Kypriaka in Crete, Anastasios G. Leventis Foundation, Nicosia
The relations between Cyprus and Crete, both cultural and commercial, have attracted the attention of scholars ever since Sir Arthur Evans detected, at the end of the 19th century, the Minoan character of what he called the Cypro-Minoan script, which made its appearance on Cyprus c. 1500 BC. Cretan objects, dating mainly from the 16th century to the 13th BC, have been reported from excavations in Cyprus, but very little is known about Cypriot objects found in excavations on Crete. The research project ‘Kypriaka in Crete’ is a collective attempt by Cypriot, Cretan and other archaeologists, with Vassos Karageorghis and Athanasia Kanta as coordinators, to assemble all the Cypriot imports to Crete dating from c. 2000 BC to the 6th century BC. These include mainly pottery and bronzes (including copper ingots), but also jewellery, of Cypriot manufacture, as well as local imitations, illuminating the extent of influence exercised by Cyprus on Crete, which reached its zenith in the 8th-7th centuries BC. Most of the material appears for the first time. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2013.
Grant given:
2013
