One of Cyprus’ richest bronze age graves discovered on south coast
Posted On: Oct 8th, 2016 at 10:31
Cyprus
One of the richest bronze age graves ever found in Cyprus has been discovered in Hala Sultan Tekke.
The grave contains a wealth of goods, from Mycenaean pottery to Egyptian gold, and is a testament to the importance of Cyprus as a trade hub in the ancient world.
The grave dates to between 1500 to 1300 BC – at least 3,300 years ago – and during this time the Mediterranean area was expanding trade routes through ancient Greece, Egypt, and Asia Minor. Cyprus, being in the middle of these expanding empires and cultures, was one of the most important routes between all three of the main cultural centres mentioned above.
The grave contains over 140 ceramic vessels – some of them elaborately carved Mycenaean pottery – as well as gold objects, beads, earrings, Egyptian scarabs, gemstones and other objects from as far away as Syria and Mesopotamia. The grave almost seems like a collection of artefacts from all the ancient civilisations that existed at the time, and the culture that lived in the city of Hala Sultan Tekke dates to between 1600 and 1150 BC – more than a thousand years before the rise of the Roman Empire.
