Minor: large handled
wine-jars (_amphorae_) are common: terra-cottas and jewellery also
follow Greek styles: coloured stones are set in rings and ear-rings.
Late or Graeco-Roman period (50 B.C.-A.D. 400): pottery is partly
replaced by vessels of blown glass: clay lamps, red-glazed jugs, so
called 'tear-bottles' of spindle-shapes, ear-rings of beads strung on
wire, bronze rings and bracelets, circular mirrors without handles,
and bronze coins are characteristics.
Byzantine Age (after A.D. 400): Christian burial in surface graves
supersedes the use of rock-hewn tombs: funerary equipment goes out of
use, except a few personal ornaments, which are of mean appearance,
and may bear Christian symbols. Domestic pottery is coarse,
ungraceful, and frequently ribbed on the outside. Clay lamps have
long nozzles, and Christian symbols. Glass becomes clumsy and less
common; and glazed bowls and cups come into use. Occasional rich
finds of silver plate (salvers, cups, spoons, &c.) and personal
ornaments, have been made among Byzantine ruins.
On mediaeval and later sites, various glazed fabrics of pottery are
found, and occasionally examples of the glazed and painted jugs,
plates, and tiles known to collectors as 'Rhodian' or 'Damascus'
ware.
Inscriptions
occur on settlement-sites, in sanctuaries and associated with tombs:
usually cut on slabs or blocks of soft limestone, though marble and
other harder stones were used in Hellenistic and Roman times. Besides
the ordinary Greek (see Illustration IV), and Roman alphabets the
Phoenician alphabet (see Illustrations X and XI) was in use at Kition
(Larnaca), in the great sanctuaries at Idalion (Dali), and
occasionally elsewhere; and from early times until the fourth century
a syllabary peculiar to Cyprus, often very rudely hewn, in irregular
lines, on ill-shaped blocks. Such 'Cypriote inscriptions' (see
accompanying Illustration VII) are of great value and interest, and
have been often overlooked among building material drawn from old
sites. In all doubtful cases, a 'squeeze' should be made by one of
the methods described in the first part of this volume and submitted
to the Keeper of Antiquities. The stamped inscriptions on the handles
of wine-jars are worth preserving, as evidence for the course of
trade.
Coins
were issued in Cyprus from the sixth century onward; first in silver;
later (in the fourth century B.C.) occasionally in gold, and from the
fourth century commonly in
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