|
ARTEFACTS
Ôhe location of the
Preneolithic
cave at Aetokremnos-Akroteri |
In
Room I the exhibition consists of artefacts from the Preneolithic
site of Akrotiri- Aetokremnos,
where evidence for the earliest human activity on the island has
been revealed, related to the last phases of a hunter-gatherer
economy. The most striking aspect is the coexistence of cultural
materials with a huge assemblage of extinct Pleistocene animals,
most probably pygmy Hippopotamus and pygmy Elephant which were
probably being exploited by humans.
|
The
cave under excavation-stratigraphy |
|
|
|
The
process of Neolithisation is attested by the recently discovered
site of Shillourokambos in Parekklishia which belongs to Aceramic Neolithic I and
dates as far back as the end of the 9th millenium to
the 7th millenium BC. It is the earliest Neolithic
settlement of the whole island . The future rearrangement of the
exhibition will include
some of the finds from that site. |
Red
on white ware
basket shape pot
from the Chalcolithic
settlement of Erimi
|
The
Sotira Teppes
Late neolithic settlement |
In
the present exhibition one can see Late Neolithic material (stone tools
and ceramics ) from the Sotira Culture (Neolithic II 4500-3800) as well
as material from the Chalcolithic period. The earliest phase of this
period, in Limassol District, was found at Erimi Pamboula
. The stone idols are the most important artefacts of this
period.
|
|
|
|
|
|
Sotira
and Erimi artefacts
|
|
|
The
representative material of the Early Bronge Age period (
3000/2900-1900-1800 BC) and the Middle Bronze Age (1900-1600 BC) derives
mainly from the City itself and the villages of Pyrgos, Evdimou and
Paramali. This is the period when the know-how of exploitation and
smelting of copper was acquired. Pottery shapes are imitating shapes in
organic materials, they are covered with a characteristic Red Polished
slip and decorated with
plastic and incised decoration.
During the Middle Bronge Age the forms
are becoming smaller and new techniques in surface decoration such as
the painted patterns, are re-introduced.
The
significant changes in
culture and economy that took place in the Late Bronze Age (1650-1050
BC) are decisive for the later history of the island.
|
Ritual
vessel of Red-Polished ware from Polemidhia.
Early Bronze Age |
|
|
|
Commercial contact with the Aegean world is becoming more
intensive. The Mediterranean indigenous people already inspired by the
lively spirit of the Aegean cultures gradually assimilate features of
Aegean culture. New settlers on the island create a peripheral centre of
Greek culture with its special peculiarities that survives to our days. |
The
exhibited material of the Late Bronge Age represents the stages of that
development process. Among
the local ceramic products, Base
Ring and White Slip wares, the visitors can see imported Mycenean vases
like the floral style cup of Mycenean IIB from Crete or local
imitations. Most of them derive from rescue excavations in the city of
Limassol. A large pithos
from Kourion – Pamboula, a settlement that according to historians was founded
by the Peloponnesian Argives, is
of local production and was used for storage or as a transport
container for the exported products of Cyprus to the Mediterranean
world. (The main part of the Kourion area finds are exhibited in the
local Museum of Episkopi).
|
Some
contemporary artefacts from the necropolis of a palatial monumental building at Alassa are also exhibited.
From
the end of the Late Bronze Age (1050 BC) to the Hellenistic period,(325
BC) when Alexander the Great included Cyprus in his great Macedonian
state, abolishing the Ancient Cypriot Kingdoms (310 BC) , there is
little historical
information about the two kingdoms of our area (Amathus and Kourion). It
is a period generally known for its continuous change of rulers
(Phoenicians, Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians), but it is well
represented in the archaeological record of the sites of those kingdoms.
The main archaeological source of information about this amalgamation of
cultural influences are the rich funeral gifts of the cemeteries.
|
One handled cup of the floral Mycenean II B style (1400 BC).
|
The
Limassol Museum is housing the material from Amathus and its surrounding
settlements and sanctuaries. Such objects are local and imported
Phoenician and Aegean pottery,
minor art products like jewellery, tools, coins, clay idols and stone
statuettes, relief and inscribed funerary stelae.
The
Archaic phase of the great sanctuary of Aphrodite on the top of the
Akropolis of Amathus is represented by a group of terracottas of Eastern
origin (masks, temple models, female idols of Ashtarte) and objects of
western influence (charriot and rider compositions) .
|
Hathor
free-standing pillar
capital of late Cyproarchaic period from the palace of Amathus.
|
One
of the most important works of art of the Museum , a free standing
Hathor Capital found in the palace area of Amathus is dated to the Late
Archaic period (500 BC) . A head of an eastern goddess made in the
stylistic trends of the late Archaic Greek artists indicates
the fusion of cultural influences at a place where the
civilization of the east meet with those of the West.
Rich
funeral gifts and a group of clay statuettes found during the British
period at a sanctuary in the foundation excavations of the Limassol Town
Police station belong to the Archaic period.
The
Hellenistic period art production of Cyprus is following the trends of
the new regime, the so called koine
and foresees the
formalization of the Roman period. The exhibition in the last room
consists of sculpture, plastic art , pottery, ivory objects, glass
objects, lamps, funerary and dedicatory inscriptions indicating the
assimilation of Cyprus to the new world.
|
|
Limestone
statue of the God Bes from
Amathus. Roman
|
Characteristic
is a huge sculpture of the Egyptian fertility God Bes which was found in
the Amathus Roman Agora and marks the
survival of this Archaic cult into Roman times as well as the 4th
century AD sculptures from the Fasoula workshop.
A dedicator , Sozomenos, commissigned a statue
from the same workshop of Zeus Labranios ( Zeus as the God of the double
axes) a survival of an old Cretan cult of the God of arts who has his
residence on the mountain Ida . Levantine people made references to that
God (ugaritic texts: Baal
poems) as early as the 14th
century BC , as Housor or
God of the Double axe who lives in the land of Kefti (Crete).
Those figures confirm
the strength and endurance of influences that
Cyprus received,
from the Aegean and the Eastern civilisations on account of the
conservatism of its island environment.
|
Male
head of a limestone statue fro the so called “ sanctuary of
Lavranios
Zeus” of Fasoula
|
|
