DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.25181#0014
Ancient Tombs in the Island of Cyprus. 135
is also in our national collection; the other, much ruder in character, is given in
PI. XII. fig. 2.
In many cemeteries, however, especially where they appear to have belonged to
a village, the pottery discovered is of the commonest description, generally desti-
tute of pattern, and sometimes with scarcely marks sufficient to identify it with
the great class we are now describing. There is nothing surprising in this, as in
poor communities no encouragement would have been given to merely ornamental
art. It is enough for our purpose if we are satisfied that the types under consi-
deration were so prevalent as to he entitled to the appellation of national, a term
to which the pottery of neither of the previous categories can fairly lay claim.
The most interesting kind of ornament, however, has yet to he mentioned, and
one which materially aids the antiquary in his endeavours to assign a probable age
to these ancient tombs. In the pottery therein contained we meet with the first
efforts of the inhabitants of Cyprus to draw animal forms. We have seen the rude
representations of the hull moulded in clay by the occupants of the second class
of cemeteries, hut here, for the first time, the earliest attempts at portraying the
outlines of animals and man in colours are seen. On one of these is a scene
representing a goat carried to sacrifice, tied to a pole borne on men’s shoulders,
followed by a man with uplifted arms, and wearing a liigh-crowned cap. The
scene covers two-thirds of the neck of an amphora (the only fragment remain-
ing) discovered by Mr. Lang, while on the third side is the lozenge ornament
divided into panels, and flanked by parallel vertical lines. This is perhaps the
earliest, as it is certainly the rudest, specimen of the mimetic art yet discovered,
and is all the more remarkable as delineating the human form, which on the
earliest vases is so rarelv met with. In another vase, in which the concentric
circle appears, is a female figure standing out in relief, of a very interesting
character, and in another, a similar head, more highly ornamented, serves as the
mouth of the vase, a spout projecting from the side. They were found in the
neighbourhood of Idalium. The two pendent locks falling over the shoulders
in front is a common attribute of the early Cyprian race, and with the type of
face itself serves to distinguish it from the Egyptian on the one hand and the
Assyrian and its kindred Phoenician type on the other. The Cyprian face, with
its large, prominent nose, strongly-marked eye-brows, and. broad forehead, with
single or double locks falling over the shoulders in front, has been so often repro-
duced in both stone and terra-cotta as to he a well-recognised type by those
familiar with this branch of archaeology. The Biblical account in assigning an
Aryan race to Cyprus as its earliest inhabitants is thus far borne out by the type
VOL. XLV.
u
is also in our national collection; the other, much ruder in character, is given in
PI. XII. fig. 2.
In many cemeteries, however, especially where they appear to have belonged to
a village, the pottery discovered is of the commonest description, generally desti-
tute of pattern, and sometimes with scarcely marks sufficient to identify it with
the great class we are now describing. There is nothing surprising in this, as in
poor communities no encouragement would have been given to merely ornamental
art. It is enough for our purpose if we are satisfied that the types under consi-
deration were so prevalent as to he entitled to the appellation of national, a term
to which the pottery of neither of the previous categories can fairly lay claim.
The most interesting kind of ornament, however, has yet to he mentioned, and
one which materially aids the antiquary in his endeavours to assign a probable age
to these ancient tombs. In the pottery therein contained we meet with the first
efforts of the inhabitants of Cyprus to draw animal forms. We have seen the rude
representations of the hull moulded in clay by the occupants of the second class
of cemeteries, hut here, for the first time, the earliest attempts at portraying the
outlines of animals and man in colours are seen. On one of these is a scene
representing a goat carried to sacrifice, tied to a pole borne on men’s shoulders,
followed by a man with uplifted arms, and wearing a liigh-crowned cap. The
scene covers two-thirds of the neck of an amphora (the only fragment remain-
ing) discovered by Mr. Lang, while on the third side is the lozenge ornament
divided into panels, and flanked by parallel vertical lines. This is perhaps the
earliest, as it is certainly the rudest, specimen of the mimetic art yet discovered,
and is all the more remarkable as delineating the human form, which on the
earliest vases is so rarelv met with. In another vase, in which the concentric
circle appears, is a female figure standing out in relief, of a very interesting
character, and in another, a similar head, more highly ornamented, serves as the
mouth of the vase, a spout projecting from the side. They were found in the
neighbourhood of Idalium. The two pendent locks falling over the shoulders
in front is a common attribute of the early Cyprian race, and with the type of
face itself serves to distinguish it from the Egyptian on the one hand and the
Assyrian and its kindred Phoenician type on the other. The Cyprian face, with
its large, prominent nose, strongly-marked eye-brows, and. broad forehead, with
single or double locks falling over the shoulders in front, has been so often repro-
duced in both stone and terra-cotta as to he a well-recognised type by those
familiar with this branch of archaeology. The Biblical account in assigning an
Aryan race to Cyprus as its earliest inhabitants is thus far borne out by the type
VOL. XLV.
u