Ethnicity and Musical Identity in the Lyric Landscape of Early Cyprus

Abstract

AbstractThis paper re-examines several standing assumptions about the lyre-types of early Iron Age (ia) Cyprus and how these should be correlated with historical and cultural phases on the island, specifically the pre-Greek (‘Eteocypriot’) Late Bronze Age (LBA); Aegean immigration in the twelfth and eleventh centuries; and the so-called Phoenician colony period from the ninth century. I introduce an important new piece oflbaevidence connecting the island to the lyric culture of the Levant; challenge the usual ‘Aegean’ interpretation ofiaround-based lyres; and reassess the evidence of the so-called Cypro-Phoenician symposium bowls, which exhibit a basic bifurcation between ‘eastern’ and ‘western’ morphologies (as traditionally interpreted). A clearer sense of Cypriot musical identity, as distinct from Aegean and Phoenician, emerges, and new methodological guidelines are developed for future investigations.