Ancient Cyprus

Red Polished Ware gives clay a surface whose colour and finish are part of the object’s effect. A figurine in this pottery tradition is one starting point for the Cyprus gallery, where ceramics carry a large part of the island’s history. The room follows material made or found in Cyprus from the fourth millennium BC through Roman times. The island’s copper resources and position in the eastern Mediterranean connected it with traders and neighbouring societies. Those contacts existed alongside distinct local traditions.