Cypriot Archaeology

Research on early medieval Cyprus has focused on the late antique " golden age " (late fourth/early fifth to seventh century) and the so-called Byzantine " Reconquista " (post-AD 965) while overlooking the intervening period. This phase was characterized, supposedly, by the division of the political sovereignty between the Umayyads and the Byzantines, bringing about the social and demographic dislocation of the population of the island. This book proposes a different story of continuities and slow transformations in the fate of Cyprus between the late sixth and the early ninth centuries. Analysis of new archaeological evidence shows signs of a continuing link to Constantinople. Moreover, together with a reassessment of the literary evidence, archaeology and material culture help us to reappraise the impact of Arab naval raids and contextualize the confrontational episodes throughout the ebb and flow of Eastern Mediterranean history: the political influence of the Caliphate looked stronger in the second half of the seventh century, the administrative and ecclesiastical influence of the Byzantine empire held sway from the beginning of the eighth to the twelfth century. Whereas the island retained sound commercial ties with the Umayyad Levant in the seventh and eighth centuries, at the same time politically and economically it remained part of the Byzantine sphere. This belies the idea of Cyprus as an independent province only loosely tied to Constantinople and allows us to draw a different picture of the cultural identities, political practices and hierarchy of wealth and power in Cyprus during the passage from Late Antiquity to the early Middle Ages.

This chapter presents the important but not very well known
archival material relating to James Stewart’s
Vounous excavations kept in the archive of the
Medelhavsmuseet, Stockholm. The Medelhavsmuseet
was founded in 1954 as a direct result of the Swedish
Cyprus Expedition in order to store the Swedish share
of the finds from the excavations. The archival material
from the Swedish Cyprus Expedition, including field
diaries, drawings, photographs, manuscripts and
correspondence, is kept in the archive of the museum.
Stewart’s excavations at Vounous were published by the
Swedish Institute in Rome in 1950 and Einar Gjerstad
invited Stewart to write about the Early Bronze Age in
Cyprus for Swedish Cyprus Expedition Volume IV, Part
1A (Stewart 1962). The good collaboration between
Stewart and Gjerstad prompted Stewart to donate
his field records to the Swedish Cyprus Expedition,
which thus duly came to the museum.

As part of my doctoral studies I have been reviewing several journal titles and one of them has been the Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus (henceforth RDAC). The latter journal is not extensively catalogued, indexed or digitized at the moment, which makes it very difficult for researchers to find articles published there. Therefore, I decided to create a comprehensive list of contents for the RDAC from its first published volume in 1934 to the latest volume published in 2010. In the link below you will find an Excel workbook with a complete listing of the contents of each RDAC volume, full references to each item and some other goodies (article counters - for that you will need to activate Macros, so that some VBA code running in the background gets activated). This project has taken almost two months to bring to completion and now with the consent of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus is offered under a CC BY-NC-SA (Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-Share Alike) 4.0 International License to all researchers working in the archaeology of Cyprus.

Link to resource: https://figshare.com/s/56a23c9686ae402c6341

PS 1: Ignore the PDF file in the Academia.edu download, as it is simply for preview purposes. Go to the link to resource and you can download it from there.
PS 2: If you detect any typographic errors, please contact me to apply corrections.

The statuary collections of the so-called “Villa of Theseus” in Nea Paphos, Malloutena and the “House of the Gladiators” in Kourion have so far been the only published groups of supposedly domestic sculpture that can be attributed to specific buildings of the Early Christian period in Cyprus, although I will argue that the analysis of the statuary will bring up a different perspective. Much ink has been spilt for their floor mosaic programs, while their statuary assemblages have generally been studied detached from their actual context, with most studies addressing stylistic and iconographical features. This paper makes a first attempt in studying these assemblages by integrating evidence from the architecture of the buildings and their construction phases. While its focus resides on the statuary, it aims to contribute to a better understanding of the architecture and the character of the surrounding space.

Research undertaken in Durham University, Faculty of Social Sciences and Health: Department of Archaeology; supervised by Dr Anna Leone.

Viva voce examination held on April 15th, 2016.
Examiners: Prof. Roland R. R. Smith (University of Oxford), Dr Catherine M. Draycott (Durham University).
Outcome: passed forthwith (no corrections; thesis passed unconditionally).

This paper examines the possible foreign origins of the pillar base of the Judean Pillar Figurine (JPF).  After considering and rejecting Mesopotamian and Levantine origins due to lack of chronologically compatible antecedents, the hypothesis of Cypriot origins is presented.  The data show that Cyprus did have a pillar-based goddess image in its repertoire immediately preceding the earliest appearnaces of the JPF in Judea.  Furthermore, there is evidence of contacts between Cyprus and Judea in the areas where and when the JPFs first appear.  The mixing of the foreign pillar base with the indigenous arms positioning under the breasts led to the iconography of the JPF.  The essay then considers the origins of the pillar-based idol in Cyprus, noting that it emerged from the 'hoop-skirt' base of the Goddess With Upraised Arms from Crete.

Olga Tufnell’s ‘Perfect Journey’

By Jack Green and Ros Henry

Blog published on TrowelBlazers, April 26, 2021.

https://trowelblazers.com/olga-tufnells-perfect-journey/

Excerpt:  Olga Tufnell (1905‒1985) was a British archaeologist who mainly worked in Palestine in the 1920s and 1930s, whose archive of letters and photographs are housed at the Palestine Exploration Fund, London. She is best known for her scholarly publications on the excavations of Tell ed-Duweir (ancient Lachish), as well scarabs and stamp seals from the East Mediterranean. You can read her full TrowelBlazers bio here. Tufnell’s reminiscences and letters provide insights into dig life during the so-called “golden age” of archaeology in the Holy Land, and the wider cultural, political, and gendered context of fieldwork within Mandate Palestine.

In our new open access book entitled Olga Tufnell’s “Perfect Journey.” Letters and Photographs of an Archaeologist in the Levant and Mediterranean (UCL Press), we present her letters from this period for the first time. They provide a personal account of her experiences, shedding light on travel and dig life during extraordinary times.

The letters offer insights into social and professional networks and the history of archaeology. They provide a contemporary view of the role of foreign archaeologists, relationships with local workers and their families, and the colonial frameworks within which they operated. The letters are important because they give Olga Tufnell’s viewpoint as an individual at times and places which saw significant social and political change. The letters reflect the attitudes of the day: some static and resistant to change; others indicating the growing acceptance of women in a man’s world.

Informationen zu den Ausgrabungen mit Beteiligung der Berliner Museen. Grabungsgeschichte von den Anfängen bis 1999, Publikationen und beteiligte Personen zusammengestellt aus den Grabungspublikationen sowie Archivalien der Antikensammlung der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin.
Die Zusammenstellung wurde nur in wenigen Kopien für den Gebrauch im Archiv der Antikensammlung hergestellt.

CATALOGUE OF THE EXHIBITION "THE LIFE AFTER DEATH" IN THE FRAME OF THE CULTURAL CAPITAL OF EUROPE PAFOS2017 AND AARHUS2017. A CULTURAL APPROACH TO THE PRESERVATION OF THE DEAD'S MEMORY THROUGH ART AND BURIAL CUSTOMS IN CYPRUS AND DENMARK FROM ANTIQUITY TILL NOWADAYS/ ΚΑΤΑΛΟΓΟΣ ΤΗΣ ΕΚΘΕΣΗΣ "Η ΖΩΗ ΜΕΤΑ ΘΑΝΑΤΟΝ" ΣΤΑ ΠΛΑΙΣΙΑ ΤΩΝ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΤΙΚΩΝ ΠΡΩΤΕΥΟΥΣΩΝ ΤΗΣ ΕΥΡΩΠΗΣ ΠΑΦΟΣ2017 ΚΑΙ ΩΡΧΟΥΣ2017. ΜΙΑ ΠΟΛΙΤΙΣΜΙΚΗ ΠΡΟΣΕΓΓΙΣΗ ΣΤΗ ΔΙΑΤΗΡΗΣΗ ΤΗΣ ΑΝΑΜΝΗΣΗΣ ΤΩΝ ΤΕΘΝΕΩΤΩΝ ΜΕΣΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΤΕΧΝΗ ΚΑΙ ΤΙΣ ΤΑΦΙΚΕΣ ΠΑΡΑΔΟΣΕΙΣ ΣΤΗΝ ΚΥΠΡΟ ΚΑΙ ΤΗ ΔΑΝΙΑ ΑΠΟ ΤΗΝ ΑΡΧΑΙΟΤΗΤΑ ΕΩΣ ΤΙΣ ΗΜΕΡΕΣ ΜΑΣ

In 391 B.C. political and territorial tensions between Greeks, Phoenicians and the Achaemenid empire exploded into combat off the south coast of Cyprus near the Cypro-Phoenician kingdom of Kition. To commemorate their naval victory King Milkyaton and the people of Kition erected a victory monument which I call Milkyaton’s Trophy. Scholars have suggested five possible forms including a bronze tripod for this trophy. This talk not only assesses the feasibility of these five forms, but also examines the textual and physical evidence as well as the relevant iconography and mythology which allows for a new sixth form, a bronze statue depicting an armed marine god, Melqart or Ba’al-‘Oz, riding a hippocampus. Much like the Macdonough memorial, an American naval victory monument comprised of an obelisk crowned by an eagle, Milkyaton’s Trophy celebrates both success in battle and reflects heterogeneous cultural influences.

The Ptolemaic kings of Egypt struck many series of coins, mainly in Alexandria but also in various mints scattered in foreign possessions, such as Coele Syria and Cyprus. While Ptolemy I seeks to establish himself on the island from 321 BC, the Ptolemaic coin production essentially starts from the definitive annexation of Cyprus to Alexandria in 295/4. The creation of a closed monetary economy, at the turn of the 4th and 3rd centuries BC, strongly distinguishes the Ptolemaic coins among other emissions from the Hellenistic East. While almost all of the gold and silver coins from this period conform to the Attic standard (drachm = 4.32 g), the Ptolemies adopt a lighter standard (drachm = 3.25 g) and give their money the monopoly of circulation within the borders of the kingdom. The obligatory exchange of foreign coins at the gates of the country is generally regarded as one of the main sources of wealth for the Ptolemies throughout their reign. This policy of excluding non-Ptolemaic coins also causes the emission of considerable amounts of gold, silver and bronze coins.
In this global context, the Cypriote production represents a rather complex object of study to discuss as a whole. While the identification of monetary series of the 3rd century attributable to Cyprus still provokes debate, the 2nd-century productions, at least for gold and silver, are much better known. At this point, we must add to this chronological dichotomy the difficulties of classifying the Cypriote bronze series, relatively little studied until now.

Οι Πτολεμαίοι βασιλείς της Αιγύπτου εκδίδουν πολλές σειρές νομισμάτων, κυρίως στην Αλεξάνδρεια αλλά και σε διάφορα ακόμη νομισματοκοπεία διασκορπισμένα σε εξωτερικές κτήσεις, όπως στην Κοίλη Συρία και την Κύπρο. Ενώ ο Πτολεμαίος Α΄ προσπαθεί να εγκαθιδρύσει την εξουσία του στο νησί από το 321 π.Χ., η πτολεμαϊκή νομισματική παραγωγή εγκαινιάζεται στην πραγματικότητα με την οριστική προσάρτηση της Κύπρου στην Αλεξάνδρεια, το 295/294 π.Χ. Η δημιουργία μιας κλειστής νομισματικής οικονομίας, στη στροφή από τον 4ο στον 3ο αι. π.Χ., διαχωρίζει σαφώς τα πτολεμαϊκά νομίσματα από άλλες νομισματικές εκδόσεις της ελληνιστικής ανατολής. Ενώ τα χρυσά και αργυρά νομίσματα αυτής της περιόδου εκδίδονται στη συντριπτική πλειονότητά τους σύμφωνα με τον αττικό σταθμητικό κανόνα (δραχμή = 4,32 γρ.), οι Πτολεμαίοι υιοθετούν έναν ελαφρύτερο σταθμητικό κανόνα (δραχμή = 3,25 γρ.), παρέχοντας ταυτόχρονα στα νομίσματά τους το μονοπώλιο της κυκλοφορίας εντός των ορίων του πτολεμαϊκού βασιλείου. Η υποχρεωτική ανταλλαγή των ξένων νομισμάτων με πτολεμαϊκά προ των πυλών του πτολεμαϊκού βασιλείου θεωρείται εν γένει ως μία από τις κύριες πηγές πλούτου των Πτολεμαίων, καθ’ όλη τη διάρκεια της κυριαρχίας τους. Αυτή η πολιτική του αποκλεισμού μη πτολεμαϊκών νομισμάτων έχει επίσης ως αποτέλεσμα την έκδοση αξιοσημείωτων ποσοτήτων χρυσών, αργυρών και χάλκινων πτολεμαϊκών νομισμάτων.
Σε αυτό το γενικό πλαίσιο, η κυπριακή νομισματική παραγωγή εμφανίζεται μάλλον περίπλοκη, όταν μελετάται στο σύνολό της. Ενώ η αναγνώριση νομισματικών σειρών του 3ου αι. π.Χ. που θα μπορούσαν να αποδοθούν στην Κύπρο εξακολουθεί να αποτελεί αντικείμενο αντιπαράθεσης μεταξύ των διαφόρων μελετητών, η νομισματική παραγωγή του 2ου αι. π.Χ., τουλάχιστον όσον αφορά τα χρυσά και αργυρά νομίσματα, είναι πολύ καλύτερα γνωστή. Σε αυτό το χρονολογικό διαχωρισμό, οφείλει να προσθέσει κανείς και τις δυσκολίες ταξινόμησης των χάλκινων κυπριακών νομισματικών σειρών, οι οποίες δεν έχουν μελετηθεί επαρκώς μέχρι σήμερα.

Nea Paphos is generally considered to have been founded by Nikokles, the last king of Paphos. Some scholars have
proposed that Ptolemy may have founded the new city ca. 312 BC or aft er 294 BC. In this paper, the author tries to
analyse and summarise the diff erent proposals and suggests another hypothesis, namely that the foundation was not
the result of a global scheme but instead, of diff erent steps. Nikokles seems to have created the harbour, Ptolemy may
have established a military settlement (katoikia), and then, once becoming king, and aft er taking control of the island
again from 294 BC onwards, may have encouraged the development of the city. Is it possible that the Antigonids played
a role in the development of its harbour when they controlled the island between 306 and 294 BC. Nevertheless, it
is only aft er Paphos becomes the seat of the Ptolemaic strategos in the early second century BC, probably aft er the
Ptolemaic fl eet was withdrawn from the Aegean in 145 BC, that Nea Paphos is protected by a strong city walls with
perhaps another protected harbour in front of the North West gate: the intra muros city seems to have been enlarged
and reshaped as a small version of Alexandria in Cyprus, until its destruction by an earthquake in the last quarter of
the fi rst century BC and its rebuilding under Augustus’ auspices.

THE PRESENT SHORT TEXT, WRITTEN AS A LEMMA IN MOXE (MEGALI ORTHODOXI CHRISTIANIKI ENCYCLOPAIDEIA), CONSISTS A NEW APPROACH TO THE PERSON OF ST. THERAPON AND THE CIRCUMSTANCES OF HIS MARTYRION, AND IS HEREBY  OFFICIALLY SUGGESTED AS A BISHOP OF THE RENOWNED ANCIENT TOWN OF KITION IN CYPRUS.

From its first adoption of writing at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age, ancient Cyprus was home to distinctive scripts and writing habits, often setting it apart from other areas of the Mediterranean and Near East. This well-illustrated volume is the first to explore the development and importance of Cypriot writing over a period of more than 1,500 years in the second and first millennia BC. Five themed chapters deal with issues ranging from the acquisition of literacy and the adaptation of new writing systems to the visibility of writing and its role in the marking of identities. The agency of Cypriots in shaping the island's literate landscape is given prominence, and an extended consideration of the social context of writing leads to new insights on Cypriot scripts and their users. Cyprus provides a stimulating case to demonstrate the importance of contextualised approaches to the development of writing systems.

Chapter 1 available with open access here: https://www.repository.cam.ac.uk/handle/1810/284465

Recent archaeobotanical results from early Neolithic sites on Cyprus have put the island in the forefront of debates on the spread of Near Eastern agriculture, with domestic crops appearing on the island shortly after they evolved. The results from these early sites changed what was known about the timing of the introduction of farming to the island. However, what happened after the introduction of agriculture to Cyprus has been less discussed. This book explores the role of new crop introductions, local agricultural developments, and intensification in subsequent economic and social developments on Cyprus corresponding with the island’s evidence of ongoing social transformations and changing off-island patterns of contacts. In addition to contributing to discussions on the origins and spread of Near Eastern agriculture, it contributes to current archaeological debates on external contact and the influence of the broader Near East on the development of the island’s unique prehistoric economy. This research is a chronological and regional analysis of the botanical record of Cyprus and a comparison of data from similarly dated sites in the Levantine mainland, Turkey, and Egypt. Further, it includes data from four recently excavated Cypriot prehistoric sites, Krittou Marottou-‘Ais Yiorkis, Kissonerga-Skalia, Souskiou-Laona, and Prastion-Mesorotsos.

In the complex panorama of exchanges and interconnections that characterised Early Iron Age Crete, the eastern, and particularly Cypriot, element played a particularly important role. The influx and circulation of artefacts, materials and ideas of Cypriot origin on the island also includes a particular category of objects: armaments. The present contribution focuses on the weapons of Cypriot origin found on the island, starting with the evidence from the necropolis of Orthi Petra at Eleutherna. These are analysed in relation to their formal characteristics, the attestations in Cyprus, in Crete and in the main cultural areas of the Early Iron Age Aegean. Particular attention is given to the function of Cypriot arms in the definition of the Cretan panoply and to their possible role in the elaboration of original Cretan types. As a whole, the contribution constitutes a reflection on the role of Cypriot production in the formation and development of the Cretan metallurgical tradition.

The “aegeanization” (or, alternatively, “mycenaeanization” or “hellenization”) of Cyprus is one of the more contentious debates for those engaged in the study of the island’s Late Bronze and early Iron Age periods. My own contribution to this debate arises from my ongoing study of the relationship between architecture and power on Cyprus during the Late Bronze Age. In reviewing previous studies of this architecture, it became clear that claims of foreign influence are often an important aspect of how Late Cypriot buildings are interpreted and that the origins and nature of such influences have important implications for our understanding of Late Bronze Age (LBA) sociopolitical dynamics. This study therefore represents an initial foray into addressing the issue of Aegean elements in LBA Cypriot architecture based on an approach that views built space as the context for social interaction. I begin by outlining the differing viewpoints in the ongoing debate regarding the aegeanization of Cyprus and then discuss the supposed architectural manifestations of this process. I then introduce a method for analyzing built space that might shed light on the sociopolitical dynamics surrounding one particular innovation—large halls with central hearths. I demonstrate that any aegeanization represented by this innovation should be viewed in the context of selective borrowing and adapting of Mycenaean cultural traits by Cypriot elites, rather than as the product of Mycenaean colonization.

Sanctuaries and religion were instrumental in forming the worldview of the ancient Cypriots, and one would expect that social power relations, meanings, and identities were expressed through the holistic concept of sacred landscapes. This contribution primarily discusses the change in the use and perception of sacred landscapes, which were originally constructed in the era of the Cypriot basileis (kings) but continued to function in a new political environment under the control of the Ptolemaic strategos (general). Furthermore, it proposes a contextualized methodology for approaching the study of sacred landscapes in Iron Age Cyprus, revealing new possibilities and their effects on our understanding of Cypriot social, cultural, and political histories and at the same time indicating the limits and the dangers of such a task. Drawing on ideas from theoretical/methodological studies of landscape archaeology and their relevant applications in other Mediterranean histories, this article explores how spatial order (i.e., the hierarchical arrangement of sites), as observed in sacred landscapes, is expected to articulate social order and to be linked with shifting relations of power and cultural influence in an ancient Cypriot context. It also suggests that a closer consideration of sacred landscapes and their complexities from a long-term perspective not only makes the transition from the Cypriot city-kingdoms to the Hellenistic period more comprehensible but also illuminates the political and sociocultural histories of both periods when they are studied in their own terms.

Archaeological Institute of America
Jstor link: http://www.jstor.org/discover/10.3764/aja.117.1.0033?searchUri=%2Faction%2FdoBasicSearch%3FQuery%3Dpapantoniou%252C%2BGiorgos%26amp%3Bprq%3Damerican%2Bjournal%2Bof%2Barchaeology%26amp%3Bgroup%3Dnone%26amp%3Bhp%3D25%26amp%3Bacc%3Doff%26amp%3Bso%3Drel%26amp%3Bwc%3Don%26amp%3Bfc%3Doff&resultItemClick=true&Search=yes&searchText=papantoniou%252C&searchText=Giorgos&uid=3737848&uid=2134&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21105808080823

This paper explores the materiality of food production and consumption within the household in Bronze Age Cyprus. The focus is on embodied encounters with the “stuff of food” – the pots, pans and other kitchen implements that were used on a daily basis – and how these shaped people’s lives. Throughout the Early and Middle Bronze Age, generations of families on Cyprus used Red Polished pottery to serve and consume food and drink: the round-bottomed pots were not designed to be laid on a table indicative of the development of very specific customs of dining at home. The very limited range of pottery (wares and forms) available to the Early-Middle Cypriot householder suggests a monotone cultural experience. The introduction of vessels with flat bases or ring bases at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age might indicate a move to dining around a table – a radically different engagement with the physical, material world which undoubtedly affected social relations within the Cypriot household. This was accompanied by radical shifts in production practices – a move away from household production into the realm of craft specialists – alongside which there was an explosion in the range of tableware for consumption of food and drink and of utilitarian wares used within the kitchen. This paper interrogates the implied transformations in the cultural knowledge embedded within people’s engagement with their material world and the very different visual and tactile experiences involved in the daily use of pottery in the LBA Cypriot household.

More than 20 years after presenting his first interpretation of the mosaic from the House of Aion in a paper entitled “Uwagi na temat mozaiki z Domu Aiona w Nea Paphos (Cypr)” (Meander 9/10, 1987, p. 421-438, in Polish, and translated to English: « The Immortality of the Human Soul and the Dionysiac Mysteries in the 4th Century Allegory [in Connection with the Interpretation of the Mosaic from the “House of Aion” at Paphos in Cyprus]»), where he proposed reading the five mythological panels (1. Leda and Zeus; 2. Dionysus on Mount Nysa; 3. The Dionysian thiasos; 4. Apollo and Marsyas; 5. The Apotheosis of Cassiopeia) as an allegory of the destiny of the human soul and body, starting with conception and ending with the liberation of the soul and its apotheosis, the author now enhances his initial interpretation with numerous reflections concerning the historical context of this work of art, created in the years 320-360.
If, according to the author, the mosaic is a “Hymn” in honour of the pagan gods, Man (his soul) and his place in the (pagan) universe, then at the same time it polemicises with the Christian faith and its God, Jesus Christ.
The author puts forward numerous new solutions relating to the mosaic’s iconography and iconology. Analysis of the mosaic also leads him to propose a solution to the as-yet unanswered question regarding the absence of images of the crucified Christ in Christian art of the 3rd and 4th centuries, up until 420/430, when the first images of Christ on the cross appear.
CONTENTS:
Introduction
1. Research to-date (recap)
2. Description of mosaic (recap)
2.1. Composition of five mythological scenes
2.2. Brief iconographic description of mythological panels
2.3. Outline of individual iconographic elements and their respective roles
2.4. The pagan gods’ air of majesty and dignity as an expression of piety
3. A few words about the pagan reaction
4. An apology of pious human life according to pagan principles and a polemic on the Christian model of Man and his theological idol, Jesus Christ
4.1. Divine intervention in the act of human conception (allusion to/polemic on the Annunciation to the Virgin Mary)
4.2. The Epiphany of Dionysus (an allusion to the Epiphany of Christ – Theou Pais)
4.3. The procession and dissemination of Dionysian order (allusion to/polemic on Christ’s entry into Jerusalem)
4.4. The error of Marsyas (polemic on/allusion to the error of Jesus the Messiah): arrest, sentencing for arrogance and lack of piety (asebeia) and condemnation to a martyr’s death
4.5. The anabasis (or anagoge psyches) of a ‘beautiful soul’ (allusion to/polemic on the Ascension of Christ)
5. A few words on the mosaic programme prior to final conclusions
Final conclusions

Le projet de recherche Police pour les Inscriptions Monétaires (PIM) a pour objectif la création d’outils adaptés pour retranscrire les informations contenues dans les inscriptions monétaires, au-delà de leur contenu sémantique. Les informations textuelles et les caractéristiques graphiques présentes sur une monnaie peuvent fournir de nombreuses informations concernant son origine et la société dans laquelle elle a été frappée. Mais jusqu’à aujourd’hui, aucune fonte numérique ne pouvait retranscrire à la fois intégralement et fidèlement les inscriptions monétaires.

Ce billet, publié sur le blog de la BnF, vise d’abord à retracer la genèse du projet ainsi que les grandes étapes depuis l’annotation des monnaies de la BnF jusqu’à la réalisation des fontes.

In the prehistory of Cyprus, the so-called ‘Philia phase’ (ca. 2500-2200 BC) is a relatively brief, but crucial period which marks the transition between the Chalcolithic and the Bronze Age. Starting from Philia, indeed, a series of innovations in technologies, resource exploitation and material culture, economy, and society previously absent or elusive become evident in the archaeological record. During the Philia period, the first definite textile toolkit makes its appearance in Cyprus.           As most of the Philia materials (e.g. ceramic vessels, metals) and architectural features (e.g. rectilinear building form), spindle whorls and loom weights show marked similarities to Early Bronze Age Anatolian examples, and contribute to support the hypothesis that they were introduced to Cyprus by Anatolian people. However, it is worth noticing that the very first few examples of spindle whorls appeared in Late Chalcolithic contexts at Kissonerga Mosphilia.                                   The aim of this paper is to define the Philia textile technology and products, and to compare the Philia assemblage to that of the Early Bronze Age communities in Anatolia, in order to evaluate whether the new ‘textile habitus’ was introduced to Cyprus or was the result of a series of transformations and adaptations of the ‘original’ technology. To do this, textile tools from selected Anatolian sites will be analysed. Also, the Chalcolithic background will be explored to evaluate what was the extent of the contribution of Chalcolithic people to the adoption of the new tools, technologies, and resources.