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| AMULETs | |||
| Ancient
Cyprus in the Ashmolean Museum |
| Cypriot Copper: Mysteries of the Bronze Age | |||
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Weapons Tools and Ritual Remains
Cypriote copper smiths in the Early and Middle Bronze Age produced a wide range of weapons and utilitarian objects including: spearheads, riveted knives and daggers, tanged daggers, dirks, rat-tanged dirks, swords, flat axes, shaft-hole axes, awls, chisels, needles, tweezers, razors and toggle pins. |
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| Armlets, Vasilia (AN1957.23+AN1957.24+AN1957.25) | Awl, Politiko (Tamassos) (AN1961.314) | Axe with small perforation (AN1927.1393) | |||
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| Flat Axe (AN1927.1280) | Flat Axe (AN1888.682) | Flat Axe (AN1927.1281) | FLat Axe (AN1927.1279) | Flat Axe (AN1927.1283) | |
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| Chisel (AN1927.1394) | Dagger, Magounda (AN1969.640) | Tanged Dagger, Kalopsidha (AN1896-1908.C.118) | Tanged Dagger, Kalopsidha (AN1896-1908.C.117) | Dirk (AN1918.28) | |
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| Rat-tailed Dirk (AN1884.604) | Rat-tailed Dirk, Politiko (Tamassos) (AN1953.249) | Tanged Dirk, Kalopsidha (AN1896-1908.C.115) | Knife (AN1927.1256) | Tanged Knife, Vasilia (AN1957.21) | |
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| Needles, Eylenja-Leondari Vouno (AN1888.1320 & AN1888.1321) | Eyelet Pin, Larnaka (AN1953.1302) | Eyelet Pin, Larnaka (AN1953.1303) |
Toggle Pins, Vasilia (AN1957.27 & BAN1957.28) | Razor (AN1888.684) | |
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| Sword with rat tang, Vasilia (AN1957.22) | Sword with rat tang blade (AN1995.38) | Tweezers (AN1927.1395) | |||
| In the
Late Bronze Age, smithing techniques began to produce objects that may
have been for ritual use. Tripod stands, for example, require a great
degree of skill to solder the pieces together. Some scholars believe this
was a specialized practice known only to Cyprus, which caused these high
quality tripod stands to be used for many generations after they were
produced. Objects with a high level of ritual status would not be melted
down for re-use and have therefore survived in the archaeological record.
This miniature tripod (left, AN1952.472) stand was the base for a cauldron, possibly used in some form of ritual worship. |
 AN1952.472 |
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| Copper is still worked using traditional methods in modern Cyprus, see http://www.cosmosnet.net/cyprus/explore/crafts.htm | ||
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| Ancient Cyprus in the Ashmolean |
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