Middle Cypriot (Middle Bronze Age): 2000/1950 - 1650 BC

There is no cultural divide between this and the previous period. Middle Cypriot was defined by the introduction of White painted II ware as a high status alternative to Red polished wares. Other wares such as Black slip , Plain White Handmade and Red on Black joined them late in the period. The potters wheel was still not used and pots continued to have rounded bottoms. This was a period of great diversity and inventiveness with pottery-making still local and household based, with distinct local styles. Large pithoi (storage jars) 1.2 metres or more high were sometimes sunk into the floors of buildings and used used to store olive oil and grain. They were to become truly enormous in the Late Bronze Age. Pottery scenic models, plank figures and complex composite pots at first continued to develop.

There were no palatial structures, as known in many parts of the Middle East. Probably authority was still local and there is little sign of major conflict. It was not till the disturbed and transitional Middle Bronze Age III (1750-1650BC) that the few defensive forts appeared, probably to protect the copper trade routes from the Troodos mountains to newly founded Enkomi on the East coast. A number of settlements were abandoned at this time but there is no evidence for foreign raiding. At the same time the first towns such as Enkomi were founded, mostly close to the coast where the incipient international trade with other cultures, especially the Levant (Ugarit), Anatolia (ie South Turkey), Egypt and Minoan Crete, was producing the first luxury imported goods in exchange for Cypriot copper and timber. Over 200 gaming stones have been found for the Egyptian board games of Senet and Mehen. 

Extramural burial and funeral feasting continued. Throughout the Bronze Age till ca.1200BC) most burials, or at least the known higher status ones, continued to be in rock cut tombs. The bodies were laid on rock cut benches, or in niches for children and infants, and the vessels and other offerings were laid on the floor.

Until recently most knowledge of these early periods came from cemeteries and there had been limited digging of stratified occupation sites, partly due to the 1974 Turkish invasion and occupation of the North, which led to a UNESCO ban on archaeological co-operation.