Height: 26.500 cm Length: 26.500 cm Room 72: Ancient Cyprus
Bronze bowl handles From Cyprus, about 850-750 BC Decorated with
lotus flowers These handles would have been riveted onto the
upper sides of one or more roughly hemispherical bowls. The
lotus flowers would have appeared above the rim. Bronze bowls of
this variety are typically Cypriot and occur in Cyprus between
about 1050 and 750 BC. However, none of the surviving examples
is as large as the bowls to which these handles must have
belonged. From Cyprus they were introduced to the Near East, the
Greek world and Italy. The bronze bowls perhaps derive from
earlier Cypriot bowls of pottery that have a single handle that
is visible over the rim. A roughly hemispherical bronze bowl has
a single riveted handle and a knob, in place of a lotus flower,
appearing above the rim. It comes from a Cypriot tomb of the
mid-eleventh century BC, and may form a link between the pottery
and the bronze series. V. Tatton-Brown, Ancient Cyprus, 2nd ed.
(London, The British