Gods, graves and offerings

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   Step 1 · Mortuary Practices · 13 min read

   Society, Ritual, and Identity in Ancient Cypriot Mortuary Practice

   The overview: from graves beneath Neolithic houses to rock-cut chamber tombs and the royal tombs of the Iron Age.

   How the people of ancient Cyprus buried and remembered their dead, from graves beneath Neolithic houses to rock-cut chamber tombs and Iron Age royal tombs.

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   Step 2 · Mortuary Practices · 17 min read

   Neolithic and Chalcolithic Burial in Cyprus

   The earliest burials, mostly contracted bodies in pits beneath or beside houses, down to the eve of the Bronze Age.

   Burial on Cyprus from the first farming villages to the eve of the Bronze Age, mostly contracted bodies in pits beneath or beside houses.

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   Step 3 · Mortuary Practices · 20 min read

   Bronze Age Chamber Tombs

   Rock-cut chambers entered by a dromos and reopened for successive burials, the standard grave from Philia to the end of the Bronze Age.

   Rock-cut chambers entered by a dromos and reopened for successive burials were the standard Cypriot grave from the Philia phase to the end of the Bronze Age.

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   Step 4 · Mortuary Practices · 15 min read

   Vounous and Early Bronze Age Burial

   One cemetery in close-up: the north-coast chamber tombs of Bellapais-Vounous and their figured Red Polished grave goods.

   Bellapais-Vounous is a north-coast cemetery of rock-cut chamber tombs whose figured Red Polished grave goods define Early Bronze Age burial in Cyprus.

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   Step 5 · Pottery · 14 min read

   Tulip Bowls and Cult Vessels

   Some of those grave goods up close: deep black-topped tulip bowls and their elaborate protome-rimmed form.

   Deep, conical, black-topped Red Polished bowls of Early Cypriot I–II, and their elaborate protome-rimmed form, known mostly from the tombs of Vounous.

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   Step 6 · Statues · 13 min read

   Base Ring Figurines (Astarte Type)

   Late Bronze Age clay figurines of nude women, found in tombs and houses and often linked to the goddess Astarte.

   Handmade Base Ring ware terracotta figurines of nude women from Late Bronze Age Cyprus, found in tombs and houses and often linked to Astarte.

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   Step 7 · Architecture · 11 min read

   Architectural Transformations in Ancient Cyprus

   From tombs to temples: the built setting of Cypriot life and cult, ending with the new sanctuaries of the Iron Age.

   The built environment of ancient Cyprus, from Neolithic round houses to Bronze Age rectilinear villages, ashlar buildings and Iron Age sanctuaries.

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   Step 8 · Statues · 13 min read

   Archaic Limestone Statues

   What filled those sanctuaries: limestone votive statues and statuettes of the Cypro-Archaic period, many in Egyptianizing dress.

   The limestone votive statues and statuettes dedicated in Cypriot sanctuaries of the Cypro-Archaic period, many in Egyptianizing dress.

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   Step 9 · Statues · 12 min read

   Horse and Rider Figurines

   Terracotta riders dedicated in sanctuaries and placed in tombs, most abundantly in the Cypro-Archaic period.

   Terracotta figurines of a mounted rider, dedicated in sanctuaries and placed in tombs across Iron Age Cyprus, most abundantly in the Cypro-Archaic period.

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    Step 10 · Statues · 10 min read

    Temple Boys

    A later votive type: limestone crouching children dedicated from the mid-5th century BCE into the Hellenistic period.

    Small limestone votive statues of crouching young children, dedicated in Cypriot sanctuaries from the mid-5th century BCE into the Hellenistic period.

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