PERIOD GROUP · Cyprus
A grouping for navigation, not a new historical division: the Geometric, Archaic and Classical periods of the Department of Antiquities' table, 1050-312 BCE. It also shows an amphora whose date crosses the boundary between the Archaic and the Classical.
1050-312 BCEMove through the periods
The whole scheme with this period marked; the periods before and after are its neighbours in the row. Boundaries follow the sources and are not to scale.
Objects
Object
A Cypriot vessel, a Phoenician inscription and a findspot nobody recorded: one object that teaches us to separate what is written on it from where it came from.
Dated to this period by its source record.
Object
A bronze lampstand 65.4 cm high, which the museum dates to the late 6th century BCE and assigns to Cypriot culture and the Archaic period. No findspot is given, and the record describes how this kind of object was used, not this lampstand.
Dated to this period by its source record.
Text frame in place of a photograph
BronzeH. 25 3/4 in. (65.4 cm)
The source has an openly licensed image; it is not included here yet
Object
A small terracotta tripod that the museum dates to about 1050-950 BCE, "Cypro-Geometric I". Two of its three legs carry human figures, and the museum links its decoration to bronze stands made on Cyprus at the very end of the Bronze Age.
Dated to this period by its source record.
Text frame in place of a photograph
TerracottaH. 7 in. (17.8 cm); diameter 5 13/16 in. (14.7 cm)
The source has an openly licensed image; it is not included here yet
Trails · Museums
Trails that pass through an object of this period, and the museums that display its objects according to the records. Every chain is documented and labelled as such.
Trails through the period
Reading trail
How an inscription travels from the excavation to the collection: a sherd from Lachish in London, basalt from Tel Dan in Jerusalem, a Cypriot amphora in New York. Five steps, each saying why it is here and what was checked.
Passes through Cypriot amphora with a Phoenician inscription.
Reading trail
What attests to trade and what only looks like it: a jar from the Levant, two vessels from Cyprus, ivory from Nimrud and ivories from Jerusalem. Six steps, each with what its record knows and what it does not.
Passes through Cypriot amphora with a Phoenician inscription.
Where objects of the period are on view
Display status is what the public record said on the day it was checked; confirm on the museum's site before visiting.
This page is a grouping for navigation, not a new historical division: it brings together the three periods of the chronological table of the Department of Antiquities of Cyprus, the Geometric, 1050-750 BCE, the Archaic, 750-475 BCE, and the Classical, 475-312 BCE. It adds no dates of its own. The Department of Antiquities pages and catalogue cited here could not be opened for checking on 24 October 2026; the details from them follow notes taken from them at an earlier stage and were not re-checked. Source 1.
The Department of Antiquities catalogue "Ancient Cyprus: Cultures in Dialogue" speaks of a period of the kingdoms, a term that does not coincide with the numeric boundaries of the three periods. The royal phase of the palace at Idalion, from about the 7th century to 450 BCE, crosses the 475 boundary between the Archaic and the Classical. At the end of the group stands the abolition of the kingdoms in 312-311 BCE, which the Tamassos page records. Sources 2, 3, 4, 1.
In the Geometric period: the Cypriot terracotta tripod and the article on Kition. In the Archaic: the Cypriot bronze lampstand and the article on the palace at Idalion. In the Classical: the articles on the ostraca from Kition-Pampoula, on the sale of Tamassos and on Idalion. The group page itself shows the Cypriot amphora with a Phoenician inscription, which the museum dates to the 6th-5th century BCE: the range crosses 475 BCE, so it is not assigned to one of the periods. The article on the sanctuary of Aphrodite at Palaepaphos also appears here, because according to the Department of Antiquities the site was the great religious centre of western Cyprus from the beginning of the Geometric to the end of the Classical period. Sources 5, 6.
Source
The research and references behind this page. Rights to external content remain with their owners.
Department of Antiquities, Cyprus · Not opened for checking
Department of Antiquities, Cyprus · Not opened for checking
Department of Antiquities, Cyprus · Not opened for checking
Department of Antiquities, Cyprus · Not opened for checking
The Metropolitan Museum of Art · Checked
Department of Antiquities, Cyprus · Not opened for checking
Continue from here
Every card comes from a documented relation or an editorial link. The reason line explains the connection.
The chronological table of the Department of Antiquities, Cyprus, gives the Hellenistic period the years 312-58 BCE. On this site the period opens with the founding of Nea Paphos and the rock-hewn necropolis to its north, two places whose histories cross the period's limits.
The period that followed.
A grouping for navigation, not a new historical division: the Early, Middle and Late Bronze Age of the Department of Antiquities' table, 2500-1050 BCE, which the Met and the Paphos museum cut at other points.
The period that came before.
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