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Cypro-Phoenician bowl – silver, 18.7 cm in
diameter, from the Cypro-Archaic period
(750-600 BC)
Excavated in Amathus and now owned by the
British Museum, this exquisite silver vessel with
elaborate repoussé and engraved decoration be-
longs to a class of objects known as Cypro-Phoe-
nician bowls. Found in tombs and sanctuaries
from Urartu and Assyria to Greece and Etruria,
they were used as drinking vessels in high status
feasts or religious rituals. Their decoration com-
bines Egyptian or Assyrian style iconographic
motifs but in an unmistakably Phoenician man-
ner. This example – found in a high status tomb
along with weapons and luxury goods – may have
been made in Cyprus in one of the cosmopolitan
coastal centres of the island, perhaps in Amathus
itself. Two bands of decoration featuring Egyptian
style subjects – winged sphinxes in the centre,
then deities (Harpokrates, Horus, Isis, Nephthys
and Ra-Horakhty) – are surrounded by an outer
register depicting the siege of a heavily-defended
city. Barnett identified the two archers on the bat-
tlements wearing tall headdresses as gods. This is
uncertain but, if correct, the scene may represent
a scene from a myth. The architecture of the be-
sieged city, however, and the clothing and armour
worn by the combatants – some of whom resem-
ble Greek
hoplites
– suggest the artist had con-
temporary subjects in mind.
REFERENCES: Cesnola 1877, 271-282; Colon-
na-Ceccaldi 1882, 137-151; Barnett 1977;
Markoe 1985, 172-174, Cy4; Hermary 1986.
‘Amarna letter’EA34 mentioning
Alashiya
(Cy-
prus) – clay, 14 cm tall and 7.5 cmwide, from the
Egyptian 18
th
Dynasty (14
th
century BC)
Written in a dialect of Akkadian – the interna-
tional language of diplomacy throughout the
Middle East during the late BronzeAge – this let-
ter inscribed on a tablet of baked clay (excavated
in Tell el-Amarna, Egypt, and currently at the
British Museum) records the political and com-
mercial relations of the king of
Alashiya
and the
Egyptian Pharaoh, probably Amenhotep III or IV
(Akhenaten). The correspondents address each
other as family members, but the underlying sub-
ject is highly pragmatic: an extensive trade in cop-
per, timber, precious oils, textiles and other luxury
goods, even if these transactions are described as
gifts. In this letter, the king of
Alashiya
sends 100
talents of copper and jars of special oil for anoint-
ing his ‘brother’ the Pharaoh; in return he requests
a gilded ebony bed and 14 beams of ebony, a
chariot, horses, linen garments and 77 jars of oil.
The identification of
Alashiya
mentioned in
ancient Near Eastern texts is contentious. Most
scholars believe it refers to Cyprus, but its ex-
act nature remains unclear. The Amarna texts
imply a powerful and centralised state similar
to the other great powers of the region – As-
syria, Babylon, Egypt, Hatti, and Mitanni – and
its king addresses the Pharaoh as an equal.
Yet comparing the references to
Alashiya
with
the archaeological record of the Cypriot Late
Bronze Age has proved difficult. The kingdom
may have been a more complex and fluid entity
that changed over the course of the late Bronze
Age in response to internal and external influ-
ences and events.
REFERENCES: Moran 1992, 105-113; Knapp
1996, 1-13; Goren et al. 2003; Bryce 2003; Steel
2004, 181-186; Peltenburg 2012.
Aryballos Urn that was exported from Egypt to Cyprus, 6
th
century BC