Wheeled cauldron stands

I've photographed a number of huge bronze cauldrons, including spectacular examples found in the Midas Mound Tumulus at Gordion in Turkey. But I had never given any thought as to how these huge vessels were transported when full.  I had assumed they were carried manually by servants.  But today, while researching something else, I came across images of wheeled stands that were used to transport large cauldrons in ancient Cyprus.  Somehow I must have overlooked these interesting objects on my visits to both the British Museum and the Neues Museum in Berlin. 

 Bronze wheeled stand for a cauldron with an animal frieze on the ring and figures in the side panels. The panels depict a seated harp-player approached by a musician and a serving boy, a winged sphinx, a lion gripping a water bird by its neck, and a chariot, Cypriot, 13th or 12th century BCE, at the British Museum courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor George Groutas.

Wheeled stand for a cauldron, bronze, 12-11th century BCE. Probably from Kition, Larnaka district, Cyprus. Currently in the Neues Museum, in Berlin, courtesy of Wikimedia Commons contributor Vassil.

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The Hyksos and the Stag

 Although the Hellenistic Egyptian historian Manetho portrayed the Hyksos invasion of Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period as violent and brutal, archaeology points to an Asiatic presence at Avaris, which would become the center of Hyksos activity for over 150 years before the beginning of Hyksos rule.  Evidence indicates a gradual Canaanite settlement beginning during the 12th Dynasty around 1800 BCE.  Egyptologist Manfred Bietak points out that Egypt had long depended on the Levant for expertise in areas of shipbuilding and seafaring, with possible depictions of Asiatic shipbuilders being found from reliefs from the Sixth Dynasty ruler Sahure. The Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt is known to have had many Asiatic immigrants serving as soldiers, household or temple serfs, and various other jobs. Avaris in the Nile Delta attracted many Asiatic immigrants in its role as a hub of international trade and seafaring.

When the last pharaoh of the Egyptian 13th Dynasty, Sobekhotep IV died around 1725 BCE, Egypt appears to have splintered into several kingdoms, with one based at Avaris and ruled officially by the 14th Dynasty whose names indicate West Asian origins. After the palace there was burned, the 14th Dynasty was replaced by the Hyksos Fifteenth Dynasty.  Although some scholars interpret the activity was a Hyksos invasion, Bietak notes that a stela of Neferhotep III indicates Egypt was overrun by roving mercenaries around the time of the Hyksos ascension to power.

Archaeology has revealed trading relations of the Hyksos were primarily with Canaan and Cyprus, especially with many imports of Canaanite wares, and may have reflected the Canaanite origins of the dynasty. According to the Kamose stelae, the Hyksos imported "chariots and horses, ships, timber, gold, lapis lazuli, silver, turquoise, bronze, axes without number, oil, incense, fat and honey". Trade relations with Cyprus were also very important, particularly at the end of the Hyksos period .

Hyksos period art reflected a blend of Egyptian and Levantine motifs. A gold diadem found in an elite female's tomb in Avaris is decorated with gazelles but with a stag, possibly representing the "Stag God" of Indo-European origin on the brow. We see the stag motif used in Cypriot pottery during this time.

This blending of cultures extended to Hyksos bural practices as well. Hyksos tombs often included  Egyptian-style chapels, but they also included burials of young females, probably sacrifices, placed in front of the tomb chamber. Human sacrifice was rare in Egypt after the First Dynasty although it was sanctioned in cases of rebellion or other serious transgressions.  See my article "Cannibalism in Roman Egypt"

https://ancientimes.blogspot.com/2017/08/cannibalism-in-roman-egypt.html

The Hyksos also interred infants who died in imported Canaanite amphorae and practiced the burial of horses and other equids, likely a composite custom of the Egyptian association of the god Seth with the donkey and near-eastern notions of equids as representing status.

Near-eastern inspired diadem with heads of gazelles and a stag between stars or flowers, belonging to an elite lady discovered at a tomb at Tell el-Dab'a (Avaris) dating from the late Hyksos period (1648–1540 BCE) now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Near-eastern inspired diadem with heads of gazelles and a stag between stars or flowers, belonging to an elite lady discovered at a tomb at Tell el-Dab'a (Avaris) dating from the late Hyksos period (1648–1540 BCE) now at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Terracotta zoomorphic askos (vessel) with antlers, Cypriot, ca. 1725–1600 B.C.E. at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

A man described as "Abisha the Hyksos" leading a group of Aamu, Tomb of Khnumhotep II (circa 1900 BCE.)  Courtesy of Macquarie University, Sydney, Australia

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Egypt and Cyprus in the Late Archaic Period

Cyprus, the third largest island in the Mediterranean, located north of Egypt and west of the Levant, was considered a strategic site  in the ancient world and subsequently occupied by the Assyrians, Egyptians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans.  During the Cypriot Archaic Era (c. 750 BCE to 475 BCE), the island was ruled by Sargon II of Assyria, starting in 709 BCE when the Assyrians extorted taxes from Cyprus in exchange for their independence.  But, by 699 BCE the Assyrians withdrew because of conflicts elsewhere and the Egyptian Pharaoh Amasis II (also known as Ahmose II) claimed the island around 560 BCE.

According to Herodotus, Amasis was of common origins and originally an officer in the Egyptian army. He campaigned in Nubia under the Pharaoh Psamtik II in 592 BCE and rose to the rank of general. 

Psamtik II was succeeded by his son, Apries (also known as Waphres of Manetho). Apries led an expedition in an attempt to protect Libya from incursions by Dorian Greek invaders but his forces were badly mauled.  When the defeated army returned home, a civil war broke out in the Egyptian army between the indigenous troops and Greek mercenaries Apries had secured. The Egyptians threw their support to General Amasis who quickly declared himself pharaoh in 570 BCE. Apries fled Egypt and sought refuge in Babylon. When Apries marched back to Egypt in 567 BC with the aid of a Babylonian army to reclaim the throne of Egypt, he was likely killed in battle with Amasis' forces. Herodotus, however, claims Apries survived the battle and was captured and treated well by the victorious Amasis, until the Egyptian people demanded justice against Apries, whereby he was placed into their hands and strangled to death. Amasis, however, reportedly treated Apries' mortal remains with respect and observed the proper funerary rituals by having Apries' body carried to Sais and buried there with "full military honors." Amasis then  married Apries' daughter, Chedebnitjerbone II, to legitimise his accession to power.

Herodotus reports Amasis cultivated a close relationship with Greece and under his prudent administration, Egypt reached a new level of wealth. Amasis even married a Greek princess named Ladice daughter of King Battus III and made alliances with Polycrates of Samos and Croesus of Lydia.  In the fourth year of his reign, Amasis defeated an invasion of Egypt by the Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar II but when Cyrus the Great ascended the Persian throne in 559 BCE, Amasis had no major Near Eastern allies to counter the Persian threat.  The final assault by the Persians did not come until shortly after Amasis had died in 526 BCE. His son, Psamtik III, though, ended up reigning for only six months before his defeat in 525 BCE.

Amasis II was buried in the royal necropolis of Sais, like other pharaohs of the 26th dynasty, but he was not left undisturbed to rest in peace. According to Herodotus, Cambyses gave orders that Amasis' body was to be taken and beaten with whips, stuck with goads, and have its hair plucked.  When the embalmed body would not fall to pieces, Cambyses finally ordered it burned.

Image: Limestone male figure in Egyptian dress, mid-6th century BCE, Cypriot, courtesy of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The figure wears the double crown of Egypt, a three-row pectoral, a baldric perhaps for a quiver, bracelets, and a kilt that is embellished with winged uraei, a head of the Egyptian god Bes or of the Gorgon Medusa, and an eye. Whether this individual represents Amasis II or Psamtik III, though, is unknown.

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The contentious relationship between ancient Cyprus and Persia

 The early documented history of Cyprus begins with an inscribed stele commemorating a victory by Sargon II (722–705 BCE) of Assyria there in 709 BCE.  Assyrian domination of Cyprus appears to have begun earlier than this, though, during the reign of Tiglath-Pileser III (744–727 BCE), and ended with the fall of the Neo Assyrian Empire in 609 BCE, whereupon the city-kingdoms of Cyprus gained independence once more. Following a brief period of Egyptian domination in the sixth century BCE, Cyprus fell under Persian rule. Royal palaces excavated on Cyprus resemble the architecture of Achaemenid examples like Persepolis, with audience chambers, open courtyards, bathhouses, and stores.  Town fortifications and houses were built of mudbrick walls on stone foundations.

Early Greek influence is reflected in Cypriot sculpture, however.  Archaic Greek art with its attractive smile on the face of the statue is found on many ritual pieces dating between 525–475 BCE although portrait sculptures began to exhibit more realism.  Ionian influence on sculptures intensified and copies of Greek korai appear, as well as statues of men in Greek dress. Naked kouroi, however, although common in Greece, are extremely rare in Cyprus, while women are always presented dressed with rich folds in their garments. The pottery in Cyprus retained its local influences, although some Greek pottery was imported at this time.

Cyprus supplied armies and ships for Persia's foreign campaigns including Xerses' invasion of Greece in 480 BCE where Cyprus contributed 150 ships to the expedition. Despite this, Cyprus took part in the Ionian Revolt in 499 BCE led by the brother of the king of Salamis.  But the Persians crushed the Cypriot armies after a five-month siege. 

However, when Evagoras I of Salamis dominated Cypriot politics for forty years,  he favored Athens during the closing years of the Peloponnesian War, elicited Persian support for the Athenians against Sparta and urged Greeks from the Aegean to settle in Cyprus. At the beginning of the 4th century BCE, he took control of the whole island of Cyprus and within a few years was attempting to gain independence from Persia with Athenian help. 

Following resistance from the kings of Kition, Amathus and Soli, who fled to the great king of Persia in 390 BC to request support, Evagoras received less help from the Athenians than he had hoped for and in about 380 BCE, a Persian force besieged Salamis and Evagoras was forced to surrender. In the end, though, he remained king of Salamis until he was murdered in 374 BCE, but only by accepting his role as a vassal of Persia. Together with Egypt and Phoenicia, Cyprus rebelled against Persian rule again in 350 BCE, but the uprising was crushed by Artaxerxes III in 344 BCE. 

Cyprus finally gained political independence  when, hearing of Alexander's great victory over the Persians at Issus, the Cypriots rose up against their Persian overlords yet again and made available to Alexander the fleet of ships formerly in the service of Persia.  These ships and Cypriot engineers were instrumental in Alexander's successful siege of Tyre in 332 BCE.

When I saw these portraits of Cypriot men at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, I thought their faces reflected this independent nature.  

Terracotta head of a man wearing a wreath Cypriot Late Classical 4th century BCE photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Male Head Cypriot Hellenistic period 3rd-2nd centuries BCE Limestone photographed at the Legion of Honor Museum in San Francisco, California.

Closeup of a limestone grave marker depicting men reclining at a banquet Cypriot Classical Period 4th century BCE photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Limestone figure of a young beardless man of high rank probably in service to a deity Cypriot Archaic early 6th c. BCE photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Closeup of limestone male figure in Egyptian dress Cypriot Archaic 3rd quarter of the 6th century BCE photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Limestone head of a bearded man wearing a conical cap indicating high rank Cypriot Archaic early 6th century BCE photographed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art

Colossal votive terracotta head of a man with full beard and helmet with upturned cheekpieces 600-500 BCE from the sanctuary of Salamis-Toumpa excavated in 1890 Cyprus photographed at the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford, England.

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