
An exactly similar kind of pottery to that just described may be seen in the
Boulak Museum—familiar to Egyptian tourists, the specimens there collected
having been exhumed at Sais, in the delta of the Nile. Now Sais, as is well
knowTn, was allotted by Psammetichus in the seventh century b.c. as the residence
of the Greek colonists in Egypt, and was chiefly inhabited by them. Many of
these Greeks accompanied Amasis as mercenary soldiers when that monarch
achieved the conquest of Cyprus in b.c. 560. There is, however, an evident diffi-
culty in assigning so late an epoch to this class of cemeteries, not to mention
that their contents bear little resemblance to Greek fictile art. It is more probable,
therefore, that the same people who colonised Sa'is before the arrival of the Greek
immigrants colonised also certain districts in Cyprus either on the first conquest
of the Island, b.c. 1500, by Thothmes III., or on its second conquest a century later
by R/ameses II. or even at a period anterior to these events. In those early times
bronze weapons were in common use, while the contemporaries of Amasis had
adopted weapons of iron, a metal which, though known to have been discovered
long before, being painted red in Egyptian sculptures, was probably not in
common use. The pottery, therefore, exhibited in the Boulak Museum, near
Cairo, as found at Sais, can hardly have been the work of the Greek colony
established there, but of its earlier inhabitants. There seems to be no other wray
of accounting for so complete an identity in the fictile ware of the two localities
than by assigning a common origin to the peoples in whose tombs they are found.
I think there can be little doubt that this remarkable people must have been
Phoenician, for it is certain that the latter established extensive colonies in
Cyprus in very ancient times, and, unless we assign to them the class of tombs
now under consideration, there are none others which can so plausibly be
attributed to them. Neither is there anything improbable in supposing that the
131
whose remains they contain were of Asiatic origin; while, on the other hand, the
character of the cylinders and scarabsei sometimes picked np by the workmen,
and above all the circumstance, which I shall presently mention, of the identity
of the pottery with that found in Sais, plainly prove them to have been largely
subjected to Egyptian influences. As stated before, bronze or copper spear-heads
are frequently found in this class of tombs as well as in the preceding, hut
in no others, a distinction of no slight inrportance in any attempt to fix their age.
These cemeteries are more commonly met with than those of the preceding class,
the existence of eight or ten being already known, chiefly in the east and south-
east of the island, one being in the neighbourhood of Dali, two more in the
central plain of the island, and two a few miles from Larnaka.
An exactly similar kind of pottery to that just described may be seen in the
Boulak Museum—familiar to Egyptian tourists, the specimens there collected
having been exhumed at Sais, in the delta of the Nile. Now Sais, as is well
knowTn, was allotted by Psammetichus in the seventh century b.c. as the residence
of the Greek colonists in Egypt, and was chiefly inhabited by them. Many of
these Greeks accompanied Amasis as mercenary soldiers when that monarch
achieved the conquest of Cyprus in b.c. 560. There is, however, an evident diffi-
culty in assigning so late an epoch to this class of cemeteries, not to mention
that their contents bear little resemblance to Greek fictile art. It is more probable,
therefore, that the same people who colonised Sa'is before the arrival of the Greek
immigrants colonised also certain districts in Cyprus either on the first conquest
of the Island, b.c. 1500, by Thothmes III., or on its second conquest a century later
by R/ameses II. or even at a period anterior to these events. In those early times
bronze weapons were in common use, while the contemporaries of Amasis had
adopted weapons of iron, a metal which, though known to have been discovered
long before, being painted red in Egyptian sculptures, was probably not in
common use. The pottery, therefore, exhibited in the Boulak Museum, near
Cairo, as found at Sais, can hardly have been the work of the Greek colony
established there, but of its earlier inhabitants. There seems to be no other wray
of accounting for so complete an identity in the fictile ware of the two localities
than by assigning a common origin to the peoples in whose tombs they are found.
I think there can be little doubt that this remarkable people must have been
Phoenician, for it is certain that the latter established extensive colonies in
Cyprus in very ancient times, and, unless we assign to them the class of tombs
now under consideration, there are none others which can so plausibly be
attributed to them. Neither is there anything improbable in supposing that the