Cyprus - Pottery Potters of ancient times have left us with a heritage of significant work which are the envy of even the best modem potters. There are instances which make you wonder in which way and with what materials these masterpieces were created. The revealing of pottery during excavations from ancient times is the primary means through which we are assisted in indicating the periods of human mental development and progress. This island, at the cross-roads of many civilizations, was not only a trade centre in the Middle East, but also a place where such items of great fame and desire were produced. The diversity of shapes, adornment of the pots and the technique used, brought to light the richness and development of this craft. In the Bronze Age Cypriot potters supplied the island's practical needs for cooking, serving and storage containers. Working without a fast wheel, they fashioned handmade vessels in a range of rounded forms that imitated the shapes of gourds, perhaps even molding some pots directly over gourds. This is unsurprising, since gourds themselves were used as containers. Cypriot potters were also artisans who exercised considerable imagination in their craft. Their wares were always interesting, often exuberant, sometimes experimental and even outlandish. Since pottery was produced in small batches by individuals or families rather than by factories, idiosyncrasy rather than uniformity was the rule. Pottery was also discernibly regionalized, varying from place to place on the island. This makes the Bronze Age pottery of Cyprus among the most diverse found anywhere in the ancient world. At the end of the Late Bronze Age, the upheavals that precipitated social collapse in the Aegean, Anatolia, Syria-Palestine and Egypt also reached Cyprus. In the Iron Age, urban society re-emerged. The pottery of Iron Age Cyprus, unlike the pottery of the Cypriot Bronze Age, was mass produced in a standard range of shapes and wares. Potters often took considerably less care with their work, and as a result the finished products were more homogenous and frequently flawed in minor ways. Iron Age Cypriot pottery was none the less colourful and often elaborately painted with geometric or figural motifs. Intricate "Free-field" compositions graced juglets and jars; examples of some Free-field designs can be seen on the back wall of the case in the photo. The figures show both realistic and fantastic patterns. Ubiquitous concentric circles were applied to jars, juglets, bowls and kraters using a multiple brush. Finer wares like plates, bowls and jugs were made on the fast wheel, while larger forms like amphoras, amphoroid kraters and pithoi were built with a combination of techniques: wheel throwing, hand coiling or molding. Cyprus had, in relation to its size, the richest copper deposits in the ancient world, making it the major supplier in the Mediterranean. From the prehistoric period until the Christian era, the island produced and estimated 200,000 tons of copper. The name for the metal may have come from the name of the island. Copper metallurgy developed rapidly on Cyprus during the Early and Middle Bronze Ages. Artifacts made of copper or copper alloy, using imported tin or local arsenical copper, were extremely numerous. Most were simply manufactured, utilitarian implements, cast in open molds and then forged into a range of shapes. Characteristic were daggers (or knives), razors, axes, chisels, tweezers, awls, as well as large spearheads, many of which had prototypes or parallels in Anatolia. Cypriot facility in copper metallurgy and the island's wealth in the raw material helped draw Cyprus out of isolation and onto the international scene during the late Bronze Age. At Enkomi statuettes of both male and female deities standing on miniature oxhide ingots have been found. At Kition and Tamassos copper workshops incorporated into temple complexes suggest a connection between religion and metalworking. Even with the coming of the Iron Age, copper was much sought after. The Phoenicians of Kition and their Persian allies seized control of the native production network that connected the mines at Tamassos and the smelters at Idalion. The Hellenistic rulers of Egypt, the Ptolemies, took over the mines and put their own officials in charge. Later, the Romans leased the mines to the highest bidder. During the medieval period pottery flourished. Glazed pots were created not only for the local market but also for the neighbouring countries of the Middle East. In recent years pottery has been confined to certain centres of production such as Kyrenia (Lapithos), the Famagusta area, Fini, Komos, Ayios Demetrios and Kaminaria.