Ancient Cypriot Ceramics: A Brief Review

The Island of Cyprus, still divided after 4 decades between the internationally recognized Greek Cypriot state — a member of the EU– and the Turkish Cypriot state, and very much in the news lately because of its economic woes, has a profoundly long and complex history. Once the crossroads of the eastern Mediterranean, it has seen immigrants and invaders come and go for many thousands of years. Egyptians, Assyrians, Greeks, Romans, Byzantines, Crusaders, Turks, British colonials and others have all left their mark on its landscape and culture.

One very tangible component of the Island’s surviving ancient material culture is pottery. Almost indestructible and abundant, ceramics have been key to aiding more modern excavators in reconstructing the Island’s complex ancient history. Prior to the signing of modern international conventions restricting the export of Cypriot antiquities, a great deal of Cypriot material was removed from the Island by amateurs, explorers, museums, financially motivated looters and by archaeologists. Much of this material is available on the legitimate antiquities art market today.

Our website offers a good selection of material, from the Bronze Age through the Hellenistic era. Our selection is by no means comprehensive, as the range of ancient Cypriot pottery types, fabrics, designs, etc. is enormous and just as complex as the Island’s history. Below please find a few images with links to those items on our website.

 

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i383.html 

 

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i6.html 

 

http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i94.html 

 http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i4.html

 http://www.clioancientart.com/catalog/i5.html

 

Our "Links" Page: Another Useful Resource

The "Links" Page on our website -- http://www.clioancientart.com/id15.html -- offers a wealth of resources relating to antiquities, ancient art and ancient cultures. There are links to general online resources about antiquities collecting, links to academic and museum collections online, links to antiquities trade associations and to both print and online publications, and much more. Here's that link again --

http://www.clioancientart.com/id15.html

Enjoy!

A Useful Tool: Our “Sold Antiquities” Page

http://www.clioancientart.com/id18.html

This is the link to our “Sold Antiquities” page, which includes images and brief descriptions of objects we’ve sold over the last couple of years. By virtue of the great number of items it displays, it is a very useful tool both for researching antiquities in general, and specifically for tracking antiquities we’ve sold. So often, antiquities with perfectly legitimate provenance pass from a dealer to a private collector, then perhaps to another collector or dealer, and loose their provenance information in the process. Using this page, items we’ve sold may be traced back to Clio Ancient Art and their long term provenance established.

Here’s the link again: http://www.clioancientart.com/id18.html

Enjoy!