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		Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology
		Presentations
		Ancient Cyprus in the Ashmolean Museum

	Highlights of the Collection: Prehistoric Terracottas
	Ancient Cyprus: Chronology

		Pre-Neolithic		Hunter-gatherer communities.
		Neolithic (I, II)	c.7000 - c.4000BC	First farming communities and the first pottery made.
		Chalcolithic (I, II) (Copper Age)	c.4000 - c.2600BC	First metal objects made on island, out of copper. The same period as the Minoan civilisation on Crete.
		Early Bronze Age (I-III) (Early Cypriote Age)	c.2600 - c.2000BC	Bronze, a strong and versatile alloy of copper, was first used to make tools and ornaments. The technology possibly introduced by a group of immigrants from Anatolia.
		Middle Bronze Age (Middle Cypriote Age).	c.2000 - c.1600BC	A short and relatively peaceful period when many villages were settled.
		Late Bronze Age (I, II)	c.1600 - c.1050BC	Trade links with Egypt and Near East well established and Cyprus is prosperous for much of the period. The ‘Sea People’ are active in the eastern Mediterranean including Cyprus. The time of the Mycenaean period in Greece, which had a great effect on Cypriot culture.
		Iron Age: Cypro-Geometric Age	c.1050 - c.750BC	Cypriot culture shows much influence from Greece. Contact with the Phoenicians from the 9th century.
		Iron Age: Cypro-Archaic Age	c.750 - c.500BC	Period of the city-kingdoms despite the island being ruled by a succession of foreign countries for much of the period (Assyrians, from 709 BC; Egyptians, from c.570 BC; and Persians, from 545 BC).
		Iron Age: Cypro-Classical Age	c. 500- c.325 BC	Cyprus ruled by the Persians until their defeat by Alexander the Great of Greece in 333 BC. Cypriot cities then come under Greek rule.

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