Figure 4.1. Terra-cotta ship model of unknown provenance (Middle Cypriot I) (from Buchholz and Karageorghis 1973: 471 no. 1718; courtesy of Phaidon Press)
Cypriot Ships
Cyprus was being exploited by seafaring hunters ten thousand years ago; it had been settled by the eighth millennium and possibly as early as the ninth.1 This colonization must have been carried out by means of water transport. From that time on, because of the island’s geography, the sea played a significant part in the development of the Cypriot cultures. In the Late Bronze Age, the island flourished as a source of copper. Stone anchors, boat models, and perhaps texts all point to Cypriot seafarers playing a significant role in Mediterranean trade.
The Textual Evidence
Textual evidence for Cypriot Late Bronze Age seafaring depends on whether the term Alashia was the island’s ancient name. If Alashia was Cyprus (or part of that island), then a considerable amount of textual evidence exists, particularly from Amarna and Ugarit, concerning Cypriot nautical activities.
The “war” over the identity of Alashia has been fought now for a century. Today, the scholarly world seems to lean toward the Alashia-Cyprus equation. Several venerable and vocal proponents persist, however, in locating Alashia in northern Syria or Cilicia.2 The nautical evidence of Amarna text 114, though, requires that Alashia be located in Cyprus.3
Eight Amarna texts, sent to Egypt from Alashia, indicate close trade and diplomatic contacts between them.4 In one, an Alashian has died in Egypt, and the pharaoh is asked to return his possessions.5 An Alashian living in Egypt, even for a short time, is best understood as a merchant or trading agent. In another case, the ship may have actually belonged to the king of Alashia.6
The cordiality of the letters between the Alashian and Ugaritic kings indicates a very close, if not familial, relationship.7 Numerous Ugaritic texts refer to Alashian traders. One of them, named Abiramu, received 660 units of oil.8 Other texts refer to persons simply termed “the Alashian.” An extensive list of the names of women and youths who were in several estates has the marginal note “the town of Alashia.”9 Presumably this is a list of the Alashian community at Ugarit.10 The estate may have belonged to persons with Hurrian and Semitic names.11 An Alashian ship’s inventory, recorded at Ugarit, included fifteen talents of copper.12 The Cypro-Minoan texts found at Ugarit also substantiate a Cypriot presence there.13
We lack references to Cypriot ships visiting the Aegean. The term ku-pi-ri-jo (“Cypriot”), however, appears in Linear B tablets at both Knossos and Pylos. At the former site, this appears to refer primarily to an ethnic used as a man’s personal name.14 At Knossos the term is used in connection with honey, oil, vases, wool, and the ingredients of salve.15 There it seems to define an item’s origin or, more likely, its ultimate destination.16
Cypro-Minoan signs found on some Late Helladic III and Late Minoan III pottery in the Aegean area—primarily at Tiryns and Crete—were incised after firing.17 These marks seem to be part of a system for designating these items for export to Cyprus, perhaps by Cypriot traders situated in the Aegean.
Wenamun, shipwrecked on Alashia and with the locals about to kill him, tried to communicate with them: “Surely there is one among you who understands Egyptian. And one of them said: I understand.”18 Perhaps the Alashian had learned the language during visits to Egypt?
The Archaeological Evidence
An anchor of typical Cypriot Bronze Age shape—but made of local Egyptian stone—was found among architectural fragments in the enclosure of the temple of Amun at Karnak (Fig. 12.44).19 It may have come from the region of the landing in front of the First Pylon. The inescapable conclusion is that the anchor was made by a seaman familiar with the Cypriot tradition of anchors, presumably from a Cypriot ship that had arrived in Egypt.
The Iconographic Evidence
Unfortunately, neither the Alashians nor their seagoing ships were ever depicted by the Theban tomb painters. Most of our iconographic information on Cypriot Bronze Age ships is limited almost entirely to terra-cotta models. Only a small portion of the many Bronze Age ship representations from Cyprus represent indigenous craft. Those belonging to foreign traditions are discussed in the appropriate chapters.20
L. Basch suggests that an Early Cypriot vase from Vounous may be the earliest representation of a Cypriot ship.21 The earliest definite Cypriot ship model dates to Middle Cypriot I (Fig. 4.1).22 Of unknown provenance, it is made of local White Painted II Ware. The stem- and sternposts lack decoration and are identical in shape, raking outward. The bowl-shaped hull is deep, with a flat base. It is decorated with a row of crosshatching with a net decoration beneath, separated from it by two horizontal lines. The sheer is pierced once on either side of the ship, but these holes are not aligned. The hull curves slightly inboard at the sheer, creating a tumble-home. There are no internal plastic decorations. Eight animated figures and two birds surround the ship’s caprail, perhaps representing a cult scene. The manner and position of the figures at the ship’s extremities suggest that the bow is to the left in the photograph. The figures are apparently represented in a scale larger than the ship itself.
Figure 4.1. Terra-cotta ship model of unknown provenance (Middle Cypriot I) (from Buchholz and Karageorghis 1973: 471 no. 1718; courtesy of Phaidon Press)
R. Dussaud assumes that the model represents a merchant ship;23 J. M. Sasson errs in comparing it to one of the Byblos ship models (Fig. 3.19).24 Basch suggests that it represents a coracle.25 The model bears comparison to the Late Cypriot ship models that followed; it is so schematic, however, that little can be learned from it.
Several White Painted IV Ware sherds found at Politiko, Lambertis, have been identified by K. Westerberg as part of a ship (Fig. 4.2).26 Remains of five anthropomorphic figures sit on the “sheer” facing “outboard.” The “hull” has what appears to be a tumble-home. This feature may indicate basketry (coracle-curragh) construction.27 Because the figures are sitting on the hull’s exterior facing outward, however, this seems unlikely. Therefore, the identification of these sherds as parts of a ship model is tenuous, in my view.
One model that may suggest the existence of coracles in Bronze Age Cyprus is made of White Painted IV Ware and dates to the Middle Cypriot III period (Fig. 4.3).28 The outer surface of the model is decorated with a net (basketwork?) design. The bottom of the hull is rounded. Pairs of piercings appear on four sides of the craft. A single anthropomorphic figure sits inside the hull.
A largely reconstructed Red Polished III Ware vessel of Early or Middle Cypriot date may represent a watercraft (Fig. 4.4).29 The hull and deck are decorated with incisions. The posts, projecting above the sheer, are square. Each post is pierced by a single hole, and there is a rectangular hole in the center of the deck.
Figure 4.2. Sherds of terra-cotta model boat (?) with human figures from Politiko, Lambertis, Cyprus. The sherds are of White Painted IV Ware (Middle Cypriot II–III) (from Frankel 1974: 44 figs. 1–2)
The most detailed information on Cypriot Late Bronze Age ships consists of three terra-cotta models of Late Cypriot I–II date. Though differing in size, these models are so similar to each other in detail and shape that they all seem to represent the same type of ship. Made in Plain White Handmade Ware, they are markedly different from all other known Bronze Age ship depictions.
The most elaborate model of the group comes from Tomb 2B at Kazaphani Ayios Andrionikos (Fig. 4.5).30 The hull is deep and beamy, with flat-topped incurving sheer. Just below these on either side of the hull, thirty-six equidistantly spaced horizontal holes, pierced before firing, are arranged from stem to stern. There is a single narrow plastic ridge, perhaps representing a wale, on either side of the hull (Fig. 4.5: A–B). The stem is flattened frontally. It widens at its upper extremity and is pierced by two holes arranged horizontally.
Although there is no evidence of a keel outside the hull, a narrow molded bar inside, rectangular in section and running the length of the ship, may represent a keel projecting into the hull (Fig. 4.5: C, A).31 It is perforated amidships by a circular maststep (Fig. 4.5: C, B). The inner side of the sternpost has seven plastic “buttons” that seem to indicate a massive stern construction (Fig. 4.5: C, C). The model’s sternpost is now broken but is probably to be reconstructed in a bifurcated manner, as on the following model.
Model A-50 comes from Site A, Tomb 7, at Maroni Zarukas (Fig. 4.6).32 It is surmounted by two tall, narrow, inward-curving prongs set closely together in the same contour as the keel. Below them, just inside the hull, is a narrow, molded horizontal ledge (Fig. 4.7: A). At either side on the center of the ship are stubby horizontal ledges that are pierced vertically (Fig. 4.7: B–C).33 On either side of the hull are eighteen equidistant horizontal piercings extending from stem to stern, which were made before firing. The model is broken; the hull’s lower half is missing. This is presumably why, unlike in the case of the other two models, no maststep is reported on this terra-cotta.
Figure 4.3. Terra-cotta model of a watercraft, provenance unknown. White Painted IV Ware (Middle Cypriot III) (from Westerberg 1983: 78 fig. 3)
Figure 4.4. Terra-cotta model of a watereraft, provenance unknown. Red Polished Ware III (Early or Middle Cypriot) (from Westerberg 1983: 79 fig. 4)
The second model from Maroni comes from Site A, Tomb 1, and dates to Late Cypriot I–II (Fig. 4.8).34 This model is broad amidships. A narrow, flattened bottom rises at stem- and sternpost, both of which have been broken. A raised mast socket is situated directly amidships (Fig. 4.9). The “caprails” are flattened; beneath them also are eighteen equidistant horizontal holes, made before firing. Four holes cut into the hull after firing may have served to hang the model.
These three models from Kazaphani and Maroni are so similar in shape that they may have originated in the same workshop. The standardized beam/keel ratio of the three models varies between 1:2.19 and 1:2.71. They apparently represent a beamy merchant ship.
The bifurcation at the sternpost perhaps accepted a single steering oar resting on a stanchion. Steering apparatus, placed over the sternpost, was used on Egyptian river craft by the First Intermediate Period and continued in use throughout the second millennium B.C.35 In Egypt, however, this arrangement was never used on seagoing ships, which are always depicted with rudders hung from their quarters (Figs. 2.3, 5, 8, 11, 15–18, 26, 37–42). Perhaps the bifurcation was a device intended to imitate a bird’s (swallow?) tail, like those found on the posts and mastheads of Pacific canoes of the recent past.36
The rows of piercings along the sheer are enigmatic. R. S. Merrillees assumes that they are “elaborate provisions for sails and rigging.”37 Although the two upper horizontal piercings on the Kazaphani model may have been used to hold a double forestay, I am not familiar with rigging from the period under discussion (or any other period, for that matter) that would require such an arrangement.38 Perhaps the holes served to attach to the model an open bulwark—similar to that depicted on Syro-Canaanite ships and perhaps carried by the Uluburun ship—made of organic material that has not survived.39
Figure 4.5. Terra-cotta ship model from Tomb 2B at Kazaphani Ayios Andrionikos. Plain White Handmade Ware (Late Cypriot I–II) (A and B from Westerberg 1983: fig. 5; C from Göttlicher 1978: Taf. 12:167)
Figure 4.6. Terra-cotta ship model A–50 from Site A, Tomb 7, at Maroni Zarukas (Late Cypriot I–II) (from Merrillees 1968: pl. 37: 2)
Figure 4.7. Detail of the interior of terra-cotta ship model A-50 from Maroni Zarukas. (after Basch 1987:74 fig. 145)
Figure 4.8. Terra-cotta ship model A–49 from Site A, Tomb 1, at Maroni Zarukas (Late Cypriot I–II) (from Merrillees 1968: pl. 37: 2)
Basch assumes that these models represent skin-covered ships and that the horizontal piercings depict holes through which the skins were connected to the wood framework at the caprail.40 The hooks, in his opinion, were used to support shrouds. He notes that the narrow plastic ridges on the Kazaphani model’s exterior cannot be explained in the context of wood ship construction.
I believe that these models represent beamy wood-planked craft constructed with a keel. The plastic ridges on the hull’s exterior would then represent pronounced wales.41 The massive sternpost on the Kazaphani model is difficult to explain with respect to skin ship construction. Therefore, I believe that the three models from Kazaphani and Maroni probably portray an indigenous class of spacious Late Cypriot seagoing merchant ship for which additional information is lacking at present.
A crescentic ship appears on a cylinder seal dating to the end of the Late Cypriot period (Fig. 4.10).42 The ship is sailing to the right on the sealing. One of the two crew members depicted is handling the two (?) quarter rudders. The mast is seen through the hull: the identification of the seven other vertical lines crossing the hull is more difficult to interpret.43 Two lines, representing lifts or stays, lead from the top of the mast to the bow and stern. The mast seems to carry a crow’s nest. Horned animals, dots, and oxhideingot-shaped objects surround the craft.
A Proto-White Painted amphora from Vathyrkakas has a boat motif on its shoulder (Fig. 4.11).44 The craft’s hull is a crescentic line in which two figures are rowing. The figure at right holds two oars; the object in the left hand of the figure at left may be a fish line instead of an oar since it seems to lead to the mouth of the fish beneath the boat. The drawing confirms the reasonable assumption that small craft also existed in Cyprus during the Late Cypriot period but is too schematic to tell anything more about the craft itself.
The Late Cypriot date attributed to two other models is questionable. Westerberg compares a model found in the sea near Amathus to the Kazaphani/Maroni models, dating it to the Late Cypriot period,45 but this model finds its closest parallel in a model from the ninth or eighth century B.C. of a merchantman and should be dated accordingly.46 Another model that Westerberg dates to the Late Cypriot period is identified by Basch as a Cypro-Archaic merchantman.47
Figure 4.10. Impression of the Cypriot cylinder seal depicting a ship (end of the Late Cypriot period) (from Westerberg 1983: fig. 16)
