Eighth to fourth centuries BCE
Greek-speaking Cypriots used the Cypriot syllabary from approximately the eighth to the third century BCE. It developed from the earlier Cypro-Minoan script and contained about sixty signs. George Smith deciphered it in the nineteenth century.
In the Cyprus Museum we saw a fragment of a silver bowl with an inscription, stone stelae from Marion, a long inscription from Pyla dated to 350–300 BCE, and a monument from Chytroi on which the Cypriot syllabary and the Greek alphabet appear side by side.
It is particularly interesting to compare a syllabic sign with a Greek letter: for a time, the two writing systems existed simultaneously in Cyprus.
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