The Neolithic and Chalcolithic Figurines of Cyprus

The Neolithic and Chalcolithic Figurines of Cyprus
Author: Christine Winkelmann
Publisher:
Total Pages: 686
Release: 2020-07
Genre: Antiquities, Prehistoric
ISBN: 9783963270123

From the contents:00I. Introduction0II. Archaeological Background0III. Neolithic figurines0IV. Chalcolithic stone figurines0V. Chalcolithic pottery figurines0VI. Chalcolithic picrolite figurines0VII. Chalcolithic figurative pendants0VIII. Further observations and considerations0IX. The Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cypriot figurines in their entirety0X. Summary0XI. Appendices0XII. Catalogue0Maps0Plates.

Cyprus Before the Bronze Age

Cyprus Before the Bronze Age
Author: Vassos Karageorghis
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 50
Release: 1990-05-17
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0892361689

The latest finds--architectural remains, burial objects, stone artifacts, pottery, and copper objects--from recent excavations indicate that Cyprus played a more pivotal role in pre-Bronze Age socioeconomic development than was previously thought. This book describes findings from excavations at Lemba, the site where the most important new information about this period has been uncovered. Included are illustrations of many previously unpublished or unexhibited materials from both the Cyprus Museum and the J. Paul Getty Museum. This book serves as a catalog to the February 1990 exhibition held at the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Chalcolithic Cyprus

Chalcolithic Cyprus
Author: J. Paul Getty Museum
Publisher: Getty Publications
Total Pages: 179
Release: 1997-02-27
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0892362073

This collection of papers presents the results of a symposium held at the Getty Museum in February 1990. Recent archaeological excavations provide evidence that Cyprus had a great cultural and economic importance during the Bronze Age. The contributors discuss aspects of the Bronze Age as they relate to Cyprus and the eastern Mediterranean. Topics include the economy of the period, its basis in the exploitation of metals and stone, Cyprus’s international influence on trade, and religion and evidence of that influence though interpretation of archaeological sites and artifacts.

Figurine Makers of Prehistoric Cyprus

Figurine Makers of Prehistoric Cyprus
Author: Edgar Peltenburg
Publisher: Oxbow Books
Total Pages: 873
Release: 2019-07-31
Genre: History
ISBN: 178925020X

The Chalcolithic period in Cyprus has been known since Porphyrios Dikaios’ excavations at Erimi in the 1930s and through the appearance in the antiquities market of illicitly acquired anthropomorphic cruciform figures, often manufactured from picrolite, a soft blue-green stone. The excavations of the settlement and cemetery at Souskiou Laona reported on in this volume paint a very different picture of life on the island during the late 4th and early 3rd millennia BC. Burial practices at other known sites are generally single inhumations in intramural pit graves, only rarely equipped with artifacts. At Souskiou, multiple inhumations were interred in deep rock-cut tombs clustered in extra-mural cemeteries. Although the sites were also subjected to extensive looting, excavations have revealed complex multi-stage burial practices with arrangements of disarticulated and articulated burials accompanied by a rich variety of grave goods. Chief among these are a multitude of cruciform figurines and pendants. This unusual treatment of the dead, which has not been recorded elsewhere in Cyprus, shifts the focus from the individual to the communal, and provides evidence for significant changes involving kinship group links to common ancestors. Excavations at the Laona settlement have furnished evidence suggesting that it functioned as a specialised center for the procurement and manufacture of picrolite during its early phase. The subsequent decline of picrolite production and the earliest known occurrence of new types of ornaments, such as faience beads and copper spiral pendants, attest to important changes involving the transformation of personal and social identities during the first centuries of the 3rd millennium BC, a topic that forms a central theme of this final report on the site.

The Archaeology of Cyprus

The Archaeology of Cyprus
Author: Arthur Bernard Knapp
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Total Pages: 661
Release: 2013-03-18
Genre: Art
ISBN: 0521897823

This book examines the archaeology of Cyprus from the first-known human presence during the Late Epipalaeolithic through the end of the Bronze Age.

The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines

The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines
Author: Timothy Insoll
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 1123
Release: 2017-04-13
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0191663107

Figurines dating from prehistory have been found across the world but have never before been considered globally. The Oxford Handbook of Prehistoric Figurines is the first book to offer a comparative survey of this kind, bringing together approaches from across the landscape of contemporary research into a definitive resource in the field. The volume is comprehensive, authoritative, and accessible, with dedicated and fully illustrated chapters covering figurines from the Americas, Europe, Africa, Asia, and Australasia and the Pacific laid out by geographical location and written by the foremost scholars in figurine studies; wherever prehistoric figurines are found they have been expertly described and examined in relation to their subject matter, form, function, context, chronology, meaning, and interpretation. Specific themes that are discussed by contributors include, for example, theories of figurine interpretation, meaning in processes and contexts of figurine production, use, destruction and disposal, and the cognitive and social implications of representation. Chronologically, the coverage ranges from the Middle Palaeolithic through to areas and periods where an absence of historical sources renders figurines 'prehistoric' even though they might have been produced in the mid-2nd millennium AD, as in parts of sub-Saharan Africa. The result is a synthesis of invaluable insights into past thinking on the human body, gender, identity, and how the figurines might have been used, either practically, ritually, or even playfully.