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chromy, achieved through the use of coloured
semi-precious stones or glass.
REFERENCES: BCH 119 (1995), 807, fi g. 17; on
the typology and distribution of such earrings, see
Pfrommer 1990, 178-179, Taf. 30; on polychromy,
see Hoffmann & Davidson 1965; for parallels see
Pierides 1971, pl. 28; Karageorghis 2000a, 290,
no. 479; Lubsen-Admiraal 2004, 293, no. 611.
Centaur figurine –
Clay, around 45.3 cm tall
from the Cypro-Geometric III – Cypro-Archaic
I period (800-700 BC)
Originating from the Ayia Irini sanctuary and
currently belonging to the Cyprus Museum,
this wheel-made animal body has a handmade
human torso and a horned tilted head. A partly
preserved snake coils along the monster’s back,
resting its head on its right shoulder. A palm tree
with a bird on its branches is painted on its chest.
Vent-holes (openings for the circulation of air
during firing) are pierced on both terminals of
the body cylinder. The monster raises its arms,
a gesture imported to Cyprus from the Aegean
during the 11
th
century BC.
The idea of a monster with a human head and an
animal body circulated between Cyprus and the
Aegean from the Late Cypriot III and early Cy-
pro-Geometric period onward. Centaur images
from this early period have appeared in Cyprus,
Crete, Euboea, Athens and the Dodecanese.
REFERENCES: Gjerstad et al. 1935, 735, 785,
pl. CCXXVII: 3; Karageorghis 1996, 1, 4, no.
A6, fi g. 2, pl. II:4; for the exchange of the cen-
taur idea between Cyprus and Greece, see Ka-
rageorghis 1991b; for the centaur from Euboea
(Lefkandi), see Popham et al. 1979; 1980, 215-
216, frontispiece, pls 251-252.
Oxhide ingot – copper, 73 cm long and 41 cm
wide, from the late Cypriot period (16
th
-11
th
century BC)
Since the beginning of the Bronze Age, met-
als were cast into ingots of standardised shape
and weight for the purposes of trade. In the late
BronzeAge, different types of copper ingots were
in use, but the most characteristic were oxhide
ingots (so-called because of their shape, which
resembles the hide of an ox). They are rectangular
slabs whose corners usually protrude to form four
extremities or handles. They weigh from 23 to 39
kg, but many of them weigh around 29 kg, the
equivalent of a
talent
(an ancient unit for measur-
ing mass/weight). One surface is rough and the
other is smooth, indicating they were produced
in an open mould. They often bear stamped or
engraved symbols on the upper, rough surface.
This type of ingot appears in the course of the
16
th
century BC and seems to go out of use after
the 11
th
century BC. The earliest examples have
been found in Crete and the latest in Sardinia. Re-
Oxhide ingot