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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 107

which grasps a dove, by the wings, in its left hand. Unlike the others, this one wears a lofty coronet of a design differing from that of any one of those described above. Otherwise, the jewellery and hair of this figure resemble those of' the majority of the statuettes with carcanets. It has been suggested that some of these figures with the lofty coronets, especially the "key" bearers, and that with the mural crown, are really representations of goddesses, Asiatic in their characteristics, and in respect to the cultus of which they may have been the objects. Professor Sayce" has recognised a likeness between some of these relics and those of similar aspect disinterred by Dr. Schliemann in his Troy. The same distinguished antiquary has acutely remarked that works which we know to have belonged to that great people the Hittites, whose memorials are but now emerging from the earth and the gloom of ages, bear a considerable resemblance to both these classes, i.e., the Cypriote remains, and those from Hissarlik. It is presumable that the whole of these antiquities may belong to a widespread and even long-continued cultus. The subject is still so obscure that I dare not venture to write of the crowned, and jewelled effigies, whether they are "key" bearers or what-not, in other terms than the above. To them I have applied the old English term "ladies", and I leave it to future students, after wider researches, and with larger opportunities than now offer themselves, to determine whether these be goddesses or mortals, priestesses, worshippers with offerings, or ministrants. In respect to the suggested divinity of some of the examples, I may point out that several of the figures with lofty coronets bear animals, which can hardly be other than votive offerings. Whether the mammǽ-holding females are devotees, priestesses, or goddesses, I cannot take on myself to determine; but I think it more than probable that the examples owe their origin to different periods of time, the aggregate of which may be centuries. Difference of style in the sculptures seems to suggest this notion. To continue my remarks on the similarities of costume in these figures, and the dresses of the Roman clergy, I may observe that fringes are to be distinctly seen on the wrists of one, which is clad in a fringed cope. In this example, the features, as is the case with most of the bearers of offerings, are decidedly Greek, not "Cypriote" or sacerdotal. Returning to two already described, of which the faces are markedly "Cypriotic", the dressing of the heads is to be noticed as altogether different from that of the crowned figures. The former work shows the hair bound by a fillet just above the forehead and ears, and enclosed by a net, while a long veil, similar in form to a veil which occurs in another statuette, is suspended from the back of the head. The crisped hair of another is bound by a broad, flat fillet, and half covered by a drooping veil. One of the mammǽ-holding effigies has keys at her girdle, large pendent ear-rings, "Cypriote" features, a chasuble, tunic, and head-fillet, likewise a very voluminous veil falling over the wrists, and ample braided tresses falling, like those of the large statuette already described, upon the shoulders. There is the half of a figure, of which the head-dress differs from that of any one of the above-named examples. It includes a conical cap, substantial enough to hide the hair entirely. The peak points backwards, and the front of thisgarment bears a row of large disks, with smaller disks placed upon them. This fragment exhibits uncommonly large earrings, one of which comprises three finger-like appendages to large roses, or disk-like elements. No statuette exhibits more elaborate jewellery than a work which has the "Cypriote" features, a very large and prominent example of head-gear, consisting of two lines of roses and a third intermediate line of ornaments, shaped like little calabashes. The pendants of the ear-rings, which are oval annulets, are comparatively immense: three carcanets and the yoke-like ornament which occurs on the figures of the priestesses (?) with the keys. The pendants to these carcanets are—a, at top, a rosette with three leaf-like appendages, exactly' like those described in the notes on gold ornaments. The second pendant, h, seems to have the form of an alabastron, or fir-cone. The third pendant is a large disk, with a mammillary stud in the centre. The last-

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