Cypriot pottery is best described as playful. There’s a joy and wonder to look at the figures depicted along the rim of a vessel, or a vessel shaped a little like a dolphin, or warrior centaur men. So many examples of Cypriot pottery are whimsical.

My favorite motif as we combed through museums in Larnaca, Nicosia, and Paphos, were the weird little birds. They’re cute. They’re suggestive. They’re a little derpy.

We were lucky enough to find our own little fired clay derpy bird in the fill pit between EU 20 and EU 23!

Pottery, as the ubiquitous manufactured material of antiquity, doesn’t have to be staid. It can be functional and experimental, serving the purpose it was designed for while appealing to artistic, ritualistic, and personal sensibilities. I don’t want to make claims about understanding via pottery any specific cultural spirit, but I like to think that the people of the past who produced these items had a sense of humor, even in their appreciation and interpretation of the natural world.

I hope you enjoy discovering for yourself the quirky joy of Cypriot pottery.

-Miki H.