From the Bronze Age to Hellenism: Neumann’s Cypriot “treasures”
The museum preserves a significant set of materials from ancient Cyprus, which became part of the heritage of the University of Padua thanks to the acquisition of Eugenio Neumann’s collection. These materials come from purchases or in exchanges on the antiquities market.
In the small rooms dedicated to this collection (2 and 4) you will find two categories of artifacts: ceramic wares and sculpture fragments, organized chronologically and by typology.
The oldest ceramic productions date back to the Cypriot Middle Bronze Age (1900-1550 BC) and are the red polished and red slip ware, which you can recognize by their bright red coating. Meanwhile, those that present a darker color and incised or relief decorations are the black slip ware, more recent ceramics from the same period and the Cypriot Late Bronze Age (1900-1200 BC).
With the Iron Age (from the 11th century BC), the new technique of the potter’s wheel was introduced, and geometric decorations inspired by those of mainland Greece spread. The white paint, used for tableware, presents a light coating decorated with geometric and linear motifs, while the bichrome ware is decorated in black and red.
The sculpture fragments cover a chronological span from the 5th to the 2nd century BC and mainly include male or female heads, originally part of votive statuettes. Among the exhibited pieces, a bas-relief with a banquet scene in archaic style (late 6th – early 5th century BC) and a head of Pan, the Greek deity with the appearance of a satyr, with its characteristic stylized horns, stand out.