The seal use of Cyprus in the Bronze Age, II - article ; n°2 ; vol.91, pg 552-577

Victor G.E.Kenna

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Bulletin de correspondance hellénique - Année 1967 - Volume 91 - Numéro 2 - Pages 552-577
26 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: BULLETIN_DE_CORRESPONDANCE_HELLENIQUE
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1967
• Nombre de lectures: 37
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 3 Mo

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Victor G. E. Kenna
The seal use of Cyprus in the Bronze Age, II
In: Bulletin de correspondance hellénique. Volume 91, livraison 2, 1967. pp. 552-577.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Kenna Victor G. E. The seal use of Cyprus in the Bronze Age, II. In: Bulletin de correspondance hellénique. Volume 91, livraison
2, 1967. pp. 552-577.
doi : 10.3406/bch.1967.4938
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/bch_0007-4217_1967_num_91_2_4938552 V. Ε. G. KENNA
THE SEAL USE OF CYPRUS IN THE
BRONZE AGE, II
II. The cylinder seals
If the early stamp seal use of Cyprus, in a fitfull dependence upon
the seal uses of neighbouring countries, showed variations great enough to
provide difficulties in an assessment of its chronology and development,
the cylinder seal use, in part contemporary with it, provides its own special
difficulties.
Three earlier accounts (1) of the cylinder seals of Cyprus provide a star
ting point for any new consideration. The air of scholarly hesitation which
appears to hang over these accounts may be due in part to a lack of chronol
ogical reference: also perhaps to an awareness of a void, which an acquain
tance with the earlier stamp seals of Cyprus would have filled. For it
seems increasingly clear that the formation of what is now recognized as
a Cypriote style on the later cylinders, depends as much upon certain
tendencies which stem from the earlier Cypriote stamps, as glyptic
elements from the Aegean and from Near Eastern cylinders used in the
earlier part of the late Cypriote Bronze Age.
A small proportion of the seemingly rude but indigenous cylinders are
also related to these three sources, viz., the earlier stamps, the Aegean
seal tradition, the adopted Near Eastern cylinders: and since these indi-
(1) See the Descriptive Atlas of the Cesnola Collection of Cypriote Antiquities in the Metro
politan Museum of Art, New York (Boston 1885-1903), that in the Metropolitan Museum of Art
Handbook of the Cesnola Collection of Antiquities from Cyprus, by Sir John Myres (New York
1914), then the more detailed treatment by Professor E. Porada in AJA 1948. The account of
the cylinders in the Handbook benefits from Sir John Myres' great knowledge of the Aegean and
of the Archaeology of Cyprus ; Miss Porada's assessment, affected in some degree by this earlier
treatment, but based upon her close acquaintance with the seals of the ancient Near East, is of
great value. To these pioneer works, should be added that of Prof. O. Masson in BCH 1957,
pp. 6-37, which, while dealing primarily with the script, is almost indispensable to any study of
Cypriote glyptic. SEAL USE OF CYPRUS IN THE BRONZE AGE, II 553 THE
genous cylinders change little in subject or execution except to decline,
and provide after their sporadic appearance during L. Gyp. I and II, the
bulk of the cylinders found in the Salaminian tombs (1) of the last Phase of
the Cypriote Bronze Age, they appear to be a continuous use. Obviously of
different character and in all probability of different intent, they will be
treated with the other cylinders they so often accompanied.
Cypriote seal use of the Late Bronze Age seems to have been accustomed
to mixtures of seals as votive offerings, for although the possibility of
offerings for different interments must be borne in mind, certainly in the
Agia Paraskevi Tomb, two cylinders, although embodying completely
different traditions, appear to have been near contemporary in manufact
ure. As a fitting commentary upon the use of the milieu into which they
passed, they themselves are products of mixed cultures. The tomb, No. 14,
at Agia Paraskevi, excavated by Max Ohnefalsch-Richter in December
1884 containing Late Cypriote I pottery, has been dated to the mid-sixteenth
century B.C. (2). It also contained earlier pottery which Sjoqvist describes
as Middle Cypriote III — some indeed of Middle Cypriote II. There were
three seals or carved stones. One a fine cylinder of haematite, gold
capped at each end, can by reason of its subject and style be compared
with cylinders engraved in or influenced by the older Babylonian use,
yet with stylistic details come to be associated with north-west Mesopo
tamia (fig. 1, 3, 38).
The other cylinder from the burial is of soft stone, with traces of red
dye, which stone appears to have been engraved with panels containing
hieroglyphs in the Egyptian manner; and by the care with which they are
engraved suggests Syro-Egyptian work of a date towards the beginning
of the 16th century wave of the influence of Egypt in Syria.
The third engraved stone in tomb 14 is for Cyprus of great rarity. It
is a three sided prism bead of grey steatite, engraved on each of its three
faces with a framed diagonal pattern (3). Shape, subject and style suggest
that this is of Cretan origin, and of the Middle Minoan Age, which can be
dated with fair certainty to the begininng of the 17th century B.C. Thus
in a tomb datable to the beginning of the Late Cypriote I period, mid
16th century B.C., are votive seals, of which the earlier are Mesopotamian
(1) This was the term used by Cesnola. See, however, Ohnefalsch-Richter, Kypros, die
Bibel und Homer, p. 289, also quoted by Ward, Cylinder Seals of Western Asia, p. 346.
(2) Ohnefalsch-Richter, op. cit. p. 37, fig. 34, pi. CLXXI 14. John L. Myres, A Catalogue
of the Cyprus Museum, 46 and Nos. 180, 252, 255, 260, 266, J. du Plat Taylor and J. Seton-
Williams, Classification of Pottery in the Cyprus Museum, p. 8., E. Sjôqvist, Problems of the Late
Cypriote Bronze Age, 17, note 2, pp. 34-35 sq. under Base Ring I and dealing with L. Cyp. la
(p. 102) : « Ohnefalsch-Richter excavated in 1884, a tomb at Agia Paraskevi near Nicosia, which
must be partly dated to our epoch ... ». Among a majority of middle Cypriote pottery, some of
which must belong to M. Cyp. II, there are three Base Ring I vases. One is a double juglet (Type
6), the second a jug of Type I, and the third the rather unusual bowl of Type 3 (p. 34).
(3) Originally thought to be a cylinder of some kind. 554 V. Ε. G. KENNA
and Cretan in origin, with one cylinder of slightly later date. The presence
of three stones of foreign manufacture in an important tomb, suggests
that they were thought more appropriate as votive gifts than any Cypriote
stones in current use, which perhaps were also few in number.
In one case, however, that of the cylinder from Mesopotamia, the
motif was all but naturalized by the addition of four quantities in such
spaces as could contain them (fig. 2). Between the heads of Shala and
Marduk, a symbol of the sun has been engraved, between Marduk and
Shamash, a lion crowned and ithyphallic, whose importunity has obscured
Shamash's saw of Judgement. Behind Shamash and facing the panel of
cuneiform script, indeed, holding one of the containing lines as a staff, is
a Cypriote Bull man. While above him, to complete, as it were, a sum
mary of the main Cypriote glyptic quantities, is a bird.
This cylinder of fine haematite and comparable work; greatly treasured
indeed, as the gold and caps show, has an importance far beyond its original
value, because of its Cypriote additions, which at least contemporary
with the deposition of the offerings, must rank as one of the earliest examples
of those beings, which in their later and finer development mark the epitome
of Cypriote cylinder seal use.
This incidence of seals of foreign origin in the Agia Paraskevi Tomb
is in accord with a number of fine cylinder seals from Near Eastern sources
found in other tombs. Those in the British Museum from the Enkomi
excavations of 1897 (Walters, Catalogue of the Engraved Gems 1926) (1) are
very instructive, BMCG. No. 108, of haematite in the style of the 1st
dynasty of Babylon, Enkomi Tomb 57, has been damaged, the head of the
male deity having been removed. Similar damage on another cylinder
discovered during the excavations of Enkomi town in an 11th century
level suggests a degree of intention, for in the case of this fine Mitannian
Cylinder of haematite (Enkomi No. 228) (2), the removal of the winged disc
has been assisted by a smooth chisel, traces of whose use are visible at the
extremity of the wings. The surface fracture on the cylinder from Enkomi
Tomb 57, where the head of the god has been, has also been neatly accomp
lished ; nor is there any other damage to the cylinder.
The complex of Enkomi tomb 84 and 84 a produced another fine
haematite cylinder of Syrian or North West Mesopotamian origin, (Walters
109), a poorer faience cylinder, (Walters 141) of a type associated with
some of the sealings found at Nuzi (3), but perhaps more related in origin
with the many faience cylinders found at Ras Shamra, with which No. 84
(1) For brevity, henceforward referred to as Walters with his Catalogue number. In the
forthcoming new catalogue of the Greek and Roman Department of the British Museum, new
acquisitions and a more exact chronology will displace these older numbers. A concordance
will, however, render identification possible.
(2) I am greatly indebted to Dr. Dikaios for his generous permission in allowing me to quote
this and other cylinders from the recent excavations at Enkomi during the course of this article.