The first two or three centuries of the Iron Age are the darkest period in Cypriote history. The origin of the typical Iron Age style of Cypriote pottery is obscure, whether it was a local invention (if so, from what did it arise?), or due to a movement of population from Asia Minor, which also affected Syria and Palestine. The evidence for close contact with Syria, as shown by the “Cypriote” black-on-red pottery from al Mina, Sueidia, at the mouth of the Orontes, is said to culminate about 700. On the other hand, evidence from Palestine points to about a century earlier for the peak; in fact “Cypriote” Iron Age pottery seems to occur in Palestine earlier than it does in Cyprus. The historian must be content to leave untouched the question as to which was the originating region, until the archaeologist has provided him with more dated evidence.

The trade relations with the West, which must have been lively from the seventh century at least, are illustrated by the spread of Cypriote terracotta figurines and stone statuettes, which were imported largely by such places as Rhodes and Cnidus. The “pudica” type of female figurine was evidently especially popular; and it may have been to such a little idol that Herostratus of Naucratis successfully prayed, when his ship was in danger (p. 110). The Aphrodite cult generally in the Aegean was profoundly influenced by Cyprus in the early archaic period.