Late Bronze Age Cypriot hoards and modern collections

Abstract

In this chapter I re-evaluate some of the hoards published by Catling in 1964 in Cypriot Bronzework in the Mycenaean World. The aim is not to offer a different theoretical model of interpretation, as this has been effectively done by others, but to share some information collected from the State Archives which enables the differentiation between actual hoards and modern collections of metal artefacts. Catling was aware that some of the hoards were private collections but he believed that he could work around this problem by eliminating what he believed were 'intrusions'. Thus analyses of Cypriot hoards since undertaken by other scholars are based on Catling's subjective decision of what actually constituted the hoards. This has not been questioned until now. Equally important is the clarification of which artefacts were actually part of the Mathiatis Hoard and the recognition that it deserves a closer look because it includes unique objects which have hitherto been ignored, mainly because of Catling's approach toward these assemblages.