Reading path

Copper island

Copper runs through most of Cypriot history. This route follows the metal from the first cold-hammered objects of the Chalcolithic, through the furnaces and ingots of the Late Bronze Age, to the letters in which foreign courts wrote about Alashiya. It ends with the Roman province, still taxed for its copper.

Intermediate · 10 steps · 2 hr 25 min

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Step 1 · Chronology · 11 min read
Chalcolithic Cyprus
Start at the beginning: circular villages in which the island's first small-scale copper working appears.
The period c. 3900–2500 BCE of circular villages, Red-on-White pottery, picrolite cruciform figures and the island's first small-scale copper working.
Step 2 · Tools & Technologies · 16 min read
Copper Metallurgy in Ancient Cyprus
The core of the route: mining, smelting and casting the Troodos ores, from native copper to oxhide ingots and Archaic slag heaps.
The mining, smelting and casting of the Troodos sulphide ores, from hammered Chalcolithic native copper to Late Bronze Age oxhide ingots and Archaic slag heaps.
Step 3 · Tools & Technologies · 15 min read
Gold, Silver, Tin, Arsenic and Iron in Ancient Cyprus
What else the smiths worked: arsenic, tin, gold, electrum, silver, lead and, by the 12th century BCE, iron.
The metals other than copper used by Cypriot smiths from the Philia facies to the 12th century BCE, including arsenic, tin, gold, electrum, silver, lead and iron.
Step 4 · Weapons & Armor · 16 min read
Weapons of Bronze Age Cyprus
Copper and bronze put to use as arms, from Philia hook-tang spearheads and riveted daggers to the Naue II swords of Enkomi.
The copper and bronze weapons of Bronze Age Cyprus, from Philia hook-tang spearheads and riveted daggers to the Naue II swords and greaves of Enkomi.
Step 5 · Chronology · 11 min read
Late Bronze Age Cyprus
The period as a whole, when copper exports made Cyprus an urban, literate trading power.
The Late Cypriot period, c. 1650–1050 BCE, when copper exports made Cyprus an urban, literate trading power before the crisis around 1200 BCE.
Step 6 · Cultures · 15 min read
Ugarit and the Levant
Across the water at Ugarit, where the palace archives mention Alashiya and Cypriot pottery turns up at Ras Shamra and Minet el-Beida.
The Syrian port kingdom of Ugarit and the wider Levantine coast, Cyprus's closest Bronze Age trading partners across the water.
Step 7 · Cultures · 17 min read
Egypt
Egypt as a partner in copper and prestige goods, and the New Kingdom's dealings with Alashiya.
Ancient Egypt, Cyprus's partner in copper, pottery and prestige goods from the Middle Kingdom to the Ptolemies, who annexed the island.
Step 8 · Cultures · 13 min read
Hittite Empire and Cyprus
An empire that claimed Alashiya as a tributary, yet left almost no material trace on the island.
The Late Bronze Age Anatolian empire that claimed Alashiya as a tributary but left almost no material trace on Cyprus.
Step 9 · Tools & Technologies · 16 min read
Seafaring and Ships in Ancient Cyprus
How the metal travelled: harbours, stone anchors, and the Cypriot cargo of the Uluburun wreck in a foreign ship.
The evidence for boats and seafaring around Cyprus from the first crossings to the Classical period, from anchors, models and graffiti to wrecks and shipsheds.
Step 10 · Chronology · 15 min read
Roman Cyprus
The last chapter: a Roman province mined for its copper, governed from Nea Paphos and finally wrecked by earthquakes.
Cyprus as a Roman province from 58 BCE to the fourth century CE, governed from Nea Paphos, mined for copper, and finally wrecked by earthquakes.

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