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Selected and rare materials, excerpts and observations from ancient, medieval and contemporary authors, travelers and researchers about Cyprus.
 
 
 
 
 
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SALAMIS

SALAMIS IN THE ISLAND OF CYPRUS.
BY ALEXANDER PALMA DI CESNOLÀ, F.S.A.,
page 33

A similar object, of inferior quality, if not greater antiquity, is accompanied by three beads, two being of green glass, while the third and central one is composed of layers of that material, the one kind being white, between two that are black. This bead may have been intended to imitate an onyx. Of course, the existence of a bead made in this manner at once suggests the place of its manufacture to have been identical with that from which issued those pretty amphora-shaped bottles of alternate stripes of dark blue or black and white, or yellow vitreous material arranged in chevron, of which many examples are in this collection. They are universally accepted as Phœnician, and they illustrate a peculiar handicraft, of which much might be said, the well-known "Druids' beads" any example of which it was the custom to describe as an Ovum Anguinum, or adder stone. Some examples in the cabinet are of like character. They are probably late Greek, or even Roman, but they preserve the so-called Assyrian type of the ball and lion-headed examples above named. If this idea of the age of these works is correct, the ear-rings are curious illustrations of the survival of ancient forms in jewellery; exactly as two examples in the cases, in having pendants of the Egyptian lotus pattern, as represented in the " Phœnician" mode, may bring before our memories the histories of successive invasions of Cyprus by diverse peoples, each of which in its turn influenced the natives of the island. The collection also contains an ear-ring with a long hoop of twisted wire (fig. 39), comprising a little gold figure of a winged genius, Eros, or Cupid, similar in design and treatment to those which were found at Kurium; and two with the youthful heads of Eros or Cupid in high relief, set in bands of gold (figs. 40, 41). The most elaborately wrought examples of this class are a pair of charming ear-rings of sculptured gold, each of which is furnished with a delicate "honeysuckle" pattern of great beauty, and sustaining three pendants of open work, a sort of filigree enriched with granulations. Some doubts having been cast on the idea that ornaments of this category are not ear-rings, it is well to disprove such questionings. This may be done readily, and on the simple evidence, among others, of a black terra-cotta lamp of a laughing negress's head,1 to which I have before alluded as still retaining in the lobe of the right ear a tiny ear-ring of

this order, and most exquisitely wrought in spirals of " granulated" work, terminating in the head of a lion. The single ear-ring indicates that the wearer was a slave. To wear one ear-ring is still the practice of Oriental slaves. The next object which I shall describe is a beautiful relic, with a pear-shaped pendant of flat gold plate; this portion may have been the backing of a large stone. The body of this jewel is a circular disk of cornelian, deeply cut with the head of an infant Genius, of beautiful character and very animated expression. At the side is the name of "Eros" in Greek letters. This example corresponds with another which was found not far from it. I may here appropriately introduce

1 Sec further on, under the description of the lamps, in the chapters devoted to the consideration of the terracottas.

an ear-ring in form of a modern horse-nail (fig. 42); and another in form of a triple wing or feather drawn together in a ball at the top (fig. 43); a third specimen (fig. 44) has a bunch of pearls hanging from a large bead set in a frill of gold. There is a very large number of finger-rings in the Lawrence-Cesnola collection, and they comprise—1. Simple gold rings, with tablets, like modern signets; but, with some exceptions, these articles, unlike the modern examples, bear no intaglio work fitting them for use as seals. 2. Another class consists of relics, which bear stones and jewels of diverse materials, such as onyx, carbuncle, and cornelian, sculptured and unsculptured. Of the first class, I have two examples unusually substantial; for, as in other jewels of antique production found in

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