Miniature oxhide ingots from Late Bronze Age Cyprus

Over the past 60 years, Cypriot miniature oxhide ingots have been a focus of a relatively small scholarly debate, which traditionally interpreted them as votives. Despite some renewed interest, miniature oxhide ingots remain relatively little studied. Unlike other categories of Late Cypriot materials, they do not constitute a large corpus of objects, numbering only 14 at the present state of this research. The shortage of material seems to have discouraged further studies and has held back new scholarly discussion. Nonetheless, miniature oxhide ingots might benefit from being viewed differently, especially as their function and role remain disputed. Previous scholars have interpreted miniature oxhide ingots only in one way. However, they failed to assess the archaeological context and the peculiarities of every piece. If, on the one hand, earlier investigations have not analysed the archaeological contexts because they are the secondary ones, on the other hand, this resulted in a false uniformity of the corpus.
Therefore, the book combines the analysis of archaeological context with miniaturisation theories. It aims to examine Cypriot miniature oxhide ingots and possibly provide a new interpretation for some of the pieces. Yet, the volume does not wish to end the discussion around these artefacts from Late Bronze Age Cyprus. On the contrary, it tries to solve some of the issues arising from the debate and mark the features of the material that until now were neglected or not considered, and thus to shed new light on this material.