The Cyprus Museum: Cyprus’s Principal Archaeological Museum in Nicosia
Site at a Glance
- Rating
- 4.6
- Popularity
- Medium
- Country
- Cyprus
- Primary era
- Classical
- External website
- Open
- Eras represented
- Stone Age, Bronze Age, Iron Age, Classical
- Civilizations
- Ancient Greek, Egyptian, Mycenaean, Phoenician, Ptolemaic, Roman
- Site type
- Museum
On this page30 sections
History
The Cyprus Museum is Cyprus’s oldest and largest archaeological museum, founded in Nicosia in 1882 during the British occupation of Cyprus. Its creation followed a petition by the island’s Christian and Muslim religious leaders, who sought action against illicit excavations and the smuggling of antiquities. The museum’s collections now span the Neolithic period through Roman rule, approximately from 5800 BC to AD 300, making it the principal exhibition centre for discoveries made before Cyprus became independent in 1960.
Foundation and protection of antiquities
The new museum was first supported by private donations and temporarily occupied government offices. In 1889 it moved into its own premises on Victoria Street, within Nicosia’s medieval walls. Its establishment coincided with the development of modern archaeology in Cyprus and with the creation of institutions intended to protect and study the island’s ancient heritage.
Concern over the removal of antiquities had been heightened by the activities of Luigi Palma di Cesnola, a nineteenth-century American diplomat and collector who attempted to take more than 35,000 artefacts from Cyprus. Most were destroyed during transit, while many surviving objects eventually entered the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The museum founded in Nicosia offered a means of keeping newly excavated material within Cyprus and making it available for study.
The first law protecting archaeological finds in Cyprus was passed in 1905. It encouraged the development of archaeological work on the island, while the museum began receiving objects from excavations conducted mainly by British and European expeditions. From 1890, annual excavation reports appeared in The Journal of Hellenic Studies. Sir John Myres and Max Ohnefalsch-Richter produced the museum’s first organised catalogue in 1899.
The present building and archaeological administration
Construction of the present museum began in 1908 and ended in 1924. Public funds and private subscriptions paid for the building, which was originally dedicated to the memory of Queen Victoria. N. Balanos, an architect associated with the Archaeological Society of Athens, designed it, while the curator George H. Everett Jeffery supervised the construction.
A 1935 law created the Ministry of Antiquities, the government authority responsible for the museum at that time. The museum’s history was also linked to the Department of Antiquities, the state institution responsible for protecting, administering, excavating, and studying Cyprus’s archaeological heritage.
The Swedish Cyprus Expedition conducted the island’s first large-scale systematic excavations between 1927 and 1931 under the direction of Professor Einar Gjerstad. These campaigns greatly enlarged the museum’s holdings. Under the legislation then in force, half of the new discoveries entered the museum and the other half went to the expedition.
The building expanded with two additional halls added between 1959 and 1961 and another hall completed in 1972 for important finds from Kition. The museum also houses later acquisitions, although current excavations increasingly deposit their finds in local district museums as Cyprus progressively decentralises its collections. The existing building holds only a small fraction of the museum’s total holdings at any one time, and relocation to larger premises has been considered without a suitable site being selected.
Collections and chronological scope
The displays follow a sequence that is both chronological and thematic. They begin with evidence of the earliest human presence on Cyprus and continue through the Neolithic, Chalcolithic, Bronze Age, Archaic, Classical, Hellenistic, and Roman periods. The collections came from sanctuaries, royal tombs, settlements, temples, cemeteries, and ancient industrial and medical sites throughout the island.
Together, the objects show the development of local traditions and Cyprus’s connections with the wider eastern Mediterranean. Locally produced material appears alongside imports or external influences associated with Mycenaean, Phoenician, Attic, Syrian, Palestinian, Egyptian, Cretan, Rhodian, Ionian, and Roman cultures.
Remains
The museum stands on Museum Street in central Nicosia, outside the old city and near the Venetian wall surrounding historic Nicosia. Its fourteen exhibition halls are arranged around a central square or core containing offices, a library, storerooms, and facilities for preserving, restoring, conserving, and studying the collections. The exhibition route moves from the Neolithic period to the Roman period while grouping objects by both date and subject.
Early settlements and pottery
Hall 1: Neolithic and Chalcolithic Cyprus
Hall 1 presents material from the earliest human presence on Cyprus, including tools, stone vessels, and figurines from Choirokoitia and Kissonerga dating to the seventh and sixth millennia BC. Its later section concerns the Chalcolithic, or Copper Age, approximately 3900–2400 BC. Large jars, stone tools, necklaces, chains, and picrolite figurines are displayed there, including a large seated female figure carved from the soft green stone commonly used for such objects.
Hall 2: Bronze Age vessels
Hall 2 is devoted to Early Bronze Age pottery, approximately 2500–1900 BC. Its vessels include material from the large tomb at Vounous, figurines of farmers using ploughs, and a miniature altar surrounded by numerous human figures. Other objects include a vessel dated approximately 2600–1900 BC, a Mycenaean octopus krater in Minoan style from the fourteenth century BC, pottery from Dheneia, and a bichrome amphora from Peristerona dated approximately 750–600 BC.
Hall 3: Local and imported ceramics
Hall 3 follows the development of pottery from the Middle Bronze Age to the Roman period. Cypriot ceramics are displayed with imported Mycenaean, Phoenician, Attic, Syrian, Palestinian, Egyptian, and faience objects. Mycenaean kraters, large vessels used for mixing wine and water, occupy a central position in the arrangement. A vase in the Kamares style demonstrates the influence of Cretan pottery across the eastern Mediterranean.
The hall also contains Proto-Geometric and Archaic pottery dating approximately 1050–475 BC. A seventh-century BC amphora shows an enthroned woman drinking from a vessel filled by a servant, while four dancers and a musician appear on the reverse. Archaic balloon jugs, dated approximately 750–600 BC, carry concentric circles, lotus flowers, and geometric patterns. One depicts ploughing with oxen, bread production, food processing, a woman holding a baby, and a child carrying a basket.
Further displays include a vessel crowded with figures, a vessel decorated with fish from the Third Cypro-Geometric period, approximately 850–750 BC, another balloon vessel from the same period, a vessel with a painted swastika dated approximately 1050–950 BC, and a triple-ring ceramic vase. Attic black- and red-figure pottery from the sixth to fourth centuries BC appears alongside vessels from Rhodes and Ionia dating from the fourth century BC to the fourth century AD.
Sanctuaries and sculpture
Hall 4: The sanctuary at Agia Irini
Hall 4 contains approximately 2,000 terracotta figurines from the sanctuary at Agia Irini in northwestern Cyprus. At the sanctuary, the figures had been arranged in a circle around the altar. Most belong to its active period in the seventh and sixth centuries BC and were discovered by a Swedish expedition in 1929. Warriors and war chariots dominate the group. Two figures are female, while war deities appear as centaurs or minotaurs.
The sanctuary began during the final phase of the Bronze Age, approximately 1200–1050 BC, and remained in use until the sixth century BC. A flood then destroyed it, after which it was abandoned. It was briefly reused in the first century BC.
Hall 5: Archaic and Hellenistic sculpture
Hall 5 displays large Cypriot sculptures from the Archaic through the Hellenistic periods, approximately the eighth to first centuries BC. Their forms reflect strong Assyrian and Egyptian influence. Locally made limestone figures shaped under strong Greek influence gradually gave way to marble sculpture.
The objects include a limestone woman in ritual dress from Soli, a limestone head of Isis from the temple of Aphrodite at Soli, and a limestone head of an athlete from Arsos in the Larnaca area dating to the second century BC. A marble head with an Assyrian-style hairstyle and a priest figure appear nearby. A funerary statue of a young man wearing a thin chiton, a tunic-like garment, and a himation, a cloak worn over it, dates approximately 510–500 BC. It rests on a base decorated with two lions.
Hall 6: Hellenistic and Roman sculpture
Hall 6 contains mainly marble and bronze sculpture and busts from the Hellenistic and Roman periods. Its central object is a 2.08-metre bronze statue of the Roman emperor Septimius Severus, found during excavations near Kythrea. The emperor is shown in a heroic pose with an athletic body, and brass inlays appear in the statue. It is described as the only statue containing brass found in Cyprus.
Other works include a silver head of Zeus-Ammon, a marble Aphrodite from the first century BC, and a larger-than-life-size female bust dated approximately 450–400 BC. The bust wears a sphinx-decorated diadem and jewellery. Marble busts and torsos from the third to first centuries BC are also displayed, together with a marble head of Artemis from Nea Paphos, a limestone head of the emperor Caligula, and a marble head of Aphrodite from Salamis.
Royal sculptures from Tamassos
Among Hall 6’s objects are sculptures from the royal necropolis, or extensive cemetery, of ancient Tamassos. They were discovered on 31 January 1997 during conservation work on two royal tombs. The group includes a large central lion, two reclining sphinxes, and two smaller lions. The sphinxes wear royal headdresses associated with Upper and Lower Egypt.
The sculptures had been placed at shallow depth and lay piled on top of one another rather than in their ancient positions. They may originally have flanked the entrance to the dromos, the passage leading to a tomb, of another royal tomb. The group dates to the sixth century BC and reflects Egyptian influence during the Second Cypriot Archaic period. A marble frieze above it carries reliefs of Amazons and dates to the fourth century BC. One of the Tamassos sphinxes is displayed separately in the same hall.
Altar relief from Vitsada
Hall 6 also contains a limestone base, probably from an altar, found at Vitsada and dated to the second century BC. Its relief depicts the abduction of Persephone. Artemis leads the chariot, followed by Aphrodite, Demeter, and Persephone.
Bronze, coins, mosaics, and precious objects
Bronze working and ritual objects
Hall 7 illustrates the extensive use of bronze in Cyprus. Agricultural tools include hoes and saws, while other objects include stands, weapons, large and small vessels, and ritual equipment. Notable works include the horned brass god from Enkomi, dated to the twelfth century BC, and a bronze bull from the temple of Athena at Vouni dating to the middle of the fifth century BC.
Coins and mosaics
The central part of Hall 7 contains seals and coins from the mints of the Cypriot kingdoms and from the Ptolemaic mint on Cyprus. The coins are made of gold, silver, and bronze. Silver coins from Nea Paphos were found in the House of Dionysus and belong to a group of 2,484 Ptolemaic tetradrachms.
Sections of floor mosaics from two Roman buildings are also displayed. One, from the Tomb of Aphrodite at Old Paphos, depicts Leda and the Swan. The hall further contains a bronze vessel, a glass distiller for making perfumes dated approximately to the sixth or seventh century, and an ivory lice comb from Kition.
Jewellery and luxury objects
Gold jewellery, silver vessels, glass objects and lamps, alabaster and marble figurines and vases, and Hellenistic ivory objects extend from the Early Bronze Age to the early Christian period. Among them are the gold sceptre from Kourion and three silver plates with relief decoration from the seventh-century BC Lambousa treasure.
Tombs and funerary evidence
Hall 8: Reconstructed tombs
Hall 8 lies on a lower level and presents reconstructions of tombs dating from the fourth millennium to the fourth century BC. One is a Middle Bronze Age rock-cut tomb with a side chamber, dated approximately 2000–1600 BC. Its contents include white-painted pottery, bronze tools, and stone mace heads.
A second reconstruction represents a Late Bronze Age tomb dating approximately 1400–1200 BC. Its burial chamber has two levels, with the lower level older than the upper, and its finds include a Mycenaean krater decorated with deer. Another reconstruction shows a tomb with two burial chambers set at different levels.
Hall 9: Funerary monuments and burials
Hall 9, also on the lowest level, contains heavy funerary objects, including gravestones, a relief-worked stele, and coloured terracotta and decorated limestone sarcophagi. A limestone funerary column carries the Greek inscription translated as “Dear Marcus, farewell.”
A relief from Lysi near Famagusta shows a fallen warrior and dates approximately to 400 BC. The inscription names him “Dionysos Kartianos.” He is presumed to have come from Kition, which the Phoenicians called Karti when they inhabited that city-state.
Amathus cremation vessel
A funerary vessel from Amathus dates to approximately 300–250 BC. It consists of a limestone and alabaster cremation arrangement. An alabastron, a small vessel traditionally used for oils or perfumes, held cremated human remains and fragments of a gilded laurel wreath. It was placed inside a larger limestone vessel, which was covered with earth to form a mound.
This burial arrangement was not customary in Cyprus, and the ceramic vessel was imported from Alexandria. It may have belonged to a Ptolemaic administrator buried according to the customs of his homeland.
Writing and royal tomb treasures
Hall 10: Scripts of Cyprus
Hall 10 traces the development of writing on the island. It begins with Cypro-Minoan signs from the fifteenth to eleventh centuries BC, including two small clay tablets from Enkomi dated to the thirteenth century BC. The display continues with the Cypriot syllabary, an ancient writing system whose signs generally represented syllables rather than individual sounds, used from the eleventh to third centuries BC.
A stone slab with Phoenician inscriptions from the ninth century BC and a predominantly alphabetic script continue the sequence. A brass tablet records the wills of the king of the city of Stasikypros and his brothers. It dates to the fifth century BC and is a copy, while the original is in the Louvre.
Hall 11: Salamis royal tombs
Hall 11 contains finds from the royal tombs of Salamis. A wooden bed decorated with ivory plaques, coloured glass, and reliefs with Egyptian motifs dates to the end of the eighth century BC. Two thrones and two bronze cauldrons stand nearby.
One cauldron, dating to the eighth century BC, is described as the largest bronze cauldron found in Cyprus. It rests on an iron tripod with iron and brass components. Four siren protomes, moulded representations of the front or upper part of a creature, and eight griffin protomes decorate its rim. The hall also contains ivory objects, five terracotta busts, and parts of a brass horse dating to the eighth and seventh centuries BC.
Metallurgy and ancient medicine
Hall 12: Copper production
Hall 12 explains ancient metallurgy, from extracting and smelting copper to working finished metals. It contains a geological map of Cyprus, ore and rock samples, a reconstructed mine with original Archaic-period tools, reconstructed furnaces, scenes of smelting, examples of Late Bronze Age bellows, and models of ancient foundries.
A map of the Mediterranean marks ancient copper-trading routes. The hall also follows the development of brass production during the fourth millennium BC and displays a large brass cauldron from Kalavasos. The cauldron dates to the Late Bronze Age, approximately 1650–1050 BC.
Hall 13: Sculpture from the Salamis gymnasium
Hall 13, on the ground floor, contains second-century sculptures that decorated the gymnasium at Salamis during the Roman period. Photographs made by French archaeologists during excavations of the gymnasium accompany the objects.
The central sculpture is a large Apollo wearing a laurel wreath. Other figures represent Zeus, Hera, Asclepius, Demeter, and Isis. The hall also contains marble statues of Asclepius, Apollo, and Hera from the Salamis gymnasium, a limestone torso of a woman holding the attributes of Demeter, a marble Isis, and a marble head of Dionysus.
Hall 14: Clay figurines and healing vessels
Hall 14 presents the manufacture of clay figurines in chronological and thematic order from the Early Bronze Age through the Roman period. Its objects include moulds for comic masks, theatrical masks, the Pomos Idol, and clay vessels shaped as hot-water bottles.
The hot-water vessels were made in the natural size and shape of human organs, with bases adapted to fit corresponding parts of the body. They could be filled with hot water or olive oil and applied to painful or inflamed areas as warm compresses. The vessels came from a building at Paphos that may have functioned as an Asclepion, a healing sanctuary associated with Asclepius, or as a comparable doctor’s office.
Nea Paphos and Kition, modern Larnaca, were the most important medical centres in Cyprus during the Hellenistic and Roman periods, approximately from the first century BC to the first century AD.
