An Analog from the Prehistoric Bronze Age Site of Alambra Mouttes (Cyprus) for Adornments on the Enigmatic “Vounous Bowl”

Abstract

The “Vounous Bowl” (ca. 2025–1850 b.c.e.) is a prehistoric Bronze Age vessel from the cemetery at Bellapais Vounous on the northern coast of Cyprus, modeled to depict what is commonly interpreted as people engaged in ritual activities in front of a shrine. The vessel has long intrigued archaeologists working in Cyprus, partly because unambiguous evidence for religious structures and paraphernalia has eluded them in the archaeological record. However, excavations at the Early–Middle Bronze Age site of Alambra in central Cyprus have yielded an artifact that closely resembles the finials placed atop the “throne” depicted in the Vounous Bowl. Its find context—in a room within a domestic structure that also contained a human burial—supports those interpretations of the Vounous Bowl that emphasize its sacred dimensions and its possible connections with the mortuary domain.