A Late Bronze Age hoard of bronzes rediscovered, probably from Palaepaphos in Cyprus
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Published
Jan 1, 2022
Abstract
Two groups, each of six bronze tools, which are thought to be parts of a single Late Bronze Age hoard probably found in the area of Palaepaphos in Cyprus, were studied and their composition determined by pXRF. Three of the objects carry small cross-shaped marks. Despite their lack of archaeological context, they are considered significant finds. Seven of the objects are of a type known as ‘ploughshares’ but here the implied use is questioned and a possible function as mining tools is proposed.
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References
Artzy M 2006, The Jatt metal hoard in Northern Canaanite/Phoenician and Cypriote context (Barcelona: Cuaternos de Arqueologia editerránea 14).
Ashkenazi D, Iddan N and Tal O 2012, ‘Archaeometallurgical characterization of Hellenistic metal objects: the contribution of the bronze objects from Rishon Le-Zion (Israel)’, Archaeometry 54(3), 528-548.
Åström L 1972, The Swedish Cyprus Expedition. The Late Cypriote Bronze Age. Other arts and crafts, vol 4, part 1D (Lund), 473-674.
Balthazar J W 1990, Copper and bronze working in Early through Middle Bronze Age Cyprus (Jonsered: Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology and Literature Pocket-book 84).
Buchholz H G 1959, Zur Herkunft der kretischen Doppelaxt: geschichte und auswartige Beziehungen eines minoischen Kultsymbols (Munich).
Catling H W 1964, Cypriot bronzework in the Mycenaean world (Oxford).
Catling H W 1986, ‘Cypriot bronzework – East or West?’, in V Karageorghis (ed), Acts of the international archaeological symposium, Cyprus between the Orient and the Occident, Nicosia, 8-14 September 1985 (Nicosia), 91-103.
Catling H W and Jones R E 1977, ‘Analyses of copper and bronze artefacts from the Unexplored Mansion, Knossos’, Archaeometry 19(1), 57-66.
Charalambous A, Kassianidou V and Papasavvas G 2014, ‘A compositional study of Cypriot bronzes dating to the Early Iron Age using portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry’, Journal of Archaeological Science 46, 205–216.
Constantinou G 1972, The geology and genesis of the sulphite ores of Cyprus. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of London.
Constantinou G 1982, ‘Geological features and ancient exploitation of the cupriferous sulphide ore bodies of Cyprus’, in J D Muhly, R Maddin and V Karageorghis (eds), Early metallurgy in Cyprus, 4000–500 B.C. (Nicosia), 13–24.
Constantinou G 2012, ‘Late Bronze Age copper production in Cyprus from a mining geologist’s perspective’, in V Kassianidou and G Papasavvas (eds), Eastern Mediterranean metallurgy and metalwork in the second millennium BC (Oxford), 4–13.
Courtois J-C 1984, Alasia III. Les objets des niveaux stratifiés d’Enkomi, Fouilles C.F.A. Schaeffer (1947-1970) (Paris).
Craddock P T 2001, ‘From hearth to furnace: Evidences for the earliest metal smelting technologies in the Eastern Mediterranean’, Paléorient 26(2), 151-165.
Craddock P T and Meeks N D 1987, ‘Iron in ancient copper’, Archaeometry 29(2), 187-204.
Desborough,V R d’A 1965, ‘Review of H W Catling, Cypriot bronzework in the Mycenaean world’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 85, 233-235.
Gjerstad E 1937, The Swedish Cyprus Expedition. Finds and results of the excavations in Cyprus, 1927-1931, vol 3 text (Stockholm).
Giumlia-Mair A 1992, ‘The composition of copper-based small finds from a west Phoenician settlement site and from Nimrud compared with that of contemporary Mediterranean small finds’, Archaeometry 34(1), 107-119.
Hadjisavvas S 2017, Alassa. Excavations at the Late Bronze Age site of Pano Mantilaris and Paliotaverna (Nicosia).
Hauptmann A 2007, The archaeometallurgy of copper. Evidence from Faynan, Jordan (Berlin and Heidelberg).
Ingo G M, De Caro T, Riccucci C, Angelini E, Grassini S, Balbi S, Bernardini P, Salvi D, Bousselmi L, Çilingiroğlu A, Gener M, Gouda V K, Al Jarrah O, Knosroff S, Mahdjoub Z, Al Saad Z, El-Saddik W and Vassiliou P 2006, ‘Large scale investigation of chemical composition, structure and corrosion mechanism of bronze archaeological artefacts from Mediterranean basin’, Applied Physics A 83, 513-520.
Karageorghis V 1984, ‘Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1983’, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 108, 893-966.
Karageorghis V 1985, Excavations at Kition V. The Pre-Phoenician levels (Nicosia).
Karageorghis V 2002, Early Cyprus, crossroads of the Mediterranean (Los Angeles).
Karageorghis, V 2011, Enkomi. The excavations of Porphyrios
Dikaios 1984-1985. Supplementary catalogue of finds (Nicosia).
Karageorghis V 2020, Cypriote antiquities in the collections of the S.O.F.I.A. Foundation and Photos Photiades. Vol 2, From the Late Bronze Age to the Roman period (Athens). Karageorghis V and Demas M 1984, A late 13th century B.C. fortified
settlement in Cyprus (Nicosia).
Karageorghis V and Des Gagniers J 1974, La céramique chypriote de style figuré. Âge du fer (1050 – 500 Av. J.–C.) (Rome).
Karageorghis V and Michaelides D 1990, Tombs at Palaepaphos Eliomylia, 1. Teratsoudhia 2. Eliomylia (Nicosia).
Kassianidou V 2018a, ‘Late Bronze Age Cypriot hoards and modern collections’, in L Hulin, L Crewe and J M Webb (eds), Structures of inequality on Bronze Age Cyprus. Studies in honour of Alison K South (Nicosia), 211-226.
Kassianidou V 2018b, ‘Ancient copper mining, oxhide ingots and a hoard – new data on Mathiatis from the State Archives of Cyprus’, in A Giumlia-Mair and F Lo Schiavo (eds), Bronze Age metallurgy in the Mediterranean Islands. In honour of Robert Maddin and Vassos Karageorghis (Auteuil: Monographies Instrumentum 56), 578–598.
Klein S and Hauptmann A 1999, ‘Iron Age leaded tin bronzes from Khirbet Edh-Dharih, Jordan’, Journal of Archaeological Science 26, 1075-1082.
Knapp A B 1988, ‘Hoards d’oeuvres: of metals and men on Bronze Age Cyprus’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 7(2), 147-173.
Knapp A B, Muhly J D and Muhly P M 1988, ‘To hoard is human: Late Bronze Age metal deposits in Cyprus and the Aegean’, Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 233-262.
Lechtman H 1996, ‘Arsenic bronze: dirty copper or chosen alloy? A view from the Americas’, Journal of Field Archaeology 23, 477–514.
Martinón-Torres M, Li X J, Bevan A, Xia Y, Zhao K and Rehren T 2014, ‘Forty thousand arms for a single emperor: from chemical data to the labor organization behind the bronze arrows of the terracotta army’, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 21(3), 534-562.
Matthäus H 1982, ‘Die Zyprische Metallindustrie in der ausgehenden Bronzezeit: Einheimische, ägäische und nahöstliche Elemente’, in J D Muhly, R Maddin and V Karageorghis (eds), Early metallurgy in Cyprus, 4000–500 B.C. (Nicosia), 185-202.
Matthäus H and Schumacher-Matthäus G 1986, ‘Zyprische Hortfunde: Kult and Metallhandwerk in der späten Bronzezeit’, in O H Frey, H Roth and C Dobiat (eds) Gedenkschrift für Gero von Merhart (Marburg: Marburger Sudien zur Vor- und
Frühgeschichte 7), 129-191.
Muhly J D 1985, ‘Lead Isotope Analysis and the problem of lead in Cyprus’, Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 78-82.
Papanikolaou K 2012, ‘Erimi-Pitharka: A Late Cypriote settlement in the Kourion area’, in V Karageorghis and Y Violaris (eds), Tombs of the Late Bronze Age in the Limassol area, Cyprus (17th-13th centuries BC) (Nicosia), 310-318.
Pernicka E, Begemann F, Schmitt-Strecker S and Grimanis A P 1990, ‘On the composition and provenance of metal artefacts from Poliochni on Lemnos’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 9(3), 263-298.
Philip G 1991, ‘Tin, arsenic, lead: alloying practices in Syria-Palestine around 2000 BC’, Levant 23, 93–104.
Steinmann B F 2015, ‘Der Hortfund von der Athener Akropolis in Kontext mykenischer und ost mediterraner Hortniederlegungspraxis’, in ΠΟΛΥΜΑΘΕΙΑ Festschrift für Hartmut Matthäus anlässlich seines 65. Geburstages (Aachen), 465–485.
Stos-Gale Z A 2016, ‘Bronze Age metal sources and the movement of metals between the Aegean and Anatolia’, in M Bartelheim, B Horejs and R Krauss (eds), Von Baden bis Troia. Ressourcennutzung, Metallurgie und Wissenstranfer. Eine
Jubiläumsschrift für Ernst Pernicka (Rahden: Oriental and European Archaeology 3), 375–398.
Swiny S 1982, ‘Correlations between the composition and function of Bronze Age metal types in Cyprus’, in J D Muhly, R Maddin and V Karageorghis (eds), Early metallurgy in Cyprus 4000-500 B.C. (Nicosia), 69–79.
Tylecote R F 1982, ‘The Late Bronze Age: Copper and bronze metallurgy at Enkomi and Kition’, in J D Muhly, R Maddin and V Karageorghis (eds), Early metallurgy in Cyprus, 4000-500 B.C. (Nicosia), 81-100.
Van Brempt L and Kassianidou V 2017, ‘Appendix II. The study of the metallurgical remains from Alassa Pano Mantilaris and Paliotaverna’, in S Hadjisavvas, Alassa. Excavations at the Late Bronze Sites of Pano Mantilaris and Paliotaverna 1984–2000
(Nicosia), 479-485.
Wang Q and Ottaway B S 2004, Casting experiments and microstructure of archaeologically relevant bronzes (Oxford: BAR IS 1331).
Ashkenazi D, Iddan N and Tal O 2012, ‘Archaeometallurgical characterization of Hellenistic metal objects: the contribution of the bronze objects from Rishon Le-Zion (Israel)’, Archaeometry 54(3), 528-548.
Åström L 1972, The Swedish Cyprus Expedition. The Late Cypriote Bronze Age. Other arts and crafts, vol 4, part 1D (Lund), 473-674.
Balthazar J W 1990, Copper and bronze working in Early through Middle Bronze Age Cyprus (Jonsered: Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology and Literature Pocket-book 84).
Buchholz H G 1959, Zur Herkunft der kretischen Doppelaxt: geschichte und auswartige Beziehungen eines minoischen Kultsymbols (Munich).
Catling H W 1964, Cypriot bronzework in the Mycenaean world (Oxford).
Catling H W 1986, ‘Cypriot bronzework – East or West?’, in V Karageorghis (ed), Acts of the international archaeological symposium, Cyprus between the Orient and the Occident, Nicosia, 8-14 September 1985 (Nicosia), 91-103.
Catling H W and Jones R E 1977, ‘Analyses of copper and bronze artefacts from the Unexplored Mansion, Knossos’, Archaeometry 19(1), 57-66.
Charalambous A, Kassianidou V and Papasavvas G 2014, ‘A compositional study of Cypriot bronzes dating to the Early Iron Age using portable X-ray fluorescence spectrometry’, Journal of Archaeological Science 46, 205–216.
Constantinou G 1972, The geology and genesis of the sulphite ores of Cyprus. Unpublished PhD Thesis, University of London.
Constantinou G 1982, ‘Geological features and ancient exploitation of the cupriferous sulphide ore bodies of Cyprus’, in J D Muhly, R Maddin and V Karageorghis (eds), Early metallurgy in Cyprus, 4000–500 B.C. (Nicosia), 13–24.
Constantinou G 2012, ‘Late Bronze Age copper production in Cyprus from a mining geologist’s perspective’, in V Kassianidou and G Papasavvas (eds), Eastern Mediterranean metallurgy and metalwork in the second millennium BC (Oxford), 4–13.
Courtois J-C 1984, Alasia III. Les objets des niveaux stratifiés d’Enkomi, Fouilles C.F.A. Schaeffer (1947-1970) (Paris).
Craddock P T 2001, ‘From hearth to furnace: Evidences for the earliest metal smelting technologies in the Eastern Mediterranean’, Paléorient 26(2), 151-165.
Craddock P T and Meeks N D 1987, ‘Iron in ancient copper’, Archaeometry 29(2), 187-204.
Desborough,V R d’A 1965, ‘Review of H W Catling, Cypriot bronzework in the Mycenaean world’, Journal of Hellenic Studies 85, 233-235.
Gjerstad E 1937, The Swedish Cyprus Expedition. Finds and results of the excavations in Cyprus, 1927-1931, vol 3 text (Stockholm).
Giumlia-Mair A 1992, ‘The composition of copper-based small finds from a west Phoenician settlement site and from Nimrud compared with that of contemporary Mediterranean small finds’, Archaeometry 34(1), 107-119.
Hadjisavvas S 2017, Alassa. Excavations at the Late Bronze Age site of Pano Mantilaris and Paliotaverna (Nicosia).
Hauptmann A 2007, The archaeometallurgy of copper. Evidence from Faynan, Jordan (Berlin and Heidelberg).
Ingo G M, De Caro T, Riccucci C, Angelini E, Grassini S, Balbi S, Bernardini P, Salvi D, Bousselmi L, Çilingiroğlu A, Gener M, Gouda V K, Al Jarrah O, Knosroff S, Mahdjoub Z, Al Saad Z, El-Saddik W and Vassiliou P 2006, ‘Large scale investigation of chemical composition, structure and corrosion mechanism of bronze archaeological artefacts from Mediterranean basin’, Applied Physics A 83, 513-520.
Karageorghis V 1984, ‘Chronique des fouilles et découvertes archéologiques à Chypre en 1983’, Bulletin de Correspondance Hellénique 108, 893-966.
Karageorghis V 1985, Excavations at Kition V. The Pre-Phoenician levels (Nicosia).
Karageorghis V 2002, Early Cyprus, crossroads of the Mediterranean (Los Angeles).
Karageorghis, V 2011, Enkomi. The excavations of Porphyrios
Dikaios 1984-1985. Supplementary catalogue of finds (Nicosia).
Karageorghis V 2020, Cypriote antiquities in the collections of the S.O.F.I.A. Foundation and Photos Photiades. Vol 2, From the Late Bronze Age to the Roman period (Athens). Karageorghis V and Demas M 1984, A late 13th century B.C. fortified
settlement in Cyprus (Nicosia).
Karageorghis V and Des Gagniers J 1974, La céramique chypriote de style figuré. Âge du fer (1050 – 500 Av. J.–C.) (Rome).
Karageorghis V and Michaelides D 1990, Tombs at Palaepaphos Eliomylia, 1. Teratsoudhia 2. Eliomylia (Nicosia).
Kassianidou V 2018a, ‘Late Bronze Age Cypriot hoards and modern collections’, in L Hulin, L Crewe and J M Webb (eds), Structures of inequality on Bronze Age Cyprus. Studies in honour of Alison K South (Nicosia), 211-226.
Kassianidou V 2018b, ‘Ancient copper mining, oxhide ingots and a hoard – new data on Mathiatis from the State Archives of Cyprus’, in A Giumlia-Mair and F Lo Schiavo (eds), Bronze Age metallurgy in the Mediterranean Islands. In honour of Robert Maddin and Vassos Karageorghis (Auteuil: Monographies Instrumentum 56), 578–598.
Klein S and Hauptmann A 1999, ‘Iron Age leaded tin bronzes from Khirbet Edh-Dharih, Jordan’, Journal of Archaeological Science 26, 1075-1082.
Knapp A B 1988, ‘Hoards d’oeuvres: of metals and men on Bronze Age Cyprus’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 7(2), 147-173.
Knapp A B, Muhly J D and Muhly P M 1988, ‘To hoard is human: Late Bronze Age metal deposits in Cyprus and the Aegean’, Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 233-262.
Lechtman H 1996, ‘Arsenic bronze: dirty copper or chosen alloy? A view from the Americas’, Journal of Field Archaeology 23, 477–514.
Martinón-Torres M, Li X J, Bevan A, Xia Y, Zhao K and Rehren T 2014, ‘Forty thousand arms for a single emperor: from chemical data to the labor organization behind the bronze arrows of the terracotta army’, Journal of Archaeological Method and Theory 21(3), 534-562.
Matthäus H 1982, ‘Die Zyprische Metallindustrie in der ausgehenden Bronzezeit: Einheimische, ägäische und nahöstliche Elemente’, in J D Muhly, R Maddin and V Karageorghis (eds), Early metallurgy in Cyprus, 4000–500 B.C. (Nicosia), 185-202.
Matthäus H and Schumacher-Matthäus G 1986, ‘Zyprische Hortfunde: Kult and Metallhandwerk in der späten Bronzezeit’, in O H Frey, H Roth and C Dobiat (eds) Gedenkschrift für Gero von Merhart (Marburg: Marburger Sudien zur Vor- und
Frühgeschichte 7), 129-191.
Muhly J D 1985, ‘Lead Isotope Analysis and the problem of lead in Cyprus’, Report of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, 78-82.
Papanikolaou K 2012, ‘Erimi-Pitharka: A Late Cypriote settlement in the Kourion area’, in V Karageorghis and Y Violaris (eds), Tombs of the Late Bronze Age in the Limassol area, Cyprus (17th-13th centuries BC) (Nicosia), 310-318.
Pernicka E, Begemann F, Schmitt-Strecker S and Grimanis A P 1990, ‘On the composition and provenance of metal artefacts from Poliochni on Lemnos’, Oxford Journal of Archaeology 9(3), 263-298.
Philip G 1991, ‘Tin, arsenic, lead: alloying practices in Syria-Palestine around 2000 BC’, Levant 23, 93–104.
Steinmann B F 2015, ‘Der Hortfund von der Athener Akropolis in Kontext mykenischer und ost mediterraner Hortniederlegungspraxis’, in ΠΟΛΥΜΑΘΕΙΑ Festschrift für Hartmut Matthäus anlässlich seines 65. Geburstages (Aachen), 465–485.
Stos-Gale Z A 2016, ‘Bronze Age metal sources and the movement of metals between the Aegean and Anatolia’, in M Bartelheim, B Horejs and R Krauss (eds), Von Baden bis Troia. Ressourcennutzung, Metallurgie und Wissenstranfer. Eine
Jubiläumsschrift für Ernst Pernicka (Rahden: Oriental and European Archaeology 3), 375–398.
Swiny S 1982, ‘Correlations between the composition and function of Bronze Age metal types in Cyprus’, in J D Muhly, R Maddin and V Karageorghis (eds), Early metallurgy in Cyprus 4000-500 B.C. (Nicosia), 69–79.
Tylecote R F 1982, ‘The Late Bronze Age: Copper and bronze metallurgy at Enkomi and Kition’, in J D Muhly, R Maddin and V Karageorghis (eds), Early metallurgy in Cyprus, 4000-500 B.C. (Nicosia), 81-100.
Van Brempt L and Kassianidou V 2017, ‘Appendix II. The study of the metallurgical remains from Alassa Pano Mantilaris and Paliotaverna’, in S Hadjisavvas, Alassa. Excavations at the Late Bronze Sites of Pano Mantilaris and Paliotaverna 1984–2000
(Nicosia), 479-485.
Wang Q and Ottaway B S 2004, Casting experiments and microstructure of archaeologically relevant bronzes (Oxford: BAR IS 1331).
How to Cite
A Late Bronze Age hoard of bronzes rediscovered, probably from Palaepaphos in Cyprus. (2022). Historical Metallurgy, 53(2), 51-61. https://www.hmsjournal.org/index.php/home/article/view/1
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How to Cite
A Late Bronze Age hoard of bronzes rediscovered, probably from Palaepaphos in Cyprus. (2022). Historical Metallurgy, 53(2), 51-61. https://www.hmsjournal.org/index.php/home/article/view/1