Vasiliki Kassianidou – författare

The international conference "Egypt and Cyprus in Antiquity" held in Nicosia in April 2003 filled an important gap in historical knowledge about Cyprus' relations with its neighbours. While the island's links with the Aegean and the Levant have been well documented and continue to be the subject of much archaeological attention, the exchanges between Cyprus and the Nile Valley are not as well known and have not before been comprehensively reviewed. They range in date from the mid third millennium B.C. to Late Antiquity and encompass every kind of interconnection, including political union. Their novelty lies in the marked differences between the ancient civilisations of Cyprus and Egypt, the distance between them geographically, which could be bridged only by ship, and the unusual ways they influenced each other's material and spiritual cultures. The papers delivered at the conference covered every aspect of the relationship, with special emphasis on the tangible evidence for the movement of goods, people and ideas between the two countries over a 3000 year period.

James D. Muhly is a distinguished scholar with a special interest in ancient metallurgy who has dedicated much of his research to Cypriot archaeology. His work on the metallurgy of ancient Cyprus endorses the true importance of the island as a copper producing region, as well as a pioneer in the development and spread of metallurgy and metalwork in the wider eastern and central Mediterranean region. This volume contains papers from "Eastern Mediterranean Metallurgy and Metalwork in the Second Millennium BC", an international conference organised in Muhly's honour by the University of Cyprus. Several archaeologists and archaeometallurgists from around the world whose research focuses on the metallurgy of this period in Cyprus and surrounding regions were invited to participate in the conference to compare and contrast the material culture associated with metallurgical workshops and to discuss technological issues and their cultural and archaeological contexts. Some papers are devoted to the metallurgy and metalwork of Cyprus, presenting material from various sites and discussing the production and use of copper in the eastern Mediterranean. Others are dedicated to the Minoan and Aegean metal industry and the connections between Sardinia and Cyprus. Moving eastwards, from Anatolia through the Syro-palestinian coast and Jordan and south to Egypt, papers are presented that discuss Late Bronze Age metallurgy in Alalakh, Ugarit, Faynan, Timna and Qantir. The volume also includes papers on tin and iron.