Cyprus Museum

The Cyprus Museum, Greek Κυπριακό Μουσείο, German Cyprus Museum, is the oldest and largest archaeological museums of about fifteen of the Mediterranean island of Cyprus and is situated in the capital of Nicosia.

Location and history

The Cyprus Museum is located in front of the Paphos Gate on the western edge of the old town. The museum was founded in 1882 to preserve the ancient art treasures of the country. A committee led by Christian and Muslim clerics had encouraged the establishment. The background was that Cyprus was plundered downright archaeologically at that time. But the American Ambassador Luigi Palma di Cesnola had bought 35,000 artifacts for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, his brother Alessandro Palma di Cesnola was due to art theft in court. A part of his loot was confiscated and passed into the collections of the new museum. Initially, the museum was housed in some administrative buildings, 1889, a new building on Victoria Street was purchased. With a 1905 law adopted for the protection of the archaeological evidence, the museum was able to protect artifacts and sites effectively. The scientific research and documentation have been developed after the First World War with the help of foreign experts - for example, by the Swedish archaeologist Einar Gjerstad. 1908 was a move to the present building on the road Leoforus Mouselou, 1961 extended to the building with an annexe. Discussion is a move in the empty building of former Nicosia General Hospital.

Conception and Highlights of the exhibition

The exhibits show the nine thousand years of cultural history of the island of Cyprus and presented in chronological order. Focus of collections form the Bronze Age as well as the Greek and Roman antiquity. The currently most famous exhibit is the idol of Pomos, which is mapped to the Cyprus 2 euro coin. The island was a tremendous location in the eastern Mediterranean a major trade center, but also target of conquest attempts of neighboring peoples and empires. The cultural influences of neighbors on the island's population is occupied with numerous finds.

Halls

The exhibition is arranged chronologically.

  • In room 1 the oldest finds of the island are presented - among others made of stone bowls and soapstone statues from the Neolithic period of excavations in Chirokitia.
  • The space 2 ( 2500-1900 BC) dedicated to the finds from the Cypriot Bronze Age. Among the exhibits is also the earthen Vounous model with cult scenes from Vounous - Bellapais cemetery.
  • The room has 3 trade contacts with the mainland - Syrian imports of the 15th century BC - in the form of decorated ceramic turntable and amphorae.
  • The space is dominated by four votive terracotta figures from the cult Agia Irini ( Late Bronze Age ). Gods and heroes constitute the religious beliefs of the island's population and occupy influences of neighboring cultures. The show, for example, Egyptian amulets and Mycenaean artifacts.
  • The space is dominated by five finds from the Kingdom of Salamis. These are works of art in the Cypro - Ionic style (Gods and youth representations ) that were heavily influenced by Greek culture. This shows, for example, the Aphrodite of Soli - a torso from the 1st century BC - evidence of the cult of Aphrodite in the Hellenistic world. In the same room contemporary Nubian and Egyptian monumental lion and sphinx figures are exhibited.
  • To 540 BC, the island is occupied by the Persians, which ended more than two hundred years of membership in this great empire by the victories of Alexander the Great.
  • The following rooms offer insights into the life of the Cypriot population at the time of affiliation. ( 47-31 BC ) to the Ptolemaic kingdom of the Egyptian queen Cleopatra VII and Roman rule, beginning with the conquest of the island in 58 BC Noteworthy are the Roman mosaic floors in the room 7 and the high-quality metal and stone sculptures - for example, a statue of the Emperor Septimius Severus from Kythrea.
  • Other exhibition spaces provide insights into the economic history and the early copper mining - once the source of wealth of the island.

Conductor

  • Porphyry Dikaios
  • Pavlos Flourentzos
Khirokitia Salamis, Cyprus Integrated Authority File
211163
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