Copper Ore, Ingot and Bronze Jug, Copper Ore, Ingot and Bronze Jug, EUROPA Issue Ancient Works, Republic of Cyprus

Copper Ore, Ingot and Bronze Jug, Copper Ore, Ingot and Bronze Jug, EUROPA Issue Ancient Works, Republic of Cyprus

Postage stamps--Cyprus--History

Γραμματόσημα--Κύπρος--Ιστορία

The copper ingot depicted on this stamp was a standard monetary unit before the invention of coinage. Excavated at Engomi and dated between 1400-1250 B.C. it is today in the Cyprus Museum,in Nicosia. Strabo, in his Geographica completed in Rome c.23 A.D. wrote: "There are mines of copper in plenty at Tamassos in which are produced sulphate of copper and copper rust useful in the healing art." Constantinus, Archbishop of Sinai, who visited Cyprus in 1766 and writing about copper said "There is buried that fine copper which nature alone has cleansed, preparing it beforehand for man's handicrafts. This was the copper first known to, and first found in the world, and especially sought after by the ancients for the preparation of that famous Corinthian metal; a blending and fusing of this copper with gold and silver, a thing of great price, whose preparation, the means employed, and the proportion of metals used, remain entirely hidden and unknown to us". (Excerpta Cypria pp. 3 and 309) Cyprus, renowned in ancient times for the wealth it derived from the export of copper to the known world, is now facing the extinction of an age-old craft. Coppersmiths are few and hard to find and with no apprentices to carry on this three thousand year old craft it is bound to be relegated to history. Copper mining ceased early in the 4th century A.D. but was revived with the arrival of the British in 1878 when many if not all the old mines were re-opened. By 1958 the most important mineral mined was cupreous pyrites. The ore was extracted from the Mavrovouni and Kinousa mines. During the 1970 s however, mines were being closed and abandoned as deposits were depleted and costs escalated. Today the landscape is scarred by abandoned mine quarries.

Cyprus Post, Republic of Cyprus

Κυπριακά Ταχυδρομεία, Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία

Cyprus Post, Republic of Cyprus

Κυπριακά Ταχυδρομεία, Κυπριακή Δημοκρατία

Library of Cyprus University of Technology

Digital Heritage Research Lab of Cyprus University of Technology

3rd May 1983

Designer: G. Simonis

Απαγορεύεται η δημοσίευση ή αναπαραγωγή, ηλεκτρονική ή άλλη χωρίς τη γραπτή συγκατάθεση του δημιουργού.

www.cypruspost.gov.cy

TIFF

EL, EN

Image

1983-EUROPA-200M

35.160417, 33.346556

Harrison & Sons Ltd, England