TRICKY IMPERIAL ENTANGLEMENTS

Cyprus was an important node in the Phoenicians’ Mediterranean network, as well as a critical source of copper. It is no surprise that the city state of Tyre established a form of hegemony over the island in the Early Iron Age. However, Tyre’s control over Cyprus may have ultimately led to the city’s decline.

Owain Williams

After the Late Bronze Age Collapse, the Phoenicians had been in contact with Cyprus since the second half of the tenth century BC, if such contact had been truly severed at all. This is hardly a surprise. The Phoenicians, after all, were a seaward-looking people; with the Mount Lebanon range prohibiting eastward, landward travel, the Phoenicians could only really expand into the sea. Phoenician Cyprus? From the tenth century BC, a Phoenician presence can be discerned on Cyprus. Around this time, the Phoenicians were beginning to explore further into the Mediterranean and the Aegean; Near Eastern imports begin to appear at Lefkandi, an archaeological site on Euboea, and numerous Greek goods have been found at Tyre. From the early ninth century BC, under Ithobaal I, Tyre began to expand its…

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Ancient History (Digital) - 1 Issue, AH 53

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