Two gold fibulae (brooches)

From Maroni, Cyprus
About 1050 BC

Made in Cyprus during the so-called Greek 'Dark Age'

These gold fibulae (brooches) are of the so-called D-shaped type originally introduced to Cyprus from the Bronze Age Greek world. The bows of these dress pins are plain, without strengthening bosses: they therefore belong to an early series. In Cyprus, bronze examples have been found at Lapethos, Episkopi and Kouklia (Palaepaphos), and date mostly from the eleventh century BC.

Other bronze fibulae from eleventh century BC Cypriot tombs are of the 'fiddle-bow' variety, also adopted from the Greek world. The appearance of Greek brooches at this time suggests a change in dress styles, though dress pins of eastern origin were still in use.

Other significant changes in Cyprus in the eleventh century BC included new Mycenaean Greek burial practices in some cemeteries, and the replacement of the Late Bronze Age Cypro-Minoan script (as yet undeciphered) by Cypro-Syllabic and the Greek language. This all adds credence to the view that it was not before 1100 BC that immigration to Cyprus from the Greek world happened on a large scale.

V. Tatton-Brown, Ancient Cyprus, 2nd ed. (London, The British Museum Press, 1997)

H.W. Catling, Cypriot bronzework in the Myce (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1964)