Gold sheet restored to form a bowl

From tomb 66 at Enkomi, Cyprus
Probably made in Mycenaean Greece about 1400-1300 BC

One of a series of precious metal vessels made in Mycenaean Greece

This gold sheet was originally thought to be a gold mask. However, as the sheet is completely undecorated its restoration as a bowl is more convincing. Bronze vessels of this shallow form are known from Cyprus, but many more of precious metals, notably of gold and silver, are recorded from Greece, making it likely that this gold bowl is an import.

The bowl must have arrived with pottery from Mycenaean Greece. It was during the fourteenth and most of the thirteenth century BC that a great quantity of pottery was imported to Cyprus from this part of the Greek world. A considerable amount of Mycenaean Greek pottery has been found in the tombs at Enkomi, where the gold sheet was found.

E. Davis, The Vapheio cups and Aegean go (Ann Arbor, Michigan, University Microfilms International, 1976, 1973)