Cyprus indeed, even now, remains an amazingly beautiful place …
There are two mythological versions of the birth of a beautiful goddess. Homer believed that the god Zeus was the father of Aphrodite, and the sea nymph Dione was her mother. Hesiod's version, however, is much more entertaining. According to it, the god Kronos cut off his father Uranus his reproductive organs and threw them into the sea, where his sperm mixed with sea water, a snow-white foam turned out, and from it Aphrodite was born.
Leading the night behind him, Uranus appeared, and he lay down
Near Gaia, burning with love, and everywhere
Spread around. Suddenly left hand
The son stretched out from an ambush, and with his right, grabbing a huge
Sharp-toothed sickle, cut off the dear parent quickly
The penis is childbearing and threw it back with a strong swing.
The father's member is childbearing, cut off with a sharp iron, Was worn on the sea for a long time, and white foam
Whipped around from the incorruptible member. And the girl in the foam
In that it was born.
"Theogony" Hesiod
However, today we will get acquainted not so much with legends as with the history of this unique island, which, like Crete, largely shaped the appearance of the Mediterranean civilization that had disappeared a long time ago. We need to start with the fact that at one time it, apparently, was connected by an isthmus with the Asian mainland and, for example, dwarf elephants and hippos migrated to the island along this mainland. However, it was they who later became dwarf when the waves of the sea cut it off from the mainland. There were animals on it, but no people. For the time being.
Ancient site of people of the Stone Age in Cyprus. (Museum of the Sea in Ayia Napa, Cyprus)
And then in the 10th - 9th millennia BC, people arrived here by sea and directly contributed to the extinction of dwarf animals, which can be judged by the large number of burnt bones found in caves in the southern part of the island.
"Home" of the ancient Cypriot "city" of Choirokitia.
And this is how he looked from the inside …
It is known that the first settlers were already engaged in agriculture, but had not yet mastered pottery, therefore this period in Cyprus belongs to the "pre-ceramic Neolithic".
It was cramped inside Khirokitia. The houses stood one to the other, and even were surrounded by a high stone wall. It is interesting that there is a wall, but no traces of an attack on the "city" were found, that is, for more than a thousand (!) Years the Choirokitians lived under the protection of the wall, but no one attacked them? And then suddenly they took it, threw it all and left … and no one else settled in this place for another 1500 years! Why? Nobody knows! Such is Cyprus presents mysteries to archaeologists!
The primitive people who arrived on the island from southern Anatolia or the Syro-Palestinian coast brought with them dogs, sheep, goats, pigs, although morphologically these animals were still indistinguishable from their wild relatives. The settlers began to build round houses and all this happened in the X millennium BC!
Remains of a Cypriot pygmy hippo.
The skull of an ancient dwarf elephant.
Reconstruction figures of the Cypriot pygmy elephant and the Cypriot pygmy hippo can be seen at the Thalassa museum in Ayia Napa.
Settlements from this era have been excavated throughout the island, including Choirokitia and Kalavasos off the southern coast. All subsequent time, their inhabitants made dishes of stone, but at the end of the Neolithic (about 8500 - 3900 BC). BC), the islanders learned to work with clay and create vessels, which they burned and decorated with abstract patterns of red on a light background.
Here they are - these vessels from the Museum of the Sea in Ayia Napa.
The culture of the subsequent Eneolithic period, that is, the Copperstone Age (circa 3900 - 2500 BC), could have been brought to the island by a new wave of settlers who came from the same regions as their earlier Neolithic predecessors. Their art and religious beliefs were more complex, as evidenced by the stone and clay female figures, often with enlarged genitals, symbolizing the fertility of people, animals and soil - that is, reflecting the basic needs of the then agrarian community. In the second half of the Chalcolithic (or Eneolithic, which is the same thing), people began to make small tools and decorative ornaments from native, that is, native copper (chalkos), which is why, by the way, this time is called Chalcolith.
Interestingly, not on this here the first inhabitants of the island sailed here?
The unique geographical position of Cyprus, lying at the crossroads of sea routes in the eastern Mediterranean, made it an important center of trade in antiquity. Already in the early Bronze Age (about 2500 - 1900 BC) and the Middle Bronze Age (about 1900 - 1600 BC) Cyprus established close contacts with Minoan Crete, and then with Mycenaean Greece, as well as with the ancient civilizations of the Middle East: Syria and Palestine, Egypt and Southern Anatolia.
Beginning in the first part of the second millennium BC, Middle Eastern texts referring to the kingdom of "Alasia", a name that is most likely synonymous with all or part of the island, testify to the links of the then Cypriots with the Syro-Palestinian coast. The rich resources of copper provided the Cypriots with a commodity that had a high price in the ancient world and was in great demand throughout the Mediterranean basin. Cypriots exported large quantities of these raw materials and other goods such as opium in jugs resembling opium poppy capsules in exchange for luxury goods such as silver, gold, ivory, wool, scented oils, chariots, horses, precious furniture and other finished goods. …
Minoan vessels cannot be confused with any others - since there is an octopus, then the influence of the culture of Crete is evident!
Prehistoric Cypriot ceramics, especially those produced in the early and middle Bronze Ages, are exuberant and imaginative in character and decoration. Terracotta figurines were also made in large numbers, as evidenced by their findings in tombs of the Bronze Age. As in the Chalcolithic period, they most often depicted female figures that symbolize regeneration. Other burial objects, especially those buried with men, include bronze tools and weapons. Gold and silver jewelry and cylinder seals appeared in Cyprus as early as 2500 BC.
Cypriots and Cypriots loved to adorn themselves with bracelets, albeit glass ones (Larnaca Archaeological Museum)
They were also anointed with fragrant oils, which is why all the museums in Cyprus are full of such glass vessels.
During the Late Bronze Age (around 1600 - 1050 BC), copper was produced on the island on a massive scale, and the Cypriot copper trade expanded to Egypt, the Middle East and the entire Aegean region. The correspondence between the pharaoh of Egypt and the ruler of Alazia, dating from the first quarter of the fourteenth century BC, provides us with valuable information on trade relations between Cyprus and Egypt. This is confirmed by objects made of earthenware and alabaster, which were imported to Cyprus from Egypt during this period. Ulu Burun shipwreck finds on the southwestern coast of Anatolia indicate that the ship sailed westward, possibly having visited other Levant harbors, and that it loaded 355 copper bars (ten tons of copper) in Cyprus. and large vessels for storing agricultural goods, including coriander.
The ship that carried this cargo. Reconstruction (Museum of the Sea in Ayia Napa).
When you see such vessels in front of you, you involuntarily ask yourself: how much wood was needed to burn it? There are no forests left in Cyprus! (Larnaca Archaeological Museum)
The undeniable influence of the Aegean Sea on Cypriot culture during the Late Bronze Age can be seen in the development of writing, bronzes, stone carving, jewelry making and some ceramic styles, especially in the twelfth century BC, when Mycenaean settlers periodically arrived on the island. From about 1500 BC Cypriots began to use a letter that closely resembles Linear A of Minoan Crete. Burnt clay tablets have been found in urban centers such as Enkomi (on the east coast) and Kalavasos (on the south coast). During the Late Bronze Age, Cyprus was also an important center for the production of works of art that show a mixture of local and foreign influences. Stylistic features and iconographic elements borrowed from Egypt, the Middle East and the Aegean are often mixed in Cypriot works. Undoubtedly, the foreign motives and the significance they had were reinterpreted locally as they became part of the distinctive local artistic traditions. Cypriot artisans also traveled abroad, and in the twelfth century BC, some Cypriot metallurgists may have settled in the west, on the islands of Sicily and Sardinia. During the Late Bronze Age, Cyprus clearly maintained strong ties with the Middle East, especially Syria, as evidenced by finds in urban centers with palaces of the fourteenth and thirteenth centuries BC, such as Enkomi and Keating, and rich cemeteries from the same period with luxury goods made from a wide variety of materials. Since the early fourteenth century, Cyprus has seen a significant influx of high quality Mycenaean ships, which are found almost exclusively in the tombs of the aristocratic elite. With the destruction of the Mycenaean centers in Greece in the twelfth century BC, political conditions in the Aegean Sea became unstable and refugees fled their homes in search of safer places, including Cyprus.
Anchors and olive oil press. (Larnaca Archaeological Museum)
Sculptures from the era of classical Greece. (Larnaca Archaeological Museum)
It was they who gave rise to the process of Hellenization of the island, which then took place over the next two centuries. The most important event in Cyprus was between 1200 and 1050 BC. NS. was the arrival of several successive waves of immigrants from the Greek mainland. These newcomers brought with them and immortalized Mycenaean burial customs, clothing, pottery, manufacturing, and military skills on the island. During this time, Achaean immigrants brought the Greek language to Cyprus. The Achaean society, politically dominant in the 14th century, created independent states ruled by the Vanaktas (rulers). The Greeks gradually seized control of large communities such as Salamis, Keating, Lapithos, Palaopaphos and Soli. In the middle of the eleventh century, the Phoenicians occupied Ketis on the southern coast of Cyprus. Their interest in Cyprus was driven mainly by the island's rich copper mines and forests, which provided an abundant source of timber for shipbuilding. At the end of the ninth century, the Phoenicians established on the island the cult of their goddess Astarte in a monumental temple at Ketis. A stele found at Ketis reports on the representation of the Cypriot kings of Assyria in 709 BC. Under Assyrian rule, the kingdom of Cyprus flourished and the Cypriot kings enjoyed some independence as long as they regularly paid tribute to the Assyrian king. From the 7th century BC there are records that at that time there were ten (!) rulers of Cyprus, who ruled in ten separate states. You might think that the area of these states was very small, like the island itself, but since there were ten of them and they all coexisted peacefully, this indicates, firstly, the tolerance of their inhabitants, and secondly, that everyone everything was enough. Some of them had Greek names, others were clearly Semitic in origin, testifying to the ethnic diversity of Cyprus in the first half of the first millennium BC. The tombs at Salamis suggest both the wealth and external ties of these rulers in the eighth and seventh centuries. In the sixth century, Egypt, under Pharaoh Amasis II, established control over Cyprus. Although the Cypriot kingdoms continued to maintain relative independence, the significant increase in Egyptian motifs in Cypriot artworks from this period reflects a clear increase in Egyptian influence.
The Romans on the island also noted themselves and left behind such floor mosaics.
In 545 BC. under Cyrus the Great (about 559 - 530 BC), the Persian Empire conquered Cyprus. However, the new rulers did not interfere with what was happening on the island, and did not try to establish their religion there. Cypriot troops took part in the Persian military campaigns, independent kingdoms paid the usual tribute, and Salamis took first place on the island. By the beginning of the 5th century BC. the island was an integral part of the Persian Empire. Well, then the famous Greco-Persian wars began, and the Greeks from the mainland again began to dominate Cyprus.
P. S. It is interesting that the memory of this has been preserved, and if you have a mustache, a straight nose, dark eyes and hair, then in Cyprus you can easily be asked: "Continental Greek?" That is - "Are you a Continental Greek? On the island, this is a kind of elite. They are given big discounts, especially in taxis … Not like foreigners from Europe."
