Ancient Greek, Cyprus, Votary Figure, 470 BCE (detail), limestone, The William Hood Dunwoody Fund 28.23

Pamela Gaber | Limestone Sculpture of Cyprus: Portraits of a Culture

The island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean has yielded hundreds of votive sculptures from the first millennium BCE. A study of these sculptures reveals information about religious worship in the Ancient Near East. Also, a detailed examination of these collections can tell us about trade relations and travel, not only between sites on Cyprus, but between Cyprus and the Levant. Such an examination reveals chronological sequences and even hints about the nature of worship in the ancient Near East, including Israel. Subsequent studies have even aided scholars in discerning the hands of individual sculptors.

Pamela Gaber, PhD, professor of archaeology and religion at Lycoming College, is a world-renowned expert in sculpture typology and pottery chronology (the tracking of the development of pottery types) and director of the archaeological field school in Cyprus. Gaber is the author of Idalion III: Excavations on the Terrace of the East Acropolis and a children’s book, Daily Life in Bible Times: What Archaeology Tells Us.

Co-presented by the Archaeological Institute of America.

Free; tickets available October 1.

Ancient Greek, Cyprus, Votary Figure, 470 BCE (detail), limestone, The William Hood Dunwoody Fund 28.23