| Abstrakt: |
Royalty (or monarchical power) demands, and is associated with, visual symbols of authority and status. This article focuses on the iconographic vocabulary of the Iron Age Cypriot polities run by basileis(the Cypriot kingdoms). The main aim of the paper is to identify the images of power in the archaeological record of the kingdoms and to explore in what forms, and in what contexts, we see tangible and indisputable symbols of power. An additional goal is to address the issue of “royal” symbols that were borrowed and transformed from sources outside the island. A broad array of archaeological evidence is explored, such as decorated metal bowls, monumental sculpture, royal sarcophagi, and coinage, in the effort to identify explicit royal images, such as pictorial or sculptural representations of the kings themselves, and to detect indirect references to royal power through the employment of a repertory of symbolic allusions to royalty. This endeavor demonstrates how Cypriot kingship developed over the centuries into a more complex and institutionalized political system. |
