Native imitations of the Mycenaean vases, which have been described as “sub-Mycenaean wares,” have been found in considerable numbers on most of the sites where the genuine Mycenaean ware exists. They fall technically under the heading of painted white ware (p. [251]),[[844]] the difference being that the decoration is in matt colour (varying from black to red) on an unpolished drab ground. The patterns mostly follow Mycenaean models, but some are new. They are well represented on the Mycenaean site at Curium,[[845]] especially in one or two tombs of transitional character, and in some cases the decoration is of a distinctly Geometrical type, illustrating the development of the succeeding style. In any case it is not difficult to distinguish them from the genuine Mycenaean fabrics.
In these so-called sub-Mycenaean vases we can trace the best evidence of the transition from the Bronze Age to the succeeding or Graeco-Phoenician period. But on the whole the line of demarcation is clearly defined, as for instance by the forms and position of the tombs, which become larger and lie deeper; by the appearance of iron implements and bronze fibulae; and by the fact that all the native pottery is now made on the wheel. Relations with continental Greece are evidenced by the occasional importation of Geometrical pottery of the Dipylon type (as in the great vase found at Curium), dating from the ninth and eighth centuries B.C. As we have already seen, the first Hellenic settlements in Cyprus seem to have followed on more or less immediately after the Dorian invasion, in the sites of Salamis, Curium, Kerynia, Paphos, and others which afterwards became the capitals of small Hellenic kingdoms.
On the other hand, the Phoenician thalassocracy, which began about the ninth century B.C., never had much foothold in Cyprus, less at any rate than was formerly supposed. Politically at all events the Phoenician influence was comparatively small, even in their settlements at Kition and Amathus[[846]]; we read of expeditions of the kings of Tyre in the tenth and eighth centuries, the object of which was to force the former town to pay tribute; but subsequently they were compelled by the Assyrian domination under Sargon to retreat westwards. In the seventh century a new power arose in the shape of Egypt, and in the sixth Cyprus became a tributary of Amasis.[[847]] Throughout, however, relations with Greece were maintained, and we read that in 501 B.C. the Cypriote princes joined the Ionians in their revolt against Persia, a fact which shows the strength of the Hellenic element.
Nevertheless the term “Graeco-Phoenician,” which has been adopted to describe the art of this period, is convenient, and can hardly be improved upon, if we bear in mind that the term “Phoenician” really represents the combination of Egyptian and Assyrian elements of art which filtered through that race into Cyprus, and in which sometimes the one, sometimes the other has the predominance. This is seen perhaps more clearly in the sculpture, metal-work, and terracottas, as for instance in the incised bronze and silver bowls,[[848]] than in the pottery. Painted pottery was never a feature of Oriental art, and the Phoenician influence in the pottery is confined to borrowed motives of Oriental character, like foreign words in a language. Another proof that Cyprus resisted the Phoenician domination is afforded by the curious fact that though the Greeks of the mainland adopted the Phoenician alphabet entirely, in Cyprus, on the other hand—where, above all, we should have expected to find it—its place is taken by a syllabary, the forms of which appear to bear some relation to the Lycian, Carian, and Pamphylian alphabets. That this syllabary, which is universally employed for inscriptions down to the fourth century, is of a very high antiquity is shown by its close affinities with the newly-discovered Cretan script, and by the fact that single characters of a similar type are often found engraved on the handles of Mycenaean vases in Cyprus. Each character represents a syllable, not a letter (except in the case of vowels), and the dialect is thought to be largely influenced by Aeolic.
Mycenaean influence, as might be expected, was slow to die out in Cyprus, and the pottery is no exception. It is seen not only in the patterns, such as the concentric circles—an invention of the Cypriote-Mycenaean pottery, which forms a favourite and almost universal motive at a later date—but in the subjects and technique. The practice of painting figures in outline, not in silhouette, as in the birds and beasts of the Enkomi kraters, the use of dull red and black pigments on an unglazed light-coloured surface, and many other details are an heritage from the Bronze Age, extending over many a succeeding century. With these are combined the influences of the early Attic pottery,[[849]] in the panels of Geometrical patterns, and the later rosette and conventionalised lotos-flower, which, with the concentric circles, form the stock-in-trade of the “Graeco-Phoenician” potter. The British Museum collection includes one or two remarkable isolated specimens which illustrate this principle. It is for instance instructive to compare the Sphinxes on a krater from Enkomi[[850]] with those on a large amphora lately acquired from the Karpas,[[851]] or the oinochoe from General Cesnola’s collection with a chariot-scene (Plate [XIII].),[[852]] with those from Mycenaean sites similarly decorated. On the other hand, the extraordinary large vase from Tamassos,[[853]] with its crudely and childishly drawn figures, combines a curious admixture of Greek and Oriental motives, and early as it must be, is not Mycenaean in conception or technique.
Oriental influence is not, however, altogether wanting in the pottery. The lotos-flowers and rosettes, of which we have already spoken, are derived respectively from Egypt and Assyria, and the conventionalised palm-trees, which also appear, are of course purely Oriental. So too, again, the typically Oriental subject of the sacred tree between two animals appears in various forms. But here again we are met with the surprising fact that the Oriental element is far stronger in Greece than in Cyprus, as will be seen later in the account of the early Hellenic fabrics; and no doubt it is due to this cause that the Geometric style was not driven out from Cyprus as it was from Greece, but continued for many centuries.
In attempting a detailed description of the Graeco-Phoenician pottery, it will be seen that any chronological system is impossible. The conservative tendency of Cypriote art caused the same methods of decoration to be employed with extraordinary persistency during a period of time which saw the whole development of Hellenic vase-painting from its earliest beginnings to its decline, and though there is a certain amount of variety, there is no development properly speaking, and the latest fabrics are, artistically speaking, on the same level as the earliest. It might be thought that the evidence of excavations would compensate for this absence of artistic criteria; but such is not the case. As a general rule in tombs containing imported Greek vases, the dates of which can be fixed within reasonable limits, native pottery is conspicuous by its absence, as may be seen from the results obtained at Curium. In any case, in the tombs richest in Hellenic pottery, as at Poli, the local wares are largely of a definitely late character, and so far distinct from the Geometrical and Orientalising fabrics as to form a class by themselves. Another difficulty which has to be taken into account, is that caused by the frequency of re-burials in Cypriote tombs. Of this there were countless instances at Amathus and Poli, so much so that explorers of the latter site were actually led to believe that the Geometrical pottery was contemporaneous with remains of the Hellenistic age with which it was frequently found.[[854]] But where trustworthy evidence can be obtained, it entirely militates against this possibility.
The principal sites[[855]] on which “Graeco-Phoenician” pottery has been found are: Amathus, Curium, Dali (Idalion), Kition, Lapathos, Poli (Marion-Arsinoe), Paphos, Salamis, Soli, and Tamassos. Other sites are not at present identified, but the finds were made in the neighbourhood of the modern Achna, Ormidhia, and other villages, and in the Karpas. Of these sites the richest are Amathus, Dali, Curium, and Poli; but in the finest collection of vases of this class, that of General Cesnola at New York, the alleged sites are not always to be accepted with certainty.
