The Philia culture (or Philia group) existed on the island of Cyprus at the start of the Early Bronze Age between 2450 and 2200 BC. It derives its name from a location in Morphou, Cyprus.
The Philia culture (or Philia group) existed on the island of Cyprus at the start of the Early Bronze Age between 2450 and 2200 BC. It derives its name from a location in Morphou, Cyprus.
Philia culture marks the transition from the Chalcolithic to the Bronze Age in mid-third millennium Cyprus. It is associated with an initial intrusion into Cyprus of autonomous groups from Anatolia, which later developed a distinct, identifiable Philia cultural system.
In the 1990s, pottery and other finds from the excavations at Marki-Alonia provided new evidence for the subsequent evolution of the widespread culture of the Early Cypriot Bronze Age. It has been clarified that, at Marki-Alonia, the Philia phase preceded the Early Cypriote I and II materials.
Philia phase sites are primarily found in the western, southwestern and central part of Cyprus. [1]
The culture was first identified by Porphyrios Dikaios in 1942 at Philia (Laksia tou Kasinou) in the Ovgos valley of Cyprus. Dikaios discovered pottery, known as "Red Polished Ware", from the start of the Bronze Age in Cyprus which was also found in Anatolia from the Early Bronze Age II period. [2]
The Red Polished Ware pottery was a significant change in the lineage of ceramic ware on the island; mainly in decoration rather than morphology. The pottery was always handmade. The completed pot was coated with a mixture of liquid clay and this was then polished to give the work its important smooth finish. The quantity of iron oxide in the clay combined with later incised decorations allowed for a variety of decorations to be applied. [3]
Further discoveries showed that this type of ceramic ware was not limited to the Ugarit area as further examples were later found over most of the island. The finds were concentrated in the middle section of the island running from north to south. Excavations on Kissonerga in south west Cyprus have uncovered over 300 shards of Red Polished Ware including a small jar with lime-filled incisions.
The type which has attracted most interest in archaeology is a globular jug which has a vertical cut-away spout and is usually traced to Cilicia. [4]
Finds of this type of pottery have also been found in other areas of the middle east including at Tarsus, Troy (Hisarlik) and others in western Anatolia.
There are examples of this pottery in Vienna and in the Getty collection. The British Museum has a bowl found in a tomb on the slopes of Vounous in Cyprus. This particular bowl however is thought to have originally been used for storing dried seeds. [3]
In Cyprus displays are at Larnaca District Archaeological Museum, Cyprus Museum and Pierides Museum (Larnaca).
Aegean civilization is a general term for the Bronze Age civilizations of Greece around the Aegean Sea. There are three distinct but communicating and interacting geographic regions covered by this term: Crete, the Cyclades and the Greek mainland. Crete is associated with the Minoan civilization from the Early Bronze Age. The Cycladic civilization converges with the mainland during the Early Helladic ("Minyan") period and with Crete in the Middle Minoan period. From c. 1450 BC, the Greek Mycenaean civilization spreads to Crete, probably by military conquest.
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This is a timeline of Cypriot history, comprising important legal and territorial changes and political events in Cyprus. To read about the background to these events, see History of Cyprus. See also the list of presidents of Cyprus.
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Mycenaean pottery is the pottery tradition associated with the Mycenaean period in Ancient Greece. It encompassed a variety of styles and forms including the stirrup jar. The term "Mycenaean" comes from the site Mycenae, and was first applied by Heinrich Schliemann.
Marki Alonia is a prehistoric settlement in central Cyprus. Excavations were carried out at the site between 1990 and 2000 by David Frankel and Jennifer Webb of La Trobe University. These showed that it was occupied from the earliest phase of the Early Bronze Age until well into the Middle Bronze Age. It is the most extensively excavated site of the period, and the only one with a long sequence of occupation, which provides evidence for the development of Philia culture.
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Cypriot Bichrome ware is a type of Late Bronze Age, and Iron Age, pottery that is found widely on Cyprus and in the Eastern Mediterranean. This type of pottery is found in many sites on Cyprus, in the Levant, and also in Egypt. It was typically produced on a pottery wheel. A large variety of decorations and motifs are attested. This pottery is very similar to certain types of the Mycenaean pottery from various locations.
Jennifer M. Webb is an archaeologist who was born in 1953, in Melbourne, Australia. She currently holds a position as a Charles La Trobe Research Fellow at La Trobe University, a position she took in 2008. Recent research includes a volume covering documentation of tombs at Lapithos that had been excavated in the early 1900s, for which she was awarded a grant from the White Levy program.
The archaeology of Cyprus involves the analysis of human activity derived from Cypriot artefacts and architecture from the Neolithic through to the British period. The earliest archaeological discoveries in Cyprus are attributed to European amateur collectors or “treasure hunters” during the early 19th century. By the mid 19th century, systematic fieldwork and excavations were conducted on various sites involving studying the remains of Cypriot cemeteries and tombs, maritime artefacts, architecture, pottery as well as a range of other individual artefacts. Subsequent findings and analysis detail the social and physical landscapes of ancient Cyprus as well as their evolving culture, religious beliefs and technology throughout antiquity.
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