Cyprus Museum displays artefacts behind familiar island symbols
The Cyprus Museum in Nicosia displays prehistoric and Hellenistic artefacts that have inspired modern Cypriot souvenirs, jewellery, stamps and logos.
Nicosia, Cyprus. The Cyprus Museum houses artefacts spanning from the island’s earliest human presence to the Hellenistic period, including objects that have become familiar through tourist souvenirs, jewellery, postage stamps and official logos. The museum can be explored in about an hour with an audio guide, although its collections include details that may be missed on a single visit.
Hellenistic representations of Dionysus
A limestone plaque depicting the head of Bacchus Dionysus, dated to about 200BC, was found in Mathiatis, Nicosia. The plaque is 51.2cm high and 11cm thick, and small traces of purple and green paint indicate that it was originally coloured.
The head was used for many years as the logo of the Theatre Organisation of Cyprus (Thoc).
Another Hellenistic head of Dionysus, possibly from Soloi, is a double-sided votive relief of a similar size. Although visitors do not pass behind it on the main museum route, the reverse side depicts an erotic scene and can be viewed by making a short detour.
Earliest evidence of human life
The museum’s first hall presents artefacts from the Late Epipalaeolithic and Chalcolithic periods, dating from 11,000BC to 3,000BC. The collection provides evidence of the earliest human presence on Cyprus at around 10,500BC.
Objects from the same period include a faunal assemblage comprising about 500 pygmy hippopotami and at least three dwarf elephants.
Prehistoric figurines and ritual models
Among the artefacts widely reproduced in modern souvenirs and jewellery are anthropomorphic figurines, including an example from Pomos, Paphos, dated to around 3,000BC. Made of picrolite, a material found mainly in riverbeds in southwestern Cyprus, the figurine is regarded as a distinctively Cypriot example and a hallmark of the Chalcolithic period.
The museum also displays the limestone Lady of Lemba from Paphos. At 35cm tall, it is among the largest limestone anthropomorphic figurines discovered in prehistoric Cyprus.
Clay models of bowls containing human and animal figures date to around 2,000BC. Found in a tomb at an Early Bronze Age cemetery in Bellapais, they depict ritual ceremonies.
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