The Classical World

This period covers the world of Cyprus, Greece and Rome and the development of empires in Persia, China, India, south-east Asia and the Americas. Ancient Greece has contributed immensely to the human story, in art, literature, philosophy and technology.   Rome’s armies defeated Celts in France and Britain and the Carthaginians in north Africa and built great cities and wealthy villas with civic buildings, libraries, amphitheatres and aqueducts.

Some of the Museum’s Cypriot acquisitions came through a famous collector, Luigi Palma di Cesnola (1832 –1904), first director of the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  In 2017 a large collection of important finds from Syria and Turkey were donated by Vera and Ken Windau-Heath.